What is a desktop pet? A short history and how to get one on Windows
What a desktop pet is, how we got from Neko to Shimeji, and how to get a free cat that roams your Windows 10 or 11 screen. Step-by-step guide.
A cat strolls along the bottom of your screen, just above the taskbar. It walks for a while, stops to yawn, and curls up to sleep when you step away. Click it and it purrs; pick it up and its legs dangle. That’s a desktop pet: a digital friend that lives on your screen, moves on its own and responds to small interactions.
What exactly is a desktop pet?
A desktop pet is an animated character that roams your desktop on top of open windows. Unlike an animated wallpaper it doesn’t hide behind your apps, and it has behavior. A good desktop pet usually:
- walks along the bottom of the screen or on top of windows and turns at the edges;
- sleeps when idle or when you step away from the computer;
- reacts when clicked, dragged or approached by the cursor;
- falls back to the taskbar with gravity when you drop it;
- sometimes follows your cursor or plays with other characters on screen.
A short history: from Neko to Shimeji
The idea is older than most people think. Neko, which appeared in the late 1980s, was a little cat that chased your mouse cursor and curled up to sleep when it got tired. It started on Japanese computers and the Macintosh and was ported to Windows and Unix many times — you can still run it on Linux as “oneko”.
In the 1990s Windows users met a sheep that wandered across their screens, walking on windows and tumbling off edges. Years later it came back as the open-source eSheep project, which you can still download.
Shimeji, which appeared in Japan in the 2000s, brought the genre to a new generation. Shimeji characters climb windows, multiply across the screen and hang from edges. The community created countless fan-made character sets, and for many people “shimeji” became a generic name for desktop pets.
Why people love desktop pets
If you spend long hours at a computer, a little life in the corner of the screen helps more than you’d expect. A sleeping cat reminds you to take a break; a butterfly drifting over a spreadsheet makes a dull report more bearable. For streamers, an on-screen character adds personality to the channel.
How to get a desktop pet on Windows 10 and 11
- Download the app — Get the ErtePals installer from the download page and run it. WebView2, preinstalled on Windows 11, is installed automatically on Windows 10 if needed.
- Pick a pet — Browse characters with the “Pet” badge in the library — they walk, sleep and react to clicks.
- Add it to your screen — Press “Add to Screen”. The character lands on your taskbar and starts living its life.
- Play with it — In Edit Mode (Ctrl + Alt + L) you can pick it up, drop it, and change its size and speed. In Play Mode your clicks go straight to the app underneath.
Safety and privacy
Download desktop pets from sources you trust and avoid running executables from unknown sites. ErtePals only collects anonymous usage stats — never your name, files or IP address — and you can switch them off in Settings → Privacy. Public uploads are reviewed before they’re published.