Mousing Around

I know I’ve covered mouse pranks before, but it’s definitely worth revisiting. After all, the mouse is an essential workplace tool. And one that, for the most part, we tend to take for granted. It’s just there… sitting next to our keyboards, waiting for us every time we fire up our computers.

And that’s exactly why they make perfect targets for every day pranks. What’s worse than reaching for something benign and completely reliable, only to find that it’s not working?

With the growing popularity of laser pointers, you may feel like you’ve lost the ability to mouse prank. (No roller balls, sigh) But the truth is that there’s another option just waiting to be exploited. A few small pieces of transparent tape placed on the underside of someone’s mouse will have the same effect as the old school ball theft would. Plus, the fact that it’s see through means that unless they actually touch it, your victim might not realize what’s going on at all.

But why stop there when there’s other mousey fun to be had? If you’ve got a few minutes at a coworker’s desk, click your way into their computer’s control panel. From there, you can go into their mouse settings and change the default pointer to the hourglass.

Then, every time they move their mouse, it will look like the computer is busy. They’ll have a heck of a time trying to figure out why the computer is suddenly going so slowly!

And as long as you’re hanging out in the mouse settings, why not switch up its speed? Having a mouse crawl along the screen—or zoom past at the slightest touch—is enough to drive anyone crazy. Or, for some extreme frustration, switch the primary and secondary button functions. That way, every time the click, they’ll really be right clicking.

Have fun!