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106 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.

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Created by

truboxl
Offline

Category: Modding or Configuration

Languages: English

Posted

8 Nov, 2019 @ 11:06pm

5,542	Unique Visitors
172	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!

23 Comments

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Blackflare 7 Oct @ 12:20am

thanks, followed your guide and it worked!

Tide2Go 23 Sep @ 9:39am

When i try to run C:\ProgramData\PopCap Games\Insaniquarium in the command prompt, it tells me that file already exists, but i cant find it anywhere in my files... any idea why that might be?

Valanáro 26 Jun @ 9:07am

After closing the game for a bit the screensaver is no longer saved in Screensaver Settings.
Couldn't find another solution to this as it seems to run from an .exe instead of an .scr and other suggestions were to add the scr into System32 or SysWOW64.

Setting a shortcut on my desktop/taskbar to WinFish_Scr.exe was my best solution but requires manually turning the screensaver on.

eddmario 14 May @ 9:58am

For anybody who gets a "file path not found" error, make sure that you included the space in "PopCap Games".

And make sure to disable hardware acceleration ingame after doing this.

awesomeskeleton123 #FixTF2 12 Mar @ 12:50pm

it works perfect, thank you!

Monster G Dogg 8 Feb @ 1:33am

I just went to the Insaniquarium folder one of the files under type says screensaver. I made a shortcut to it and put that on my Desktop. Whenever I want the screensaver to run I double click and there you go. Doesn't load automatically but its another way and simple.

gold10mgc 23 Nov, 2024 @ 1:21pm

thanks

TyMH 9 Oct, 2024 @ 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

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