Fool your friends! Annoy your enemies!

[theplustwo]

Check out my little format (http://www.theplustwo.com/programs/format.zip) program and see what I mean... :P

I wrote it last night in Visual Basic.NET. I'm going to try to slip it onto my friend Adam's computer and see what he does. :naughty:

Here's a screenshot of the program doing what it does:

http://www.theplustwo.com/programs/format.png


*Note: To close it, just right click anywhere on the interface. :)

[AlexMax]

OMG PRANK!!!!1111

I remember in MORE DOS for Dummies it showed how to make something similar using DOS Batch files. The funny part about that one was that it actually asked you if you wanted to format your hard drive, and it wouldn't let you select "No". What's more, it would auto-select yes after 10 seconds and do directory listings that got forwarded to device NULL to simulate disk activity.

Now THAT was evil. At the very lest, if your program doesn't simulate disk activity, he will suspect SOMETHING, no matter how computer illiterate he is.

[Rijuhn]

There is a problem when I try to execute the format.exe file

"A required .DLL file, MSCOREE.DLL, was not found"

Fix this soon man because I really want to freak out my sister.

[Ich]

Ha. No way I'm falling for this. "Here, just click this link and it'll only look like it's formatting your Hard Drive. And since our chat is being logged onto said harddrive, of course you'll be able to get back in contact with me and prove I did this."

[Raichu86]

Originally posted by Rijuhn
There is a problem when I try to execute the format.exe file

"A required .DLL file, MSCOREE.DLL, was not found"
Same problem here. That DLL seems to have something to do with Microsoft .NET framework.

[theplustwo]

Yeah, it was built with Microsoft Visual Studio.NET 2003, so you might need the .NET framework to run it... I'll see what I can do with the build options.

And Alex, it doesn't let you quit... if you click Close it simply pops up the ARE YOU SURE? dialog box (although the text exactly matches the windows format utility) and even if you click cancel in the warning box, it still "formats" and then displays a little "format complete" message (the same one you get when you actually format a disk), :)

The only way to quit is to right-click and select Close.

EDIT: Dang, I can only select to build for .NET framework 1.1 or 1.0, not for non .NET framework... I could probably rebuild it with VB6 at school (I don't have VB6 at home >_< ) but that would take another four hours or so...
Actually, probably not since I basically know how to use the timers and whatnot now.

I'll post it if I remake it for non .NET

In the meantime you could always just install the .NET framework on your sisters' computer. :P

Also, I had toyed with the idea of making the program copy some large windows files around in the background to simulate the disk activity, but I don't know how to do that yet (this was basically my first program, other than a calculator), but I can always come back to it and enhance it later.

Also, it is a mockup of the WinXP format box, and looks somewhat different that those of older windows versions. So if the person you're using it on is on an older version and formats disks sometimes, then they might notice that it is fake.

[Breaker]

Originally posted by theplustwo
I'll post it if I remake it for non .NET

Or link (http://www.dll-files.com/dllindex/dll-files.shtml?mscoree) to the necessary .DLL so these lazy kids can download/install it and run the program (as well as anything else compiled with the .net framework or VB6 and below).

[AtmaWeapon]

Breaker, I'm not sure if that works. The .NET runtime is a very hefty set of goodness. It's worth it, though. .NET owns.

*never mind, after reading your post again it's obvious it does work. My bad*

[Kryten]

(this post's original content has been rendered moot)

EDIT:
Actually, it appears you have to have the entire framework installed in order to run any .NET software. Just having the DLL won't do. Flashman verified it for meh.

[Breaker]

Originally posted by Kryten
(this post's original content has been rendered moot)

EDIT:
Actually, it appears you have to have the entire framework installed in order to run any .NET software. Just having the DLL won't do. Flashman verified it for meh.

http://msdn.microsoft.com/netframework/technologyinfo/redist/

Then everyone should install the Framework 1.1 Redistributable. It contains everything you need to run the applications, and since more and more developers are beginning to use the .Net framework, it really wouldn't be a bad idea or waste of time.

[Rijuhn]

Sweet, I love this program. I just installed .NET whatever btw. I just wish there was a way to get this on my friends computer, man, that would be so great!