Create Your Own Prank

[SyntaXmasteR]

This is another crazy tool I'm putting together that allows visitors to create their own Windows XP (Vista coming soon) pranks. I'm posting this to get ideas/input of different registry tweaks that can cause funny results. Examples:

Speed up mouse to maximum speed
Invert Mouse
Change Background
Speed up Keyboard rate
Bootup Message

etc...

Harmless pranks that you can run on someones computer that will leave them clueless.

If you have any ideas please post the registry edits along with the reference you got the tweak from. I will start coding this as soon as I get some good tweaks from you guys.

~SyntaX

[JayT]

This is another crazy tool I'm putting together that allows visitors to create their own Windows XP (Vista coming soon) pranks. I'm posting this to get ideas/input of different registry tweaks that can cause funny results. Examples:

Speed up mouse to maximum speed
Invert Mouse
Change Background
Speed up Keyboard rate
Bootup Message

etc...

Harmless pranks that you can run on someones computer that will leave them clueless.

If you have any ideas please post the registry edits along with the reference you got the tweak from. I will start coding this as soon as I get some good tweaks from you guys.

~SyntaX

Here's a trick I played on my clueless sister, but it depends on your system hardware.

Her computer has an NVIDIA graphics card. There are desktop settings available where you can turn the monitor screen image upside down or sideways and other things.

I did that to her on April 1st and then started her screen saver to cover up the devil's handiwork until someone touched a key or the mouse.

Later, when she returned to check e-mail, everything was upside down on her desktop and she nearly split every blood vessel in her head over it.

Play a joke on her and out comes the chainsaw!
LOL

It's a totally harmless trick and the settings can easily be restored to normal, but it's a very shocking experience to people like her who need a 12-year-old to set a digital clock for her because she doesn't know how to adjust it for daylight saving time.


DEFINITION:

Practical Joke (n)

A joke you can play on someone without first having to write your Last Will and Testament as a precaution.


)

[SyntaXmasteR]

shutdown -r -t 0 -f

I've always like this quick and easy command. I actually have a batch script in my registry upon startup.

IF %username% NEQ syntaxmaster shutdown -r -t 0 -f

Her computer has an NVIDIA graphics card. There are desktop settings available where you can turn the monitor screen image upside down or sideways and other things.

Do you have the Reg Edit for this? or does a variable need to be passed to a certain application for this to occur? I've seen this done many times in college library computer which is ANNOYING! so I think it definitely would make it to the list of custom pranks.

[Moonbat]

Sometimes you can press Ctrl+(Down Arrow) to make it go upside-down.

[Ezekiel]

Sometimes you can press Ctrl+(Down Arrow) to make it go upside-down.

Yes, we used to do this a lot in school. Most became wise to the trick, so "let me quickly show you something on the net" followed by ctrl+arrow stopped working on all but the most clueless people.

Come to think of it, I'm not sure if it was the ctrl key or the windows key, but you can press any key with it and flip the display. Didn't work on my home machine, so it must have been some specific graphics driver software they had.

Another annoying (yet hilarious) thing to do is to hold down the windows key + e for as long as you can before the person realises (possibly) hundreds of explorer windows are popping up and tries to prevent it. Of course by this time it is too late, and they must sit back and let it run its course until the number of windows have opened; dictated by how long the keys were held.

My brother once showed me a hotkey combination that set the graphics quality to be really poor. It might have changed the resolution, colour depth or something to the lowest. It made the computer pretty much unusable until they figured out how to change it back. Never got to try that one though.

This probably explains why I got average grades in my exams. That and doing pretty much all homework on the last night for about 3 years (if the homework was a requirement).

[Moonbat]

Another annoying (yet hilarious) thing to do is to hold down the windows key + e for as long as you can before the person realises (possibly) hundreds of explorer windows are popping up and tries to prevent it. Of course by this time it is too late, and they must sit back and let it run its course until the number of windows have opened; dictated by how long the keys were held.

I used to do this by opening IE one time, then pressing and holding Ctrl+N (new window) till like 100 opened

But yours works as well

SYNTAXMASTER: Sorry I'm hijacking your post but I just noticed you can echo keystrokes through the command prompt:

echo Ctrl+N | explorer

[SyntaXmasteR]

Let me further specify exactly what I'm looking for. When visitors use this tool it will show them options. For this example I will show the option to speed up keyboard. If they select this option it will change the following registry values:

http://www.pctools.com/guides/registry/detail/1177/

User Key: [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Keyboard]
Value Name:  KeyboardDelay, KeyboardSpeed, CursorBlinkRate
Data Type:  REG_SZ (String Value)

So if you give an example of a prank, please provide proof of how it can be done through editing the registry or through some type of batch command. I will then be able to add it to the tool.

[Moonbat]

Here's a few I would want:

Force Logoff on the Start Menu // Forces user to have to log off when he presses 'Start' on the taskbar

User Key: [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\
Explorer]
System Key: [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\
Explorer]
Value Name: ForceStartMenuLogoff
Data Type: REG_DWORD (DWORD Value)
Value Data: (0 = default, 1= force logoff button)

Disable the Ability to Right Click on the Desktop

User Key: [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\
Explorer]
System Key: [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\
Explorer]
Value Name: NoViewContextMenu
Data Type: REG_DWORD (DWORD Value)
Value Data: (0 = disabled, 1 = enabled)

Hide All Items on the Desktop // A real pain if used at school

User Key: [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\
Explorer]
System Key: [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\
Explorer]
Value Name: NoDesktop
Data Type: REG_DWORD (DWORD Value)
Value Data: (0 = disable restriction, 1 = enabled restriction)

Disable Internet Access

Giving the link is easier: http://www.pctools.com/guides/registry/detail/1288/

[Ezekiel]

Yeah, we were going off on a tangent.

I'm useless for registry tweaks, since I haven't even used Windows in about 6 months.

[JayT]

I've always like this quick and easy command. I actually have a batch script in my registry upon startup.

IF %username% NEQ syntaxmaster shutdown -r -t 0 -f

Do you have the Reg Edit for this? or does a variable need to be passed to a certain application for this to occur? I've seen this done many times in college library computer which is ANNOYING! so I think it definitely would make it to the list of custom pranks.

I'm not entirely sure if there's a registry entry for it. There may be, since it seems to survive rebooting, but the video card could possibly be using on-board non-volatile RAM rather than the registry to recall its settings.

So far, the only way I've done this is by using the desktop preferences in windows, but it certainly gets people's attention.

[SyntaXmasteR]

Great tweaks. Keep them comming!

[craig666]

Have a read around milwOrm.

[JayT]

On some keyboards, the keys can be removed and swapped.

Swapping certain keys, such as the (U,I), (W,E) and (N,M) keys can really have some fun consequences.











Political Asylum - A rubber place where Bush belongs.

[JayT]

Holy crap, you can use pipeline-esque commands in Command Prompt!? How can you do Alt+Enter? That would be great for making applications full screen.

Speaking of pipelines, everyone knows about Windows Powershell, right? Pretty powerful in comparison to the Command Prompt.

I hadn't heard of "Windows Powershell" yet.

Sounds sexy.

[Ezekiel]

Read all about it here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_PowerShell

I'm actually pretty impressed with its features. Not sure how it compares to bash though.