April Fool's - Prank List

 by webusertechnologies
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The history of April Fools Day or All Fools Day is uncertain, but the it is believed that it began around 1582 in France with the reform of the calendar under Charles IX. The Gregorian Calendar was introduced, and New Year's Day was moved from March 25 - April 1 (new year's week) to January 1.

Communication traveled slowly in and some people were only informed of the change years later. Still others, who were rebellious refused to acknowledge the change and continued to celebrate on the last day of the former celebration, April 1.

These people were labeled "fools" by the general population, they were subject to ridicule and sent on "fool errands," for example they were sent invitations to nonexistent parties and had other practical jokes played upon them. The pranks became known as "poisson d'avril" or "April fish".

This harassment evolved over time and a custom of prank-playing continue on the first day of April. This tradition eventually spread elsewhere like to Britain and Scotland in the 18th century and was introduced to the American colonies by the English and the French. Because of this spread to other countries, April Fools Day has taken on an international flavor with each country celebrating the holiday in its own way.

In England, jokes are played only in the morning. Fools are called 'gobs' or 'gobby' and the victim of a joke is called a 'noodle.' It was considered bad luck to play a practical joke on someone after noon.

So, no matter where you happen to be in the world on April 1, don't be surprised if April fools fall playfully upon you.

Here is a guide to pull pranks on your victims, don't be the one fooled fool them.
I have gathered a list of harmless pranks and April Fools jokes guaranteed to entertain and delight! The plotting and planning are half the fun. Watching the reaction is the icing on the cake. Then you better be ready,you know you'll have it coming next year!

 
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Step 1: Computer Practical Jokes

nec-apc.gif
Mouse Trap
Difficulty : Easy
Time: 1 -2 minutes

Take some tape and place it over the optical laser of the victim's mouse.
When the victim tries to use the mouse the cursor won't move.
You will see you victim confused as they will not know what happened.


Unplugged
Difficulty: Easy
Time: 10-20 seconds

Unplug the keyboard and/or mouse from the computer.


Network down
Difficulty: Easy
Time: 10-20 seconds

This is great for workplace and schools.
Unplug the network cable from the back of the computer.
Three things will happen
1. They will not be able to log onto the school/work network.
2. They will not be able to access the Internet.
3. They will not have access to their folders.
(Sometimes they will log in put as a temporary account)


What's Wrong With Word
Difficulty: Easy
Time: 2 - 3 minutes

This is a classic word prank. (Note - This only works on XP computers which have office 2003)
1. Open Microsoft word
2. Hold down [cntrl] + [N]
This will open up about 450 word documents.
This is funny because it takes them a while to close them all down.


What was that
Difficulty: Easy
Time: 10-20 seconds

This works great if the computer has external speakers.
1.Turn the volume all they way to the max.
2. (Optional) Turn the speakers on an angle, so the victim can't see them.


Blue screen of death
Difficulty: Easy
Time: 1 -2 minutes

One of the most feared colors in the NT world is blue. The infamous Blue Screen of Death (BSOD) will pop up on an NT system whenever something has gone terribly wrong.

You can download a screen saver which fools almost anyone. The Bluescreen is a screen saver that authentically mimics a BSOD, and will simulate startup screens seen during a system boot.

http://technet.Microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb897558.aspx
Use Bluescreen to amaze your friends and scare your enemies!


Computer Shutdown Prank
Difficulty: Medium
Time: 3 minutes

These sets of instructions have been going around the Internet for a while.
1. On the desktop right click, it will bring up a menu (as show in picture)
2. Click on new, then on shortcut
3. A window will open, now type shutdown -s -t10 (Note - You can change the last variable to any number, this is how many seconds before the computer shutsdown).
4. Save it, save it with a name which people will use. e.g.... Internet explorer or make up something which will draw attention e.g.. Pro racing game 1.2
5. Right click on the shortcut , then click on properties, click on the shortcut tab and then click change icon. Find an icon which represents the saved shortcut name.


Remote windows shutdown
Difficulty: Hard
Time: 7 minutes

This works on networks. This can get you in trouble if you get caught.
1. Open command prompt (cmd)
or
1. If your computer doesn't have command prompt (cmd) the open note pad.
2. In notepad type in command.com
3. Save this as command.cmd
4. Save type as all files.
5. Open command.cmd

Now with command prompt open type the following
1. netuser (This will bring up the computer's name e.g... \\ws121)
2. Write down the computer name in Microsoft word. (Include the "\")
3. Write all possible computer names (e.g.. from \\ws121 to \\ws150)
4. Copy all of the possible computer names.
5. In command prompt type "shutdown -I" (Without quotation marks)
6. Add computers by pressing [cntrl] +[v]
7. Change the time to 60 seconds
8. Warn the users, and type a message (e.g.. April fools)
9. Click OK
You will have 60 seconds to walk around. Walk around so you can see who's computer you shut down


Windows doesn't work
Difficulty: Hard
Time: 5 minutes

1. Press and hold [shift] + [PrtScn]
2. Open Microsoft powerpoint
3. Press [cntrl] +[v], this will paste a screen shot.
4. Resize the image to fit in the box.
5. Select the slide and press [cnrtl] +[c]
6. Hold [cntrl] + [v] (This will copy and paste the slide many times)
7. When you have reached 200 - 500 stop and press F5.
This will produce a slide show of the screen. Some people are so silly the will not know what is wrong.
(Note - This doesn't work well with computer that have widescreen monitor's)

mrbubbles9868 says: Oct 5, 2012. 2:45 PM
these are all great!!!!
Nstromental says: Jun 30, 2011. 8:02 PM
my fav to do is to make a folder named "porn" on the desktop - take a screenshot - delete the folder and then set the screenshot as the desktop background. a folder you can't do anything with
rlnbkseeberger says: Mar 28, 2011. 8:14 PM
for the Microsoft, a better one is if you take a screen shot, then set it as a background (this is best using word) then hide all the icons, this will make the icons not work.
roboman01 says: Mar 27, 2009. 8:25 PM
I love the powerpoint idea... time to try it on my tech. teacher!
webusertechnologies (author) in reply to roboman01Mar 28, 2009. 10:37 PM
If you try it make sure that they dont push the escape key.
aarrnnoo in reply to webusertechnologiesMar 27, 2011. 8:35 AM
as long as they don't try to klick the start button, when you go to there the optoins for your powerpoint will be there
nick4508 in reply to webusertechnologiesNov 20, 2010. 5:36 PM
if you do the power point one to trick someone use a change key prank so then esc wont work!
aarrnnoo in reply to nick4508Mar 27, 2011. 8:31 AM
but how can you exit it then? you will have to make sure another key will work as esc, or is there another way to escape it?
geodez says: Jun 12, 2010. 7:12 PM
BLUE!
ilpug says: Apr 11, 2010. 11:24 AM
my school uses emac computer, with a different pass-word locked personal profile for every student... any ideas of pranks that i could play that would carry over into otehr people's profiles, not just mine???
someone already changed my profile backgroung to a naked gay guy one time when i had to leave the room and left my profile on... that was hella funny but im still getting crap about it.
adamw ROX OUT LOUD says: Mar 23, 2010. 1:27 PM
Dude, that "don't cry over spilled liquid" one - that is the best prank I have ever heard!!!!!
craftyrn1959 says: Mar 13, 2010. 11:58 PM
I am a nurse and we once told a Dr. several times that a Mrs. Bear called was very angry about her husbands care, and wanted the Dr. to call her. He  called his office to see what patients with the name bear he had seen.
He kept trying the number we gave him, couldnt get through, we kept telling him she called back very upset and angry. When he finally got through he said this is Dr____ is Mrs. Bear there? He repeated I am Dr. ____ and I received a message from her about her husband.......after multiple attempts at trying to speak to Mrs. Bear he finally hung up. We asked what did they say. HE SAID WELL I THINK THEY SAID IT WAS THE ST LOUIS ZOO. lol he still didnt get it we had to tell him.
i_need_fire says: Feb 20, 2010. 3:32 PM
another good prank is to take a container without the lid and fill it with water then tell some1 that you know a magic trick and you would like to show them then get a broomstick and hold the container to the ceiling and get them to hold it there by pushing the broomstick tight to the container and walk away
Johnnyp161 says: Feb 18, 2010. 2:37 PM
 You could also press control + alt + printscreen at the same time and then press enter, your PC's desktop is going to look very weird!
press control + alt + printscreen again and it will be normal again.
sometimes it wont just restart your pc and its normal again!
grundisimo says: Apr 25, 2009. 5:57 AM
It was funny my friend Jeremy when we went into the computer lab clicked on all of the microsoft products (word, powerpoint, excel, etc.) and changed 2008 to 2009 and the next person to get that computer (8th period) freaked out and had the teacher come over. She started yelling at him for "downloading" them.
Ian01 in reply to grundisimoFeb 15, 2010. 8:37 PM
Never mind that there's no such thing as Office 2009…
red-king in reply to grundisimoSep 30, 2009. 6:23 PM
sometimes teachers aren't exactly the smartest people....
account3r2 in reply to red-kingApr 5, 2010. 5:02 PM
Yeah...
Shadow13! says: Feb 6, 2010. 8:06 PM
Here is an advanced version of the windows shutdown prank. Use the print screen or other screen capture to get a picture of the persons desktop. turn this picture into the background and hide all of the persons shortcuts. Then make the shut down program and make it look like one of the missing shortcuts (especially their internet browser). when the try to use the shortcut nothing will happen until they try your shutdown shortcut.
jonathonbryce says: Jan 31, 2010. 2:54 PM
 When it comes to the cup prank, I always buy dixie brand cups...the kind you get for bathrooms.  I fill them half up with water and staple them all together making one big "sheet" of water cups that is not movable.

AlternateLives says: Jun 22, 2009. 12:38 PM
"Windows Doesn't Work" made me laugh! I'll have to try it!
littleebay says: May 13, 2009. 1:10 PM
to make the 'whats wrong with word ' prank worse right click and press cascade i did this and it took 45 mins to shut them all down
grundisimo says: Apr 25, 2009. 5:49 AM
You should try a couple of thousand slides.P.S. they could just press escape.
geodez says: Apr 10, 2009. 8:42 AM
fill them with KOOL AID sticky sticky sticky
webusertechnologies (author) says: Apr 1, 2009. 1:58 AM
Google has celebrated in the April fools spirit. I am not sure if I am the 1st to notify this but when I was looking at google street view all of a sudden the image changed to a panda bear.
google april fools.jpg
jaycraw says: Mar 29, 2009. 12:13 AM
and i can fix the real blue screen of death , i made disks
jaycraw says: Mar 29, 2009. 12:06 AM
what's wrong with word also works on microsoft word processor
durbusestrada says: Mar 27, 2009. 6:57 PM
did you seriously put down all those cups and water.... thats hilarious but it must have taken forever
webusertechnologies (author) in reply to durbusestradaMar 28, 2009. 5:35 PM
I didn't put all the cups down myself. Many hands made light work. Most of them were full of water, a few were not full
AznPanda says: Mar 25, 2009. 6:08 PM
Lol... i have to try a few of these... XD
lemonie says: Mar 23, 2009. 1:29 PM
The point of the contest is to "Show us how you do your own prank and you could win some cool prizes!" Not to trawl the internet for existing ones and compile a list... L
webusertechnologies (author) in reply to lemonieMar 24, 2009. 11:03 PM
Thanks for your interest. These are all the pranks i pulled last year, i will also pull them again this year. I will add some photos of the results.
lemonie in reply to webusertechnologiesMar 25, 2009. 12:44 AM
Man, you 'were' busy! You'd still be better off showing how to do one of the better ones.

L
FuzzyBearGeek says: Mar 24, 2009. 1:06 PM
PMlemonie says: (removed by author or community request) I see that more and more. It's sad that the world produces such lemons. Thanks for the fun list!
amakerguy says: Mar 23, 2009. 3:20 PM
I did the laser mouse one to my dad (he works in I.T.) and he thought he lost his mouse and started troubleshooting and almost restarted his laptop!! LOL
amakerguy says: Mar 23, 2009. 12:30 PM
these are great!
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