• We’re currently investigating an issue related to the forum theme and styling that is impacting page layout and visual formatting. The problem has been identified, and we are actively working on a resolution. There is no impact to user data or functionality, this is strictly a front-end display issue. We’ll post an update once the fix has been deployed. Thanks for your patience while we get this sorted.

Need a good computer prank

Page 2 - Seeking answers? Join the AnandTech community: where nearly half-a-million members share solutions and discuss the latest tech.
Can't believe you have this much access to someone's pc. At work we are trained to lock ours whenever we walk away, and they lock after 10 min if not used

That is why the pc prank USB is a good option. You set what you want it to do with toggle switches and plug it into the back of the PC. When the user reboots, the prank program loads in the background and hilarity ensues. The USB stick is tiny too (far smaller than a normal thumb drive) - so not easily noticed unless you have a direct view of the back of the pc.
 
I encourage my coworkers to lock their workstations by modifying shortcuts of their applications to shutdown commands.

Not subtle, but it's entertaining since their first instinct when they boot back up is to try the same thing again.

Viper GTS
 
J and K keys are also a good swap

If they are a touch typer, then switching the keys on the keyboard won't make any difference since changing the caps doesn't actually change the button assignment, and since they aren't looking at the keyboard, they'll just type as normal.

However, if they are a finger typer, then yes that might screw them up.
 
The first thing he will do is call our IS so it can't be anything that will be easy to identify

Seems like you boss might have an issue if you're going to be wasting IT's time too. Better hope the IT person has a sense of humor.
 
This is an amusing thread.

I like screenshotting someone's desktop, making it the wallpaper and then turning off desktop icons.
 
Harmless: Set mouse movement to slowest setting; switch left/right buttons.
Best used in combination with another prank, slowing victim's ability to recover.
 
Hmm. Some good ideas. I think something screwing with input would be best, but I may not have administrative access to get to settings. I love the mouse-speed one, but I don't think I can get to that...I'll try. Then I could just keep slowing it down. That would be just enough to drive him crazy, but subtle enough that he would never suspect tampering. What about something really inconspicuous, like a tiny rare earth magnet on the back of the case around the mouse or KB jack. Would that do anything? He also works near the bathroom so I was considering something smell-related.
 
If they are a touch typer, then switching the keys on the keyboard won't make any difference since changing the caps doesn't actually change the button assignment, and since they aren't looking at the keyboard, they'll just type as normal.

However, if they are a finger typer, then yes that might screw them up.

I work in IT and I have to say that the majority of people are not touch typists. By a very wide margin. I've done this enough times to say that it works more times than it does not. And the fix is easy, so little to no IT involvement is needed to remedy the situation.
 
Automatic Mouse Clicker.

Set a long initial delay time. (The text-box entries for delays or intervals are all in milliseconds. I don't know the maximum value.)
Set it to wait 547 seconds between clicks.
Total number of clicks is your discretion.
The whole program is a single EXE, and maybe you can rename it to something that'll blend in, maybe svchost.exe, or winupdate.exe, something like that.



Use carefully. I don't know how to make it stop once it's started, short of wrestling Task Manager open to terminate the process.
So if you do something like 1 click every 5 milliseconds, repeated 100,000,000 times, you might have some problems.




If they are a touch typer, then switching the keys on the keyboard won't make any difference since changing the caps doesn't actually change the button assignment, and since they aren't looking at the keyboard, they'll just type as normal.

However, if they are a finger typer, then yes that might screw them up.
Except for J and F, with the little locator bump on each one.




Harmless: Set mouse movement to slowest setting; switch left/right buttons.
Best used in combination with another prank, slowing victim's ability to recover.
Psh, if I've got a keyboard, I'll get around Windows. 😛
Then comes a hidden webcam with motion-activated recording.




Fortunately, the worst prank I've had done to me at work computer-wise was tape over the mouse's sensor. I'm not a fan of pranks myself, especially when one can cause the loss of work. Not everyone cares as much about wasting time like that though. Whatever works for you I guess.
 
Last edited:
Change the post fix to the time from AM or PM to something else. Even changing it to lower case a.m. or p.m. would be good. Or just swap the two so morning says night and visa versa but the computer is configured correctly.
 
1. If you are close by setup a wireless mouse and keyboard. Then, everyonce and a while, type a few letters if you hear him typing or fight his mouse movements. If you do it sparingly you can keep this up for quite some time

2. This was my favorite if he uses Outlook. Outlook will let you modify your auto replace spell check dictionary. In just a short period of time you can go from him typing "Sure I'll help you out with that." to having Outlook output "Sure me not help you with that." Since most people only spell check by red squiggle line there are lots of possibilities here

3. Download a custom desktop theme like My little pony and set it as the default. Then go to C: \Windows\Resources and move the other themes out of that folder. Now they won't show up when the user tries to change the theme back

4. Setup parental controls and set time limits or block specific programs
 
1. If you are close by setup a wireless mouse and keyboard. Then, everyonce and a while, type a few letters if you hear him typing or fight his mouse movements. If you do it sparingly you can keep this up for quite some time

I know a few people at my work that have done this with just a mouse and it's hilarious because you can stretch it out for as long as you'd like (assuming they don't notice the tiny USB adapter).

You can just mess with them a few times a day for weeks, lol.... It obviously works best if you are sitting somewhere where you can see their screen.
 
These are oldies but goodies right here!

If it is a windows based machne

The old ctrl + Alt+ [Arrow Key] used to get em almost all the time; you could just turn the screen upside down but not sure that works nowadays.


Messing with keys has potential a bad idea written all over it;

if and only if you can get access to his computer when he is at lunch, after he goes home or before he gets to work; change the language to something Coptic or worse. http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-vista/change-the-display-language
 
If it is a windows based machne

The old ctrl + Alt+ [Arrow Key] used to get em almost all the time; you could just turn the screen upside down but not sure that works nowadays.


Messing with keys has potential a bad idea written all over it;

if and only if you can get access to his computer when he is at lunch, after he goes home or before he gets to work; change the language to something Coptic or worse. http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-vista/change-the-display-language

Well, I was assuming he was at an office, in general, offices run low end to midrange garbage intel/windows laptops with integrated intel video.
 
Back
Top