What an activity simulator is, and what it isn't

An activity simulator is a program that makes input on your own computer, moving the mouse, pressing a key or turning the scroll wheel, so the computer does not decide you have gone. Stayaway is one. It runs on Windows 10 and 11, and it stops the moment you press Alt+X.

That is the whole idea. The rest of this post is about why a computer thinks you have left, how Stayaway's input is shaped, and the things it deliberately does not claim to do.

Why your computer thinks you have left

Every operating system keeps a clock of the last time it saw input from a mouse or keyboard. When that clock runs long enough, things start to happen: the screen dims, then locks, and chat apps quietly flip your status to away.

None of that knows what you were doing. A long read, a phone call or ten minutes staring at a hard problem all look the same to the idle clock: nothing. Thinking does not move the mouse.

An activity simulator gives the clock something to see while you are still at work, just not at the keyboard.

A jiggler moves the mouse. A simulator moves it like a person.

The simplest tools are mouse jigglers. A hardware jiggler is a small USB device that nudges the pointer; a software jiggler does the same thing on a timer. Both work in the narrow sense: the idle clock resets. But the movement is the same every time, a short hop on a fixed interval, all day.

Stayaway moves the pointer the way a hand does:

• Along a curve, not a straight line. Each move follows an eased path that speeds up and slows down, with the small tremor a real hand has.
• Mostly nearby. Short, local moves are the most common, and now and then a longer one overshoots slightly and corrects.
• With rests. Stayaway works in stretches of a few minutes and then pauses for a minute or two, the way someone takes their hand off the mouse.
• Never on a clock. The gaps between moves vary, and so does the overall pace, so there is no fixed rhythm to it.

On Pro, keyboard and scroll activity can join in. Keyboard activity uses keys chosen so they do not type text or delete anything, so nothing ends up in the document you left open. Scroll activity mostly scrolls down and sometimes back up, by different amounts, like someone reading a long page.

Starting and stopping it

You can press Start yourself. On Pro, Auto Detect can start a run once the computer has been idle for a while (20 seconds by default, and you choose the threshold). Smart Resume stops the run the moment you move the mouse yourself, so the app never fights you for the pointer.

And on every plan, Emergency Stop ends everything at once, from any app, with Alt+X.

What an activity simulator is not

It is not a way to fool a particular piece of monitoring software, and Stayaway does not claim to be one. It keeps a computer from reading as idle. Whether any other program draws conclusions from that, and which, depends on software we have not seen, and anyone promising otherwise is guessing.

It also does not watch you. Stayaway takes no screenshots, does not read your screen and does not record your keystrokes. The privacy page lists everything it sends, field by field.

And it does not change your computer's settings. While it runs, the screen does not dim or lock, because there is input. Stop it, and your normal power and lock settings apply again.

Is it right for you?

If your screen keeps locking while you read, or your status keeps saying away while you are on a call at your desk, it probably is. If you are using a work computer, check your employer's rules first. Only you can know them, and the FAQ says plainly that deciding is your call.

Stayaway is free for mouse activity, and a new account gets every Pro feature for 7 days, with no card.