Harmless Yet Fun Computer Pranks That’ll Make Office Time Entertaining

Holidays will soon be over and you will have to return to your respective work schedules. We understand that you don’t want to be reminded about work before the holidays actually end. But that doesn’t mean you cannot have some friendly harmless fun on the first day. Although pranks could be dangerous if overdone, a well-timed friendly joke never gets old. Therefore, to make the first day of work fun and entertaining, we have compiled a list of some innocently hilarious computer pranks.

1. Incendiary Shutdown Folder

This one can actually scare the socks off most people and can be made to look like the work of a hacker or virus. All you need to do, is simply right click while you’re on the desktop, go to new and select ‘Shortcut’. Type shutdown /s /t 0 and give a catchy name to the exe that will immediately grab the user’s attention (e.g. Porn, PC Games). Then right click the newly created shortcut, navigate to the customize tab (shortcut tab on windows 7) and change the icon to that of a folder. So whenever the user double clicks this folder, it will result in a PC shutdown.

Note: Turn off UAC in Windows 7 before attempting this prank for best results.

2. Change Keyboard Layout

Regardless of what system you’re using, they all have QWERTY keyboard layout due to its high number of users. But what if you could change it to something totally different for a harmless office prank? In 1936, Dr. August Dvorak presented a simplified version of the trusty QWERTY layout, claiming the new layout was faster and easier to use. Although DVORAK massively failed to replace QWERTY, it is still featured in all popular operating system as an alternative keyboard layout. But since the actual keys will still read the QWERTY layout, it can cause a lot of confusion. Just go to Control Panel>Region and Language>Keyboard>Change Keyboard>Add and choose Dvorak.

3. Task Bomb

Another fun prank that resembles the work of a malware or virus. Did you know you can use Windows task scheduler to launch random programs and applications on regular intervals? This can be used as a great prank to annoy your coworkers with a bombardment of randomly launching apps. Simply open task scheduler by typing in the start menu. Choose any executable program from your computer and schedule it to run every 5 minutes for a day. This can be done with multiple programs and automatically launching apps at regular intervals will put an impression of a malware attack.

4. ‘Always Busy’ Mouse Pointer

While the most harmless of all pranks listed here, this prank could be explained as a Chinese Water Torture for PC users. Just go to Control Panel>Mouse>Pointers and change the default mouse icon to busy one. This will put an impression that the computer is experiencing constant lags with slowdowns. With enough time this prank can result in some hilarious outbursts by impatient colleagues.

5. Ghost Keyboard/Mouse

The thought of someone else remotely controlling your computer is definitely scary. Now you can let your coworkers feel the same fear by simply installing a wireless keyboard or mouse in their computer. This is a much easier prank than others and is sure to have hilarious consequences.

6. Go Totally Old-School

This one’s a total masterpiece. All you need to do is take a screenshot of the desktop and save it. Then hide all/few desktop icons and use the screenshot as wallpaper. You can then move some icons around and create fake one’s for the prank to appear totally legitimate. You can also add a shutdown folder to drive the final nail in your coworker’s computer. Pure Evil!

Pranks are always fun, especially when you’re not on the receiving end. These abovementioned pranks are not only non-intrusive but can take the dullness out from your first day at work. It would also be great if you could also learn how to undo the above pranks to not upset anyone and sour the good vibes. So prank wisely and have a happy 2017!!