Comments on: Tell me a good computer prank

Question: Tell me a good computer prank

mooreeasyvibe — Mon, 18 Sep 2006 11:54:24 -0800

Does anyone know of a good computer prank I can install on my housemate's computer that will let me do funny stuff to him remotely across our network? Nothing horrible or malicious here - just a bit of fun.

By: chrisamiller

chrisamiller — Mon, 18 Sep 2006 11:59:02 -0800

Install TightVNC, then hide the icon. It'll let you remotely connect to his computer and control the mouse and keyboard. Lots of fun can be had.

It's pretty simple and there are a ton of turorials out there. This one might get you started.

By: visual mechanic

visual mechanic — Mon, 18 Sep 2006 12:00:48 -0800

Previously. Some good ideas can be found here, although some are Mac-specific.

By: GuyZero

GuyZero — Mon, 18 Sep 2006 12:06:28 -0800

NET SEND computername message

Works amazingly effectively with the less computer savvy. A co-worker used to get a number of other co-workers to reboot and then run off to desktop support asking why their PC was always overheating.

By: mcstayinskool

mcstayinskool — Mon, 18 Sep 2006 12:07:51 -0800

I like chrisamiller's suggestion. Taking that further, take control of the mouse, open a browser, and start cruising to websites like Hilary Duff fansites, Pokemon forums, blogs about knitting. Nothing NSFW, as that's just too obvious.

By: wackybrit

wackybrit — Mon, 18 Sep 2006 12:11:38 -0800

A more subtle and probably more amusing joke than remote desktop (it's a little too obvious really, unless the mark is a total dolt) is setting up a remote sound prank. Trigger noises at will from afar. Fart noises, rattlesnakes, etc.. Keep it really subtle at first. The best pranks are those that last all day :)

By: chrisamiller

chrisamiller — Mon, 18 Sep 2006 12:23:50 -0800

To expound:

I'd wait until he was quietly reading (or asleep) and then cue up some loud music on his computer. Repeat sporadically - like every few days. The longer you can drive him nuts with this, the better.

Sign in while he's working on a paper. Hit a random character every five or six words - just enough to make him question his keyboard and sanity. Do the same with the mouse. A quick flick every few minutes oughta drive him nuts.

Don't bother doing things while he's gone - he'll just yell at you guys for messing with his computer and being in his room. Make sure that he's there and that you couldn't have possibly been in his room doing it.

By: PWA_BadBoy

PWA_BadBoy — Mon, 18 Sep 2006 12:36:32 -0800

Ctrl-alt-up arrow and ctrl-alt-down arrow will turn his screen upside down.

Another favorite for me is screenshotting his desktop, making it the wallpaper and then moving all the icons offscreen. If he's not too technically literate, it will take a few minutes to realize what has happened.

Agree with TightVNC. Easy to do.

By: JJ86

JJ86 — Mon, 18 Sep 2006 12:42:22 -0800

How about something as simple as plugging in your own keyboard and mouse into his computer. He will be trying to access something but you can open a Word document and start typing in stuff while he is trying to figure out what is going on.

By: mooreeasyvibe

mooreeasyvibe — Mon, 18 Sep 2006 12:42:30 -0800

Installed TightVNC and hid the icons. Got the service running.

I can see him across the windows network but it won't let me see his desktop using tightvnc.

The error is: Failed to get server address. Did you type the host name correctly?

I did. It is Quentin.

In windows explorer I type \\Quentin to see his shared folers.

Any ideas?

Thanks

By: chef_boyardee

chef_boyardee — Mon, 18 Sep 2006 12:44:43 -0800

Popup MS-DOS command window, with it saying something like:

REMAP multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\%windows% remote
COPY C$ > WWW.CASINO4U.COM:80
Uploading.... 1% completed...

I'm sure that would get some adrenalin going.

By: bDiddy

bDiddy — Mon, 18 Sep 2006 12:45:15 -0800

Try using his IP address.

From a command prompt type "ping Quentin". You'll get an address. use that in the tightvnc address box. See if that works.

By: chrisamiller

chrisamiller — Mon, 18 Sep 2006 12:51:08 -0800

Or, since you have access to his computer, open up a command prompt there and type "ipconfig" That will give you his IP address

By: mooreeasyvibe

mooreeasyvibe — Mon, 18 Sep 2006 12:53:11 -0800

I pinged his name and the ip address is 192.168.2.102.

If I put in the ip on its own 192.168.2.102 i get the error:

failed to connect to server

If I put \\192.168.2.102 I get:

Failed to get server address. Did you type the host name correctly?

Any ideas - thanks for this - he is back in 20 mins aarrgghh

By: mooreeasyvibe

mooreeasyvibe — Mon, 18 Sep 2006 12:55:28 -0800

could there be a firewall issue on his machine?

By: odinsdream

odinsdream — Mon, 18 Sep 2006 12:56:26 -0800

REMAP multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\%windows% remote
COPY C$ > WWW.CASINO4U.COM:80
Uploading.... 1% completed...

What the hell are you talking about, chef_boyardee?

mooreeasyvibe: Are you typing the slashes as part of the IP address in the TightVNC Viewer application? Don't.

By: mooreeasyvibe

mooreeasyvibe — Mon, 18 Sep 2006 12:58:04 -0800

i was typing in the viewer thing- ok i won't - thanks.

hmm so that just leaves the failed to connect to server error.

do i need to do any ports or anything?

15 mins...

By: mooreeasyvibe

mooreeasyvibe — Mon, 18 Sep 2006 12:59:00 -0800

i should say i was typing slashes - i've now stopped doing that

By: topher74

topher74 — Mon, 18 Sep 2006 13:00:07 -0800

A really simple but fun option is Office Poltergeist

By: bDiddy

bDiddy — Mon, 18 Sep 2006 13:05:09 -0800

Is the service definitely running on his PC?

right clikc My Computer, click on manage. Click the + next to "Services and Applications". Click on Services. Find VNC in the list on the right. If it doesn't say "Started" under status, highlight it and click the play button on the top. Or right click and select Start. See if that works.

Good luck!

By: utsutsu

utsutsu — Mon, 18 Sep 2006 13:31:02 -0800

For some quick fun, what about secretly installing the Bluescreen screensaver.

This will probably only fool him for 5.132456 seconds, but it might just be enough :)

By: mooreeasyvibe

mooreeasyvibe — Mon, 18 Sep 2006 13:35:25 -0800

its working - thanks for your help

i'm a bit simple and was typing the wrong ip address - 192.68.2.102 was actually 192.168.1.102.

imagine how silly i feel - just you try and imagine.

anyways - its all working and he's still not back...

i got some gary oldman wav files i am gonna start playing when he's retired to his bed for the evening.

the clip about it not being whiteboy day from true romance.

ace!

i love this computer thing - its amazing. and thanks again

By: malp

malp — Mon, 18 Sep 2006 13:43:19 -0800

I like chef_boyardee's suggestion.

Another idea is to take a screenshot of his desktop and set the screenshot as his background image. Then delete half the icons on the desktop. He'll wonder why half the icons on his desktop are nonresponsive.

By: tomble

tomble — Mon, 18 Sep 2006 15:12:19 -0800

No no, don't delete the icons, move them somewhere else. This is a prank, not malicious, recreating all the icons is time confusing and won't be mistaken for funny.

By: pdb

pdb — Mon, 18 Sep 2006 15:35:36 -0800

Have fun...and maybe try not to post IP addresses here, just from an anal-retentive security point of view....

By: AmbroseChapel

AmbroseChapel — Mon, 18 Sep 2006 15:50:31 -0800

Dude. An IP address that looks like 192.168.x.y is an IP on their internal network. I think he's safe.

By: jacobian

jacobian — Mon, 18 Sep 2006 15:50:40 -0800

[192.168.* IPs are reserved for internal (i.e. NAT) use, and thus can't really violate anyone's privacy.]

By: roomwithaview

roomwithaview — Mon, 18 Sep 2006 15:54:32 -0800

Not a remote solution, but you could add Auto-Correct entries in MS Word that replace common words like "the" and "is" with really random stuff.

By: shanevsevil

shanevsevil — Mon, 18 Sep 2006 17:15:55 -0800

Low tech personal favorite: print a funny/disturbing picture and put it back in their printer, half way down in the tray. Later on they'll find it under the text on page 3 of their report.

By: damn dirty ape

damn dirty ape — Mon, 18 Sep 2006 17:43:23 -0800

Add common mispellings to his Word dictionary. Its hilarious in the long run. Although he might kill you when he finds out everyone is rejecting his resume because it has "opprortunity" in it.

By: paulsc

paulsc — Mon, 18 Sep 2006 18:16:50 -0800

Not to be a kill joy, mooreeasyvibe, but for the sake of posterity that might find this thread later:

If you were my roomie, and installed stuff on my box, or did anything at all to it, and then expected me to think it was funny, I'd beat you like a rented mule, until you got the message, even if it took weeks and all the hide on you. If you're roomie gets freaked enough, you could be looking at more than the end of a friendship.

I hope for your sake, he's cool with boy-stupid, because this is so 12 years old.

By: kaseijin

kaseijin — Mon, 18 Sep 2006 19:55:13 -0800

Office Poltergeist will let you remotely access the other computer, make it laugh sinisterly, open and close the CD tray, and make the screen jiggle, blink, and shake.

It's hilarious. I used it on a flatmate to great effect.

By: flabdablet

flabdablet — Mon, 18 Sep 2006 22:37:08 -0800

paulsc: if you were my roomie, and I installed a prank on your box and you beat the crap out of me, I wouldn't ever help you password-protect anything ever again :-)

By: mooreeasyvibe

mooreeasyvibe — Tue, 19 Sep 2006 09:40:27 -0800

paulsc - its all good - we both are sooooo 12 years old as you like to put it. Once he wrote the c word in permanent marker on my forehead when we were 17. i didn't notice til i went home to my parent's house and my mother suggested i look in the mirror.

By: srboisvert

srboisvert — Fri, 18 May 2007 17:08:27 -0800

Another favorite for me is screenshotting his desktop, making it the wallpaper and then moving all the icons offscreen. If he's not too technically literate, it will take a few minutes to realize what has happened.

I like to go a bit further. I flip the screenshot so it is upside down. Hide the taskbar and set the pointer scheme to old fashioned. I've had IT pros come undone when they saw the old pointers combined with the 'flipped screen'.

By: Mcable

Mcable — Fri, 18 May 2007 19:15:54 -0800

"Another favorite for me is screenshotting his desktop"

Ha! I did this to a coworker once. I PhotoShopped it with hundreds of folders covering the desktop, some with rude names, then pasted a screenshot of his email program window with urgent emails from the company CEO. Best part is it does take a while to figure the problem out. I think we also replaced his system sounds with flatulence noises.

By: spacefire

spacefire — Mon, 21 May 2007 07:41:36 -0800

I found an animated .gif file that shows a progress bar the HDD fomatting, you could replace the shortcut to a program he uses regularly to open up that file with a viewer that supports animated gifs...

love the ctrl+alt+up/down thing, I didn't know about that.