mousejiggler
Mouse Jiggler is a very simple piece of software whose sole function is to "fake" mouse input to Windows, and jiggle the mouse pointer back and forth.
Useful for avoiding screensavers or other things triggered by idle detection that, for whatever reason, you can't turn off any other way; or as a quick way to stop a screensaver activating during an installation or when monitoring a long operation without actually having to muck about with the screensaver settings.
If you find Mouse Jiggler useful, please consider contributing to its support!
Installation
The easiest means of installing Mouse Jiggler is using Chocolatey, although bare releases continue to be available:
choco install mouse-jiggler
Operation
Simply run the MouseJiggle.exe included in the release .zip file. Check the "Enable jiggle?" checkbox to start jiggling the mouse pointer; uncheck it to stop. The jiggle is slight enough that you should be able to use the computer normally even with jiggling enabled.
The 'Zen jiggle?' checkbox enables a mode in which the pointer is jiggled 'virtually' - the system believes it to be moving and thus screen saver activation, etc., is prevented, but the pointer does not actually move.
To minimize Mouse Jiggler to the system tray, click the button marked with a green, down-pointing arrow.
If you want to start the Mouse Jiggler with jiggling already enabled, run the MouseJiggle.exe with either the -j or --jiggle command-line switch.
The "-z" / "--zen" command-line switch forces zen jiggling to be enabled for the current (and future) invocations of MouseJiggler.
(Added in 1.5+): The "-m" / "--minimized" command-line switch tells MouseJiggler to start already minimized.
(Added in 1.8+): The "-h" / "--help" command-line switch displays version and help information.
That's it. Enjoy!
Features That Will Not Be Implemented
This is a list of feature requests which I've decided won't be implemented in Mouse Jiggler for one reason or another, along with what those reasons are, just for reference:
- Autorun on startup (because that's what the Startup group, Task Scheduler, etc. are for; it's inelegant to duplicate system facilities in a minimal app).
- Timed startup/shutdown (again, Task Scheduler is for this).
- Reducing the jiggle speed to just under a minute (yes, the Windows idle detection time can only be reduced to one minute through the interface; various home-rolled idle detectors, on the other hand, do not have this limitation; besides, it makes it harder to see at a glance if jiggle is enabled)
Support
Mouse Jiggler is a free product provided without warranty or support.