So, you want to get one over on your friend do you? With these simple yet effective computer shortcuts, you can easily fool your friend and cause them hours of frustration and Googling. But you would tell them after 5 minutes of rage how to fix their PCs wouldn’t you?
We have all been there. One of your friends has brought you to boiling point and you want to get your own back. You will be pleased to know that with just a few simple keyboard shortcuts you can make it look like their PC is broken and the funny part is you know what’s wrong. I suppose these following pranks would work in the office place on your co-worker’s computers. Just know it’s your own fault if you get fired, so it’s best to do them during lunch break just to scare them and fix them just before lunch is over…
10 – Turn the Number Pad into a Mouse
How it’s done: Press Left Alt + Left Shift + “Num Lock simultaneously
How to fix it: Press Left Alt + Left Shift + “Num Lock simultaneously
Mouse Keys is intended for using your numeric number pad on your keyboard as a mouse, but it can be used as an evil prank it two ways: Firstly, if your friend uses the keypad to type numbers it will appear not to work, and secondly, you could sneakily press the buttons and you will be able to move your friend’s mouse cursor so they will think their mouse is playing up.
9 – Make A Magnifying Glass Appear
How it’s done: Press Windows Key + “+”
How to fix it: Close the magnifying glass pop-up menu.
After you press Windows Key + “+” a magnifying glass pop-up will appear. You need to drag this to the very bottom of the screen so it’s completely out of view (this is so your friend can’t close the programme). Once your friend hovers over something it will magnify in the top portion of the screen. It can be extremely annoying if you cannot close it.
8 – Making the PC Screen Appear Upside Down
How it’s done: Hold Ctrl + Alt + Down Arrow Key (Left, Right or Up work also)
How to fix it: Hold Ctrl + Alt + Up Arrow Key
This simple trick takes seconds to implement and usually takes hours to figure out if you don’t know how to fix it. I know from experience that once turned on our PC to find our desktop had flipped; I had to Google upside down to try and fix the issue – which I finally did.
7 – Creating a Sneaky Shutdown Shortcut
How it’s done: type “shutdown.exe -s” into a Shortcut’s Target.
How to fix it: Either change the Target URL back or delete the shortcut.
Pick a shortcut key you know your friend uses such iTunes or Google Chrome, right-click it, select “Properties”, change the “Target” and press “Save”. Now every time your friend presses this button they will get a warning saying their PC will shutdown in 1 minute…and poof it does. Also, try using “shutdown.exe -r” to make the computer reboot instead
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6 – Computer Beeps With Certain Keys
How it’s done: Hold down the “Num Lock” key for 5 seconds. Press “Yes” when Toggle box appears.
How to fix it: Hold down the “Num Lock” key for 5 seconds. Press “Yes” when Toggle box appears.
Your friend will go insane every time they press the Caps Lock, Num Lock or Scroll Lock as their computer will beep; it will be like playing a game of the retro game Pong. If you are wondering…the “Num Lock” key is located on the right-hand side of the keyboard.
5 – Desktop Items That are not There
Ok, this evil PC prank isn’t really a shortcut per se but it does include shortcut keys
This one will take a while to set up but it’s totally worth it. Go to your friend’s PC and go to the desktop (make sure no programs are open). Now press the “Print Scrn” button to take a screen shot of the desktop. Now open Microsoft Paint and press Ctrl + V. Save the Paint document somewhere on the PC that isn’t too obvious. Next, right-click on your friend’s desktop and select “Personalise”, select “Desktop Background”, click “Browse” and navigate to your screen shot and press “OK” to set it as your background. Finally, drag some of the desktop items and place them elsewhere else on the PC. Your friend will think they are still on the Desktop due to the background image and they won’t suspect it’s an image due to other icons working.
4 – Moving the Task Bar Around
How it’s done: Right-click hold and drag
How to fix it: Right-click hold and drag it back
I don’t know about you but it stresses me out if the taskbar isn’t located at the bottom of the screen, and the chances are it will annoy others too. Simply right-click over the taskbar, (uncheck “Lock the taskbar” if it is ticked). Next, click and hold on the taskbar and drag it to whichever side of the PC you wish to assign it to. Finally, right-click and check “Lock the taskbar”.
3 – Change Everything to Capital Letters
How it’s done: In a Word document press Ctrl + A to highlight everything (or just highlight the text you want manually), then press Shift + F3
How to fix it: Do the same above and it will cycle through: Caps, no caps and mixed.
This is the perfect evil prank to pull at work if you use Word documents on a daily basis. If you know your friend is nipping to the toilet, use the keys stated above to make all their work turn into capitals. If they don’t know how to fix it they will stress out thinking they will have to rewrite everything.
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2 – Breaking the Keyboard
How it’s done: Hold the right Shift key for 8 seconds (the key that looks like an arrow)
How to fix it: Hold the right Shift key for 8 seconds (the key that looks like an arrow)
This mode is known as Filter Keys and ignores keyboard input unless the key is held down for a significant period of time, so when your friend goes to press a key nothing will happen and they will hear a beep. To someone who doesn’t know what Filter Key mode is, they will assume that their keyboard has packed in.
1 – High Contrast Mode
How it’s done: Hold Left Alt + Shift + PrintScrn.
How to fix it: Some PCs allow you to press the same keys to fix it (Hold Left Alt + Shift + PrintScrn). Others, you need to go to the Desktop, right-click, “Personalise” then click a theme on that page – preferable Windows 7.
Imagine it now: “Oh my god! My screen is black…WTF!” And your response: “Dude, what you done!” LOL! A simple shortcut that will definitely make your friends/colleges flip out, especially if the normal “Hold Left Alt + Shift + PrintScrn” doesn’t work. Go even further and get them to press the reverse and then say you actually don’t know as that should have fixed it.
Just another warning: Use these at your own risk and ask yourself if you would find them funny. They are only funny if you tell the victim what you have done after 5 minutes…or so. Please share with everyone below if you know of any more evil PC shortcuts.