Computer Prank: 5 more Microsoft Windows prank ideas

You want more computer prank ideas? Here's 5 more you can try on your unsuspecting victim. I recommend that you take some time to practice setting these up quickly before attempting them. I've tried on my sister's computer successfully, but only after 3 tries because I was too slow when she was away from the computer. It can be rather difficult to set these up quickly on a slow computer, so you'll need a more prolonged access to the slow computers.

1. Visual Mayhem

What if you wanted the colors on your victim's screen to flip out like in the picture, and to do it quickly before he or she gets back? Mess up the contrast and color balance settings on the monitor. Alternatively, go to "Control Panel->Accessibility Options". Go to the "Display" tab and check the "Use High Contrast" button. Then click "OK". Watch what happens and enjoy the puzzled look on your victim's face.

2. Keyboard Madness

There's yet another computer prank that you can play on the keyboard! Go to "Control Panel->Regional and Language Options". Go to the Languages tab and click on "Details..." in the "Text services and input languages" sub-section.



In the menu that appears, click on "Key Settings..." in the Preferences sub-section.



In "To turn off CAPS LOCK key", click on the "Press the SHIFT key" radio button, then click "OK".

The next time your victim uses the CAPS LOCK key, it won't go off by pressing CAPS LOCK again :). You can help your victim along by toggling the CAPS LOCK key after you're done setting this computer prank up.

3. Narcoleptic Computer

Want to leave your victim's computer narcoleptic? You can mess with the Power Options in the Control Panel. Go to "Control Panel->Power Options". Set system standby to 1 minute, click "OK", and you're done. The next time your victim decides to do some long reading, he or she will have 1 minute before the PC nods off.

4. Weird Time

Take a look at the time display on the far right of your Windows Taskbar. Did you know that you can change "AM" or "PM" to whatever you like? This will probably throw off your victim. Chances are, he or she won't know how to undo what you did.



To set up this computer prank, go to "Control Panel->Regional and Language Options". In the "Regional Options" tab, click on "Customize..." in the "Standards and formats" sub-section.



A "Customize Regional Options" menu should show up. Click on the "Time" tab. Type in any word you want in the "AM symbol" and "PM symbol. You could either leave it blank, swap AM for PM and vice versa, or put in a message for your victim. Take note that the field is only 12 characters long.



Here is an example of the result of this prank. I made the picture in the morning, as you may have guessed :). Remember to click "OK" after making your changes all the way from the sub-menus back to the main "Regional and Language Options" menu.

5. Sound Surprise

Your victim is waiting for the computer to boot up, when suddenly sounds of loud explosions and gunfire burst out from the speakers. On the next click of the mouse on an icon a loud blood curdling scream rolls out. You can set these sounds in the "Sounds" tab of "Control Panel->Sounds and Audio Devices".



In this tab, you can add sounds to almost every user or OS triggered event in the "Program Events" box, highlighted red above. For example, you can set Windows to play a sound whenever a user closes a program, or clicks on an icon, or even on startup. From explosions to screamers and zombie moans, there are a lot of free startling sounds you can find on the web. Just use your favorite search engine and save your desired sounds, then click on the "Browse" button to look for it..

Oh, and when you're done setting up the prank, be sure to turn up the speaker volume to the max.

Want to learn more about the basics of Operating Systems (such as Windows) to devise your own Windows Pranks? Check out The Operating System (please note that this pops up a new tab or window).

---

Return from Computer Prank to Computer Pranks


Return Home to Prank Ideas Central

---