Mouse jiggler alternative for Windows

If you want Teams or Slack to stop marking you Away while you read or take a call, there are plenty of Windows tools that promise to help. They do not all do the same job. Some keep your PC awake, some create input, and only the second kind keeps your chat status green.

Here is an honest look at the common options, including where the free ones are perfectly good.

The one thing that matters: does it reset the idle timer?

Teams and Slack decide you are Away from the Windows idle timer: the time since your last keypress or mouse movement. Teams switches to Away after about five minutes without input (Microsoft Learn), Slack after ten (Slack Help Center).

So there are two kinds of tool:

Keep-awake tools stop the PC from sleeping and the screen from turning off. They do not create input, so your status still goes Away.
Input tools send a mouse movement or a keypress. Windows counts that as activity, the idle timer resets, and chat apps read you as active.

PowerToys Awake

Microsoft's free PowerToys includes Awake, which keeps your PC awake indefinitely, for a set time, or until a set date and time, and can optionally keep the screen on. It works by telling Windows that background threads need the machine awake, without touching your power plan (Microsoft Learn: PowerToys Awake).

Good for: long downloads, renders, presentations, anything where the PC must not sleep.
Keeps Teams green? No. It creates no input, so the idle timer keeps climbing. Microsoft also notes Awake does not work while the lock screen is displayed.

Caffeine for Windows

Despite sharing a name with the Mac keep-awake app, Caffeine for Windows (by Zhorn Software) is an input tool. By default it sends an F15 key event every 59 seconds, so Windows believes someone is at the keyboard (Zhorn Software: Caffeine). It is free and tiny.

Good for: a simple, free way to stop idle and lock, with command-line options for active periods (for example -activeperiods:0900-1659) and for going inactive when the PC is locked.
Trade-offs: it presses the key on a fixed timer whether or not you are already active, and options such as active hours are set through command-line switches rather than a settings window.
Keeps Teams green? Yes, in practice, because it creates keyboard input.

Move Mouse

Move Mouse is a free, donation-supported Windows app that simulates activity with a list of actions you build: moving or clicking the mouse, scrolling, activating an app, or running a command or script. It pauses itself while you are using the PC, supports start and stop schedules (including cron expressions) and blackout periods, and has a Stealth option that "sets the Direction to None so that the mouse cursor does not visibly move on screen" while the idle time still resets (Move Mouse wiki).

Good for: people who want a lot of control, including scripting. It is the most capable free option here.
Trade-offs: there are many settings to get right, and by default the cursor moves. Some security products flag it as a potentially unwanted application, so on a company PC expect questions if your IT team scans for it.
Keeps Teams green? Yes, because it creates real mouse input.

USB hardware jigglers

A small USB device that pretends to be a mouse and nudges the pointer every so often.

Good for: PCs where you cannot install software.
Trade-offs: your cursor drifts on screen (awkward while screen sharing), it takes a port, there is usually no schedule, and it runs until you unplug it. It still shows up to Windows as a USB input device, so it is not invisible to a managed PC. More on that in are mouse jigglers detectable?.
Keeps Teams green? Yes.

Stay Green

Full disclosure: this is our app, so weigh this section accordingly. Stay Green is a system-tray app for Windows 10 and 11 that resets the idle timer only once you have actually gone idle (four minutes by default, adjustable). Then it sends one F20 keypress, a key standard keyboards do not have and that does nothing visible. The cursor never moves.

Where it differs from the free tools is that the working-day logic is the default, set up in a plain settings window, and that it steps back during calls:

Work hours and lunch. It pauses outside your work hours (9 to 5 by default) and during an optional lunch break.
Only when idle. If you are typing, it does nothing.
Meeting aware. It notices when you are on a call and steps back.
Optional screen awake, like PowerToys Awake, if you also want the display to stay on.

It is paid (€1.99 a month, €12.99 a year, or €29 once; see pricing) after a 14-day free trial with no card. If a free tool already does what you need, that is a fine answer.

Side by side

	PowerToys Awake	Caffeine	Move Mouse	USB jiggler	Stay Green
Resets idle timer (keeps chat green)	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Prevents sleep	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes, while active
Cursor moves	No	No	By default (Stealth option stops it)	Yes	No
Only acts when you are idle	n/a	No	Yes	No	Yes
Work-hours schedule	Timer or end time	Command-line switch	Yes, schedules and blackouts	No	Yes, with lunch break
Steps back during calls	n/a	No	Not documented	No	Yes
Price	Free	Free	Free	One-off hardware	Paid, 14-day trial

This table reflects each tool's documentation as of October 2026. Features change, so check the project pages linked above.

Whatever you choose

A locked PC shows Away. No tool on the PC changes that, and your company's lock policy is there for good reasons.
Check your workplace policy. Some employers have rules about activity simulation. These tools are for covering real work away from the keyboard, like reading, thinking and calls, not for appearing to work when you are not.

For the Teams-specific setup, see keep Microsoft Teams green on Windows. On a Mac? See a mouse jiggler alternative for Mac.