7 desktop pranks for April Fools Day shenanigans
Don't forget to swap the M and N keys on someone's keyboard. It's subtle, annoying, and timeless.
With so many people sharing so many links on Twitter, the most obvious prank (and easiest to pull off) is a Rickroll or some variation. Tweet something intellectual sounding - heck, post it as an RT of something else and insert a short URL that points to something immensely annoying like any one of the YTMND Hobo Cruise videos (pictured above).
Set a coworker's wallpaper to an animated GIF
Again, YTMND clips are an excellent choice. Set an obnoxious animated GIF as your pal's wallpaper - tiled, of course. It's not only an assault on the eyes, but on the CPU as well - you may well bring their system to its knees, or at least make it painfully sluggish to change their wallpaper back to something more business-like.
Schedule all manner of mayhem with nircmd
Nir Sofer makes a ton of really, really useful applications. Seriously. He probably never intended them to be used as juvenile pranks, but nircmd just lends itself so well to harmless hooliganism. Schedule a task to open and close the CD tray, randomly turn the system volume all the way down and then crank it up full blast moments later, kill all IE process, display the start button on the system tray - the list goes on and on.
This one is pure gold, and it's actually quite handy the other 364 days of the year as well.
Truly one of the classic computer pranks, brought to you by the Sysinternals crew. Sadly but predictably, this one has wound up in a number of malware infections. Still, it's good, harmless (apart from sometimes causing a little panic) fun, installs quickly, and is pretty convincing. Oh, Microsoft. We lol'd.
Why be content using an actual remote control app like VNC to toy with someone's system remotely when you can employ a customized remote pranking app instead?
Assuming there's no policy restriction or overzealous security software to spoil the fun, Office Poltergeist is an awesome option. Install it, and your victim's computer will listen for your commands - make their screen shake, flicker, or move, send keystrokes, pop up alerts, or play one of the included sound files. It's open source, so even Richard Stallman can get in on the remote pranking.
Assuming there's no policy restriction or overzealous security software to spoil the fun, Office Poltergeist is an awesome option. Install it, and your victim's computer will listen for your commands - make their screen shake, flicker, or move, send keystrokes, pop up alerts, or play one of the included sound files. It's open source, so even Richard Stallman can get in on the remote pranking.
Upside-Down-Ternet
This one takes a little bit more time and dedication. If you're not familiar with this classic, here's the aim: create two groups of network users. Set up a Squid proxy server and use it in conjunction with mogrify to flip images upside down for the users you want to mess with. Swap -flip for -blur 4 to give users the sensation that their monitor (and/or vision) is going wonky.
The Desktop Screenshot - DIY
Sneak into your mark's cubicle while he or she is on a bathroom break. Screenshot the desktop, then set your newly-created image as their desktop background. Hide the any taskbars, toolbars, or sidebars. It's pretty convincing, easy to pull off, and works on just about any OS.
This one takes a little bit more time and dedication. If you're not familiar with this classic, here's the aim: create two groups of network users. Set up a Squid proxy server and use it in conjunction with mogrify to flip images upside down for the users you want to mess with. Swap -flip for -blur 4 to give users the sensation that their monitor (and/or vision) is going wonky.
The Desktop Screenshot - DIY
Sneak into your mark's cubicle while he or she is on a bathroom break. Screenshot the desktop, then set your newly-created image as their desktop background. Hide the any taskbars, toolbars, or sidebars. It's pretty convincing, easy to pull off, and works on just about any OS.
