November 26, 2007 in Leopard, Tips and Tricks, UNIX, Open Source | 14 Comments
Make Screen Saver as Desktop Background
/System/Library/Frameworks/ScreenSaver.framework/Resources/ScreenSaverEngine.app/Contents/MacOS/ScreenSaverEngine -background &
This will make your desktop background as your initial screen saver. After you've entered that one line of command, Terminal will you the process ID. For example, [1] 478, which 478 is the process ID.
kill PID 478
As shown in example above, the process ID is 478. Therefore, in order to stop using screen saver as desktop wallpaper, the above one line of command is used. Note : 478 is the process ID.
Here is the easiest way to end this : Quitting Terminal.
Cling Dashboard Widget into Desktop Background
defaults write com.apple.dashboard devmode YES killall Dock
With this, you will be able to drag your widget out of your Dashboard into your Desktop. Cool, right?
P.S. This can be used to bookmark useful resource from the web using Dashboard and Safari web clip, except the fact that you cannot scroll down your widget.
defaults write com.apple.dashboard devmode NO killall Dock
The command lines above is used to disable this feature. Actually, the widget can be taken off from your Desktop by simply dragging it back to Dashboard.
Warning
For next modification, if you don't know exactly what you're trying to do with sudo, don't risk it.
Change Login Background
cd /System/Library/CoreServices sudo mv DefaultDesktop.jpg DefaultDesktopBackup.jpg sudo cp [drag image] /System/Library/CoreServices/DefaultDesktop.jpg chown root:wheel /System/Library/CoreServices/DefaultDesktop.jpg chmod 644 /System/Library/CoreServices/DefaultDesktop.jpg
These command lines are intended to change Leopard default login background named DefaultDesktop.jpg with new image file. However, at line 2, we do the backup first by replacing the name of initial login background to DefaultDesktopBackup.jpg.
At the 3rd line, you will see there is something like [drag image]. This portion of command line means that you need to drag the new image file as new login background.
Performing the same lines of command with initial image file will change your login background back.
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14 Comments
Ruudt
How can I make an automator command to set my screensaver automatically as my background? Tnx for the help
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Alessandro C.
@Ruudt: try "Desktop 2 Login.app"
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Miron
It seems possible to keep the screensaver background running by using the command killall Terminal to close terminal after that command upon opening and closing terminal there is no effect on it. Of course the killall (PID) command works
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sscoolio
there is an application that will change the desktop background into your screensaver, it is called Wallsaver. Google it.
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pero
There are many apps that will do it - -but why would you download an app if you can set it to do so with Terminal?
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jeff
how do you "drag" a widget to the desktop?
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Wendy <Webmaster>
This is the easiest way:
Execute the command lines
Open your Dashboard
Drag the widget
While your mouse still down, close Dashboard
Drop the widget to Desktop
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Jeffrey
ok so i put the code into terminal for the widget on the desktop can't get it to work for me please help
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dsafadsf
it keeps saying permission denied when ever i drag a photo in
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Eschguy
@sscoolio Tried wallsaver, works awesome.
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Derrick Washington, Sr
My garageband keyboad is behind my icons on my desktop. I can't pull it from behind it to access it. What do i need to do to access the keyboard.
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Morpheus
Forget all about command lines ect. just download dashit http://www.apple.com/downloads/dashboard/developer/dashit.html
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Shad
To bring the widgets to the desktop, first run the terminal commands. Then open dashboard, click and hold the widget as if you were moving it, then hit the dashboard shortcut button on your keyboard (F4 on my Mac, maybe some other F key on yours). Do the same from the desktop to get rid of it.
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GREEN AND
I love it... I used Grid Quertz
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