ScreenSaverMinimal

So fyi, the way you hook it there is what makes the preview flicker in System Settings. You check if the screen is locked, and if not, kill the host. But screen is not locked in System Settings. So basically, you're killing the host process every 2 seconds (and macOS, at least in Tahoe, restarts it, it doesn't in previous macOS versions). That's also what causes your issues with "Options" not working (because you killed the instance that was linked to that button). The way we workaround it usually is to hook a system event. You can check https://github.com/AerialScreensaver/ScreenSaverMinimal Look for handleWillStopNotification and com.apple.screensaver.willstop

The Mac screensaver ecosystem's going through some interesting shifts in recent years. The permissions and stated capabilities of 3rd party software are much more delineated now, but screensaver modules are architected in an old NeXTSTEP kind of way, where software you trust loads and runs software you don't. It's not visible to end users, but nowadays, Apple-authored screensavers use a private framework, and 3rd party screensavers use the traditional framework. Sometimes the traditional framework hiccups. Because these aren't essential programs, presumably they are lower priority, so it may be a while before things settle: https://github.com/AerialScreensaver/ScreenSaverMinimal?tab=... https://github.com/AerialScreensaver/ScreenSaverMinimal/wiki... Nevertheless, here are a few more contemporary offerings: https://github.com/agarrharr/awe