April Fool's Day Contest: a Simple Computer Prank That Will Shut Down the Computer
Intro: April Fool's Day Contest: a Simple Computer Prank That Will Shut Down the Computer
A computer prank that will shut down the intended computer in a set amount of time and display a message of your choice! Perfect to play on the curious-minded.
Warning: Make sure that there aren't any important downloads or documents running at the time of activation. If there are, tell the victim how to cancel it (explained at the end of the instructable).
NOTE: Will only work with Vista.
NOTENOTE: I will NEVER clean up my desktop! :D
Warning: Make sure that there aren't any important downloads or documents running at the time of activation. If there are, tell the victim how to cancel it (explained at the end of the instructable).
NOTE: Will only work with Vista.
NOTENOTE: I will NEVER clean up my desktop! :D
STEP 1: Prank Settings
Right click on the desktop, select 'New' and click create shortcut.
In the window that pops up, type in:
shutdown.exe -s -t 120 -c "Your computer has committed suicide, have a nice day."
The number behind the -c is the time in seconds that the computer will shut down in, you can put in any amount here. If there isn't anything important going on, select a short time such as 5 seconds or so. If there IS something important, set it to a longer time such as 120 seconds or more so that you have time to deactivate it.
In between the quotation marks, write a message such as 'WARNING: VIRUS DETECTED: BEGIN SHUTDOWN IN 60 SECONDS'.
In the window that pops up, type in:
shutdown.exe -s -t 120 -c "Your computer has committed suicide, have a nice day."
The number behind the -c is the time in seconds that the computer will shut down in, you can put in any amount here. If there isn't anything important going on, select a short time such as 5 seconds or so. If there IS something important, set it to a longer time such as 120 seconds or more so that you have time to deactivate it.
In between the quotation marks, write a message such as 'WARNING: VIRUS DETECTED: BEGIN SHUTDOWN IN 60 SECONDS'.
STEP 2: Naming the Shortcut
In the window, enter the name for your prank shortcut. Remember that if you change your mind, you can always change it when it's on the desktop.
STEP 3: Activating It
The icon will appear on the desktop. To activate it, simply double-click. The message will pop up and in the amount of time you set after that, the computer will automatically shut down.
STEP 4: Deactivating
If you need to deactivate the script, go to 'Run' and type in shutdown -a.
77 Comments
DylanT58 5 years ago
Is there an alternate way for Windows XP?
ajacinto2 11 years ago
ajacinto2 11 years ago
wolf996 11 years ago
mevans16 12 years ago
mevans16 12 years ago
officialsushi 12 years ago
Good luck!
P.S. This isn't an April Fools prank. No, really xP
Capt. Fat 12 years ago
ididabarrelroll 12 years ago
Attamet 13 years ago
evandereems 12 years ago
Ex. -c "hello world"
SimoMies 12 years ago
kbidne 12 years ago
jwayne89 12 years ago
Jamez Britton 12 years ago
i've set this up on my friend's computer and my sister's laptop.
Can't wait for the chaos to begin!!
halojerm 13 years ago
Green Silver 13 years ago
Spike002 16 years ago
Cartuner55 15 years ago
Spike002 15 years ago
you know how to make a batch file though?
you just go into notepad and enter this,
@echo off
shutdown /s /t 60 /c "Computer must restart for virus to take effect."
pause
shutdown /a
then when you go to save it, name it whatever you want, BUT at the end add .bat
and when it asks for save file type, go to All Files instead of Text Document
So you just name the file something you think they'll click on.
OH AND
THIS WORKS FOR VISTA AND XP.