Windows Tools, Help & Guides

Are you bored and do you want to play pranks on your friends? Get a few minutes with their PC and have some fun while you watch them try to figure out what’s going on. UPDATE: I thought I would bring this up again for April Fools. Do you have any to add to the list?

Lets change the autocorrect.

This guide is written for Office 2007; however, this will work in earlier versions of word – the procedure will just be a little different.

1. Open Microsoft Word, click the Office Icon, and select Word Options

2. Click on AutoCorrect Options

3. Put in a word you would like to replace automatically as the person types

A good one would be their name, but you may choose any word you want. In the example below, the name “charlie” will be replaced with “wierdo”. Have fun!!

Dummy Icons on the Desktop

1. Go to the desktop and then press the Print Screen button (this will take a screenshot of screen)
2. Open Paint and paste in the screenshot (CTRL+V)
3. Save the image (in My Documents works best.)
4. Right click on the file and choose Set as Wallpaper.
5. Go to the desktop and delete a couple of icons that are not too important (you can always put them back later.)

You’ll notice the icon looks like it’s still there after deleting it; however, when you try to click the icon, it no longer works!

Left Click… No the Other Left Click

This will show you how to play a fun prank in Vista; doing this in other versions of Windows is almost identical. This guide will show you how to switch the left and right mouse buttons.

1. Press the Start button and click Control Panel

2. Under Hardware and Sound, click on Mouse

3. A screen similar to the one below will show. Find the Buttons tab, and find the Left Button and Right Button options and switch the roles of each.

4. Press OK.

5. Close the Control Panel to make the computer look like it did before.

Keyboard not present. Press F1 to continue.

If your friend is using a desktop computer, this trick will probably work.

First, take a look at the back of their computer and look for a green plug and a purple plug.

These are PS/2 plugs and link back to the mouse and keyboard. If you don’t see these, this prank will not work.

1. Turn off your friends computer
2. Switch the green and purple plug

Next time the person boots their computer, it will show an error message telling him that no keyboard is present. They will likely look at the back, see that it’s plugged in, unplug the cord and plug it back in, and the keyboard still wont work.

Hate the Annoying Paperclip?

This works with Vista and XP (thanks for testing Zapper)

1. Download this file

2. Run it, and Clippy will sit silently for a minute, then randomly appear and say useless things

3. You can change the messages that Clippy gives

4. To close Clippy, simply point your mouse to the top left corner of your screen

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