SaverDesktop - 1.0

Some, but not all, people know that Mac OS X has the ability to run screen savers on the user’s desktop although it’s not a publicized or particularly supported behavior. It also has some quirks. I created SaverDesktop as an adjunct to a screen saver module I was working on to work around the following shortcomings of the stock tool:

• Launching the built-in mechanism by hand requires typing in a lengthy path pointing into /System, which is Apple’s playground (and thus subject to change).
• A double-clickable, universal AppleScript that invokes that tool (to avoid the typing) consumes more disk space than SaverDesktop.
• The built in screen saver engine has an inconvenient habit of quitting - even when running in background mode - if the user reconfigures the screen saver or moves their mouse to the “Disableâ€? hot corner.