Livening Up the Cubicle Farm: An Office Prank How-to

#362: The Frozen Screen Office Pranks to liven up the cubicle farm Looking for a safe-yet-hilarious prank to pull on your unsuspecting coworker? Imagine this: your target shows up at his desk after a 15-minute break. Everything looks normal. He begins to click an icon to bring up a program. It does nothing. Perplexed, he shifts his focus to the Start Menu. It won't start. Believing his computer is frozen, he restarts it. Everything is the same. Just as he furiously reaches for the phone to call tech support, you let out a devious chuckle - score one point for the prankster. How to do it: E Note: this tutorial is written for Windows os. Stop #1 "Ready, Aim, Screenshot" Take a screenshot of your target's computer by pressing the "Print Screen" or "Pr Sc" button on the keyboard. Open Microsoft Paint, and paste (ctrl+V) the screenshot. Save the image somewhere other than the desktop - and remember where you saved it! Now, let's make that screenshot the new background image. dass #2 View Sort by Refresh Paste Right click on the desktop Paste shortcut and select Personalize... Undo Delete Ctrl-Z a NVIDIA Control Panel 3 Shared Folder Synchronization New ...which will bring up this menu. A Screen resolution 2 Gadgets A Personalize Cerel Pne ACol Panehem Pesenaien Change the visuals and sounds on your computer cka theme te changethe detop backgound window colos ound nd soeen seltonce Setheme de tene ine Winds? Ahtetue Chate Landap Scen tendHh Cent ham Cick Desktop Backround Hgh Centt e Windes Delet CNUsersPublicPublic PicturesSample Pictures ( Save chang Cancel Find and select your image, ensuring it's the only one selected (we don't want a slideshow). At the bottom of the window, under "Picture position", choose "Fill". Save your changes and the new background will appear. Stop Naturally, we have to get rid of the real icons. #3 [This one's simple.] Right-click on the desktop and, under "View," click "Show desktop icons" to deselect it. the icons Watch disappear, leaving only your screenshot background. Pretty convincing, right? View Large icons Sort by Medium icons Refresh Small icons Paste Auto arrange icons Paste shortcut Align icons to grid V Show desktop icons v Show desktop gadgets O NVIDIA Control Panel 8 Shared Folder Synchronization New A Screen resolution E Gadgets A Personalize Stop Make that Start Menu stop...starting. #4 Our final goal is to keep your associate from being able to click the Start button. Since we can't make it disappear, we'll move it somewhere unexpected and auto-hide it. First, drag the bottom taskbar to the top of the screen. [If it doesn't go willingly, you may have to right-click it and uncheck the "Lock the taskbar" setting.] Taskbar and Start Menu Properties Taskbar Start Menu Toobars Taskbar acpearance OLock the taskbar Auto-hide the badibar Then, right-click the Taskbar location on screen Always combine, hide labels bar and choose Taskbar buttons: Notfication area Ostveize which icons and nooficatons appear in the ouatomize.. nobification area Properties. In the new window, check "Auto-hide Preview desktop with Aero Peek Temporarly view the desktop when you move your mouse to the Show desktop button at end of the taskbar. the taskbar". Use Aero Peek to preview the desktop How do toustomize the tadtar? Apply The victim can click away, but nothing will happen! Only you will know why. Now, simply find a comfortable place to watch and enjoy. [ And laugh a little evil laugh. ] This humorgraphic brought to you by EQA Office Furniture. [www.eqaofficefurniture.com] EQA Final Result ||||| TT||||