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Stupid PC tricks

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  • J Josh Smith

    Have you ever pulled any fun pranks involving someone elses computer?  I have.  Once I took a screenshot of my friend's desktop.  Then I made that picture his desktop background.  About a week later he called me up in a panic and said, "Josh, my computer has a virus!  When I move an icon it moves, but a copy stays where it was!  But if I click on the copy, it doesn't do anything!  What should I do?" :laugh:  I wanted to say "reformat the machine", but the little angel on my shoulder gave me a firm nudge and I confessed... :doh:

    :josh: My WPF Blog[^] Without a strive for perfection I would be terribly bored.

    P Offline
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    Phil Martin
    wrote on last edited by
    #4

    I'm embaressed to admit that years ago when I was at university, I reformatted one of their windows 95 machines. In hind sight, not that funny. :( But I did change someones notepad shortcut to a shortcut to a little batch file that just opened up an infinite amount of notepads.

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    • J Josh Smith

      Have you ever pulled any fun pranks involving someone elses computer?  I have.  Once I took a screenshot of my friend's desktop.  Then I made that picture his desktop background.  About a week later he called me up in a panic and said, "Josh, my computer has a virus!  When I move an icon it moves, but a copy stays where it was!  But if I click on the copy, it doesn't do anything!  What should I do?" :laugh:  I wanted to say "reformat the machine", but the little angel on my shoulder gave me a firm nudge and I confessed... :doh:

      :josh: My WPF Blog[^] Without a strive for perfection I would be terribly bored.

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      Douglas Troy
      wrote on last edited by
      #5

      Well, we had this one young (early 20's) guy working for us, fresh out of college (support department). He was always going on and on about how he was a hacker, and "hacked this" and "hacked that" ... He also loved to brag about all the 'hot chicks' he was, did, could have, dated. We generally ignored his ramblings. Well ... when Mr. Super Stud Hacker shared the root of his C:\ drive, I couldn't help myself ... I changed out his desktop wall paper with anything I could find pertaining to the Chippendales male strippers. Every time he changed it back, I would make a point to change it again; with something new and fresh, of course (no full nudes, I'm not that sick). I swear, there were days when that kid looked like his head was going to explode, trying to figure it all out. Poor boy. :rolleyes:


      :..::. Douglas H. Troy ::..
      Bad Astronomy |VCF|wxWidgets|WTL

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      • P Phil Martin

        I'm embaressed to admit that years ago when I was at university, I reformatted one of their windows 95 machines. In hind sight, not that funny. :( But I did change someones notepad shortcut to a shortcut to a little batch file that just opened up an infinite amount of notepads.

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        J Offline
        Josh Smith
        wrote on last edited by
        #6

        Phil Martin... wrote:

        But I did change someones notepad shortcut to a shortcut to a little batch file that just opened up an infinite amount of notepads.

        I'm not sure which is funnier; the notepad prank or the fact that your screen name ends with "..." :-D

        :josh: My WPF Blog[^] Without a strive for perfection I would be terribly bored.

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        • D Douglas Troy

          Well, we had this one young (early 20's) guy working for us, fresh out of college (support department). He was always going on and on about how he was a hacker, and "hacked this" and "hacked that" ... He also loved to brag about all the 'hot chicks' he was, did, could have, dated. We generally ignored his ramblings. Well ... when Mr. Super Stud Hacker shared the root of his C:\ drive, I couldn't help myself ... I changed out his desktop wall paper with anything I could find pertaining to the Chippendales male strippers. Every time he changed it back, I would make a point to change it again; with something new and fresh, of course (no full nudes, I'm not that sick). I swear, there were days when that kid looked like his head was going to explode, trying to figure it all out. Poor boy. :rolleyes:


          :..::. Douglas H. Troy ::..
          Bad Astronomy |VCF|wxWidgets|WTL

          J Offline
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          Josh Smith
          wrote on last edited by
          #7

          Douglas Troy wrote:

          I changed out his desktop wall paper with anything I could find pertaining to the Chippendales male strippers.

          :laugh:

          :josh: My WPF Blog[^] Without a strive for perfection I would be terribly bored.

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          • J Josh Smith

            Phil Martin... wrote:

            But I did change someones notepad shortcut to a shortcut to a little batch file that just opened up an infinite amount of notepads.

            I'm not sure which is funnier; the notepad prank or the fact that your screen name ends with "..." :-D

            :josh: My WPF Blog[^] Without a strive for perfection I would be terribly bored.

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            P Offline
            Phil Martin
            wrote on last edited by
            #8

            Josh Smith wrote:

            I'm not sure which is funnier; the notepad prank or the fact that your screen name ends with "..."

            Heh, a less funnier story to go with that. I simply couldn't remember my password to my old CodeProject account, and I had changed email address, so I just made a new one. - Phil

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            • P Phil Martin

              Josh Smith wrote:

              I'm not sure which is funnier; the notepad prank or the fact that your screen name ends with "..."

              Heh, a less funnier story to go with that. I simply couldn't remember my password to my old CodeProject account, and I had changed email address, so I just made a new one. - Phil

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              Josh Smith
              wrote on last edited by
              #9

              Phil Martin... wrote:

              Heh, a less finnier story to go with that.

              I love it.  It seems so sarcastic!  Josh...

              :josh: My WPF Blog[^] Without a strive for perfection I would be terribly bored.

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              • J Josh Smith

                Have you ever pulled any fun pranks involving someone elses computer?  I have.  Once I took a screenshot of my friend's desktop.  Then I made that picture his desktop background.  About a week later he called me up in a panic and said, "Josh, my computer has a virus!  When I move an icon it moves, but a copy stays where it was!  But if I click on the copy, it doesn't do anything!  What should I do?" :laugh:  I wanted to say "reformat the machine", but the little angel on my shoulder gave me a firm nudge and I confessed... :doh:

                :josh: My WPF Blog[^] Without a strive for perfection I would be terribly bored.

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                Lost User
                wrote on last edited by
                #10

                I sat next to a guy once who would play music all day much to the protest of the rest of our office. I knocked up a service we installed on his machine that would let us telnet to his machine and adjust the volume by typing a number between 1 and 10. Much hilarity resulted for a day or so as he was convinced that selecting text in Word was causing his volme to change randomly

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                • J Josh Smith

                  Have you ever pulled any fun pranks involving someone elses computer?  I have.  Once I took a screenshot of my friend's desktop.  Then I made that picture his desktop background.  About a week later he called me up in a panic and said, "Josh, my computer has a virus!  When I move an icon it moves, but a copy stays where it was!  But if I click on the copy, it doesn't do anything!  What should I do?" :laugh:  I wanted to say "reformat the machine", but the little angel on my shoulder gave me a firm nudge and I confessed... :doh:

                  :josh: My WPF Blog[^] Without a strive for perfection I would be terribly bored.

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                  Phil Martin
                  wrote on last edited by
                  #11

                  Ooh ooh, I have another one! Back in the days of Quake 1 (Yes Quake ONE), it was quite fun doing up some quake mods in near C (a revelation at the time). So just for fun when we had a bunch of guys coming over to play some Quake, we did a quick mod so that if you did a certain command you turnd invisible, and if you did another you switched weapons to something that shot through walls :) Of course that only worked if your name was "pmartin" or the others on my team :) Much hilarity ensued that day!

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                  • J Josh Smith

                    Have you ever pulled any fun pranks involving someone elses computer?  I have.  Once I took a screenshot of my friend's desktop.  Then I made that picture his desktop background.  About a week later he called me up in a panic and said, "Josh, my computer has a virus!  When I move an icon it moves, but a copy stays where it was!  But if I click on the copy, it doesn't do anything!  What should I do?" :laugh:  I wanted to say "reformat the machine", but the little angel on my shoulder gave me a firm nudge and I confessed... :doh:

                    :josh: My WPF Blog[^] Without a strive for perfection I would be terribly bored.

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                    Miszou
                    wrote on last edited by
                    #12

                    At university we had a lab full of Unix machines running X-Windows. So, when another student walked away from his desk, a friend of mine changed the mouse sensitivity in his logon script. (Something in .profile? Too long ago to remember) In fact, he changed it so that the values were negative, meaning that his mouse was totally inverted. I think this poor guy had logged in on pretty much every machine in the lab before he figured it out! There's also a BSOD screensaver[^] from SysInternals that's always amusing... ;)


                    Sunrise Wallpaper Project | The StartPage Randomizer | The Windows Cheerleader

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                    • J Josh Smith

                      Have you ever pulled any fun pranks involving someone elses computer?  I have.  Once I took a screenshot of my friend's desktop.  Then I made that picture his desktop background.  About a week later he called me up in a panic and said, "Josh, my computer has a virus!  When I move an icon it moves, but a copy stays where it was!  But if I click on the copy, it doesn't do anything!  What should I do?" :laugh:  I wanted to say "reformat the machine", but the little angel on my shoulder gave me a firm nudge and I confessed... :doh:

                      :josh: My WPF Blog[^] Without a strive for perfection I would be terribly bored.

                      R Offline
                      R Offline
                      Ray Cassick
                      wrote on last edited by
                      #13

                      Several things we used to do in the good old call center... 1) Switch around the key caps :) 2) Change the mouse to left handed :) 3) Run a search on the system for all exe files and then create shortcuts to all of them in the computers start up group :) Nasty, I know, but it was fun :) ...unless that it someone hit you with it...


                      My Blog[^]
                      FFRF[^]


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                      • R Ray Cassick

                        Several things we used to do in the good old call center... 1) Switch around the key caps :) 2) Change the mouse to left handed :) 3) Run a search on the system for all exe files and then create shortcuts to all of them in the computers start up group :) Nasty, I know, but it was fun :) ...unless that it someone hit you with it...


                        My Blog[^]
                        FFRF[^]


                        J Offline
                        J Offline
                        Jim Crafton
                        wrote on last edited by
                        #14

                        Ray Cassick wrote:

                        1. Run a search on the system for all exe files and then create shortcuts to all of them in the computers start up group

                        That's just evil. Brilliant, but evil.

                        ¡El diablo está en mis pantalones! ¡Mire, mire! Real Mentats use only 100% pure, unfooled around with Sapho Juice(tm)! SELECT * FROM User WHERE Clue > 0 0 rows returned Save an Orange - Use the VCF! VCF Blog

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                        • J Josh Smith

                          Have you ever pulled any fun pranks involving someone elses computer?  I have.  Once I took a screenshot of my friend's desktop.  Then I made that picture his desktop background.  About a week later he called me up in a panic and said, "Josh, my computer has a virus!  When I move an icon it moves, but a copy stays where it was!  But if I click on the copy, it doesn't do anything!  What should I do?" :laugh:  I wanted to say "reformat the machine", but the little angel on my shoulder gave me a firm nudge and I confessed... :doh:

                          :josh: My WPF Blog[^] Without a strive for perfection I would be terribly bored.

                          J Offline
                          J Offline
                          Jim Crafton
                          wrote on last edited by
                          #15

                          Futzed around with someone's registry settings and changed every single user configurable color to black. They were puzzled to say the least. I don't recall why this happened :)

                          ¡El diablo está en mis pantalones! ¡Mire, mire! Real Mentats use only 100% pure, unfooled around with Sapho Juice(tm)! SELECT * FROM User WHERE Clue > 0 0 rows returned Save an Orange - Use the VCF! VCF Blog

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                          • R Ray Cassick

                            Several things we used to do in the good old call center... 1) Switch around the key caps :) 2) Change the mouse to left handed :) 3) Run a search on the system for all exe files and then create shortcuts to all of them in the computers start up group :) Nasty, I know, but it was fun :) ...unless that it someone hit you with it...


                            My Blog[^]
                            FFRF[^]


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                            L Offline
                            Lilith C
                            wrote on last edited by
                            #16

                            Related trick I read about. This was back when you could use ANSI to change key assignments. Swap the M and N key caps on the target's PC. Swap the M and N key assignments and watch the touch typist go crazy trying to figure it out. Lilith

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                            • J Josh Smith

                              Have you ever pulled any fun pranks involving someone elses computer?  I have.  Once I took a screenshot of my friend's desktop.  Then I made that picture his desktop background.  About a week later he called me up in a panic and said, "Josh, my computer has a virus!  When I move an icon it moves, but a copy stays where it was!  But if I click on the copy, it doesn't do anything!  What should I do?" :laugh:  I wanted to say "reformat the machine", but the little angel on my shoulder gave me a firm nudge and I confessed... :doh:

                              :josh: My WPF Blog[^] Without a strive for perfection I would be terribly bored.

                              R Offline
                              R Offline
                              RoswellNX
                              wrote on last edited by
                              #17

                              I remember quite a while back at school i made a batch file that ran at boot time and printed the contents of a text file, which said something like "The printer has encountered an error. Press any key to continue..." No one complained:omg:, so after a while i simply took it off. Roswell:laugh:

                              "Angelinos -- excuse me. There will be civility today."
                              Antonio VillaRaigosa
                              City Mayor, Los Angeles, CA

                              Steve EcholsS I 2 Replies Last reply
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                              • J Josh Smith

                                Have you ever pulled any fun pranks involving someone elses computer?  I have.  Once I took a screenshot of my friend's desktop.  Then I made that picture his desktop background.  About a week later he called me up in a panic and said, "Josh, my computer has a virus!  When I move an icon it moves, but a copy stays where it was!  But if I click on the copy, it doesn't do anything!  What should I do?" :laugh:  I wanted to say "reformat the machine", but the little angel on my shoulder gave me a firm nudge and I confessed... :doh:

                                :josh: My WPF Blog[^] Without a strive for perfection I would be terribly bored.

                                _ Offline
                                _ Offline
                                _Damian S_
                                wrote on last edited by
                                #18

                                Years ago I was working onsite with a client who had a very strict PC security policy - basically anytime you were not at your computer, you had to have it locked... There was a new help desk fella there who got up and wandered away from his desk, so I used his open email to tender his resignation for him... muhahahahahaha!!! Luckily the boss was a friend of mine (who I had told about the "resignation" stunt shortly after I clicked send) so he played along, and the desky didn't really lose his job - but he did learn to lock his PC when he wasn't sitting at it!!

                                ------------------------------------------- Don't walk in front of me, I may not follow; Don't walk behind me, I may not lead; Just bugger off and leave me alone!!

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                                • R RoswellNX

                                  I remember quite a while back at school i made a batch file that ran at boot time and printed the contents of a text file, which said something like "The printer has encountered an error. Press any key to continue..." No one complained:omg:, so after a while i simply took it off. Roswell:laugh:

                                  "Angelinos -- excuse me. There will be civility today."
                                  Antonio VillaRaigosa
                                  City Mayor, Los Angeles, CA

                                  Steve EcholsS Offline
                                  Steve EcholsS Offline
                                  Steve Echols
                                  wrote on last edited by
                                  #19

                                  Further proof that users don't read our carefully crafted, properly phrased, even spell checked error messages (those bastards!) :-D


                                  - S 50 cups of coffee and you know it's on!

                                  • S
                                    50 cups of coffee and you know it's on!
                                    Code, follow, or get out of the way.
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                                  • J Josh Smith

                                    Have you ever pulled any fun pranks involving someone elses computer?  I have.  Once I took a screenshot of my friend's desktop.  Then I made that picture his desktop background.  About a week later he called me up in a panic and said, "Josh, my computer has a virus!  When I move an icon it moves, but a copy stays where it was!  But if I click on the copy, it doesn't do anything!  What should I do?" :laugh:  I wanted to say "reformat the machine", but the little angel on my shoulder gave me a firm nudge and I confessed... :doh:

                                    :josh: My WPF Blog[^] Without a strive for perfection I would be terribly bored.

                                    N Offline
                                    N Offline
                                    Norbie
                                    wrote on last edited by
                                    #20

                                    I can't believe no-one has mentioned this one. On many an occasion I've removed the ball from a coworker's mouse and watched in amusement as they shake and jiggle it trying to make the cursor move. You can acheive the same effect with a piece of opaque tape for the newer optical mice. Ah, life's simple pleasures. :)

                                    _ 1 Reply Last reply
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                                    • J Josh Smith

                                      Have you ever pulled any fun pranks involving someone elses computer?  I have.  Once I took a screenshot of my friend's desktop.  Then I made that picture his desktop background.  About a week later he called me up in a panic and said, "Josh, my computer has a virus!  When I move an icon it moves, but a copy stays where it was!  But if I click on the copy, it doesn't do anything!  What should I do?" :laugh:  I wanted to say "reformat the machine", but the little angel on my shoulder gave me a firm nudge and I confessed... :doh:

                                      :josh: My WPF Blog[^] Without a strive for perfection I would be terribly bored.

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                                      D Offline
                                      Danger Bunny
                                      wrote on last edited by
                                      #21

                                      Well, not technically a PC trick... this goes back to the days of vt220's and vaxes. Annoying co-worker was bragging about how secure VMS was, and how nobody could EVER possibly break in to his account. It used encryption and everything! VMS... meh. A simple jumper from pin 2 of his terminal to pin 3 of mine when he wasn't looking, and I could see everything he typed. He pestered me for a week before I showed him how easy it was. l-user...

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                                      • N Norbie

                                        I can't believe no-one has mentioned this one. On many an occasion I've removed the ball from a coworker's mouse and watched in amusement as they shake and jiggle it trying to make the cursor move. You can acheive the same effect with a piece of opaque tape for the newer optical mice. Ah, life's simple pleasures. :)

                                        _ Offline
                                        _ Offline
                                        _Damian S_
                                        wrote on last edited by
                                        #22

                                        I like the tape on the phone switch, so when they pick up the phone it keeps ringing...

                                        ------------------------------------------- Don't walk in front of me, I may not follow; Don't walk behind me, I may not lead; Just bugger off and leave me alone!!

                                        1 Reply Last reply
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                                        • J Josh Smith

                                          Have you ever pulled any fun pranks involving someone elses computer?  I have.  Once I took a screenshot of my friend's desktop.  Then I made that picture his desktop background.  About a week later he called me up in a panic and said, "Josh, my computer has a virus!  When I move an icon it moves, but a copy stays where it was!  But if I click on the copy, it doesn't do anything!  What should I do?" :laugh:  I wanted to say "reformat the machine", but the little angel on my shoulder gave me a firm nudge and I confessed... :doh:

                                          :josh: My WPF Blog[^] Without a strive for perfection I would be terribly bored.

                                          S Offline
                                          S Offline
                                          Steve Mayfield
                                          wrote on last edited by
                                          #23

                                          when the Rubix cube first came out, a fellow programmer bragged about being able to solve it quickly, so I offered to mix it up so he could show me that he could solve it ... I secretly took a corner out, rotated it 90 degrees and put it back together ... gave it to him, sat back and watched him get very, very frustrated ... :evil: :laugh: Steve

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