# What's a Good Site for Animated Wallpapers for Mac OS X?



## Amie (Aug 14, 2007)

I found this Web site, and I absolutely love their animated wallpapers (NOT screensavers, just wallpapers), but they are all in ".exe" file format for Windows. Can anyone post a link that offers similar animated wallpapers for Mac OS X?

http://www.desktopia.com/animated/aniwallpapers.html


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## sirstaunch (Aug 14, 2007)

The best way I've found in Mac OSX is a small app called bgscreensaver in which you can select any screensaver to your liking.

It works well on my G4 1.42ghz eMac so I guess it should be fine on your 1.2ghz too


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## Mikuro (Aug 15, 2007)

Backlight2 is another good one.

The only problem is, finding screensavers that are subtle enough and light enough on your system to tolerate isn't easy.


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## Qion (Aug 15, 2007)

Try this: http://www.apple.com/downloads/macosx/icons_screensavers/serenesaver2hd.html


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## Amie (Aug 22, 2007)

Qion said:


> Try this: http://www.apple.com/downloads/macosx/icons_screensavers/serenesaver2hd.html



It says requirements are 10.4 or later. I have 10.3.9. Is there one for my OS?


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## Amie (Aug 22, 2007)

sirstaunch said:


> The best way I've found in Mac OSX is a small app called bgscreensaver in which you can select any screensaver to your liking.
> 
> It works well on my G4 1.42ghz eMac so I guess it should be fine on your 1.2ghz too



Thanks! I'll check it out.


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## Amie (Aug 22, 2007)

Mikuro said:


> Backlight2 is another good one.
> 
> The only problem is, finding screensavers that are subtle enough and light enough on your system to tolerate isn't easy.



What do you mean? Do you think they'll drain all the juice out of my battery (I have an iBook G4) within an hour? I thought about that, and I don't want something that's going to reduce my battery from 4 hours to 1 hour or anything like that. Then again, I don't see WHY it would do such a thing ... since the animated wallpaper (NOT a screensaver) would only be activated while I'm not using my computer, which would be very infrequently. And when I'm not using it, mostly I just sleep it, so the animated wallpaper wouldn't be active then either. Right?


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## Mikuro (Aug 24, 2007)

Amie said:


> What do you mean? Do you think they'll drain all the juice out of my battery (I have an iBook G4) within an hour? I thought about that, and I don't want something that's going to reduce my battery from 4 hours to 1 hour or anything like that. Then again, I don't see WHY it would do such a thing ... since the animated wallpaper (NOT a screensaver) would only be activated while I'm not using my computer, which would be very infrequently. And when I'm not using it, mostly I just sleep it, so the animated wallpaper wouldn't be active then either. Right?


Right.

The problem with running screensavers as desktop backgrounds is that many screensavers use quite a lot of your computer's resources. They might drain your battery and get your fan whirring, because they can work your graphics card pretty hard. Not ALL screensavers are so resource-intensive, though. You should just be careful what you use. Use something simple and you should be fine.

I once tried running Fluid as a desktop background. That was not a good idea! It's just too complicated. Apple's standard "pictures" screensaver is okay, though. But I'm on a desktop, so I'm judging more by fan activity and CPU load than battery life.



And to avoid confusion: when I refer to "screensavers", I mean the standard type of program OS X uses. The kind you see in the "Screen Saver" (or "Screen Effects") section of System Preferences. These don't have to be USED as typical screensavers (the kind that run when you're not using your computer), though. For your purposes, they'd be running as desktop backrounds. The apps we've mentioned run these screensaver modules as desktop backgrounds. So don't be put off by my use of the word "screensaver".


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## Veljo (Aug 24, 2007)

There's something called Serene Desktop HD I think, but you have to buy backgrounds.


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## sirstaunch (Aug 25, 2007)

Just been trying Serene Desktop HD, very nice, it's a 10 day trial and let you download new themes in that period. But I tried unzipping a file once while it was active and had to turn serene off to get the packaged unzipped fully


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