Review: ScreenSaver Start

Sometimes you just want to start your Mac’s screensaver when you leave your desk…

While Apple’s screensaver implementation has allowed users to specify a “hot corner” to activate the screensaver – I’ve had less than successful results with both High Sierra and Mojave on my multi display setup.

It turns out that certain third party apps may cause the Mac to ignore “hot corners” for the screensaver to appear. Regardless of who is at fault, it’s a problem, and I’m not alone. Don’t believe me? Check out the plethora of Google results for “Apple hot corner screensaver doesn’t activate”.

Whatever the case may be, I wanted a method to quickly activate a screensaver on demand. While trawling through the Mac App Store, I found one that did exactly that – by the name of ScreenSaver Start.

This 99 cent app lets users assign a global keyboard shortcut to trigger your Mac’s screensaver.

I use Command-8 (8 on the numeric keypad) as my keyboard shortcut to activate my Macs’ screensaver. In my testing of Screensaver Start over the past two weeks, the app worked flawlessly across all three Macs I own (mid-2014 13″ MacBook Pro, 2018 Mac mini, 2008 Mac Pro).

The Advanced tab in ScreenSaver Start allows users to toggle the visibility of the app’s MenuBar icon, if its presence bothers you. Personally, I don’t mind it at all.

In my humble opinion, ScreenSaver Start is easily worth its 99 cent price for what it does. It’s an elegant solution to a problem that Apple has yet to address.

-Krishna

Krishna December 22, 2018 keyboard shortcut to activate screensaver, Mac, Mojave, Screensaver does not activate