April Fools’ Day in the Office: 7 Pranks You Can Pull Off from Your Desk

Don’t forget about April Fools’ day this year! Prepare for office (or household) shenanigans with these excellent computer pranks. We, of course, take no responsibility for what happens in retaliation.

Computer Background Prank

You may have heard of this prank before, as it’s been around for a while. As seen in this instrucables article, just save a screen capture as the background, hide the icons, and for some reason nothing works!

Suggested by Geeksmithing, whose YouTube channel we featured here.

AutoCAD Tricks

If you use AutoCAD a lot, you’re probably familiar with text commands. Though generally useful, as described here, commands such as “mbuttonpan” and “zoomfactor” can be used to wreak havoc on another user’s drawing experience. DraftSight is pictured above, which works in the same way.

Mouse Tape Prank

Another classic prank, this one involves simply placing tape on the bottom of a computer mouse. This should work even if your potential victim locks his computer in anticipation of hijinks.

High Contrast Mode

To activate “High Contrast” mode, just press left shift + left alternate + printscreen and confirm that “you” would like to operate this way. Who knows, your victim might find that he or she prefers things like this.

[via How-To Geek]

Chewbacca Roar Contest

Although not strictly a “computer” prank, this flyer encourages people to call someone else with a Wookie roar. Clever, and the flyer appears to have been made using a computer, so why not?

[via Huffpost Comedy]

Replace Words

Yet another classic prank, you can set Microsoft Word up to autocorrect words to something more “interesing.” The offensiveness of this prank obviously varies by the user. In a perhaps more dangerous version, a similar method can be used with Outlook. When combined with an edited dictionary and subtle changes, all bets are off!

Also suggested by Geeksmithing.

“Custom” Clock

As with the autocorrect prank, this one can vary from mostly benign to quite offensive. Fortunately, the Internet is here to help people reverse a prankster’s damage!

[via How-To Geek]