Your headless PC just got a monitor. A phantom one. In 4K.
Single-file EXE · No installers · No internet needed · Windows 10/11 x64
Your machine is a headless box: a server in a rack, a laptop with a broken screen, a workstation reached over RDP or Chrome Remote Desktop. There is no physical monitor — so Windows gives you no monitor at all.
And then everything breaks:
- Remote sessions cap at a blurry 800x600 (or 640x480)
- Apps you know are fullscreen show a tiny centered window
- Games, design tools and media players refuse to render properly
- UI scaling makes everything look like a spreadsheet from 1993
You can't buy a monitor for a machine you'll never look at. So what do you do?
GhostScreen 95 installs a virtual display — a monitor that exists only in software — and dials in the resolution you choose: 2560x1440, 1920x1080, 1366x768, 1280x720, right out of the box at 60 Hz.
The OS thinks a beautiful monitor is plugged in. Remote clients happily render widescreen, full-HD sessions. Your headless rig behaves like a normal desktop — because, as far as Windows is concerned, it is one.
A ghost screen. It's there. It isn't. Nobody knows. Windows loves it.
| One EXE, everything inside | Driver, catalog, settings, tools — all embedded. No installer, no leftovers. |
| Windows 95 soul | A faithful '95-era UI. Gradient title bar, chiseled buttons, MS Sans Serif. Because why not. |
| Choose your resolution | 2560x1440, 1920x1080, 1366x768, 1280x720 — plus custom W×H×Hz (up to 4K). |
| 11 languages | italiano, español, français, deutsch, english, 中文, 日本語, português, русский, 한국어, nederlands — auto-detected, or from the Lingua menu, persisted in the registry. |
| Game Boy music | Chiptune synthesized at runtime or real MIDI (generated .mid), with volume control (25–100%). Mute it in File ▾. |
| Themes | Teal (classic), Plum, Eggplant, Dark Pro — like the Windows Plus! packs of 1996. |
| System tray ghost | Minimize to tray; apply / restart from the tray icon. |
| Auto-start at logon | Re-applies your resolution on every login (scheduled task + /apply). |
| Diagnostic report | One click → a ZIP on your Desktop with log, system info and driver state. |
| Update check | Optional, offline by default: checks the GitHub release API only when asked. |
| Uninstaller | Menu item or /uninstall — removes driver, device, registry and task. |
| Self-healing | Detects a missing or stale driver, reinstalls, restarts the display, retries. Works on a fresh format. |
| Zero internet | Everything runs offline, from the EXE (except the optional update check). |
| Re-runnable | You formatted? Run it again. It's idempotent. |
- Download
GhostScreen-1.1.0.exefrom releases. - Right-click → Run as administrator.
- Pick your resolution. Hit Installa e Applica.
- Done. Your remote session is now 2560x1440. 🎩
Fine print: requires Windows 10/11 x64 and the built-in .NET Framework 4.x (preinstalled). The 60-second run applies the resolution; a reboot persists it.
The program speaks 11 languages, auto-detected from your OS (or picked from the Lingua menu / saved in the registry). The site is published in 7 of them:
| Language | Site |
|---|---|
| Italiano | it.html |
| Español | es.html |
| Français | fr.html |
| Deutsch | de.html |
| English | index.html |
| 中文 | zh.html |
| 日本語 | ja.html |
| Português | in-app only |
| Русский | in-app only |
| 한국어 | in-app only |
| Nederlands | in-app only |
Command line: GhostScreen.exe /lang:de /nosound /quiet /music:midi /volume:50 /theme:plum
(/apply applies silently and exits — used by auto-start; /uninstall removes everything).
- Headless servers managed over RDP — real resolution, real productivity
- Laptops with broken screens — HDMI out is dead, but the machine isn't
- HTPCs attached to a TV that's often off — keep the desktop sane
- CI/CD and test labs — stable virtual displays for UI tests
- Remote work via Chrome Remote Desktop / AnyDesk / TeamViewer — crisp widescreen
- GPU farms and mining rigs — dummy-plug alternative without the dongle
See docs/CASE-STUDIES.md for the full stories.
- Product vision
- Case studies
- Test environment & matrix
- Handoff / developer guide — everything a new developer or AI agent needs to take over
- Build from source — needs only the .NET Framework csc.exe
GhostScreen 95 is crafted by Luigi Strazzullo for Culture Digitali Srl — with the '95-era honesty we all deserve.
- Virtual display driver: MikeTheTech / Virtual-Display-Driver (MIT)
devcon.exe: Windows Driver Kit (Microsoft)- Everything else: original work by Luigi Strazzullo / Culture Digitali Srl
Live project site: https://CultureDigitali.github.io/GhostScreen
MIT. GhostScreen is not affiliated with Microsoft. Windows 95 is a trademark of Microsoft Corporation — we just miss it.
"Il monitor non c'è, ma la risoluzione sì."