In my quest to find more computer pranks, I stumbled upon the BNet Web site and found many new ideas on how to fool PC users. I have listed some of these, but to get the full description and instructions, I suggest you visit the BNet Blog (don’t forget to read the comments too).

Most pranks listed are harmless and easily reversible, except one, where you are supposed to program a new shortcut which, once you click on it, asks the user to cool down the computer or the hard drive will be deleted! This one is risky as some people might pour water on the PC to cool it down (no kidding, this happened – just read the comments on that blog). A much safer prank would be to display some other message, such as: “Restart your computer and count to 100 before you turn the PC back on”, or something like that. The message should look legitimate and at the same time slightly over the top 🙂

Here are my favorite pranks:

• Upside down desktop (Change settings in graphic card properties. Go to Control Panel, Display, Settings, Advanced, then look for Rotate option in the tabs)
• Fake desktop picture (Print screen and paste it in Paint. Save it as bitmap image on your hard drive, then turn off icons on the Desktop [Right click on the Desktop, click on Arrange Icons by, untick Show Desktop Icons]. Next, find the picture you saved earlier and Set as background)
• Slow mouse (Change settings in Control Panel/Mouse to lowest speed)
• Program Internet Explorer to display some warning message (Create new shortcut – involves some light programming)
• Unplug the keyboard and mouse half way so they are disconnected but it looks like they are still plugged in.
• Put some clear tape over the laser in optical mouse
• Edit Microsoft Word settings to display desired text instead of letters such as “I” or “a”. Example, every time the user types “I”, Word will show something like “FAIL” or “NO NO NO”, depending on what you want it to display. The possibilities are endless 🙂
• Change language settings in the PC. Imagine if everything on the victim’s PC was suddenly in Turkish.