simple prank (for windows)

okay, here's an oldie but goody.

at one of my old jobs before i was known as a "computer guy" i played a prank on the real IT guy. it's very simple even for someone not computer savvy. and most of the time (yes i've done this many times) it works better the smarter the person thinks they are.

i used to do this a lot at best buy and circuit city, too. okay enough jibber jabber. here's what you do to someone's windows machine.

1. close or minimize all open windows. you could leave one open (but not maximized) window if you want.

2. make sure the task bar is visible. (sometimes people auto hide it).

3. hit print screen (PrtScn)

4. open mspaint.

5. press "ctrl + v" to paste it. then go up to "file" and "set as background (centered)"

6. it will say it can't until you save it. hit okay and then save the file as a .bmp (not a jpeg because mspaint has horrible compression and it will be noticeable as a background). close mspaint.

7. right click on desktop. go to "view" and in there you can "hide desktop icons" (see where i'm goin' with this?)

8. right click the task bar and make sure it's not "locked". then hold it and drag it topside if its on the bottom, or to the bottom if it's on top. then right click on it again and go to properties and auto hide it.

so there you are. you've just given them a normal looking desktop. but none of the icons or the start button or task bar work.

okay. back to my original story. so i did this to the IT guy. and this guy is totally flabbergasted. i can see it in his eyes. he has no idea what's going on. i mean this guy actually took the computer apart thinking it was overheating or something. i let him stew for about an hour before going over to him to confess my dirty little deed.

well, i was going to confess until i walked over and saw him in the middle of a reformat! no way was i going to fess up now. he had to "imaging" software or backup to restore from. this was going to take him the rest of the day. installing windows, installing all the software. configuring windows and the software. man i felt bad. but in a way i felt good too. because it was so funny. one thing i do remember was him talking about it being infected with a virus. i didin't have the heart to tell him how unlikely that was since the computer wasn't networked and he was the only one (other than me) who ever accessed it. i eventually confessed to him what had happened. 

i don't know, maybe it's just a geek thing but i thought it was hilarious.

You horrible horrible man!

My brother and I did this to all the teacher's computers in the Middle School when we were there. The tech guy reformatted everything and we had a really easy week for students

My brother and I also put the "Stress Release" thing on a teacher's computer. I guess you'd call it a game, but if you access it your mouse turns into ants that spread all over the screen and you can change the mouse into a dozen or so different ways to kill the ants. You can't use the mouse to get out because it's become ants or a flamethrower or a hammer or something, so you have to push Escape instead, but the teacher didn't know that and was FREAKING OUT because she thought that her computer had a virus and that the ants were eating her hard drive Another easy day for students.

My brother and I were evil to our teachers and that hapless tech guy. Hell, once we just walked into the big computer room that connected to all the computers in the building and unplugged the cord. That poor poor tech guy.

ROFL!!! Oh my god, how do you think of this stuff???? Way, way too good!!!!

Dammit, I thought I was the one who thought this up. I did this at work to the sales staff about 5 years ago. I thought I was the smartest man alive for coming up with it.

-HECK!

I'm seriously considering doing this to the guy's computer at work, they'd NEVER figure it out. Picture a bunch of mechanics around a computer, smacking the screen and slamming the mouse around.....

It is funny. When I did it I forgot about it so no one used the computer for weeks.

-HECK!

HECK! wrote:

I thought I was the smartest man alive for coming up with it.

-HECK!

the dude abides...

yes. the dude abides.