Your buddies,
on your Dock.
The app is here for both. On a Mac it brings the buddies on your account to the top of your Dock; on a PC they stand on your taskbar. Either way they wander, play their activities and answer when you click them.
Download for Mac or Windows
Free to download, signed in or not. The app is the easy part: an account and at least one buddy you have bought are what put someone on your Dock or taskbar. Without an account it opens empty, because every buddy is locked to the account and the computer that bought it.
Checking your account…
Before you run it on Windows: there are two downloads — the installer, which keeps one copy in one place, or one portable .exe that installs nothing and runs from wherever you keep it. It is not code-signed yet, so the first time Windows shows “Windows protected your PC”. Choose More info, then Run anyway. To uninstall, sign out in the app, then remove it in Windows Settings, Apps, or delete the .exe if you took the portable one. If it uses more memory than you would like, turn on Use less memory in Settings, General.
What you need
- System
- MacmacOS 14 Sonoma or later
- PCWindows 10 or 11
- Hardware
- MacApple silicon or Intel: one universal app
- PCx64 or Arm64: one .exe for each
- The file
- MacA disk image (.dmg), signed with our Apple Developer ID and notarized by Apple
- PCAn installer, or one portable .exe with nothing to install
- To see a buddy
- An account and at least one buddy you have bought
- Internet
- To sign in, download your buddies and check in
Who can download the app?
Anyone. The app itself is a free download and asks for nothing first: press the button above and it comes down. What it cannot do on its own is show you a buddy. Every character is encrypted to the account that bought it and to the computer it was downloaded on, so until you sign in with an account that has bought at least one buddy, the app opens to an empty Dock, or an empty taskbar on a PC.
Nothing comes bundled with the app. After you sign in, the buddies your account has paid for download to that computer, and only those. Max, Avery, Racer and Businessman are available now; Juno is coming next, then Aadi.
Watch the whole thing, start to finish
No cuts, no sound: downloading the app, signing in with a code, and a buddy appearing. One recording for each platform.
How do I install it on a Mac?
Download
Click Download for Mac. Your browser saves a disk image (.dmg).
Drag it to Applications
Open the disk image and drag My Dock Buddies onto the Applications folder beside it. Opened from anywhere else, such as Downloads, the app offers to move itself there.
Agree to the terms
Open My Dock Buddies. It lives in the menu bar, with no Dock icon of its own, and starts with the terms: read them, tick “I agree” and continue.
Sign in
Enter your email, then the 6-digit code we email you: the same sign-in as this website.
Say hi
Your buddies download to your Mac. The first time, a short welcome introduces them, lets you choose who goes on the Dock (two at a time) and sets “Open at login” and automatic updates, both on to start. Then they step onto the Dock.
How do I run it on Windows?
Download
Click Download for Windows. Your browser saves MyDockBuddies-<version>-<arch>.exe. Pick the Arm download only for a Snapdragon or other Arm PC.
Keep it somewhere
Move the .exe to a folder of your own, outside OneDrive and Downloads: for example C:\Users\<you>\My Dock Buddies. It runs, opens at login and updates itself from there.
Open it
Run the installer, or double-click the portable .exe — that one installs nothing. If Windows says it protected your PC, choose More info, then Run anyway.
Agree and sign in
My Dock Buddies starts with the terms: read them, tick “I agree” and continue. Then enter your email and the 6-digit code we email you: the same sign-in as this website.
To uninstall
Open Settings, Account, “Remove my data and quit”, then delete the .exe. Signing out alone frees your account for another computer but leaves the settings and the login item behind.
What do the buddies do on my Mac?
On top of your Dock
Up to two buddies at a time stand on the Dock’s top edge. Put them on or take them off from the menu-bar icon, or from the app’s window (“Open My Dock Buddies…”).
Where they roam
In Settings, choose “Stay in their spot”, “Along the Dock” (the default) or “Across the whole screen”. With “Let them explore on their own” on, they pick their own walks and activities; off, they wait for a click.
A click away
Click a buddy’s left or right side to send them running that way. Click the middle and they stop, think it over and look up at you. Press and drag to move them.
Right-click menu
Run left or right, pick a mood, an action or a story, let the buddy explore, or hide them. Settings and the app’s window are there too.
Four sizes
Small, Medium, Large or Extra large, chosen for each buddy in Settings. Medium fits most Docks.
Light on your Mac
A buddy standing about draws 30 frames a second. While your screen is asleep or locked, or a buddy is fully covered, it stops drawing.
On a PC it is the same app, with the taskbar in place of the Dock and the taskbar corner, behind the ^ arrow, in place of the menu bar. More about the Windows app ↗
How does my account work on my Mac or PC?
- One computer at a time, Mac or PC: sign out in the app on one before you use the other. If that computer is lost, contact us from Help and we free it for you.
- Check-ins. The app checks your account every 4 hours, when it opens, and when you sign in. “Refresh purchases” in the menu bar, or the taskbar corner on a PC, checks right away, so a buddy you just bought on the website comes down without the wait.
- Up to 14 days offline. Without a connection, your buddies keep working for up to 14 days. After that they pause until the app can check in again.
- Signing out removes your buddies and your account’s data from that computer, and frees it for another.
- Your buddies. A buddy you have bought is yours to keep, so they stay in the app and nothing renews. Your library lists every one of them.
- Updates. New versions download in the background and install when you quit the app. Turn off “Automatically install updates” in Settings, General, and the app asks before installing instead.