How to Change Wallpaper and Screen Saver in MacBook?

The desktop screen you first see after login to your Mac can boost your thinking and confidence. Apple allows to stack all files on your desktop to remove the clutter. However, Mac uses default wallpaper that Apple changes only with the release of new macOS version. If you are bored with seeing the same wallpaper, here is how to setup wallpaper and screen saver on your Mac.

Related: How to manage desktop in MacBook?

How to Change Wallpaper and Screen Saver in MacBook?

Go to “Apple menu > System Preferences…” section. This will open a dialog box showing all system setting icons. Click on the “Desktop & Screen Saver” option.

Desktop & Screen Saver setting has two tabs for settings up Desktop wallpaper and screen saver on your Mac.

Change Wallpaper in MacBook

As mentioned, MacBook by default uses the picture supplied along with the operating system. In order to change the wallpaper image, click on the “Desktop” tab. You will see three options on the left pane for choosing the source for your image.

• Apple – contains pictures and colors supplied with the operating system.
• Photos – contains albums and shared pictures from your photo library.
• Folders – custom folders like “Pictures” from where you can show the wallpaper. You can click on the + icon below the left pane and add any custom folders that you have wallpaper images.

The right pane will show the preview of all available pictures. After choosing the picture from desired folder, you can choose dynamic, Dark (Still) or Light (Still) option from the dropdown above the right pane.

• Dynamic desktop pictures will change the ambient throughout the day based on the time. However, you can’t choose custom picture for dynamic desktop.
• Instead of pictures, you can setup colors by choosing it under “Apple > Colors” from the left pane. There are few default colors available, however you can setup custom color for your desktop.

• From “Photos” folder, you can choose your personal or family pictures as your desktop wallpaper.
• When you choose custom picture by clicking on the + icon, you will have an additional option to setup the wallpaper to fit the desktop screen. Choose one of the options like full screen, fit to screen, stretch to fill screen, center or tile.

Auto Rotating Wallpapers

Click on the “Change picture” checkbox and choose the time or event from the dropdown.

This will allow you to rotate the pictures from the selected folder based on the option you choose. For example, you can rotate the wallpaper every 30 minutes. Alternatively, you can setup an event like logging in to change the wallpaper every time you login to your Mac. Remember, this will work for stills and not for dynamic desktop pictures.

Select the “Random order” checkbox, if you want to rotate the images randomly under the selected folder.

Setup Screen Saver in MacBook

In order to setup a screen saver, click on “Screen Saver” tab.

• Choose the style for your screen saver from the left pane. There are numerous options available like floating, sliding-panels, origami, etc. You can even setup word of a day  and album artwork from music folder.
• Mac will instantly show you the preview of selected style on the right pane.  

• Click on the “Start after” dropdown and choose the time. If you select 20 minutes, your screen saver will start after 20 minutes of idle time.
• After choosing the style, click on the “Source” dropdown to select the folder that contains images. You can use the default Apple’s collection, Photo library or custom folder similar to wallpaper settings.

Other options for screen saver include showing clock and use random pictures.

Hot Corners

You may be wondering what is the hot corners button. It works like show desktop button in Windows 10 that is available on the lower right corner on the taskbar. Click on “Hot Corners…” button to see the pop-up like below.

Unlike Windows 10, you can setup different actions for each corner of your desktop in Mac. For example, you can select “Lock Screen” for top left corner. Your Mac will automatically lock the screen whenever you move the mouse to top left corner.