Steam Community :: Guide :: Screensaver Quick Fix Guide {Steam ver.}

Store Page

Insaniquarium! Deluxe

All Discussions Screenshots Artwork Broadcasts Videos News Guides Reviews

Insaniquarium! Deluxe > Guides > truboxl's Guides

81 ratings

Screensaver Quick Fix Guide {Steam ver.}

By truboxl

A quick fix guide to make Steam version of Insaniquarium Screensaver feature working on modern Windows system.

Award

Created by

truboxl
Offline

Category: Modding or Configuration

Languages: English

Posted

8 Nov, 2019 @ 11:06pm

4,620	Unique Visitors
141	Current Favorites

Guide Index

Overview

The Quick Fix

Common Errors

Special Thanks

Further Comments

Comments

The Quick Fix

This is a revised guide to make sure people can get their virtual tanks running on new computers.

Removed all the crap and explanation because who needs them.
Expect minimal computer literacy and common sense as this guide is not noob proof.
Also to stop people for necroposting on old threads when there is a solution already.

The steps are as follows:

Run at least once the game and create a user profile in the game

This does means that Insaniquarium needs to be working out of the box for you. If you have problem, check this guide or start a thread at Discussions for help.
Delete this folder:

C:\ProgramData\PopCap Games\Insaniquarium
Start up a Command Prompt (cmd.exe)
Copy, Paste and Run the command below:

mklink /J "C:\ProgramData\PopCap Games\Insaniquarium" "C:\ProgramData\Steam\Insaniquarium"

You should see this line when its done.
Junction created for C:\ProgramData\PopCap Games\Insaniquarium <<===>> C:\ProgramData\Steam\Insaniquarium
Start the game back and tick Enable Screensaver and exit the game
Go to Screen Saver Settings by

searching Change screen saver or

Run
control desk.cpl,screensaver,@screensaver
Press Preview, you should see your tank with all the fishes you chose. Change the Wait minutes to your desire.

Common Errors

Cannot create a file when that file already exists.

You haven't deleted the folder:
C:\ProgramData\PopCap Games\Insaniquarium

Delete that folder and try again.
Fatal Error: Unable to extract game executable

Do not run the Command when you haven't at least run the game and create a user profile!

Delete the link (folder looks like shortcut):
C:\ProgramData\PopCap Games\Insaniquarium

and try again.

Feel free to post your other errors in Comments. I try to update the guide when I can.

Special Thanks

People in this thread for figuring out how the screensaver works and the kind people in that thread.

Please don't go necroposting on those old threads!
A super special thank you to Microsoft for deprecating screen saver feature in Windows 10 version 1709.
/s
(It means you can still use screen saver in near future, until Microsoft really kills it.)

Further Comments

Gdmnt it Steam, even links to support dot microsoft dot com is considered {LINK REMOVED}! Have to do summary here.
The original guide is posted here with some detailed explanations.
Seems like there's other versions of Insaniquarium besides Steam's. I am afraid I can't check those out and help out with those screensaver problems since I don't have those versions. Maybe other power users can help?
Feel free to translate this guide to other languages! Crediting the guide back here is appreciated!
Lastly, go support the original creator's other two games on Steam:
Plants Vs Zombies and Octogeddon

Thanks for checking out my guide!

17 Comments

< >

jack10mgc 23 Nov @ 1:21pm

thanks

TyMH 9 Oct @ 10:46am

Still works on windows 11

Mr.Mochi trade.tf 11 Dec, 2023 @ 12:52pm

It works and I save the settings but if I turn my PC off or it crashed I have to go back into the game enabled it and change screen saver again. any fix for this? also it doesn't activate unless I do it myself through preview I wait and wait set it to 1 minute then 5 4 3 2 it doesn't matter it won't self activate. Any help would be greatly appreciated!

talonsgamingadventures 3 Jul, 2023 @ 10:10am

Thank you sooooo much this worked 10/10 would recommend

would drop the soap

Myredhulk 7 Jun, 2023 @ 7:44am

Works perfectly, now shut up and take my points.

Eggboi235 2 Jan, 2023 @ 5:37pm

how do i delete the folder its not letting me

markoh 19 Jun, 2022 @ 7:24am

Too bad it's not fullscreen unless i can make it fullscreen?

Wildon Vantrix 13 Apr, 2022 @ 6:26pm

i followed the instructions to a T... on my laptop.

and now the screen-saver has worked for months for me still since even past this post!!!

(it took lots of caution to detail)

i have earned tones of shells just from the screen saver alone to upgrade the tank (like the good old days) & get rare fish/pets (the wiki for this game helped tell me how & which days are for rare special stock are are chosen) and now this is like a grand trophy for my laptop!!!!

I currently got about 2 and a half shells now... and counting...

only currently got less than 100 hours played, but dream of the day i get a perfect battle against the final boss! (currently 11/18 pets saved... for now)

bonus points for getting to share this with any friend to see my Virtual-Tank when the screen-saver plays!

so until this ever possibly stops working in the future---

Regardless! About Time You Have My Thanks!

☔ RagdollWraith🍄 16 Feb, 2022 @ 4:52am

so since even this seems to stop working after a while, ive taken to using an app called Shutter that has an option to auto-run a program after a certain amount of idle time, so i've just set it to run the insaniquarium.scr after 15 minutes, that seems to work the best :)

whitemeadow 3 Dec, 2021 @ 6:52pm

Didn't work for me :( I have an error say "Fatal Error: failed to load sound: sounds/buttonclick" what should I do?

< >