April Fools

[Guest xforeverxmetalx]

What are everyone's plans for pranking their friends and family?

I'm going to try something with a computer - like maybe the old screenshoting the desktop, setting it to wallpaper, hiding the desktop, and then ending explorer.exe. My concern though is that it won't work as well if she thinks to restart it. I'd auto-disable it via the startup folder if I knew how (maybe someone does?). That or making her think her LCD's broken. I don't usually do anything so it'll be even better since it's unexpected.

If anyone's got any great plans, be sure to share how it went afterwards too.

[Mahone]

What are everyone's plans for pranking their friends and family?

I'm going to try something with a computer - like maybe the old screenshoting the desktop, setting it to wallpaper, hiding the desktop, and then ending explorer.exe. My concern though is that it won't work as well if she thinks to restart it. I'd auto-disable it via the startup folder if I knew how (maybe someone does?). That or making her think her LCD's broken. I don't usually do anything so it'll be even better since it's unexpected.

If anyone's got any great plans, be sure to share how it went afterwards too.

In order to get explorer to automatically close when she logs on, you'll need to create a batch script and put it in the all users startup folder (or just the startup folder of her account/profile).

Open up notepad, and copy and paste the following line:

taskkill /F /IM explorer.exe /T

Save the file and rename as killexplorer.bat (the file extension .bat is really important, so if file extensions are not shown on your computer, you should enable this so you can verify it has the correct extension).

Once you have the batch file, place in either her startup folder or all users startup folder.

As a second idea, you could change what opens instead of explorer.exe. This is defined in the registry here: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon

Browse to that location and create a new string value named shell. Set the value of that entry to the executable you want to instead of explorer, so you might want to open internet explorer instead. So you'd enter (I don't remember the exact location and I' using a mac right now) c:\program files\internet explorer\iexplore.exe -K "www.funnywebsite.com" (the -K opens internet explorer is kiosk mode (full screen) and the website at the end is what it will open when it loads).

That will confuse her - see if she can get out of it :)

Edited April 1, 2012 by Mahone

[pam]

I don't do this on every April Fools, I do this quite often at work. When one of my agents leaves their computer they are to lock it before walking away. Anyone that doesn't and leaves it open...mwahahaha (evil laugh) I set it so that when they come back everything on their screen is upside down.

[Suzie]

I tried to fool one of my kids by putting a candy that looks JUST like a vitamin (so I thought) for him to take. He looked at it, raised an eyebrow and said "Mom do you think I'm dumb?"

Ah...don't you loveeee them!!

[Guest xforeverxmetalx]

I don't do this on every April Fools, I do this quite often at work. When one of my agents leaves their computer they are to lock it before walking away. Anyone that doesn't and leaves it open...mwahahaha (evil laugh) I set it so that when they come back everything on their screen is upside down.

I thought of doing that but it doesn't work on her computer.

In order to get explorer to automatically close when she logs on, you'll need to create a batch script and put it in the all users startup folder (or just the startup folder of her account/profile).

Open up notepad, and copy and paste the following line:

taskkill /F /IM explorer.exe /T

Save the file and rename as killexplorer.bat (the file extension .bat is really important, so if file extensions are not shown on your computer, you should enable this so you can verify it has the correct extension).

Once you have the batch file, place in either her startup folder or all users startup folder.

As a second idea, you could change what opens instead of explorer.exe. This is defined in the registry here: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon

Browse to that location and create a new string value named shell. Set the value of that entry to the executable you want to instead of explorer, so you might want to open internet explorer instead. So you'd enter (I don't remember the exact location and I' using a mac right now) c:\program files\internet explorer\iexplore.exe -K "www.funnywebsite.com" (the -K opens internet explorer is kiosk mode (full screen) and the website at the end is what it will open when it loads).

That will confuse her - see if she can get out of it :)

Nice, just got it set up. I didn't bother with the registry part though - it's good enough as is, and this way it looks like it's really screwed up rather than just a prank. Plus I've heard bad things can happen when you mess with the registry.

[Guest xforeverxmetalx]

So it worked a little too good. They got frustrated with trying to fix it and weren't amused. Oh well...

[Gwen]

My daughter didn't like my joke. I don't usually do them but she spent a full week "practicing" April fool's jokes and talking about how she was going to really "get someone". She is 6 so her jokes weren't anything big.

When brushing her hair Sunday morning I stopped and started picking through her hair. Then I told her that it looked like she had lice. One of the boys jumped in and said "What is lice?" so I started telling him it was a bug that is really hard to get rid of and we'd have to shave her head on Monday because of it. I knew that would bother her but expected some protest and a chance to say it was a joke before she got to upset.... I was wrong. She just burst into tears. I told her right away but it didn't matter she was already upset. I felt bad but still laughed about it. lol

[Vort]

Never have quite understood the humor of practical jokes, whether on April 1 or any other time.

[Jamie123]

A few years ago my wife told the wife of one of my work colleagues that I was going to have a sex change and become a woman - and she totally fell for it! (Little did my wife know they knew a couple where the husband had dome exactly that, so it was a bit more credible than she'd expected.)

This year she's e-mailed her sister to say we're selling up and joining the Gypsy community. As far as I know she hasn't responded yet!

[skippy740]

Never have quite understood the humor of practical jokes, whether on April 1 or any other time.

Let's tally up the "jokes" I saw yesterday:

- Facebook: one person said they were arrested

- Facebook: one person said they were getting a divorce (there are just some things you don't joke about).

- Another forum: The webmaster did a sneaky code that said "[username] was caught doing ____" in two different kinds of threads. This was right after I had expounded on the fact that I was a "pro-prop 8 Mormon" in another thread... then I saw my username in the title of those threads. I took that one a little too personal - even though every user of the forum would've only seen THEIR name in the title. Clever, but really annoying.

The only "funny" one was someone posted that the new healthcare law was repealed! So I clicked, and I was "Rick Rolled"!

But I agree with Vort... I don't like "practical jokes". And the subject of SOME of these jokes were completely out of line for my taste.

I'm going to program an Outlook pop-up for next year that says "It's April Fools day - stay off the internet!"

Edited April 2, 2012 by skippy740

[classylady]

The one I heard the most was "I'm pregnant".

My nephew told everyone on fb that instead of the twins he and his wife were expecting, they did another ultra sound and found out it was triplets. Quite a few fell for that one.

Edited April 2, 2012 by classylady

[Suzie]

My nephew told everyone on fb that instead of the twins he and his were expecting, they did another ultra sound and found out it was triplets. Quite a few fell for that one.

You never know.