Top 5 jokes to do on a Windows machine

Posted by Jean-Baptiste Jung on Sep 12, 2008 in Misc, windows • 27 comments

Nevermind you’re a GNU/linux fanatic, an anti-Microsoft guy or just someone who like to have fun, here’s 5 absolutely hilarious jokes to do on a Windows machine: BSoDs on demand, screen reversing, Internet Explorer killer…Have fun!

Reversing screen

This one is one of my favorites. The screen reverse is Windows XP feature which allow the user to rotate of reverse the screen, for exemple for browsing the web. Due to the fact that almost no-one uses it, there's only a few users who even heard about it.
To do this joke to your favorite Windows user, simply press Ctrl+Alt+Up/left/right arrow. This joke can be particullary funny to do in a store that sells computers.

BSoD background image

Windows users feaaaaaaaaaaaaars BSoD. The Blue Screen of Death was very famous some years ago when almost every Windows user saw at least one per week. This screen simply display an error message, and you haven't any choice: You must reboot the machine.
To do this joke, simply download this BSoD wallpaper and define it as Desktop background. Then, hide the taskbar. To do so, Right-click on it and select properties. Then, check the Auto hide taskbar box.
The last things you have to do is to hide all the desktop icons, and wait for your Windows user to come back and see the fake disaster.

Internet Explorer killer

Back in June this year, I wrote a funny article containing 6 html and javascript codes to crash Internet Explorer. But at the time, I didn't knew that someone created a website called www.crashie.com. As you probably guessed it, the purpose of this website is simple: It crash Internet Explorer (It don't know if it can crash IE7, though).
If you're a strong Firefox supporter, or just a designer/developer tired about solving IE css bugs, you'll probably enjoy this:
Simply open Internet Explorer, then go to Tools menu → Internet options and define http://www.crashie.com as the start page. Then, every time someone will try to launch Microsoft browser, it will crash. As the user will not have any way to access the Internet, make sure to provide him a Firefox installer.
Depending to the user computer skills, chances are that he'll never find out and stop using Internet Explorer.

Desktop Screenshot Background

This one can works on Mac and Linux platforms as well. All you have to do is to take a screenshot of the current desktop with all icons and save it in a safe place. Then, simply right-click on the desktop and select Properties. On the Desktop tab, select browse and define your screenshot as background image.
Next time the user will delete or move one of his desktop icons, the desktop background will give the illusion that the icon duplicates.

BSoS on demand

Impressive, really. Do you know that you can create a BSoD on demand? Then you might check out this article.

27 reactions

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1 - Shoban on Sep 12, 2008, 4:32 pm:

Strange!!! reverse screen does not work for me!!
2 - jbj on Sep 12, 2008, 4:36 pm:

@Shoban: I guess it depends of your graphic card. It works perfectly good at my office.
3 - John on Sep 13, 2008, 3:22 am:

Yeah the screen reverse doesn’t work for me on either of my computers. Others are good though!

John
4 - Jamie Souef on Sep 13, 2008, 4:32 am:

BSoS on demand. Love it. There was also a great one for OS X where the screen would ‘fall apart’.. it think it was for the Macbooks…
5 - Maigret on Sep 13, 2008, 9:48 am:

BSoD background image is the best for me ! It perfectly represents this permanently feeling of fear when I use my PC
6 - jbj on Sep 13, 2008, 9:55 am:

@Jamie: I heard about that..Might be funny to see :p

@Maigret: Most PCs users fears BSoDs! I’ll never regret the day I decided to use Linux and Mac…
7 - Olivier @ brainwave meditation on Sep 14, 2008, 9:25 pm:

These are really funny. It’s like switching somebodies mobile phone language to Russian (it works over here in Europe).
8 - kouji@captivating Capiz on Sep 16, 2008, 8:58 am:

i especially like the first tip. didn’t know about that, and the effect’s pretty interesting.
9 - Ruby Web on Sep 17, 2008, 4:34 pm:

CtrlL+Alt+arrows isn’t working on my pc. There goes my fun with that trick, sigh…
10 - jbj on Sep 17, 2008, 10:59 pm:

Apparently, the Ctrl+arrows depends of your graphic card. Too bad!
11 - Ali on Sep 18, 2008, 5:53 am:

Reverse screen is only compatible with certain Graphics Cards.
12 - MOin on Sep 18, 2008, 10:06 pm:

i really like the Bsod one and that pic with a lot of bsod’s is looking really scary =S
consider if you have to fix all those individually.
13 - Hayes Potter on Sep 20, 2008, 3:31 pm:

ahhh, man the reverse screen didn’t work, I’m using windows xp sp3.
14 - Jessica (Azur Dev) on Sep 23, 2008, 8:21 pm:

I also can’t reverse screen. It’s easy and funny, I will try it in a store! :-p
15 - Eva White on Sep 26, 2008, 4:50 am:

I think the dreaded blue screen is the best prank. I still get shivers when I see it!
16 - Johnny on Oct 14, 2008, 9:35 pm:

http://www.crashie.com does crash IE7, confirmed personally.
17 - jbj on Oct 14, 2008, 11:11 pm:

@Johnny: Cool! Thanks for telling me!
18 - Make Money Blogging on Oct 16, 2008, 10:48 pm:

Lol I like the reverse screen joke.. interesting..
19 - CyberCucina Gourmet on Nov 2, 2008, 1:18 am:

You are sooooo bad!

(But I loved the jokes!)
20 - Skyler on Nov 7, 2008, 7:26 am:

I be changin all the school computers to CrashIE.com :]
The switch screen has worked on old computers in the past but i haven’t tried it since last year. lol
21 - Stanley on Nov 13, 2008, 9:36 pm:

Nice complication, didn’t know about the screen flipping shortcuts
22 - Greg on Nov 14, 2008, 8:12 pm:

I gotta try that reverse screen sometime at the store!
23 - Voos Baratos on Nov 15, 2008, 7:55 pm:

Very funny stuff! One of my favorites is the desktop screenshot background! It confuses the hell out of people ha ha
24 - Danny on Dec 14, 2008, 7:29 am:

Ha Ha, cruel but funny!