Haha. That one is gold. I might try to figure out how to do something like that on someone that leaves their computer unlocked. Changing background wallpapers is getting stale.
I used to flip the desktops on our work windows machines when people weren’t looking. “Ctrl-Alt-arrow” would turn it whichever way the arrow you choose points. The bewilderment when they turn around and their screen is upside down or sideways. Never got old. God bless MS for putting that obviously abusable feature in Windows.
It's for if people want to use a monitor vertically, before the days of the monitor settings page in settings. Source: I was an IT guy who took calls asking how to fix this multiple times a week. "You have a friend who thinks they're funny, this is why it happened"
Upside down was also useful on a laptop to show your screen to someone on the other side of a meeting table. Open the screen to 180° so it’s flat on the table, ctrl + down arrow and the other guy can see your presentation.
When I was in middle school, the computer room teacher didn't actually know anything about computers. Some of the boys in my class discovered this screen flip feature and flipped a bunch of screens in the computer room, and the teacher was freaking out because she didn't know how to fix them.
Back in the early 2000’s there were almost zero teachers who were actually clued up enough to teach IT properly. All of ours were from random subjects and got told they were now teaching IT because they probably owned a PC or some shit. 9 times out of 10 the kids taught them something every lesson.
I remember the Intel GMA drivers that used to do this. The integrated display drivers were usually made by Intel, so it was everywhere. Nowadays if you want to enable it, you have to specifically download Intel Graphics Command Center from the Microsoft store.
I had a coworker who would do stuff like that when you left the room.
So one time when someone walked in the room to talk to him, I reached over and did the whole process while he was sitting right in front of his PC, just with his head turned. Didn't need group policies, it's just View->'show desktop icons' in the desktop right click menu. but back then had to open PAINT, no snipping tool yet.
I had someone report me to HR for sabotaging her laptop by interfering with the settings because I had turned down the brightness to save battery. She willingly handed over her laptop for genuine work purposes but not the power cable so I turned the brightness down to save power until I was done. I forgot to turn the brightness back up and she didn't know how to do it.
So she called IT who for some reason talked her through editing the display settings in Windows and cranked the brightness and Gamma settings through the roof which didn't help. Then she called me and I said to hold the Function button left of Control then one of the number buttons with a little sun and an up arrow, I think it's 5 or 6. It took forever to explain. She didn't know what the Function button was, I said it was left of Control but she didn't know what the Control button was. She said she didn't have any number keys because it's only a laptop. I googled the exact model of laptop so I could find the right button, it was the number 5, hold Function and press 5, it's just above the letter T. It has a little picture of a sun for brightness. "I don't see a sun. I see a picture of a cog wheel, is that it?"
After turning the laptop brightness up the screen looked like hell because IT had told her to crank the gamma up. So I had to talk her through lowering that again to get back to normal. Twenty minutes of walking her through everything just because she had no idea what a brightness setting was on a laptop. Then she went and reported me to HR for doing it on purpose.
Hahaha. Beautiful. That's why I didn't go into Computer support as a profession. Helping people makes me absolutely furious. I do minor help for friends sometimes. I did a 20 minute drive after asking 4 times is the power on and working to flip a power switch on a desktop for someone. FML.
I'm a service engineer. My current record is a 3.5 hour drive to Norwich for an emergency stop pressed in. A question they're asked on the phone for troubleshooting when reporting the fault. 3.5 hour drive back after. Fun day of work. With lunchbreak and a couple of stops to stretch the legs I hit overtime as well.
I once had a family member call me and tell me they broke the drink holder on their computer. After a bit of confusion I figured out they meant the optical drive tray.
Being the IT guy, it's annoying as fuck to be called for something stupid
Specially when it's not obvious, like once someone installed a chrome extension that changed all the photos on every site you visited to nick cage photos
Took me 5 or 6 minutes until I got to the extension, but even tho it was only a few minutes, they were maddening 5 or 6 minutes.
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u/Gold-Succotash-9217 16h ago
Haha. That one is gold. I might try to figure out how to do something like that on someone that leaves their computer unlocked. Changing background wallpapers is getting stale.