appears that barrel roll does not work using ie9 on win 7 pro computer.
Must I install google chrome / firefox
thank you
Ten epic Windows 7 pranks you absolutely must try
by Stephen Chapman | November 21, 2011 11:49pm PST | Image 1 of 12
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Upside-down screen
This is hands-down one of the easiest, most mind-boggling pranks to pull on almost anyone. As such -- and because I'm going to reference it for a later prank or two on the list -- this is where we begin our journey. There are two ways you can make this happen:
Method 1: This is the fastest way to do this trick, but sadly, it doesn't work on all computers. All you do is press CTRL, ALT, and the down arrow. That's it! To reverse the effect, simply press CTRL, ALT, and the up arrow.
Method 2: Right-click on the desktop, select "Screen resolution," then, in the dropbox next to the "Orientation" label, select "Landscape (flipped)."
The result of this alone is usually enough to thoroughly confuse your victim, so give it a whirl soon and see what kind of reactions you get!
[Related Gallery: 20 of the coolest gadgets and must-haves for your office!]
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@TALKIN Ah, you're right! I guess Google checks the user agent of the browser and scoffs at Microsoft (go figure). It appears to work only with Chrome and Firefox. I will update the gallery to reflect this soon. Thanks for the feedback!
Update: It is due to a lack of support for WebGL in IE, which the barrel roll trick utilizes.
Update: It is due to a lack of support for WebGL in IE, which the barrel roll trick utilizes.
@StephenChapman I doubt that it is scoffing. It is probably using HTML, JavaScript, or CSS that IE doesn't support.
@grant I should have looked a bit deeper. Indeed, it appears to be a lack of support for WebGL in IE9 (or any other version prior to) which causes it not to work.
@StephenChapman I couldn't get it to work on a number of different distributions and with 3 different browsers. Apparently it's a windows0only phenomenon. =(
http://www.zdnet.com/tb/1-109286-2194125?
I have followed ZDTv & ZDNet for a looooong time and I still Love It, Awesome job & thanks for the laughs!
I have followed ZDTv & ZDNet for a looooong time and I still Love It, Awesome job & thanks for the laughs!
@zinfandale@... Hey, thanks! Always happy to hear from our long-time readers. Glad you enjoyed the gallery!
@smu122 Thanks for reading! Hopefully, you have a few new tricks up your sleeve now. The upside-down desktop really is so simple, yet incredibly effective. =)
Changing the background to the desktop is a fun one I used to do in Windows 3.1.
On the mouse tricks you forgot switching the mouse buttons
@bwillingham@... They changed how to do that in Windows 7, which is what step 11 in "mouse hijinks" now does!
omg....this is so fun to do to family members. I supervise a computer sale and service store. My family is always calling me freaking out about their computers. I do this to the ones that keep getting Malware to scare them. Still havent told them....it's a joke......LOL!!! So funny!!!
Add a new shortcut named something like "Advanced desktop 4.0", make it launch that shutdown command, give it an appropriate icon.
Take a scren shot and flip it 180 degrees. Now hide all shortcuts but the new one. Make that picture the wallpaper, and flip the desktop and hide the taskbar. Now it will look like an ordinary desktop except for that icon - move it on top "itself" on the wallpaper, change it's icon to a transparent one and give it a name consisting of spaces (no visible characters).
Clicking all other icons will now have no effect, but clicking that one will make the shutdown window appear - upside down!
Take a scren shot and flip it 180 degrees. Now hide all shortcuts but the new one. Make that picture the wallpaper, and flip the desktop and hide the taskbar. Now it will look like an ordinary desktop except for that icon - move it on top "itself" on the wallpaper, change it's icon to a transparent one and give it a name consisting of spaces (no visible characters).
Clicking all other icons will now have no effect, but clicking that one will make the shutdown window appear - upside down!
@Natanael_L See, now THAT'S what I'm talkin' about, hahaha. Excellent idea! Hope to see more people contribute their own, too. So many excellently evil combinations to choose from!
@StephenChapman Childish. Mr Chapman, that is the singularly most thoughtless post I've ever read from you, and you've pushed out some hairy bombs in your time.
Havent we had enough of LULZ that you think its clever to upset someone, prevent them from working and waste company time and resources undoing them?
I do love a wind-up, but if anyone touched my work they'd get punched in the testicles for their trouble at the very least. I'd expect the same from any co-worker as well. But perhaps here in the UK, we prefer our jokes to come from our leaders, I dont know...
Bad show, Mr Chapman. Are you so irresponsible you cant see the wave of misery and lost resources you just caused publishing this idiocy? Granted its all out there, but most people arent inventive enough to try it without being told.
How about 10 Mac pranks? 10 Linux ones? Oh, my mistake. People who value their computer and/or OS wouldnt touch it with a ****** stick.
Havent we had enough of LULZ that you think its clever to upset someone, prevent them from working and waste company time and resources undoing them?
I do love a wind-up, but if anyone touched my work they'd get punched in the testicles for their trouble at the very least. I'd expect the same from any co-worker as well. But perhaps here in the UK, we prefer our jokes to come from our leaders, I dont know...
Bad show, Mr Chapman. Are you so irresponsible you cant see the wave of misery and lost resources you just caused publishing this idiocy? Granted its all out there, but most people arent inventive enough to try it without being told.
How about 10 Mac pranks? 10 Linux ones? Oh, my mistake. People who value their computer and/or OS wouldnt touch it with a ****** stick.
@StephenChapman
Heh heh!
I'll bet sharing an office with you and Natanael_L is...interesting.
Yeah, interesting.
Seriously, thanks for the laughs!
Heh heh!
I'll bet sharing an office with you and Natanael_L is...interesting.
Yeah, interesting.
Seriously, thanks for the laughs!
As an IT person who ends up fixing crap like this, I'd have a hard time distinguishing between one of these "tricks" and a generally misfunctioning Windows machine. Fiddle for 15 minutes, then rebuild...
@gdstark13 Yeah, I see your point. But it's just plain cruel for someone to play one of these pranks on someone and let it escalate all the way to someone in your position before coming clean!
@gdstark13 I am also an IT person who has dealt with "crap" like this and it doesn't take me 15 minutes nor rebuild or re-image the machine. I start with making sure certain processes are running and know based on all these tricks what to look for depending on the problem. I see nothing wrong with a little fun, if it is so much trouble maybe you should take a refresher course on troubleshooting or a DST class.
@audidiablo
I bow to your superior IT expertise. I must admit...there's a lot about how MS works that I don't want to know about.
gary
I bow to your superior IT expertise. I must admit...there's a lot about how MS works that I don't want to know about.
gary
You know, I always wondered what happened to that kid down the street who used to cook ants with a magnifying glass. And here I thought he had joined Micro$oft as a UI designer.
I would use a remote control software and them mess with the victim's machine! That way you don't even have to be in the vicinity, you can be over in the next cubicle rolling on the floor, as the poor pleb gnashes his/her teeth and screams in bewilderment!
Most of these pre-date Windows 7; I've used some of them in all versions of Windows back to 3.1.
One of my favorites in the AutoCorrect feature in Word. Take a common word and then edit the AutoCorrect options to change it to something else. Classic. Even if they run Spell Checker, it won't catch it (unless you misspell something); they have to proof read it or pay attention to catch it.
One of my favorites in the AutoCorrect feature in Word. Take a common word and then edit the AutoCorrect options to change it to something else. Classic. Even if they run Spell Checker, it won't catch it (unless you misspell something); they have to proof read it or pay attention to catch it.
This stuff is really great, but I work for a state agency. User training is abysmal, and most of the management has little sense of humor. This is the kind of stuff that would get me fired pretty quickly. There are a few people in my agency who would get a kick out it, and I intend to use a few of the milder ones on them. However, I'm due to retire in about fifteen months; what's the chance of updating this article about 14 1/2 months from now? What a departure that would be!
@Murfski
Don't forget you can use this on computers outside of work!
Don't forget you can use this on computers outside of work!
Another prank with Google when using Chrome - Firefox or Safari is to search Tilt. This will tilt the page.
@JD_1
What exactly do you mean to search Tilt?
What exactly do you mean to search Tilt?
@audidiablo He means go to Google and search the term "Tilt". The page will look like it's, well, tilted.
We recently put End Point Protection in place, no one was happy to find the link to How To Be A Good Employee web site, so we changed it to the old fashioned 404 Go Cry to S***** (the admin), suprising how many do that when they can't get on facebook.
The next step was to take screen shots of prohibited sites log-in screens and GPO them out everyone as screen savers, gotta laugh at the disappointment.
The next step was to take screen shots of prohibited sites log-in screens and GPO them out everyone as screen savers, gotta laugh at the disappointment.
No work to do eh? And I guess you folks don't think your 'victims' have any work to do either. If there is any justice you will suffer a serious virus infection.
The Number one prank is telling the user it's the worlds most secure OS.
@Alan Smithie
Followed up by telling them that it is only your opinion
Followed up by telling them that it is only your opinion
@audidiablo
So you believe it is ? QED Jokes on you.
So you believe it is ? QED Jokes on you.
Did not see Mark Russinovich's Blue Screen Of Death screen saver...
Also note that, as fun as these are. They could lead to an RGE so use with caution.
Also note that, as fun as these are. They could lead to an RGE so use with caution.
For the desktop screen capture trick there are easier and more effective ways which are easier to reverse and take less steps. For the desktop fake out... make sure the taskbar is set to NOT autohide. Make sure mouse is off the screen and take the screen capture. Put it in paint as you explained... Set as desktop background. Next, right click on the desktop... In Windows XP Arrange Icons > View desktop icons is checked... Click it and it will be unchecked and all desktop icons are then hidden but not moved! In Vista or 7 right click desktop View > uncheck "Show desktop icons". Lastly, Windows XP > right click on the taskbar and click "Lock the taskbar" if it is checked otherwise continue to next step. Move the mouse cursor to the top edge of the taskbar, you should see the window size adjust up down arrows. Drag the tasbar down and it should stay down. When the user goes to the start button the taskbar doesn't come up at this point. For Vista/7 you can no longer do this but you can move the taskbar to say the top of the screen or any place you like with autohide on so when the user goes to the normal place of the taskbar nothing comes up. Only a knowledgeable Windows user will be smart enough to press the windows key. If you're really desperate to do this in windows 7/vista/xp you can open the taskmanager with CTRL+SHIFT+ESC and end task on explorer.exe. At that point there is no taskbar but just the desktop screen and no clicking or anything will bring up any taskbar. To have it all come back go back to the taskmanager and go File > New task... (Run) > type in "explorer" without the quotes and hit enter and everything should come back. This way will work on all Windows as well make it so you don't have to deal with hiding the taskbar at all. Sounds maybe a bit complex but I can have it done in less then a minute.
For the desktop screen capture trick there are easier and more effective ways which are easier to reverse and take less steps. For the desktop fake out... make sure the taskbar is set to NOT autohide. Make sure mouse is off the screen and take the screen capture. Put it in paint as you explained... Set as desktop background. Next, right click on the desktop... In Windows XP Arrange Icons > View desktop icons is checked... Click it and it will be unchecked and all desktop icons are then hidden but not moved! In Vista or 7 right click desktop View > uncheck "Show desktop icons". Lastly, Windows XP > right click on the taskbar and click "Lock the taskbar" if it is checked otherwise continue to next step. Move the mouse cursor to the top edge of the taskbar, you should see the window size adjust up down arrows. Drag the tasbar down and it should stay down. When the user goes to the start button the taskbar doesn't come up at this point. For Vista/7 you can no longer do this but you can move the taskbar to say the top of the screen or any place you like with autohide on so when the user goes to the normal place of the taskbar nothing comes up. Only a knowledgeable Windows user will be smart enough to press the windows key. If you're really desperate to do this in windows 7/vista/xp you can open the taskmanager with CTRL+SHIFT+ESC and end task on explorer.exe. At that point there is no taskbar but just the desktop screen and no clicking or anything will bring up any taskbar. To have it all come back go back to the taskmanager and go File > New task... (Run) > type in "explorer" without the quotes and hit enter and everything should come back. This way will work on all Windows as well make it so you don't have to deal with hiding the taskbar at all. Sounds maybe a bit complex but I can have it done in less then a minute.
@audidiablo
For the desktop screen capture trick there are easier and more effective ways which are easier to reverse and take less steps. For the desktop fake out... make sure the taskbar is set to NOT autohide. Make sure mouse is off the screen and take the screen capture. Put it in paint as you explained... Set as desktop background. Next, right click on the desktop... In Windows XP Arrange Icons } View desktop icons is checked... Click it and it will be unchecked and all desktop icons are then hidden but not moved! In Vista or 7 right click desktop View } uncheck "Show desktop icons". Lastly, Windows XP } right click on the taskbar and click "Lock the taskbar" if it is checked otherwise continue to next step. Move the mouse cursor to the top edge of the taskbar, you should see the window size adjust up down arrows. Drag the tasbar down and it should stay down. When the user goes to the start button the taskbar doesn't come up at this point. For Vista/7 you can no longer do this but you can move the taskbar to say the top of the screen or any place you like with autohide on so when the user goes to the normal place of the taskbar nothing comes up. Only a knowledgeable Windows user will be smart enough to press the windows key. If you're really desperate to do this in windows 7/vista/xp you can open the taskmanager with CTRL+SHIFT+ESC and end task on explorer.exe. At that point there is no taskbar but just the desktop screen and no clicking or anything will bring up any taskbar. To have it all come back go back to the taskmanager and go File } New task... (Run) } type in "explorer" without the quotes and hit enter and everything should come back. This way will work on all Windows as well make it so you don't have to deal with hiding the taskbar at all. Sounds maybe a bit complex but I can have it done in less then a minute.
For the desktop screen capture trick there are easier and more effective ways which are easier to reverse and take less steps. For the desktop fake out... make sure the taskbar is set to NOT autohide. Make sure mouse is off the screen and take the screen capture. Put it in paint as you explained... Set as desktop background. Next, right click on the desktop... In Windows XP Arrange Icons } View desktop icons is checked... Click it and it will be unchecked and all desktop icons are then hidden but not moved! In Vista or 7 right click desktop View } uncheck "Show desktop icons". Lastly, Windows XP } right click on the taskbar and click "Lock the taskbar" if it is checked otherwise continue to next step. Move the mouse cursor to the top edge of the taskbar, you should see the window size adjust up down arrows. Drag the tasbar down and it should stay down. When the user goes to the start button the taskbar doesn't come up at this point. For Vista/7 you can no longer do this but you can move the taskbar to say the top of the screen or any place you like with autohide on so when the user goes to the normal place of the taskbar nothing comes up. Only a knowledgeable Windows user will be smart enough to press the windows key. If you're really desperate to do this in windows 7/vista/xp you can open the taskmanager with CTRL+SHIFT+ESC and end task on explorer.exe. At that point there is no taskbar but just the desktop screen and no clicking or anything will bring up any taskbar. To have it all come back go back to the taskmanager and go File } New task... (Run) } type in "explorer" without the quotes and hit enter and everything should come back. This way will work on all Windows as well make it so you don't have to deal with hiding the taskbar at all. Sounds maybe a bit complex but I can have it done in less then a minute.
Evil guys....
Great thinking. I LOLed! Will try with some of my office colleagues.
Great thinking. I LOLed! Will try with some of my office colleagues.
Excellent! I've seen a few of these before, but do like the new ones. I look forward to 'work' tomorrow.
These are fun...but also costing retailers a ton of cash. I'm a full time student and work full time for a major electronics retailer. Kids, who have this information, constantly 'mess around' with our computers. It's frustrating when I'm going to demo a system for a customer and some little crap head has changed 2 or 3 settings
Some of these fall more in the area of 'dippery' but I got a laugh out of thinking about what I would think of if some of these things started happening to me. A practical joke would be at the bottom of the list.
Not as good as the BSOD*mizer shown at DEFCON - VGA intercepted with a microcontroller with IR receiver, so the pranker used a TV remote to replace the entire monitor image with a fake BSOD
Just walk up to the PC on the desktop, and press CTRL-A then ENTER
Do this especially with those that have LOTS of icons on their desktop.
Do this especially with those that have LOTS of icons on their desktop.
@Aussie_Troll
A better idea, is when you are asked how to fix a problem with someone computer, you tell them how to do it, and "to check it works"..
Click on the Desktop, press CTRL-A and press ENTER.
A better idea, is when you are asked how to fix a problem with someone computer, you tell them how to do it, and "to check it works"..
Click on the Desktop, press CTRL-A and press ENTER.
You're gonna get me fired...but I could probably be laughing all the way to the unemployment line!!!!
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