display.tools

Prank Screens

Fake fullscreen screens — "updating, please wait", or something rather more alarming — to prank a colleague who forgot to lock their computer, and maybe teach them to lock it next time.

Every screen is built for any resolution and any device — a 4K monitor, an old office laptop, a tablet left on a desk, a phone face-up beside the keyboard — so whatever unlocked thing you find, it fills the display and looks the part. That is the whole point: the next person to walk up to an unattended device might be after money, customer data or the company's good name rather than a laugh.

Nothing here is harmful. Each prank is an ordinary webpage — nothing to install, safe for work, and it never reads, writes or touches a single file on the machine it runs on. Close the tab and it is gone without a trace. So go ahead: enjoy the brief panic and the very long face that follows.

How does it work?

  1. Open a prank screen below on the unlocked computer.
  2. Press F11 and it fills the screen. Use this wherever there is a keyboard: fullscreen opened with F11 cannot be closed with Esc, so a curious colleague cannot shrink the prank back into a browser window. On a phone, a tablet, anything with no F11 key, double-tap anywhere instead — or double-click with a mouse — and a stray single tap will not set it off. That route is the fallback rather than the first choice, because fullscreen opened this way can be dropped again with Esc in some browsers, which spoils the surprise.
  3. Walk away, act normal, and wait for your colleague to get back from their cigarette break.
  4. Whoever finds it sees a busy machine mid-update. When they press a key or click the dialog, they get the punchline.
  5. To get out: F11 leaves fullscreen, Ctrl+W closes the tab.

Fake Windows 95 Setup

Fake Windows 95 setup screen with the Installing Devices progress dialog

The clouds-and-logo boot splash, stuck behind an "Installing Devices" dialog that names one piece of 1995 hardware after another — Sound Blaster 16, S3 Trio64V+, NE2000 Ethernet. The chunked bar climbs for about five minutes, then inches along and never reaches the end. Any key press ends it in a fatal exception 0E blue screen.

Start the prank →

Fake Windows 98 Setup

Fake Windows 98 setup screen with the Preparing Directory wizard

The Windows 98 splash behind a "Preparing Directory" wizard, gradient title bar and all, working its way through detecting Plug and Play devices, registering ActiveX components and configuring Internet Explorer 4.0. The solid blue bar slows to a halt just short of done and stays there. Touch a key and the machine drops to a fatal exception blue screen.

Start the prank →

Fake Ubuntu 8.10 Installer

Fake Ubuntu installer screen with the slideshow and progress bar

The Ubuntu installer mid-install on the old Intrepid Ibex wallpaper, its slideshow rotating every twenty seconds through "Help and support" and "Hints and tips". The comet bar runs up to roughly a third and then keeps creeping without ever arriving. Enter or the close button hands them a kernel panic that has no business existing on Linux.

Start the prank →

Fake Ransomware (WannaPrank) Screen

Fake ransomware screen with two countdowns and a bitcoin address

Not an update this time. A ransom note on a near-black backdrop, demanding one bitcoin and counting down two hours to the moment every file is supposedly deleted for good. The clocks are real and they stop dead at zero; everything else is theatre.

Start the prank →

Fake macOS UpdateComing soon

A familiar Apple logo and slow-filling progress bar, with "Installing a software update… do not turn off your Mac".

Display tools: solid color screens to clean and test your monitor →

← Back to display.tools