Funny Computer Pranks to Drive Your Colleagues or Friends Crazy

For all you 'experts' in computers, it should be a piece of cake to pull off a computer prank on people around you. Pranks are a good way to induce some humor in dull, mundane activities and to break the ice with new people around you. One thing you need to keep in mind is not to cause any damage to the target's system. Know your limits and play it cool!

A simple, but really funny computer prank is, changing the mouse properties in your friend's system. Firstly, you need to select the mouse option from the control panel. After that,select the 'switch primary and secondary buttons' option, to swap the functionality of these buttons.

So, now when your friend presses the left button on the mouse, it will do the work of a right button. Your friend is sure to appear and stay confused for a long time, as he would have no clue about this weird behavior of the mouse!

Another funny trick with the mouse itself, is by slowing down the mouse cursor or pointer. Again, you will have to select the 'mouse' in the control panel. Adjust the pointer speed settings to make it as slow as possible. Leave it for your friend to come and start navigating his mouse.

He will be confused and irritated at the same time, when it will take him about 10 to 15 seconds just to move his mouse across the screen. If your friend is not very computer-savvy, it will take him ages to find out the reason for the sluggish pace of his mouse pointer. In the meanwhile, you can surely steal a few laughs!

This prank will take a little more effort, but is the funniest of all. You should know how to take a screenshot to execute it properly. While your friend is not around, simply take a snapshot of the desktop as it is, by pressing the 'Prtscn' button.

Ensure that you hide the mouse cursor somewhere outside the frame, preferably in one of the bottom corners. Paste the screenshot in Microsoft Paint. Now on the desktop, hide all icons and keep the taskbar on 'autohide'.

Simply set the screenshot you have saved as the desktop background. The stage is set, and your friend is sure to be at his wit's end when he is unable to do anything on his desktop, even though everything appears normal.

This is a unique prank. You will require a USB mouse and a co-worker in the adjacent cubicle to pull this one off. The moment your co-worker steps out of his workstation, simply plug a USB mouse in his CPU and take the wire back to your desk. Now, the mouse and subsequently, the force is with you.

As soon as he comes back to his desk and starts working on his machine, start moving the mouse connected to his CPU. He would have no idea of what is going on, and you can pick up some cheap laughs sitting right next to him. The fun is doubled when you move the mouse at the same time he is operating his.

A lot of times, office work requires typing and this gives you a great opportunity to play a trick by changing certain settings in Microsoft Word. Apart from the usual default font changing, what you can do is customize certain 'autocorrect' options.

Replace commonly used words with funny ones like 'and' with 'boo-boo' or 'the' with 'pops', and watch the fun. Pray that your co-worker goes through the document before submitting or presenting to someone, because if he doesn't, he is surely in for a lot of trouble and humiliation!

Another one is to simply turn down the contrast of the screen to the minimum and adjust brightness to the maximum. This will make the screen appear blank.

This should definitely drive the user mad, as he would not know what is wrong with his system. Checking for contrast and brightness settings is the last option he would think of, and instead call for someone to repair the monitor.

One should know where to draw the line when it comes to playing pranks. At times, you may go overboard with it and you may unintentionally hurt the other person. Always, play them on people whom you know well or the ones who have a sense of humor and don't mind a few practical jokes now and then.