Computer Prank

This will make the untrained computer user think there's something wrong with their computer. It only works on windows. it will make the computer almost unuseable untill you turn it back on. I suggest making them get you a soda first.

Step 1 Task manager

They must first leave their computer or you can ask if you can use it really fast. Once you have it click Control+Alt+Delete. this will get you to the task manager. On vista you must click after this "start task manager."

Comments

[dwisniewski2]

Yeah, this is a little boring. And it's not so much a prank as it is a shutting down of someone's interface. And the first thing most people will do is a forced reest.
Wanna really screw with someone? Take a screenshot (PrtScr) of their desktop with the tasbar visible and everything. Now right click on the background and hide the desktop icons. Now drag the taskbar to the top of the screen and ato hide it. Now change the background picture to be the screenshot you took. Now it looks like they have their icons and taskbar, but they won't be able to get a response from anything there, because it is in fact just a picture. Just about as quick, and won't be fixed by a forced reset. It's a good time.
Wanna be reeeeally evil? Do all of the above, but make sure there is a porn window open when you take the screenshot.

[MrLouque]

To make this trick better you can first take a screen shot of their desktop, then set that picture as their background image. This will give them a picture of a start bar making it seem more like the start bar wont work. Also if you then take away the icons by the way of the previous comments, or however you like, there will be false icons too.

[allenmt]

www.instructables.com/id/April-FoolsMake-a-person-think-that-there-compute/ 

[Musicman41]

I had a virus on my computer that did this among other things. It was creepy

[Wesley666]

I got a virus that kept popping open the same window once every second! I had to get it off really quick cause my computer was slowing down A LOT especially cause they wouldn't close.

[NetDex]

Adware.

[Wesley666]

Damn Walmart! I hate their ads!

[Bholoo]

I know one! This will make all the icons disappear off the desktop. XP: >Right click in an open space on the desktop > Go to the submenu "Arrange Icons By" and then uncheck "Show Desktop Icons" VISTA >Right click in an open space on the desktop >Go to "View" and then uncheck Show desktop Icons

[shikaku]

I'm getting a little tired of every 12 year old who learns a new "cool computer trick" posting it on here. Make sure it's useful to someone before posting. My Google Reader gets spammed with this crap

[tanmanknex]

hey, you dont like it, turn off mailing in preferences. this is useful to someone, the author. his computer wouldn't start explorer.exe.

[shikaku]

way to not read it. cuz you cant just do that with rss feeds. way to try to act cool and fail

[tanmanknex]

P.S. That made absolutely no sense at all.

[shikaku]

made plenty of sense. you jsut clearly dont know what rss feeds are

[tanmanknex]

Whatever. You're still acting like a jerk.

[tanmanknex]

I believe there was a nice policy, at least there was.

[tanmanknex]

You know, this may be a pointless instructable, but if he thinks it's kind of cool, I think it's kind of cool, and some other people think it's kind of cool, then it's a good enough instructable for me. So what if it's simple? It's still good. shikaku, maybe he's sick of his inbox getting spammed, but with negative comments! Give him a break!

[xACIDITYx]

Actually, every time I've tried this (on both Vista and windows XP) the Explorer.exe process always restarts itself.

[danilo-dude]

Ya, mine too

[andrewdpham3]

really? you have a smart computer. iv never seen that before. iv also tried it on both operating systems just like you and it worded fine for me

[xACIDITYx]

Actually, via further examination, it sometimes stays closed, and sometimes opens back up. Usually, it opens back up if I have an app open with a window (like firefox) and not if I have an app open without one (in this case, PiMP streamer)

[andrewdpham3]

cool your smart

[jetsmiley123]

that sounds funny! I'm just afraid to peminetly screw my computer up, lol

[andrewdpham3]

thx my self esteem is getting lowered by everyone elses comments

[Rmg12]

you won't. Explorer.exe is the fle manager in Windows, this includes the taskbar and icons, so when you end that program, it will seem like nothing will work, but it will because it automatically runs when you restart your computer, or you can restart the program by running explorer.exe

[Mister nobodie]

Oh please. This is barely even a computer trick. It's incredibly old (you probably copied it from somewhere else) and really simple.

[andrewdpham3]

its always fun for me and i din copy it my old computer broke down or at least i thought it did i found out at start up explorer.exe dint start and i later made it into this