A living screensaver, with Shimeji

When you walk away from your PC, they arrive on your desktop one by one. When you come back, they leave.

Like a screensaver, only livelier

A regular screensaver replaces your desktop with an animation. Here, your desktop stays put, and the Shimeji move in: they drop from the top of the screen, walk along the taskbar and climb your windows. When you come back, everything is where you left it, even the windows they threw around.

How to set it up

Wait before they arrive: 1 to 60 minutes without keyboard, mouse or controller, 5 to start with.
Maximum number of Shimeji: 1 to 30, 10 to start with. One to three arrive first, then the rest one at a time.
A new Shimeji every…: 1 to 60 minutes, 5 to start with.
They leave when I come back: on to start with. Turned off, they stay until you send them home.

Every setting is explained in the guide.

Screen by screen

Each screen keeps its own idle time. If you’re gaming or watching a video on your main screen, the Shimeji can move onto the secondary screen you’re not using, without coming to the one you’re on. You can pick up to three screens.

Alongside the Windows screensaver

While the Shimeji are out, the screen stays on and the PC doesn’t go to sleep, so you can watch them. Once they’ve left, Windows goes back to its usual timers.

If you also use a Windows screensaver, it will cover the Shimeji when its timer runs out. Set it to “(None)” in its settings, or give it a longer delay than the Shimeji.

Leaving your PC on overnight? Turn the On switch off before you go: otherwise the Shimeji will keep the screen on until you’re back.

Try them on your PC

Free, no account and no administrator rights needed. Java and everything else is included.