'C:\> FORMAT C:' – relax, it's just a screen saver

53 points - today at 10:32 AM

Source

Comments

jrmg today at 2:09 PM
This is cool - but…

It’s an app, not a system-integrated[1] screensaver?

> Installation

> Drag FakeDOS.app into /Applications.

> Double-click to launch. It installs itself as a menu-bar icon.

> Click the menu-bar icon to configure or start manually.

> After the configured idle time (default: 5 min), FakeDOS takes over fullscreen.

> Type EXIT to return to your real desktop.

> Cmd + , opens six pages of pure control: idle time, warp speed, the ghost writer, sound and more. The PC speaker can be silenced. Your co-workers cannot.

[1]: ScreenSaver.framework: https://developer.apple.com/documentation/screensaver

Tsarbomb today at 1:55 PM
Maybe I'm blind, but is this closed source?
RedShift1 today at 3:17 PM
What exactly is this? Site doesn't work for me (ERR_SSL_PROTOCOL_ERROR). Gathering from the other comments, some screensaver that shows a DOS prompt?
Gormo today at 1:48 PM
Reminds me of the 'BSOD' module from Xscreensaver.
rlv-dan today at 2:39 PM
Way back I hacked together a VB6 application (don't remember what it did) but after a while it popped up a new window that faked a DOS prompt formatting the c drive. Then I send it to my best bud on April 1st with a message "Hey, check out this new program I made!" :-)
numpad0 today at 12:12 PM
gives me SSL_ERROR_INTERNAL_ERROR_ALERT on Firefox
1970-01-01 today at 1:07 PM
The quantum fireball was a nice touch.
Bengalilol today at 12:20 PM
I was site visitor 0001101 (hit return).

I will get back until counter reaches 01000110 01010010 01001101 01000001 01010100 00100000 01000011 00111010

deleted today at 10:32 AM
Piedpiper18 today at 3:44 PM
[flagged]
breakwaterlabs today at 2:42 PM
Things not on my bingo card: Watching Hacker News denizens download, install, and run vibecoded Mac apps from sketchy vibecoded websites with TLS issues.
vunderba today at 3:17 PM
Anyone else append something like this to AUTOEXEC.BAT as a kid at school? We were a right bunch of bastards.

  @echo off
  echo FORMAT /Q C:
  echo ALL FILES REMOVED 
  SET DIRCMD=0

I think a lot about my poor teachers and this Calvin quote comes to mind.

https://imgur.com/a/eX4UKLk

rickdeckard today at 3:36 PM
This would be more trustworthy (and portable) as a website (Would have maybe also needed less tokens to produce)

Instead it's a somewhat sketchy app that by design happens to know exactly when my PC is not in use...

qubex today at 12:52 PM
You couldn’t run a format command when within the disk you were trying to format. You’d need to (for example) cd A: and then format c:.

Deltree, on the other hand…

jasomill today at 2:28 PM
I'll stick with 86Box and DOSBox and try not to run FORMAT C: without backups.
hdgvhicv today at 12:27 PM
32768MB of ram?

Yeah, that’s wrong.

snvzz today at 1:09 PM
deleted today at 2:04 PM
fortran77 today at 2:23 PM
It amusing how Mac users yearn for the PC experience. They know they're missing out on something great, but they can't or won't leave their cult.