Pull a Computer Prank on Windows

Looking to play a harmless Windows XP or Vista prank on your friend? Here's a little trick you can do. These four pranks may confuse your friend. The first one makes him believe his computer is frozen. The second one will make him stare at a completely blank screen even though Windows is active. The third prank will make your friend think their computer has crashed with the blue screen of death.

The first trick involves taking a screen shot of their current desktop and replacing their background image (wallpaper) with it. Both tricks involve hiding the desktop icons. When they attempt to left-click on anything, nothing will appear to happen. The second trick will also make right-clicks seem futile.

Steps

Windows XP or Vista

  1. Visit your friend's house. Make sure they have a computer running Windows XP or higher, and that you have access to their user account.
  2. Secure their current user settings. Purely optional, this will ensure you still have a friend when you're done. Create a new user account and copy over their existing user settings. When you're done with the prank, they'll be able to restore the changes you've made by referencing the other account. This is more important for the "black screen" prank than the "static background" prank.
  3. Wait until your friend goes out of the room. Anytime they leave the room for at least a couple of minutes will suffice.
  4. Once they are out of the room, close everything that is open on the computer.
  5. Right-click on the desktop background and select "Arrange Icons By", then select "Show Desktop Items" to uncheck it. It may take a moment for the effects to be made. If your friend's computer doesn't show the "Show Desktop Items" option, you may move all of their desktop icons (user created ones, not the Recycle Bin, etc.) to a different folder. You may also hide desktop icons such as "My Documents", "My Computer", "Internet Explorer", etc. by right-clicking on the desktop, selecting "Properties", clicking on the "Desktop" tab, and then clicking on the "Customize Desktop..." button.

Windows 7

  1. Right Click on the Background
  2. Click "View" for the Drop Down Menu.
  3. Uncheck "Show Desktop Icons"



Black Screen prank

  1. Open the registry file. Click on the "Start" menu, select "Run", and type in REGEDIT. Click on "Ok" or press [Enter].
  2. Navigate to "HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Colors". These give the RGB values for the color of each Windows' component. These will show all of the color values, many of which are not available through the Windows GUI (from "Appearance" tab in "Display Properties").
  3. Change each value. The "Data" column holds the RGB value for all component shown here. For each listing that is not set to "0 0 0" in the "Data" column, double-click on it and change it to 0 0 0 with spaces between the zeros. Then click "Ok" or press [Enter].
  4. Close the Registry Editor.
  5. Restart the computer.

Static Background prank

  1. Take a screen shot by pressing the keyboard's [PrtScr] button.
  2. Open up Microsoft Paint.
  3. Paste the captured image into Microsoft Paint by pressing [Ctrl] and "V" (or choosing "Edit" from the File menu, then selecting "Paste"). The screen shot will appear.
  4. Save the picture. Be sure to remember where you saved it.
  5. Close Microsoft Paint.
  6. Right-click the desktop background and select "Properties", then click on the "Desktop" tab.
  7. Click the "Browse" button on the right of the window.
  8. Choose the picture that you saved from Microsoft Paint.
  9. Click "Ok" to save your changes.
  10. Hide all icons by right-clicking on the desktop and unchecked the "Show All Icons" option.
  11. Drag the Start menu bar at the bottom down until it disappears.
  12. Close all open windows.
  13. Act natural and wait. Play Xbox or something.

Upside-down Screen

Press Shift+Alt+Down buttons. Note that this works only with Intel graphics cards.

Misspelling Letters or Changing Words

  1. If you are in a computer lab area where there is a lot of computers next to each other, like a uni classroom, and you're all using USB keyboards, unplug your keyboard and plug it in someone else's computer.
  2. As they type their assignment, type the occasional "j" or "d" so they think they misspelled words.

Microsoft Word

When they're not looking press Ctrl+f (on newer word versions Ctrl+h)to open find and replace (on Microsoft word) and replace "e" (since its like the most commonly used letter) with whatever you like, then press replace all. This gives so many laughs.

Killing Explorer.exe

  1. Open Task Manager.
  2. Find explorer.exe.
  3. Kill it.(To restore it,click the "Applications tab,and click New Task... and type in "explorer.exe" (Without quotes.) That brings the desktop and taskbar back)

Shut down a friend's computer via prank shortcut

  1. Right click on their desktop.
  2. Go to "new".
  3. Select shortcut.
  4. Paste this code into the box: %windir%\system32\shutdown.exe -s -f -t 60 -c "Insert message here!"
  5. Change the icon to Google Chrome or IE or something. Every time a friend clicks on this their computer forcibly shuts down!

(To cancel shutdown, type "shutdown -a" without quotes into "Run")

Blue Screen of Death Prank

  • Make sure that the computer is not set to restart upon a BSOD.
  • Open Task Manager.
  • Kill a system process like "csrss.exe".

Tips

  • Make sure your friend is out of the room long enough to do one of the pranks.
  • Try this with a "Blue Screen of Death" picture.
  • Make sure you know how to undo it.
  • For more fun on the static screen prank, rotate the image by 180 degrees. When you're done with the prank, rotate the desktop 180 too. They will have a hard time fixing it!
  • The "Killing Explorer.exe" trick is best combined with a screenshot of their desktop or a "Blue Screen of Death" picture.
  • Make sure you are around to help them undo what you did.

Warnings

  • Disabling desktop icons will only work if "Allow web content to be added to desktop" is enabled. This is a registry setting that may be disabled with a utility known as TweakUI, part of Microsoft Power Toys for Windows.
  • Don't let your friend see you doing this. They will probably get mad at you and kick you off their computer.
  • Be sure you backup your registry. Editing it can cause irreparable damage to your system if you don't know what you're doing.

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