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

numpad0

gives me SSL_ERROR_INTERNAL_ERROR_ALERT on Firefox

Bengalilol

I was site visitor 0001101 (hit return). I will get back until counter reaches 01000110 01010010 01001101 01000001 01010100 00100000 01000011 00111010

hdgvhicv

32768MB of ram? Yeah, that’s wrong.

qubex

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…

1970-01-01

The quantum fireball was a nice touch.

snvzz

Ah. Again[0]. 0. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ROQSw6jqJO8

Gormo

Reminds me of the 'BSOD' module from Xscreensaver.

Tsarbomb

Maybe I'm blind, but is this closed source?

jrmg

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

fortran77

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.

jasomill

I'll stick with 86Box and DOSBox and try not to run FORMAT C: without backups.

rlv-dan

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!" :-)

breakwaterlabs

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

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

RedShift1

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?

rickdeckard

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...

mr_tox

please, I really need a screen saver with this :)

wduquette

I remember the days when `format` with no arguments would happily format drive C: out from under you. I worked in a computer lab at my college where it happened more than once before we put `format.bat` files on all the PCs.

stefs

something like this was among the first programs i wrote when i was a kid; back then - in turbo pascal - for pranking my (~10 year old) cousin. the program created a fake dos that printed warning messages about finding a virus, attempting to delete said virus and failing, then - as a last measure - fake-formatting C and exiting. i then set the "dir" defaults to show only files with a name that didn't exist, so when he typed "dir", an empty harddisk was shown. the trick was to name the exe non-breaking-space - alt+255 - which was a valid filename and then adding it to the end of the autoexec.bat. ps: my cousin started to cry.