Work Experience Kids Messed With Manager's PC To Send Him To Ctrl-Alt-Del Hell
The Register, Monday, February 23rd, 2026
Rogue user showed them an excellent prank, which they put into production
This week, meet a reader we'll Regomize as "Curt" who once worked as IT security manager at a company where the helpdesk manager routinely ignored company policy by not logging out of his PC. The machine sat there ready for use, instead of reverting to a password-protected screensaver that could only be dispelled by pressing Ctrl-Alt-Del to spawn a login dialog.
That behavior caught the eye of some community college students the company allowed to work on the helpdesk for unpaid work experience. As Curt tells it, the students could not resist temptation and took a screenshot of the helpdesk manager's desktop. They then tweaked the screensaver to show that static screenshot.