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AUTOMATIC UNINSTALL
There is an uninstall button located in the License Tab of the EarthDesk System Preference Pane. If you have partially removed EarthDesk, it is easiest to reinstall the software and use this button. In rare cases, there may be permissions errors on your machine that prevent the automatic uninstall from working. Please use manual uninstall in these cases.

If you originally installed EarthDesk for all users on your machine, after clicking the uninstall button, go back into System Preferences and control-click on the EarthDesk icon to fully remove it.

MANUAL UNINSTALL
You can manually remove EarthDesk by following these steps (note that some files mentioned may not exist):

1. Open Activity Monitor and be sure "EarthDesk Core," "EarthDesk Engine" and "EarthDesk Menu" are not running. If they are, select each one and choose "Quit Process" form the View Menu.
2. Remove the following PrefPane file (check both user and root level Library folders):
         (~) /Library/PreferencePanes/EarthDesk.prefpane
3. Delete the following files in your Preferences folder:
         (~) /Library/Preferences/com.apple.desktop.plist
         (~) /Library/Preferences/com.xericdesign.earthdesk.core.plist
         (~) /Library/Preferences/com.xericdesign.earthdesk.engine.plist
         (~) /Library/Preferences/com.xericdesign.earthdesk.prefPane.plist
4. Delete the EarthDesk folder located in ~/Library/Application Support/
5. Delete the EarthDesk folder located in /Users/Shared/
6. In System Preferences, click Accounts and remove EarthDesk items under the Login Items Tab.
7. Use the System Preferences utility to choose a desktop picture.
8. Remove the files at ~/Library/Caches/Desktop

At this stage, EarthDesk has effectively been removed from your system and can be reinstalled to start fresh, but we suggest you log out and back in first. You will need to enter your license key and configure your settings the next time you use EarthDesk.

Go to System Preferences and click "Desktop & Screen Saver". On the left side, under the list of items, click the + button and choose "Add Folder of Pictures"

If you are running Lion, Library will not be displayed as it was in earlier OS versions. So, leave that window sitting there and go to Finder. While holding down the "option" key, choose "Library" from the Go menu. If you don't hold option down, the Library item will not appear on Mac OS 10.7 (Lion).

Now in the Library folder, navigate to ~/Application Support/EarthDesk/

You will see a folder called Screen Saver. Drag that folder to the open "find a folder" window in the System Preferences window.

Check that the permissions of the folder at /Users/Shared/EarthDesk are set to Read & Write. Click on this folder in the Finder and choose Get Info from the File menu. Change the permissions for the folder and then quit and reopen EarthDesk. This seems to be caused when the process of upgrading the OS does not properly maintain permissions for some folders.

To download cloud images. More details of the cloud service can be found here.

EarthDesk needs to download a list of servers that host the cloud images. The list is not distributed with EarthDesk because it stays more current if it is simply updated on our site.

If you have a cloud license, EarthDesk will contact our server to obtain a token, which allows it to download a high-res cloud image.

EarthDesk stores its map data in large files on disk, which are mapped into memory. This allows it to be loaded and purged as needed. Additionally, it uses 10-30MB for pixel buffers depending on the size of your display(s). While EarthDesk may show that it is using a few hundred megabytes, most of it is purgeable. If any other process needs this space, the memory will be released.

This is an artifact of how Lion categorizes windows. We are looking into a solution.

You might be using a program that is currently interfering with our software because it is also trying to modify your desktop in some way. These programs include Clean Slate, CleanMyMac, PathFinder, DesktopLyrics, and Camouflage. We are working with the developers of those programs to find a solution.

If you are using PathFinder, control-click on the desktop, select "view options," click on "set colors" and finally on "show desktop background".

There is a bug in the auto-updater for EarthDesk 5.6.2. Please visit the download page of our website to get the latest version.

1. Delete the following files in your Preferences folder:
         (~) /Library/Preferences/com.apple.desktop.plist
         (~) /Library/Preferences/com.xericdesign.earthdesk.prefPane.plist
2. Use the System Preferences utility to choose a desktop picture.

You can then restart EarthDesk and it should work for you.

The App Store does not permit the use of license keys. The unlicensed watermark only exists on the retail version (downloaded from our website), so you most likely are running both copies at the same time. Please uninstall the retail version by clicking the Uninstall button in the License Tab.

There are several differences due to Apple's requirements for inclusion in the App Store.

1. The App Store version runs as an app and appears in the dock. The "retail" version sold on this site runs in System Preferences and does not appear in the dock.
2. The App Store version always runs in "borderless window" mode, which doesn't technically change your desktop, but displays the image in a full screen window that visually results in the same thing. The retail version can run in borderless window mode, or set the real desktop directly. For the vast majority of users, this will not matter.

3. Because of Apple's approval process, the App Store takes more time to approve and release updates. We control the retail version so updates are released more or less instantly.
4. The App Store version does not use license keys. Instead, it allows each user to install EarthDesk on every computer that he or she has registered. The retail version limits those with single-user licenses to one desktop machine and one laptop per user.
5. The App Store does not allow multi-user or combo packs. The retail version can be purchased as a 5-user, cross-platform Family Pack. We also offer combined software packages at a discount on our site.
6. Apple does not currently allow upgrades to be priced differently than the full version. The retail version will always have special upgrade pricing available to existing customers... and we hope Apple will allow for this in the future.
7. The version numbers will sometimes be different because it takes more time for Apple to approve updates to the App Store version, then it does for us to release the Retail version.

8. The AppStore requires In-App Purchase for high-resolution cloud access. This infrastructure will take some time for us to develop. If you are currently running the AppStore version and would like to purchase a high-resolution cloud license, please contact us.

Existing EarthDesk customers: Switching to the App Store version is not possible without buying it again. Since we plan to maintain both the App Store and retail versions, there is also no reason to switch, unless you feel the license terms are better on the App Store version.

You can check the resolution of your clouds by going to:

~/Library/Application Support/EarthDesk/Clouds

There will be two files. Double-click the one that is NOT "temp". It will open in Preview.
Press Command-I to open Image Details.

For 11" and 13" screens, you should be getting 2048 x 1024 pixel images.
For 15" and 17" screens, you should be getting 4096 x 2048 pixel images.
For screens 19" and larger, you should be getting 6144 x 3072 pixel images.

If you are not getting the correct cloud resolution, contact us.

If you purchase a high-resolution cloud key, you will receive a new image every three hours.

If you are using the free low-resolution clouds, you will receive a new image every six hours.

Make sure you are connected to the internet and that the Cloud Opacity slider in the Display Tab is set well above 0%.

Check "Enable near-real-time satellite cloud images" in the Clouds Tab of the System Preferences Pane (EarthDesk v5.8 or greater for Mac).

It is possible that EarthDesk is unable to reach www.xericdesign.com to download the list of cloud servers, or that the satellite station that produces the images is down. Please try again later.

As a last resort, please quit EarthDesk, then delete the "com.xericdesign.earthdesk.cloudservers.plist" file in ~/Library/Application Support/EarthDesk/Servers and relaunch EarthDesk. Note that this file does not exist on recent versions of EarthDesk.

Sometimes there are errors in transmitting cloud data from the satellite to the receiving station on Earth. The problem will almost always clear up on the next pass of the satellite.

This happens when a cloud image is not fully downloaded from the server, either because of a lost connection or because the image on the server was replaced with a fresh one during the download. For some reason, the OS reports this image to EarthDesk as valid, even though an error message is written to the Console. We are working with Apple on a solution.

To fix this, stop EarthDesk, delete the file at ~/Library/Application Support/EarthDesk/Clouds, and restart EarthDesk.

That's where it's totally dark, with no moon. The lighter area is where the moon is shining, and the brightest part is full daylight. You will see this change throughout the month as the moon waxes and wanes. The intensity of the moonlight will change with the phase of the moon and is most prominent in highly reflective areas, such as the sands of North Africa. The shape of the dark area also changes, becoming more vertical near the equinoxes and more diagonal near the solstices. In the Globe projection, you will see wedges of sunlight, total darkness and moonlight, which is how it actually looks from space.

No. The city lights are static photos. Only the clouds are updated regularly.

Those are fishing boats. The Japanese eat more seafood than any other nationality and the fishing boats need to be on the sea all night to get the morning catch.

You can see lights along the Nile River, from Aswan Dam to the Nile Delta.

You can see the brightly lit highways linking Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Al-Ain, in the United Arab Emirates.

You can see cooking fires in West Africa and Myanmar (Burma).

You can see a sharp contrast in the amount of light coming from South Korea versus North Korea.

You can watch hurricanes, cyclones and typhoons form, grow and head towards land.

You can see the ash from major volcanic eruptions. (It tends to be yellowish in color.)

Write to us and tell us your favorite things to see on EarthDesk!