April Fools 2011: Ten Incredible Tech Pranks
Today is April Fools Day, that magical time of year when productivity grinds to a halt as every website under the sun tries to outdo itself with a zany prank that everyone saw coming. But don't worry, we're going to spare you the rigamarole. We're not a bunch of Stiffly Stiffersons around here, though, so we've put together a list of our 10 favorite tech pranks--a mix of this years best best April Fools pranks, along with some classics that you can use yourself. Read on for more!
Comments
Comments are closed on this article
![]()
Philips
November 15, 2011 at 9:28pm
These are truly incredible. Thank you for sharing. These due big help.
![]()
Philips
October 08, 2011 at 3:12am
This is so cool. Thanks for posting. This one catches much interest.
![]()
andresau
April 05, 2011 at 8:49am
Good article - I was pranked bad this year. My boss surprised us with an AD migration and Windows 7 deployment project friday morning. We were talking double, even triple overtime over the weekend. Halfway though our department meeting he called it off. The funny thing is - half of the computers on our network can't even support windows 7 XD
![]()
Asterixx
April 02, 2011 at 3:35am
Back in the DOS days I pranked my father by tweaking his autoexec.bat file - I changed his prompt to say "Press any key to format hard drive". Simple, but effective - he was afraid to do anything, he just kept restarting and restarting...
![]()
livebriand
April 01, 2011 at 6:42pm
Here's another, simple one:
Change the mouse cursor to the hourglass. Also, put some tape on the laser of the mouse. Or, better yet, open the case, remove the RAM, and put some scotch tape around the pins, then reinsert it. He'll have no idea why it doesn't work.
Or, take a screenshot with several windows open and a few folders like "Porn" and set it as the wallpaper, then delete the folders. Man he'll be confused.
![]()
mls067
April 01, 2011 at 7:46pm
I did the desktop wallpaper at my old job once. Thier so called IT person came down and they worked on it for hours, she was just about to call her tech support when I came in and said "are you sure that's not just a wallpaper?" I should have let it go, but I'm a sucker
![]()
Havok
April 01, 2011 at 5:43pm
Last year, I replaced my boss's name with something else in auto correct, and he was bloody pissed. I wasn't in for a week and he didn't know what was going on.
![]()
Hg Dragon
April 01, 2011 at 5:29pm
I replaced a user's workstation with a Mac Mini. There was much swearing afterwards.
![]()
Marthian
April 01, 2011 at 5:03pm
@Razor Talon anyone thinking MAXIMUM Speed?
There was another game that had a pretty hilarious april fools day event, the game is called Vindictus. They had an event you could get a combine helmet, headcrab hat, and a crowbar weapon. Was going to happen, Vindictus also runs on the Source engine.
![]()
Keith E. Whisman
April 01, 2011 at 4:58pm
Youtube has another video style joke like last year it was all ascii video and this year it's 1911 black and white film with piano music. LOL..
![]()
Danthrax66
April 01, 2011 at 2:41pm
That program that calls everyone at once is awesome hahahahahaha.
Log in to MaximumPC directly or log in using Facebook
Forgot your username or password?
Click here for help.

























