Lockscreen

By following these steps, you can setup a MacOS lockscreen, that uses a blurred screenshot of your active desktop.

Instructions

1. Install the imagemagick library, which handles the screenshot bluring:

   brew install imagemagick

2. Download the lock file. In this case it is saved to $HOME/.dotfiles/bin/lock

3. Ensure lock has execute permissions by running:

   chmod +x $HOME/.dotfiles/bin/lock

4. Create a directory to store screenshots:

   mkdir -p $HOME/Pictures/Lockscreen

5. Launch the "Automator" app in Spotlight:

   

6. Once the application opens, create a new service:

   

7. With the "Library" button enabled, so the Actions are available, search for "Run Shell Script" and double click on the result:

   

8. Once the "Run Shell Script" Action has loaded in the main section ensure:

   • The "Service receives selected" dropdown value is set to "no input"

   • The "Shell" dropdown value is set to "/bin/sh"

   • The value of the script is set to the location of the lock file

     $HOME/.dotfiles/bin/lock

   

9. Click the "Run" button to test the new service. Assuming your volume is turned up, you should hear a camera shutter followed by the loading of the screensaver

10. Save the service by hitting Cmd+S, entering "Lock" as the name of the file

11. Open the main Automator menu, then expand the "Service" section to verify the new Lock service has been added:

    NOTE: If the menu item isn't showing up, you might need to restart your machine.

    

12. Launch the "Keyboard" System Preferences in Spotlight:

    

13. Select the "Shortcuts" tab, and the "Services" menu item. Scroll to the "General" section and add a Shortcut for the Lock service. In this case Cmd+Ctrl+L:

    

14. Launch the "Desktop & Screen Saver" System Preferences in Spotlight:

    

15. Click on the "Screen Saver" tab, scroll down and select the "Classic" screensaver:

    

16. Open the "Source" dropdown, select the "Choose Folder..." option, navigate to and select the $HOME/Pictures/Lockscreen folder

17. Test that everything works by hitting the Cmd+Ctrl+L key combination.

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