Free virtual pet for PCs
Desktop Goose is a free strategy program that lets a virtual goose control and patrol your desktop screen. The pixelated goose interacts with you while you use your Windows device, like an interactive screensaver. You can customize Desktop Goose to change certain behaviors, like when the goose enters your screen.
While Desktop Goose is cute, the program is meant to distract you. Desktop Meadow is a virtual garden that grows on the edges of your PC windows and taskbars that encourages you with appealing graphics and does not inhibit your productivity. Desktop Meadow features flowers, mushrooms, birds, and more.
Is the Desktop Goose a virus?
Considering Desktop Goose is not a virus, the freeware is safe to download. Trusted adware services like Avast deem Desktop Goose to be secure to use. PC systems can often prevent unrecognized applications from running with notifications that let you choose to either ‘Run anyway’ or ‘Don’t run.’ In case you choose to ‘Run anyway,’ then Desktop Goose will launch.
Is Desktop Goose free?
Desktop Goose is absolutely free to download, with no subscription plans or microtransactions available. It’s easy to set up, and it comes in a very small installer package too. A working Desktop Goose download is only 4.14 MB and comes in an easy executable file. Once installed, you might be wondering, “How do I open Desktop Goose in Windows?” Simply click on the Desktop Goose free icon and wait. The duck will start with its antics soon enough.
Similarly, you can also see the iconic goose in action within your browser. The Desktop Goose Chrome extension is an even smaller add-on, in both storage and in scale. Basically, you only need to download it as a part of your Google Chrome extensions and activate it as you would with any other extension. It will then start walking around your browser window and even nudge or pull tabs.
Is Desktop Goose bad for your computer?
Desktop Goose is a lightweight program that does not require much storage space to download. The illustrated goose that waddles around the screen can only interact with the files that are in the Desktop Goose folder. The animated animal can randomly gain control of your mouse to move the cursor around the screen, however, the goose will not click any items by accident.
While Desktop Goose is not bad for your PC, the program inhibits your productivity. Since the goose can control your cursor, the PC pet can disrupt your activities and work. In case the goose enters your screen to take over your mouse while you play a computer game, then you lose control of your actions and cannot properly complete your gaming experience.
Even though the simulated pet only takes control of your mouse for a few seconds, the potentiality that the simulation can impact your real life is enough for people to not want to use Desktop Goose, which is why the developer made Desktop Goose customizable. There are even independent projects that modify the original, leading to a lot of Desktop Goose mods.
In case you want to modify the simulation experience, then you can go to the Desktop Goose folder to right-click on the configuration file that brings up a context menu. You can tap on the ‘Open’ option to bring up the ‘Notepad’ choice in a list of programs that you can use to open Desktop Goose.
A simple line of code will appear in the Notepad application to let you alter Desktop Goose by writing either true or false for whether the goose can attack your cursor and the time in seconds for when the goose appears. The configurator lets you choose the minimum and maximum time in seconds that the goose can wander around.
How do I get Desktop Goose?
Since Desktop Goose downloads onto your PC as a zipped file, you can extract the 30 files from the .ZIP to use the software. You get to choose where you want the files to be extracted on your PC. The Desktop Goose folder appears in your destination location after you extract the files from the ZIP.
While the goose can only interact with the files that are in the Desktop Goose folder, you can add your own images and sounds for the goose to use, like GIFs, memes, and sounds. The files and folders that get extracted from the download include the ‘Assets’ folder with images and sounds, the ‘Changelog’ text document, and the configuration file.
The actual application is in the Desktop Goose folder. You can double-click on the file to launch the program. While you can change the amount of time that the goose takes to appear to zero, the goose does not come onto your screen immediately, by default.
In case you want to add images or sounds to the simulation, then drag and drop the items into either the ‘Images’ or ‘Sound’ section in the ‘Asset’ folder. The program automatically comes with one GIF and seven memes that the goose will drag onto your screen, which is both adorable and annoying. The content is meant to be comical.
Desktop Goose uses sounds to depict pattering feet and quacking. A file in the ‘Music’ folder inside of ‘Sound’ asks you to rename the file from ‘Rename me to just Music’ to ‘Music’. In case you rename the folder to ‘Music’, then the hidden mission lets you listen to music the next time you open Desktop Goose.
How do you get rid of goose?
The goose interrupts your screen time by waddling onto your screen with mud, signs, or alone. The computerized animal can start to charge at you by abruptly turning in the direction of your cursor. The goose inevitably catches your pointer to drag the cursor around.
In case you want to get rid of the goose, then hold the escape button down. A loading bar appears in the upper right corner of your desktop screen to let you know how much longer until the goose disappears. The taskbar lets you turn Desktop Goose off as well.
Adorable yet annoying
Desktop Goose is essentially a PC toy. Since you can customize the user experience to decide when the goose appears on your screen, the program is worthwhile to someone who wants a virtual pet. The program comes with GIFs, memes, and music for the goose to use to entertain you. In case you are working on an important project, then the best bet is that you turn Desktop Goose off for the period.
What’s new?
Desktop Goose is developed by Samperson for Mac and PC operating systems. The developer delivers software updates to the community. Desktop Goose has an active group of users that develop mods.
