xblz / webviewscreensaver

Mac OS X Screen Saver powered by a Web View

WebViewScreenSaver

A macOS screen saver that displays a web page or a series of web pages.

Installation

• Using brew

brew install --cask webviewscreensaver

• Directly from the releases page. Just unpack and double click to install.

Note: Our package is unsigned and will remain like that for the foreseeable future.

When opening it up for the first time you will be prompted that the developer cannot be verified.
Hit cancel, go to Security and Privacy where there should be a section explaining that "WebViewScreenSaver.saver" was blocked and an Open Anyway button next to it. Click that.
Upon returning to the screensaver options an Open button should now be available which will remove security prompts until a future update.

Alternatively:

• if you are using brew pass in --no-quarantine option to install or reinstall command:

brew install --cask webviewscreensaver --no-quarantine

• or if you installed it via direct download run the folllowing command to remove the file from quarantine:

xattr -d com.apple.quarantine WebViewScreenSaver.saver

Configuration

Open up System Preferences > Desktop and Screen Saver > Screen Saver and WebViewScreenSaver should be at the end of the list.

In the addresses section fill in as many websites as you want the screensaver to cycle through and the amount of time to pause on each.

Tip: To edit a selected row, click once or tap Enter or Tab.

Passing in a negative time value e.g. -1 will notify the screensaver to remain on that website indefinitely.

Need some website ideas? Check out suggestions in the examples section.

Local absolute paths can also be used as an address with or without the file:// schema.

E.g. file:///Users/myUser/mySreensaver/index.html

Note: If you are running Catalina or newer the provided path cannot reside in your personal folders which require extra permissions (this includes things like Downloads, Documents or Desktop) but can be anywhere else in your user's folder.

Configuration for IT

If you are interested in scripting configuration changes, WebViewScreenSaver, like most other screensavers, makes use of the macOS defaults system.

This can be queried and updated via:

defaults -currentHost read WebViewScreensaver

or directly (if installed for current user or should find it in /Library otherwise)

/usr/libexec/PlistBuddy -c 'Print' ~/Library/Preferences/ByHost/WebViewScreenSaver.*

License

Code is licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 License.