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Due to office shenanigans, I try to leave my computer locked when I step away. Sometimes I forget and hilarity ensues.

What I'd like, though, is a way to detect when attempted shenanigans occur. That is, I'd like my screensaver to simply look like an unlocked computer but change in some way when it's disturbed. It doesn't need to be overly convincing--just a simple freeze until touched is fine.

Anything like that out there?

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While on the subject, however a little off topic, I thought you might like this official Blue Screen of Death screensaver straight from Microsoft's TechNet site. – SgtOJ Dec 3 '10 at 21:04
@Brian, oh yes, we've had much fun with that – Michael Haren Dec 3 '10 at 21:41
you could always try a motion detector camera, and have it make a loud noise when it detects them :P – studiohack♦ Dec 4 '10 at 0:12
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2 Answers

up vote 6 down vote
  1. Google "picture screensaver"
  2. Find a screen saver that lets you decide what pictures it displays
  3. Take a screenshot of your desktop, when shenanigans are tried it will ask for password
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I think you might be able to do this by using the already installed "My Picture Slideshow" if you choose a directory that just has your screenshot, set "how often" to less, set how big to %100, and turn off transitions. It might flash every few minutes but would unlikely be noticed by someone in a hurry to mess with you. – Dennis Dec 3 '10 at 21:08
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up vote 1 down vote

Or, as a similar prank...

  1. Take a screenshot of your desktop (in its normal state - with windows minimized, icons visible, etc.)
  2. Make it your desktop background.
  3. Open Task Manager and kill the explorer.exe process

This will make the real icons and taskbar disappear, leaving behind the desktop wallpaper, which is the screenshot you took earlier. It looks like you still have your icons and such in place! Since explorer.exe is killed, they will look around and double click and not be able to do anything! :) (you could always auto-hide the taskbar, but it is better to kill it altogether, then they really can't do anything...)

Another prank is to switch the mouse buttons on the mouse - super funny!

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/using/accessibility/reversemousebuttons.mspx

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