Hey! I found one of them. I didn't have this one as a kid, but it's the same kinda thing. No idea if it works in modern windows but it works in my Windows XP virtual machine.

https://archive.org/details/spikenickclickable_202212

I'd love a Linux version of the classic Neko, that followed and played with your mouse

I remember all of them. I remember there was one for one the Rugrats, one for Spongebob, and one for Ralph from Spy Kids (I still have the last one). And I remember they often had to be uninstalled because they'd screw up with the computer if it was older.

Banzai buddy is slowing the computer down, dad!

I think another name for them are "shimeji". I remember you could get little anime characters that, depending on the settings, would infinitely cline themselves and sometimes kick your windows off the screen to close them lmao. They were so cute.

Yes but I preferred Tiny Elvis.

https://archive.org/details/win3_TELV150

I remember tiny Elvis.

I had one that put lots of little sheep on the desktop, that would walk around on top of windows.

I had a friend in highschool who once brought his laptop to school to take notes and on that day me and a few other guys learned that he had the virtual stripper girl desktop buddy

Desktop toys! I used to love those! As we upgraded the family PC, they got buggier and buggier, but I kept trying.

I fantasize often about writing a parkour stickman who climbs up my desktop windows and jumps between them