# Screenshot prank **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [May 14, 2023, 4:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/screenshot-prank/984035 "2023-05-14T16:45:27Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![alovem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b38774/32.png) [@alovem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alovem)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2023, 4:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/screenshot-prank/984035/1 "2023-05-14T16:45:27Z")
@PastTense’s Windows-related query in FQ reminded me of something I heard about in the early 2000s. I even posted about it here a ways back but haven’t tried doing it until now. It’s a prank to pull on a coworker. When they’re away from their computer, you take a screenshot of their desktop, save the file and open it with the “full screen” viewing option. The joke is that the computer will appear to be running normally but, of course, will be unresponsive until the Esc key is pressed. So, the FQ post reminded me to try this, and I’m posting here to say that it works like a charm. I haven’t heard or read any references to the prank in the last 20 years. Is it old news to most of you? ---
**Author:** ![jnglmassiv](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f07891/32.png) [@jnglmassiv](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jnglmassiv)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2023, 4:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/screenshot-prank/984035/2 "2023-05-14T16:52:01Z")
That’s about as old as the ‘piece of tape over the mouse ball’ gag. ---
**Author:** ![alovem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b38774/32.png) [@alovem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alovem)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2023, 4:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/screenshot-prank/984035/3 "2023-05-14T16:53:38Z")
Ha-ha, I haven’t heard of that one. Seriously. ---
**Author:** ![Andy\_L](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c67d28/32.png) [@Andy\_L](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andy_L)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2023, 4:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/screenshot-prank/984035/4 "2023-05-14T16:55:39Z")
There was a Mac program in the 1980s that worked something like that - called Userhostile ---
**Author:** ![CaptMurdock](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/captmurdock/32/11736_2.png) [@CaptMurdock](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CaptMurdock)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2023, 5:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/screenshot-prank/984035/5 "2023-05-14T17:05:32Z")
Back in the days of old Classic Mac OS and SE/30s, a buddy of mine made a picture that looked like a dialog box saying something like “ROM Erasure will commence. Press OK or Cancel.” And the Cancel button was greyed out. Then he surreptitiously replace the background of our mutual friend’s Mac SE/30 with this picture. Big Laffs! ---
**Author:** ![AHunter3](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ahunter3/32/368_2.png) [@AHunter3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AHunter3)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2023, 6:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/screenshot-prank/984035/6 "2023-05-14T18:09:49Z")
@alovem, I’ve got your prank beat: > [@What's Your Most Memorable Practical Joke You Ever Did?](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-most-memorable-practical-joke-you-ever-did/99580/24): > > We had a pretty savvy server tech in our little 15-person office, and he had just finished setting up a new NT Server before he went to lunch. He had placed it about 2 feet to the left of an AppleShare IP server. The opportunity was too good to miss slight_smile a) Took a screen shot of the Macintosh desktop of the AppleShare server, converted it to JPEG, and copied it across the network to the new NT Server. Took a similar screen shot of the NT Desktop and copied it to the Mac. b) On th… ---
**Author:** ![Wolf333](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolf333/32/3460_2.png) [@Wolf333](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wolf333)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2023, 6:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/screenshot-prank/984035/7 "2023-05-14T18:18:10Z")
Right-click on the desktop to bring up the context menu, screenshot, make that the wallpaper. Everything works normally, but that menu will not go away. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2023, 7:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/screenshot-prank/984035/8 "2023-05-14T19:34:34Z")
One guy took an old, dead floppy disc, put a sticky note on it that said “I found this, it is yours?” then attached it via _a magnet_ on the fridge door. ---
**Author:** ![Die\_Capacitrix](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/die_capacitrix/32/9_2.png) [@Die\_Capacitrix](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Die_Capacitrix)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2023, 8:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/screenshot-prank/984035/9 "2023-05-14T20:23:26Z")
> [@alovem](#): > > I haven’t heard or read any references to the prank in the last 20 years. Officially it’s against IT security policy to leave a computer unlocked, so such pranks theoretically have died out. Reality….😇 ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2023, 8:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/screenshot-prank/984035/10 "2023-05-14T20:47:31Z")
OK, I’ve long known about this trick, and the trick about swapping keyboard/mouse plugs for two different computers, but I don’t think I’ve seen monitor-swapping, and @AHunter3 's combination of the two, there, is pure gold. ---
**Author:** ![Wallaby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/dc4da7/32.png) [@Wallaby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wallaby)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2023, 8:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/screenshot-prank/984035/11 "2023-05-14T20:50:11Z")
Many many eons ago (1090s?) there was an option to change the option for your on-screen mouse tracker - so that you could set the cursor to move sideways if the mouse moved up, or make it move diagonally. I found it one day just while mucking around. Totally useless probably in 99% of the areas where a mouse was used, and probably specific to a particular industry (CAD perhaps?). But lots of fun to set your co-workers cursor to wander seemingly randomly over the screen until he (metaphorically) put his fist through the monitor. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2023, 8:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/screenshot-prank/984035/12 "2023-05-14T20:52:25Z")
When I was an IT Manager, I drummed it into everyone that they should lock their screens when they walk away. One time. ONE TIME I forgot. My team changed my wallpaper to a barbie collage, with the text ‘this is what happens when I leave my computer unlocked’ ---
**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2023, 11:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/screenshot-prank/984035/13 "2023-05-14T23:27:54Z")
> [@Mangetout](#): > > When I was an IT Manager, I drummed it into everyone that they should lock their screens when they walk away. One time. ONE TIME I forgot. > > My team changed my wallpaper to a barbie collage, with the text ‘this is what happens when I leave my computer unlocked’ - [THE classic example.](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sex-with-sheep-is-fun/320355) ---
**Author:** ![EinsteinsHund](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/einsteinshund/32/8400_2.png) [@EinsteinsHund](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EinsteinsHund)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2023, 11:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/screenshot-prank/984035/14 "2023-05-14T23:40:59Z")
I don’t remember the combinations and if they still work, but there used to be keyboard shortcuts to rotate the display orientation in 90 degree steps in Windows. I had a lot of fun with that. ---
**Author:** ![Projammer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/projammer/32/559_2.png) [@Projammer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Projammer)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2023, 12:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/screenshot-prank/984035/15 "2023-05-15T00:11:03Z")
I forget which brand it was, but one of the video card manufacturers had hotkeys built into their driver where you could press ctrl-alt-[arrow] to change the orientation of the display. Upright, upside down, portrait left, portrait right. So you could literally flip someone’s screen with only a moment’s access. ETA: That’s what I get for not reading the whole thread before posting. ---
**Author:** ![Joey\_P](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/919ad9/32.png) [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2023, 12:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/screenshot-prank/984035/16 "2023-05-15T00:39:53Z")
Back in high school (94-98), someone got me with that. He logged in (as himself) to the computer he knew I’d use and ran a program that displayed the Novell Networks login page and logged the keyboard input. I sat down, logged in, the computer “froze”, and since that happened constantly on those old 386s, I reset it without giving it a second thought. A few seconds later, he told me what my password was. In fact, because that happened in high school, it prevented me from falling for one on myspace. Someone posted a link to someone else’s myspace page. I clicked on it and was confused because it was asking me to log in (to ‘myspace’) again. I eventually noticed the incorrect URL, but remembering that prank is what put all the pieces together for me. ---
**Author:** ![Joey\_P](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/919ad9/32.png) [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2023, 12:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/screenshot-prank/984035/17 "2023-05-15T00:45:20Z")
> [@Wallaby](#): > > Totally useless probably in 99% of the areas where a mouse was used, and probably specific to a particular industry (CAD perhaps?). I’ve always assumed that feature exists so the mouse pointer still works properly if you have the monitor rotated 90 degrees. ---
**Author:** ![Spiderman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spiderman/32/230_2.png) [@Spiderman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spiderman)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2023, 1:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/screenshot-prank/984035/18 "2023-05-15T01:36:52Z")
Years ago, I had a boss who was an immature idiot, & didn’t understand tech, either. I was a systems manager; I could literally watch his eyes glaze over when I went to him with just about any issue. Remember the [Win 95 splash screen](https://ia902807.us.archive.org/3/items/win95-logo.sys/logo-preview.png)? It would come on while the computer was booting & remain there for some double-digit # of seconds while booting finished. I somehow learned about it’s path & changed his to something somewhat NSFW that he couldn’t do anything but sit there & shit himself hoping that his boss or HR didn’t walk in until it was finished booting. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2023, 2:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/screenshot-prank/984035/19 "2023-05-15T02:09:23Z")
> [@Joey\_P](#): > > Back in high school (94-98), someone got me with that. He logged in (as himself) to the computer he knew I’d use and ran a program that displayed the Novell Networks login page and logged the keyboard input. This is why Windows moved to using control-alt-delete to log in, because that key combination was always intercepted by the OS at a low level, and so if you used it, you knew you weren’t typing into a keylogger. Although, come to think of it, they don’t do that any more. I’m not sure why, nor why that trick hasn’t taken off again… ---
**Author:** ![PatrickLondon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/patricklondon/32/4422_2.png) [@PatrickLondon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PatrickLondon)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2023, 1:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/screenshot-prank/984035/20 "2023-05-15T13:09:53Z")
Does anyone still do the evil trick of changing the text colour in someone’s office software - to white? [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/screenshot-prank/984035.md?page=2)