A Panic Button or Boss Key is a feature of some software for hiding some obvious open windows on your desktop when you press it. This usually works by minimizing or otherwise “hiding” open windows instantly when the key is pressed.

“Dad’s Around” is one such utility. The software package is supplied in 7z format which means that an unzipper supporting this format is required. (Visit http://www.7-zip.org/)

The program itself is fully portable and can be ran from anywhere on your computer with no installing needed.

It offers up to four options that will be activated with the hotkey (Windows Z but you can change this). The choices can be selected or deselected with a right click on the system tray icon when the program is running. The options are to mute WAVE audio, kill the actual foreground process, minimize all windows and/or show a black screen. Each option can be activated or deactivated on an individual basis.

This utility uses around 5 MBs of memory while running. A useful little utility if you are a paranoid type for reasons best known to yourself!

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This entry was posted on Sunday, January 11th, 2009 at 6:19 am and is filed under Freeware, Main. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.