What is Digg?130 Comments
- one1plus1one, on 11/01/2007, -8/+180This prank is great. There is another similar prank that will leave people stunned when they return to their work station. I call it my "Blue Screen of Death Simulation Prank".
It's really quick to load up. It goes like this:
1) Press WIN+R
2) Type: cmd + enter (this will take you to "DOS")
3) Next type: color 1f (this gives the nice blue screen of death color code)
4) Double click the black-DOS-like icon on the top left of the window
5) Select "full screen mode" and be prepared to enter a 1980's style interface!
This is where the fun starts! Welcome to the 80's. Next:
6) Type: debug+enter
7) type: u + enter (this will display some "unassembled" memory code)
8) do that 2 more times (u + enter) to dump some more memory to the screen.
9) next type r + enter (that will dump some registry settings on the screen)
10) next press enter a couple of times to generate some blank lines
11) Finally... type a scary warning message. I often go with this:
"WARNING: A critical error has occured. To attemp recovery, press ENTER now."
Of course when they press enter, debug returns a real error-message, because it does not recognize that command!
Now just sit back and enjoy their shock when they return to their work station. I like to do this to the prettiest of ladies in the office so they call me for help. The solution to back out of this screen is only 2 quick steps:
a) type: Q + enter (this closes debug)
b) type: exit + enter (this exits "dos" and returns to windows) and voila! problem solved.
When my prank victims call me to their desk for help, I simply walk over and say,
- Me: "Hmmm.... Sally. Looks like you got a critical error there. What did you do?"
- Hot office girl: "Ummm nothing. I don't know. Ghosh, I just came back to my desk and it was like that."
- Me: "Well, I see here at memory address #xxxxx that... oh yes... wait... I think I can fix this for you."
- Hot office girl: "really?"
- Me: "Yup. Let me see here...."
With just a cuople of key strokes, Windows-XP returns, and I then walk away like a cowboy who rides off into the sunset. That last part is important: you have to just walk away immediately (rather than linger at her desk) to create that last touch of mystique. If she's single she'll be impressed and might even flirt with you afterwards. - Dexus, on 10/12/2007, -0/+99hehe I tried this once on some friends. I used the same technique but created a folder on the desktop called 'child porn'. I told him a few hours latter because he was freaking out and didn't want to be caught with a child porn folder on his desktop. ;o
- MARYMCKENNA13, on 10/12/2007, -6/+105hours? try confused for days!!!
- TomP, on 10/12/2007, -8/+106What about hiding the task bar too?
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -1/+87I think the best prank is cracking the PC password and just mentioning it in conversation....
- ender42081, on 10/12/2007, -0/+70been there done that, make sure to hide the taskbar and move it to the top of the screen. but even better....
1. Open Word
2. Tools -> autocorrect options
3. add entry to replace [last name] with [anything else]
a guy I lived next to didn't like it much when the paper due tomorrow insisted his name was Patrick Dogslut. defeatable but worth it. - Darmichar, on 10/12/2007, -1/+65I did this to a friend once while I was at his house for a party.
Long story short, the next day he calls me on the verge of re-installing his OS.
I really thought he would figure it out before it came to that.
He wasn't very happy with me for a few days. - VivaLaNation, on 10/12/2007, -2/+65haha works like a charm...just about brought my room mate to tears....so i filled them in
- canuck21, on 10/12/2007, -8/+56but then the clock freezes and it isn't as good
- kingace, on 10/12/2007, -2/+49And I pride myself on that.
- kingace, on 10/21/2007, -3/+50My English class has an entire cartload of laptops... I'm coming in early and doing this to every single one. Maybe I'll film the ensuing aftermath.
- cJw314, on 10/12/2007, -7/+50Desktop icons are for rookies and grandparents.
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -4/+45No, true masters have 2 screens filled with icons.
- jlewicki, on 10/12/2007, -5/+46its better if you remove the toolbar at the bottom also
- jbpico, on 10/12/2007, -2/+39I almost did that but I figured the time being wrong would give it away too soon
- Roadkill43, on 10/12/2007, -0/+35One of my favorite pranks is to rip an entire CD to a single .wav file and then set it as the start up sound.
- xerus, on 10/12/2007, -0/+35Isn't it easier to just say "Set as Background (Centered)" right in MSpaint after you save it?
- eth0izzle, on 10/12/2007, -9/+40You sir, have no life.
- tekz0r, on 10/12/2007, -4/+34He could have shaved a few seconds by opening BG.bmp and right clicking and going to "Set as Desktop Background" [preview launches faster than display props] before right clicking and hiding desktop items.
@canuck21:
the taskbar overlays the background image so the startbar will still work [along with quicklaunch icons and the date/time systray] - neonenergy, on 10/12/2007, -5/+34No one cares if it's old. Its USEFUL and thats all that matters :-)
- jbpico, on 10/12/2007, -3/+31I almost ended it with "WHEE!!!!!" but decided against it
- supermanred, on 10/12/2007, -2/+27STFU Get a sense of humor. If you are sooo worried about wasting your valuable time dont click on the post that says "The Fastest XP Prank EVER!!!!"
- ij00mini, on 10/12/2007, -2/+25I did this to my roommate, but I had more time. instead of simply hiding all of the icons, i removed the important ones entirely. Also, I included his buddy list in the screen grab, because that's always open.
It took him about an hour to figure it out... with me sitting 6 feet away trying to hold in the laughter all along. - zeno60, on 10/12/2007, -0/+22Fastest XP prank, maybe, fastest computer prank: turn down brightness.
- invader, on 10/12/2007, -0/+22while he had ms-paint open, he could have set it as the wallpaper: File -> Set as Background -- 10 seconds saved.
with the time saved there, one could open task manager and kill the explorer.exe task, which would remove the taskbar and show the one visible in the background image
we did this kind of prank at one of my previous jobs, where the company policy was to lock your computer when you walk away -- it was pretty much a prank-enforced policy.. to return the prank, i would screenshot my desktop, save it as my background, lock my computer, then drag the unlock window out of site... they would see an opportunity to prank me, and then find out that they were in fact the victims.
needless to say, there wasn't much appeal to the job, so we had to find other ways to amuse ourselves. - toomuchfreetime, on 10/12/2007, -0/+21I've pulled this one like, 12 times, and it never stops being funny.
- binarymayhem, on 10/12/2007, -3/+24why simulate the blue screen of death.... get this blue screen of death screen saver? Its the real deal, pulls real messages from windows!
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/sysinternals/Miscellaneous/BlueScreen.mspx
to be honest tho... this screen shot trick is lame. I remember pulling this crap when I was in HS on win98.
you can tell the guy that made the video is a noob because:
A) he forgot to hide and move the taskbar to the top of the screen
B) ms paint has "set as background" option
C) should have swapped the recycle bin icon and my computer icon
D) He has the default windows background - wierdaaron, on 10/12/2007, -4/+23Yeah, this is HILARIOUS.
Or, at least it was when I did it on a school computer...
TEN YEARS AGO - mc7winkie, on 10/12/2007, -1/+20What you should also do is add the BSoD screen saver.
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/sysinternals/Utilities/BlueScreen.mspx
These along with the change the mouse preference from right hand to left hand mouse are the best pranks in the world. - kevinisnthere, on 10/12/2007, -2/+21I dunno how useful it is, but it's funny.
- Philluminati, on 10/12/2007, -0/+17lol
- seether166, on 10/12/2007, -3/+20Buried because there weren't enough exclamation points in the title. Damn it people, I want to see things you're actually emphatic about! /sarcasm
- 4DFX, on 10/12/2007, -2/+17I once did something similar in school: I set a screenshot of the BSoD, hid the icons and hid the bar.
The next day there was an "Out of order" sticker on that PC's monitor... I can't believe they fell for it because the cursor was still there :-) - fba199, on 10/12/2007, -0/+15I did this to my teacher's computer and it was so funny to see their reaction! It's always that damn student that always kills the fun though.
- mightymouse, on 10/12/2007, -1/+16one1plus1one you might have possibly made the best digg comment ever.
- scispaz, on 10/12/2007, -1/+16Turn off monitor. Trust me, it works.
- timo1023, on 10/12/2007, -1/+15I always liked the Internet Explorer icon that force shutdown the computer... I'll have to try this at school.
- ahawks, on 10/12/2007, -0/+13Same concept, but "Best 'Boss screen'" as well.
- screenshot of real actual work (ie: coding, spreadsheet, PowerPoint, etc)
- when someone's coming hit win-D to show the desktop and it resembles actual work. - smoothoperatah, on 10/12/2007, -1/+13yeah i covered a co-workers desktop with folders titled "horse porn" "my favorite creed lyrics" etc.. took a screenshot, set to desktop. hilarity ensued.
- UglieJosh, on 10/12/2007, -0/+11Nice, but it's better with pornographic audio files and turning their speakers to max.
- Waterispoison, on 10/12/2007, -4/+15Launchy FTW
- jeremiah, on 10/12/2007, -0/+10I almost got fired for doing this before to a project manager who took his job a little too seriously. I found it funny at least.
The only other thing I did was move start bar to the top of the screen and hid it so that even that was just an image as well.
He did not find the blue screen of death screen saver ( http://www.microsoft.com/technet/sysinternals/Miscellaneous/BlueScreen.mspx ) funny either. Some people just don't know how to live. - khag7, on 10/12/2007, -1/+11yeahhh it is. i've been doing this prank for awhile. try going to a public computer lab (or the college library!) and doing it to every computer. they dont like it very much. its fun though
- Zero2aHero, on 10/12/2007, -0/+9@one1plus1one
That just might be my favorite comment ever.
I laughed, I cried, I pondered, and later mourned... it had it all. - papavb, on 10/12/2007, -2/+9yeah then you just gotta kill the explorer.exe process. Make sure to leave a working app like IE open too so they'll be less daring to touch the power button.
- wvannus, on 10/12/2007, -1/+8Autohide to the top or side confuses them long enough.
- TehDoctor, on 10/12/2007, -1/+8Yeah. The way this guys tells you to do it is very slow. Another thing to do is to send just a few icons to the recycle bin but leave some functional. It really confuses people because their browser might work while the Word shortcut does nothing. And they can just restore the icons in the recycle bin when they eventually figure it out. My friend and I did this to all the computers in our school's lab and it took them a day to figure it out and fix it.
Another fun prank is fiddling with the monitor cable to turn the screen funky colors. People will go through the video card settings and reboot the computer before they see if the cable is all the way in - techfish, on 10/12/2007, -3/+10This is lame. I was doing this in Middle School.
- RMantaRay, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6What could be even better is to take a screen shot of the person's desktop (as is done in this video) flip it upside down, hide the icons, and then Ctrl + Alt + Down Arrow. It would look normal, but the mouse would be all weird.
- Quakes, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6This is not the fastest XP prank, by far.
High contrast is definitely one of the faster ones.
alt+shift+printscreen
Or, you can set the screen magnifier and screen keyboard to start up at boot
win+u -
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