A boss key or boss button is a special keyboard shortcut used in computer games or other programs to quickly hide the program and possibly display a special screen that appears to be a normal productivity program (such as a spreadsheet application). One of the earliest implementations was by Friendlyware,[1] a suite of entertainment and general interest programs written in BASIC and sold with the original IBM AT and XT computers from 1982 to 1985. When activated (by pressing F10), an ASCII bar graph with generic "Productivity" and "Time" labels appeared. Pressing F10 again would return to the Friendlyware application.
The purpose of the boss key is to make it appear to superiors and coworkers that an employee is doing his or her job, when they are actually playing games or using the Internet for non work-related tasks. This was a fairly common feature in early computer games for personal computers (discounting the Internet part, which wasn't available yet), when most boss keys were used to show dummy DOS prompts. The use has faded somewhat as modern multitasking operating systems have evolved. However, some programs still retain a boss key feature, such as instant messaging clients or their add-ons. Currently, the most prominent example of a boss key is CBS Sports' "boss button," which is available in the window of their popular streaming coverage of the NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament.
Certain computer games have taken the idea of the boss key and used it to comic effect. Infocom's adult-themed Leather Goddesses of Phobos (only the IBM PC version) had a boss key which would hide the game and show a screen designed to look like a Cornerstone database view. Upon closer inspection, however, the screen was not exactly boss safe, being populated with order info on rather ridiculous adult items, including an "inflatable milkman". Sierra On-Line's comedy/sci-fi adventure game Space Quest III had a so-called boss key available from the game's pulldown menu. However, when the user selected it, the screen would cut to black and inform the user that his or her boss wouldn't be happy if he or she knew how long the user had been playing the game. It then displayed the total elapsed game time.
On modern operating systems, applications may be minimized or switched to the background with a keyboard shortcut. Under desktop environments with multiple workspaces, one possibility is to maintain one "boss" workspace, and switch to it when the boss is coming. The open source project mDesktop was made just for this purpose.
An internet search on "boss key" finds a number of downloadable open and closed-source boss key programs like mDesktop, Magic Boss Key. Historically, as mentioned above, they started with just a key combination. A recent innovation came in 2008 when prDesktop's users requested the addition of an idle-timer in case a user walks away and forgets to close a private program.