Mac Tip: Create a Keyboard Shortcut to Start the Screensaver

Posted on June 29, 2008 at 5:34 am by Jerad Hill No Comment

I love keyboard shortcuts but Apple did not include a keyboard shortcut to initiate the screensaver. After a little bit of looking around online and not finding a quick solution that worked completely I came up with this solution. Follow along as I walk you through setting up a keyboard shortcut to initiate the screen saver.

1. We will need to copy the ScreenSaverEngine.App into your Applications folder. To do this you will need to do a couple of things.

  • Open Terminal.app which is located in your Applications folder in the Utilities folder.
  • Copy the following string and paste it into your terminal window. Once you do so, hit enter. This will refresh Finder.

defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles TRUE
killall Finder 

OSX Terminal

  • Open a finder window, click on your mac’s hard drive. Then navigate to: System/Library/Frameworks/ScreenSaver.framework/Versions/A/Resources/ScreenSaverEngine.App
  • Click on it, copy it to your clip board.
  • Return to your Terminal window and copy and paste the following into it. Then hit enter.

defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles FALSE
killall Finder

  • Go to your Applications folder and paste the ScreenSaverEngine.app into that folder.
    ScreenSaverEngine App

2. We need to link the ScreenSaverEngine.app to a keyboard shortcut.

  • If you do not already have it downloaded, download Quicksilver for Mac and Install it. Quicksilver does many cool things. To learn more about Quicksilver and it’s capabilities, click here. Visit the Blacktree Tutorial archive to learn even more then that ;)
  • After installing Quicksilver, from the Quicksilver menu, choose Triggers.
    Quicksilver Menu
  • At the bottom of the Triggers window, click the + to add a trigger hotkey.
    Quicksilver Add Trigger
  • Type ScreenSaver to find the ScreenSaverEngine.App
    Quicksilver Trigger App
  • Click Save.
  • In the Trigger Column, click to set hotkey. I use “Control + Esc” to initiate my screen saver. You can use whatever you want, just make sure it is not already a system hotkey or a familiar hotkey with an application you have open often. Hot keys not to use would be something like “Command + Q” or something like that.
    Quicksilver Set Hot Key
  • Click on the Preferences icon, check the box that says “Start at Login”. This will force Quicksilver to start up when you start up your computer. With out Quicksilver open, the shortcut will not work.
  • Hit the red x to close the Quicksilver window.

Now you have successfully set up a hotkey for starting your screensaver. I have my mac set to require a password upon coming back from screen saver for added security. To activate that option do the following (first make sure you know the login password for your computer):

  • Open System Preferences and click on Security.
    OSX Security
  • Check the box that says” Require password to wake this computer from sleep or screen saver. Close System Preferences.
    OSX Require Password

Thats it, you have successfully added an easy to access layer of security to your mac. You can also use Quicksilver to initiate other applications using keyboard shortcuts. For help with Quicksilver visit the Quicksilver forum on Google.

If you have a Mac Tip you would like to share or see a tutorial on please let me know in the comment box below. Thanks for checking out this tutorial. Remember to share it with friends and link to it from your blog.