How to get macOS Mojave’s shifting Dynamic Desktop on any Mac

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Mojave-shifting-Dynamic-Desktop
Get a Mojave-like shifting Dynamic Desktop on your own Mac today.
Photo: Cult of Mac

Here’s an easy way to get macOS Mojave’s constantly-changing Dynamic Desktop on any Mac. Dynamic Desktop wallpapers slowly fade through a set of photos throughout the day. The default set of images is of a pile of sand, presumably in the Mojave desert, showing the same view as the light changes throughout the day.

We already showed you where to download those wallpapers. Now we’re going to see that your Mac can already turn these images into a Mojave-style Dynamic Desktop slideshow.

Dynamic Desktop

You’re going to love this tip. First, go and download the Dynamic Desktop wallpapers. Unzip the download, and drag the entire folder to somewhere permanent. You might create a Wallpapers folder inside your Photos folder, for example. Anywhere is fine.

Then, open up the Desktop & Screen Saver panel in the System Preferences app. Click on the Desktop tab, and you’ll see something like this:

Wrangle your desktop and screen savers here.
Wrangle your desktop and screen savers here.
Photo: Cult of Mac

Next, drag the folder of Mojave desert wallpapers into the side panel of this window, into the section marked Folders. Click on that folder to make sure it’s selected. You’ll see all the differently-lit pictures of sand in the main panel.

Ever-changing

Then, and here’s the clever bit, check the box marked Change picture, and then set the drop-down picker to Every hour. This will cycle through all the images in that Mojave sand-heap folder, changing once per hour. To get a fast-forward preview of how this will work, you can set the time period to Every 5 seconds.

Mojave’s Dynamic Desktop is smart than this, changing the view to match the time of day, but this is a pretty good alternative. Try it now.

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