Nice Little Trick.

[Tweak]

Ok guys, I figured you would get a kick out of this one, so I am gonna post it for everyone.


My girl has this bad habit of forgetting to log onto her screen name when she plays on the computer. She is one of those types who just likes to go into the settings and play with desktop themes and images, change the fonts and ll that fun stuff, rarely ever browses the net or anything.

Anyway, she loves to change all my personal settings to fit her tastes (this morning i had a "Heart" theme with flower icons and pointers when I woke up)


So, I put my mind to work...."How do I keep her confused enough to simply make her say screw it and log onto her own account?" I said. Detailed below are the results.


I started with this, a simple image I created with Photoshop CS with minimal editing. (sorry for the large pic size, but you have to see it to get the effect.)

I set this image as my desktop.

Then, I put a bunch of icons on my desktop and hid the mouse pointer. I pressed [Print Screen] for some it's [Sysreq]. I then went into the app everyone has- Microsoft paint (this comp is running XP) and hit [ctrl] + [V] to paste the pic of the desktop in there, where I then saved the image as a .jpeg This is the result, pretty spiffy if I say so myself. After doing this, I moved all but two of the icons into a seperate folder, named "Tools" there is now only ONE working icon on the desktop, the recycle bin and it is superimposed over the the image taken in PSCS

Here we are, a nice looking FAKE desktop. I hid the .jpeg file and then saved it as my desktop background.

I then accessed the properties on my taskbar and set it auto hide, with a mouse over of two seconds to bring it up.

As a result, you get a desktop that looks and feels completely real, but is essentially useless. I figure if she tries to mess with it, she will click a couple icons, mouse over the taskbar for less than a second and then get onfused/frustrated and Control, alt, delete the heck off my desktop.


I am sure i am not the first person to think of this, but it is an awesome idea, IMO- try it at home and let me know how it works out guys!

 

[TalonOne]

Nice trick .........let us know if it was successful...

 

[Lessen]

haha.. that is pretty funny... kewl

 

[FastEddy]

Wouldn't it just be easier to put her in one of those wooden boxes for a few hours next time she uses your desktop?

Have you tried to log off and PW protect your desktop profile?

 

[HeartBreak]

The only problem there, is she'll think he has somethin to hide, then he'll be living in one of those boxes.

I gotta admit; that is a pretty funny idea.

 

[Tweak]

Wouldn't it just be easier to put her in one of those wooden boxes for a few hours next time she uses your desktop?

Have you tried to log off and PW protect your desktop profile?

Oh yeah, i log off every time, but she and I both have the same password- Me so I can fix stuff she messes up and she has mine so she can access all the things that are not shared via the rest of my network.


She knows I've got nothing to hide, and I think she will get the hint

 

[Plaidfish]

Next time she changes your desktop go into her makeup cabinet or whatever she's into and rearange all her stuff...print a pic of your heart themed desktop and tape it right to the cabinet door so she gets the hint...nothing worse than setting my PC up how I like it and some numbnut thinks their way is better or whatever.....

 

[hb1111]

thats funny good job!!

 

[WoodiE]

Tweak,

I always figured you was a heart shaped kinda guy, :laugh: Nice trick, I've done something similar years ago when I was in high school. I made a visual basic program that would take a screen shot of the desktop and then the program made itself the size of the desktop. The program could not be moved nor re-sized and the only way to get rid of it was though a series of hot keys which then asked for a password. It was funny as hell seeing people freak out, thinking their mouse and keyboard was unplugged or couldn't figure out what was going on.

For a fix for your issue, if this doesn't work you could always just remove access to the control panel. This will stop any changes from being made. I set similar setting up at work to prevent my users from screwing up the workstations.




-Michael

 

[beason]

you COULD just make her an account, and let her play with it all day long.... just dont give her admin rights!!

 

[BIGRed333]

My husband and I have our comps sitting right next to each other. When I'm not around, he plays a game on his comp and surfs the net on mine. I asked him repeatedly not to use my computer. He asked me why. I told him because you always seem to get viruses. He told me that's a load of BS and yadda yadda. The next day he gets a nasty virus on my comp. I would PW protect it, but then he'd just bitch and moan til I gave up the PW.

Just be happy all she does is change the desktop theme. I constantly have to reformat because my husband goes and downloads things and just bogs up my system. Why did you choose boxes as the desktop image? Is that supposed to subconsciously signal something to your wife? And I am hoping your wife is one smart cookie and realizes the time is incorrect and isn't changing. Unless she has the habbit of when looking at the time, moving the mouse to it, which would then bring up the real taskbar...

 

[RevoME]

My husband and I have our comps sitting right next to each other. When I'm not around, he plays a game on his comp and surfs the net on mine. I asked him repeatedly not to use my computer. He asked me why. I told him because you always seem to get viruses. He told me that's a load of BS and yadda yadda. The next day he gets a nasty virus on my comp. I would PW protect it, but then he'd just bitch and moan til I gave up the PW.

Just be happy all she does is change the desktop theme. I constantly have to reformat because my husband goes and downloads things and just bogs up my system. Why did you choose boxes as the desktop image? Is that supposed to subconsciously signal something to your wife? And I am hoping your wife is one smart cookie and realizes the time is incorrect and isn't changing. Unless she has the habbit of when looking at the time, moving the mouse to it, which would then bring up the real taskbar...

Two computers...
I touch hers, I die.
She touches mine, I die.
Whatever.

Only a female could interpret a "hidden" message into a few boxes put on a desktop. I clearly remember one female refusing to shut her computer off at night at my company. There was a policy because of government data and when she left everything going under her screenname IT build a very mean and ugly popup. It cured the problem forever, she quit 2 weeks after the incident. So if you give up the PW anyways, why complain?

 

[Tweak]

I was a fractal image I was doing for school recently, I just liked it for some reason.

 

[robriguez]

yep there was a guy in my office was a major PITA. One day he went home early and forgot to log off. We knew he kept a TON of icons on his desktop. So we removed "some of them", took a screen shot, mad it his backround and put the rest of the icons back where they belong. So when he came back onle some of his icons worked. It was absolutley hilarious hearing him get soooo frustrated trying to figure it out.

As for my computer, I have my "beastie" and 2 laptops. I have admin on all machines and my wife only has admin on the laptop she uses most. If she needs something on my computer I either share the folder to make a copy of the folder and shar that one. She has been asking for my password for 3 years and I refuse to give it to her. She is welcome to sit at my desk with me in the room and look at anything she likes while I'm logged in. I have nothing to hide. But the second I leave the room I log off. She has crashed my machine 3 times and it has taken well over a weeks time of 3-4 hrs night to get things back the way they were. She gets mad but I'm not going through that ever again.