DeskSquad

Windows & macOS · Desktop companions

Cartoon characters that live on your taskbar. They run, jump, and hide behind your real pinned icons — hand-drawn, and about 2% CPU while they do it.

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How DeskSquad works

Meet the cast

Every card is running the real app code, live, in this tab. Not a screenshot, not a video — the same classes that ship in the desktop build.

Bolt

Banana Rush

One-eyed and over-caffeinated. Drops everything to sprint after a banana.

Stretch

Icon Climber

Tall, earnest and a little clumsy. Climbs onto your pinned taskbar icons and balances up there.

Gizmo

Recoil Blast

Fires his homemade puff-cannon forward and rockets himself backwards across the screen.

Jitters

Peek-a-Boo

Terrified of the cursor. Bolts behind a real taskbar icon and peeks around the edge.

Bean Squad

All four at once

The whole crew together: conga lines, shoulder-boosts onto icons, and a four-way scramble for one banana.

Scruff & Nibs

The chase

Nibs ducks behind your icons, Scruff hunts for him, and neither of them ever wins.

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Features

No bloat, no background service farm. Just the things a desktop pet actually needs to feel real.

  1. They know your taskbar

    Characters read your real pinned taskbar icons and hide, peek, and climb behind them. Not a painted backdrop, the actual icons on your machine.

  2. Click and cursor reactions

    Left-click a character and they react: jump, spin, wave, whatever fits their personality. Move your cursor near them and they notice you, mid-scene.

  3. About 2% CPU at idle

    Runs efficiently in the background, at roughly 2% CPU while idle and about 5% while active, so it never fights your other apps for the GPU or the battery.

  4. Every monitor, sharp at any resolution

    Works across multiple monitors and renders crisp at any screen resolution, with smooth animation at 60 FPS.

  5. Tray control, clean quit

    Pause, resume, switch characters, or quit entirely from the tray menu. Always-on-top but never blocking your clicks, and it never hangs on the way out.

Pricing

Monthly and Yearly start with a 1-day free trial. Checkout takes you straight to the download.

Monthly

$1.99/month
  • 1-day free trial, card required to start
  • All six characters, switch anytime
  • Real taskbar icon integration
  • Cancel anytime, before or after the trial
Start 1-day trial
Best value

Yearly

$7.99/year
  • 1-day free trial, card required to start
  • All six characters, switch anytime
  • Real taskbar icon integration
  • Works out at $0.67 a month, billed once a year
Start 1-day trial

Lifetime

$11.90once
  • Pay once, download straight away
  • All six characters, switch anytime
  • Real taskbar icon integration
  • Every future update included, no renewal
Buy lifetime

The 1-day trial applies to the Monthly and Yearly plans and needs a card to start — nothing is charged until it ends, and cancelling before then costs you nothing. Lifetime is a single payment. Prices in USD. Questions: admin@desksquad.app.

FAQ

How does the free trial work?

The Monthly and Yearly plans start with a 1-day free trial. You enter your card at checkout so the subscription can continue without interruption, nothing is charged during the trial, and if you cancel before it ends you are not charged at all. Lifetime is a single payment with no trial.

How do I get the app after I pay?

Checkout sends you straight to a download page with the Windows and macOS installers and the first-run steps for each. That page stays available in the same browser, and the receipt email from Dodo Payments is your record of purchase — if you ever lose the link, email us and we'll send it back.

Windows or macOS says the app is from an unidentified developer. Is that normal?

Yes, and the download page walks you through it. DeskSquad is a small independent app, so Windows SmartScreen and macOS Gatekeeper both warn about it the first time. On Windows choose More info → Run anyway; on macOS open it from Finder with right-click → Open, or approve it in System Settings → Privacy & Security.

How do I cancel?

The receipt email from Dodo Payments links to your billing portal, where you can cancel in one click at any point — during the trial or after. There is no cancellation flow to sit through and no email required. Lifetime has nothing to cancel.

Which operating systems are supported?

Windows 10 or later, and macOS 10.13 or later. On macOS, the first run asks for Accessibility permission so the character can read your Dock/taskbar for the hide-and-peek behavior.

Will it slow my PC down?

It's built to be lightweight: about 2% CPU while idle and about 5% while a character is active, with integrated graphics fully supported. You can also pause it from the tray menu anytime.

What data does it collect?

DeskSquad runs the character animation locally. It reads your screen geometry (taskbar and pinned-icon positions) on-device to place characters correctly. It does not read your files or browse your activity.

How do I uninstall it?

Quit from the tray menu, then remove it the normal way for your OS: Windows Settings → Apps on Windows, or drag it out of Applications on macOS.

Something went wrong. How do I get help?

Email admin@desksquad.app with what happened and which plan you bought. Billing questions, refunds, a download link that expired, or a character that won't behave — same address for all of it.