Overview
Dead Pixel Locator is a single-purpose diagnostic tool for one specific, slightly nerve-wracking task: finding out whether a monitor has a dead, stuck or hot pixel before you decide whether to return it, live with it, or start a warranty claim. A dead or stuck pixel can be almost invisible against a busy desktop background and completely obvious against a single flat color, which is exactly the gap this tool fills. It fills the entire screen with one solid color at a time and lets you cycle through a short sequence of test colors, turning something that is genuinely hard to spot into something you cannot miss.
This is deliberately one of the smallest tools in the whole Debmedia catalog — there is no configuration screen, no settings file, and nothing to install. You run it, look at your screen, and close it.
Key Features
- Instant fullscreen, borderless display with no window chrome to distract from the test
- Cycles through eight solid test colors: black, white, red, green, blue, yellow, cyan and magenta
- Advances to the next color with either a left mouse click or the spacebar
- Optional on-screen hint text that can be toggled on or off with the H key
- Runs on top of every other window (always-on-top) so nothing interrupts the view
- Closes instantly with the Escape key from any color
Why You Might Need This Tool
The most common moment people reach for a tool like this is right after unboxing a new monitor, laptop or TV — most retailers have a limited window to accept a return for a dead-pixel defect, so checking within the first few days genuinely matters. It is equally useful for buying a used monitor in person, where being able to pull up a full white and full black screen in seconds is the fastest possible way to spot a problem before money changes hands. A stuck pixel (permanently lit one color) shows up clearly against black; a dead pixel (permanently off, showing as a black dot) shows up clearly against white; a hot or stuck sub-pixel often only reveals itself against a specific primary color, which is why the tool cycles through red, green and blue individually rather than stopping at black and white.
How It Works
The tool is a completely borderless WinForms window (FormBorderStyle.None)
maximized to fill the screen, with its background color simply set to one of eight
hard-coded Color values from an internal array. Clicking anywhere on the
window, or pressing Space, advances an index into that array and repaints the
background — there is no image being drawn, no gradient rendering, and no
hardware-level pixel test happening; this is purely a controlled full-screen color
swatch, which is exactly what a dead-pixel check needs to be effective. The window is
set TopMost so nothing else can steal focus mid-test, and double
buffering is enabled to keep the color transitions clean with no flicker.
How to Use It
Launch the tool — it immediately goes fullscreen showing solid black with a brief hint message in the corner. Look carefully across the entire screen for any point of light that should not be there. Press Space or click to move to the next color, and repeat across all eight colors, paying particular attention to the pure red, green and blue screens since those are the most sensitive for catching a single stuck sub-pixel. Press Escape at any point to close the tool and return to your normal desktop.
System Requirements & Notes
Runs on 64-bit Windows 10 and Windows 11 and needs no administrator rights — it only changes what is drawn inside its own window, nothing system-wide. On a multi-monitor setup it will open on your primary display; move the window to a second monitor before maximizing if you need to test a different screen.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the difference between a dead pixel and a stuck pixel?
A dead pixel is permanently off and shows as a black dot against any bright color; a
stuck pixel is permanently on at one color (often red, green or blue) and is easiest
to spot against black or against a color it does not match.
Can this tool fix a stuck pixel?
No — it is a detection tool only. Some stuck pixels can occasionally be resolved by
gentle massage techniques or rapid color-cycling software found elsewhere, but this
tool intentionally focuses on the safer, simpler job of finding the problem clearly.
Will this work on a laptop screen as well as an external monitor?
Yes — it works on any display Windows can render to, internal or external, since it
is just a maximized window with a solid background color.