When you work with computers, every day is April fool’s Day. This guide is purely for fun and presented only for fun. I am not suggesting that any readers do the things described in this guide. If you choose to do any of the pranks (none of which are nasty) in this guide you do so at your own peril.

The ease of access center in Windows Vista is a wonderful resource for pranks. The make it easier to type section is a great place to start. Turn on sticky keys and modify all keyboard short cuts such as CTRL+ALT+DEL so that they have to be pressed one at a time. Turn on Filter Keys to ignore or slow down brief or repeated key strokes. Under filter options bounce keys will make the user wait two seconds before each keystroke is accepted. Additionally you can set them to wait another two seconds for subsequent repeated keys. Below the aforementioned, section you can setup repeat keys and slow keys and the user will have to hold down the key for up to twenty seconds before it is accepted. There is a setting to ignore repeated key strokes as well.

The making it easier to use the mouse section is another wonderfully entertaining section. Set the mouse top speed to slow or high. Set pointer speed to low or high acceleration. Want to really boggle a person’s mind set the mouse so that it only works with the key pad when the NUM lock is on or off. Lastly, in the mouse section enable window activation by mouse hovering.

The make it easier to focus on tasks section should have been named something else based upon this next prank. We all love those flashing system dialog windows don’t we? If you set, too display for five minutes users will love them even more. Moving right along with text or visual alternatives to visual notifications for sounds. You may flash active caption bar, flash active window or flash active desktop for sounds.

Mouse properties can provide interesting results. Switch the primary and secondary buttons to change left handed to right-handed and vice versa. See how fast someone is by setting click speed to fast as possible. Turn on click lock and one click will enable drag or holding without hold the button down. It will also take one click to stop high lighting or dragging. Set the pointer speed to fast so that your friend can access things more efficiently. Snap to can be a little obnoxious, as it will automatically move the pointer to the default button of the active window. Vertical scrolling can be set to scroll one screen per notch, one line per notch or 500 lines per notch.

There are additional features that one could use to toy with someone. Perhaps on April Fool’s I will provide an updated guide for all to enjoy.

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