How do I set my wallpaper to a web page on Mac OS X

I'd like to be able to have very ambient and persistent access to a web page.

One idea would be to set the web page as my wallpaper.

On Windows this would be easy enough, by setting an Active Desktop, but how would you go about it on a Mac.

If it is not possible, what would suggest as an alternative?

jamesh

Posted 2010-07-07T14:53:27.290

Reputation: 449

This is not an answer, but we are building a product that you may find useful. https://Screensaver.Ninja displays web pages as your screensaver, one after the other with the time delays that you specify.

– pupeno – 2015-04-25T13:05:01.617

Answers

This is a bit of a roundabout way, but you could use a screensaver like IdleWeb to show the website, and then set the screensaver as your wallpaper with Wallsaver. (By the way, this is just theoretical; I haven't actually tried this!)

jrc03c

Posted 2010-07-07T14:53:27.290

Reputation: 7 626

By the way, Peter Murray, I'm not sure that GeekTool can show websites (except text ones), can it? – jrc03c – 2010-07-07T15:13:05.770

The site is down, but CNET has it: http://download.cnet.com/IdleWeb/3000-2257_4-42078.html

I only needed IdleWeb to be able to have the wallpaper animate the background. Exactly what I was looking for!

– CenterOrbit – 2013-10-01T21:34:00.530

Qdesktop did exactly what I needed, and it’s free (source code is on Github). It even lets you toggle being able to interact with the web page (e.g. to log on to a site).

D Schlachter

Posted 2010-07-07T14:53:27.290

Reputation: 1 399

This is exactly what I needed! – Luke – 2018-01-11T00:22:38.860

brew cask install qdesktop

Thanks! – Denis Howe – 2019-11-08T10:48:28.657

What you are probably looking for is GeekTool. Take a look at the collection of "Geeklets" to see if there is something close to what you need to do and/or can adapt for your needs.

Peter Murray

Posted 2010-07-07T14:53:27.290

Reputation: 827

GeekTool would work easily if there's just a single image on the page he wants to refresh. If it's the whole page, he'd have to run a background process to render the page to an image periodically and then point GeekTool at that. Or he could use Lynx to display a text-only version. – NReilingh – 2012-06-29T14:45:44.547

There is a built in solution to show a web page in the dashboard which might be "good enough" for you.

Open Safari
Navigate to the web page you want to show up on your desktop
Select Open in Dashboard… from Safari's File Menu.
The cursor changes to a white box. Move this white box over the area of the page you want to create a widget from. Click to select the area.
Click the Add button top right of screen

Now you have the web page on the dashboard and it can be dragged and placed where you like. You can quickly see it by clicking the dashboard icon on your dock, or hitting the dashboard shortcut (usually F4).

Although widgets can be "detached" from the dashboard layer, they float above all windows.

ghoppe

Posted 2010-07-07T14:53:27.290

Reputation: 6 124

"Open in dashboard" is greyed out. – jzadra – 2019-03-20T15:35:21.657

just found this :)

An free app to display a webpage on desktop

http://mac.appstorm.net/reviews/internet-reviews/desktopr-put-a-website-on-your-desktop/

mk3d

Posted 2010-07-07T14:53:27.290

Reputation: 11

@JoshP $3.99 now :/ – Luke – 2018-01-11T00:23:50.740

1As I checked it, it is $1.99 – JoshP – 2012-09-27T12:26:47.653

There's also Mach Desktop:

http://www.machsoftwaredesign.com/desktop.html

It's a full-on app made specifically for running videos and webpages on the desktop.

wle8300

Posted 2010-07-07T14:53:27.290

Reputation: 121

this app is about 700MB and also is not free. – Fabian – 2017-04-28T21:54:19.337

There was a program called WebDesktop, but it hasn't been updated in some time. If you need something on Leopard or Snow Leopard it may or may not work.

http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/mac/17536

RadicalBender

Posted 2010-07-07T14:53:27.290

Reputation: 21