#computer prank tutorial

I wrote these "how to's" for these awesome computer pranks I found online. So I'm just gonna post these now. 

I wrote them a while ago. I'm not re-reading them and checking for spelling/grammar mistakes. Mostly because I don't feel like it. I probably sound annoying in them. I was like 15 or something like that. Hahaha. 

Either way these pranks are really easy and very funny. So. Yeah. Have fun. Here we go...

So. I've tried these pranks before. They're pretty funny and really easy to pull off. You really don't need to know anything about computers to be able to do this. I recommend doing it to someone who isn't all that good with computers. It will be harder for them to fix because they won't know whats going on. I did it on the family desktop (which pretty much only Grandma uses) and her and my aunt freaked out. Bonus points if you record their reaction! 

PRANK #1 Infinite Boot Loop I was really young when I first did this one. I was like 12. So if something in here seems wrong I'd double check it. I'm much to lazy for that. I am pretty sure its all correct though. This prank is probably the hardest out of the three. And the meanest. So I'd think hard before doing this one. My aunt screamed at me and I was grounded for a month. She ended up restarting the computer more than halfway through a super important college paper. Haha.  Step One: Go to your desktop.  Right click.  Select New.  Select shortcut.  Step Two:  Now you have two choices. In the box you can type shutdown -s -t 10 -c "Your Message Here" OR shutdown -r -t 10 -c "Your Message Here"  The first option will simply restart your computer. It could still be funny if they were typing a 1,000 page paper and were on page 999 and their computer suddenly restarts. If you want their computer to restart over and over and over and over again go with the second one.  Next drag the shortcut into your startup folder.  (Start > All programs > Startup)  So thats it. Your boot loop is finished. Now the only way this will restart your computer is if the person clicks on it.  May I recommended setting it as the Internet Explorer icon? I'll write how to change the icon of a short cut at the end for those of you who don't know how.  To get rid of this just start up your computer in Safe Mode and than delete the file. Than restart your computer normally. To get to safe mode just use the F8 or F12 key when its starting up. 

PRANK #2 Error Message  First open up notepad. Than type in: x=msgbox("your text here",20,"your title here")  Replace "your text here" with whatever you want your error message to be. (Leave the quotation marks.) Replace "your title here" with the title of your error message.  For Example: x=msgbox("You suck",20,"Error!") Changing the number will give you a different type of error message. I've only tried the numbers 20 and 16. Using 20 will give you the option to click yes or no. Using 16 only gives you the option to click ok. Either way the error message will close down.  Now this is really important. When you save it make sure you save it as whateveryouwanttocallit.vbs MAKE SURE YOU END IT IN .vbs !!!!!!! I usually save it to the desktop. When I did this prank I also set this as the Internet Explorer icon.  You can't change the icon of this file specifically. So what you need to do is right click on it and select "create shortcut" and rename it whatever you want. (If your doing the IE version of this like I did than you are obviously going to need to name it Internet Explorer. Make sure you remove the real Internet Explorer off your desktop first.) Than you can change the icon of the shortcut. Again, I'll explain that later on.  If you want to remove this just delete the original notepad document and if you made a shortcut than remove that too. 

PRANK #3 Make it seem like your desktop icons don't work!  This one is really easy. If you thought the first two were easy than you'll be able to do this with your eyes closed. It is still pretty funny though.  First go to your desktop. Make sure you don't have anything open. You want a nice clear view of your desktop.  Click on Print Screen on your keyboard. It should be somewhere on the right.  Now open up Paint. Right click on and hit paste.  Don't forget to crop out the start bar.  Save it as some random name that you won't forget and also save it somewhere that you'll remember too.  Now. Go to your desktop.  Right click.  Click on "Arrange Icon By" Make sure "Show Desktop Icons" is NOT checked.  Your icons are going to disappear. Don't worry. All you have to do to show them again is go to "Arrange Icons By" again and make sure you check them back on.  Now set your desktop background as the picture you took of your desktop with all the icons.  Pretty sneaky, huh? 

And as promised... To change the icon of a shortcut:  -Right click on the shortcut -Select "Properties"  -Make sure "Shortcut" on the top is selected  -Click on "Change Icon" -Select the icon you want  -Click Ok  -Click Apply  -Click Ok again