How to Have Computer Fun

It's happened to everyone. You're on your computer, getting more bored by the second. You don't really have anything else to do either; you have had enough of reading, playing outside, and talking to your friends. You need something fun to do on your computer, and here are some suggestions.

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 Steps

1. 1
   Give your computer a makeover. Computer savvy people call it a desktop theme. Surf Google Images or proper wallpaper sites, and get a new, groovy wallpaper for your computer. Be creative-get a pretty shot of your favorite celebrity, a cool pattern, or a nice picture of your favorite magazine or brand. Get a good screen saver, too; it could be a slideshow of all your pictures or another picture. You can also change the appearance and colors of your computer, the sounds on your computer, mouse pointers, and your display settings. You can begin by clicking on My Computer and then Control Panel. In making over your computer alone, there are loads of things to do.
   
   
   
2. 2
   Draw a picture in Paint. With 240 settings for hue, saturation, and luminescence, Paint affords a color palette of nearly fourteen million colors (240^3=13,824,000). There are many surprises in Paint, too. Your options are not limited to what you see in your Tool Box to the left!^[1] You can print out your picture and frame it. You can make birthday cards and coloring pages. You can also save your picture and use it as your wallpaper. Open Paint, set the canvas dimensions for the same dimensions as the screen, and start drawing. Be sure to save your work; you can select it as a wallpaper only after it has been saved. For using your wallpaper, you have three options: 1) use it at its original size, 2) resize it to fit the screen, either enlarging or shrinking it, or 3) tile it. If you want your wallpaper to be a pattern, you can create just one portion of it that is to be tiled.
   
   
   
3. 3
   Turn the screen upside down. No, you don't have to actually turn the monitor upside down; if you're trying to pick up your monitor, put it down! First, right-click on the desktop and click on the "Display" option. Then find a tab or option for "Rotation." Select to rotate the screen 180 degrees (that's upside down). This works differently on different computers.
   
   
   
4. 4
   Do your bit for wikiHow or any other wiki. While you're on a wiki, do your bit to help. If you're reading an article and see an error, do not hesitate to correct it. Simply click the "Edit" tab, and you can immediately begin editing, even if you do not have an account. Consider creating an account now; there are many benefits for you as an editor. Some people enjoy the writing and research aspect of it. You can even write a new article on a subject of your choice! Other people enjoy discussing articles or talking with contributors. Leave useful comments on other article's discussion pages, welcome new users, or suggest some ideas or help to other users! There is always so much to do on wikis.
   
   
   
5. 5
   Start a blog or your own website. There are loads of great sites that let you create your own blogs and sites, including blogger.com and freewebs.com. You can create quizzes, polls, and lots more. It's fun to start a blog or a site, so go ahead! It'll keep you busy for hours on end! If you've already got a blog or your own site, give it a makeover. Explain to readers what's going on, and then go crazy! Change the colours, fonts, styles, everything.
   
   
   
6. 6
   Read up on your interests on the Internet. Do you have a passion for animals? Are you interested in Jack the Ripper or fascinated by cloning? Don't hesitate to fulfill your wonder! Read up on as many animals as you can on http://www.nationalgeographic.com/, type Jack the Ripper into Google, or browse sites on all the information you want on cloning! Not only will you learn lots of interesting new stuff, you'll also be prepared if you start studying one of those topics in school.
   
   
   
7. 7
   Save the world. Look up some interesting charities or volunteer organizations. Play a vocabulary game at http://www.freerice.com to earn rice and end world hunger.
   
   
   
8. 8
   Play a game. RuneScape! is a great way to spend time on the Internet. It is a very addictive game and can be very fun. If you want fun you got it! If you're not into RuneScape, or have only five minutes, search for sites such as Addicting Games, Miniclip and Gprime and play their games as well. The links for the three sites mentioned are here (see Sources and Citations). Another good game to play is Cyberdunk, especially if you're into basketball. Freeware games are good to play and can be very addicting. Freewaregames.net is a good place to look for them. Minecraft is the best alternative for indie game lovers and for people that like game of the year.
   
   
   
9. 9
   Take a picture of the computer screen! Did you finally finish that game that you've been working on for two months? Now you can have proof! Copy and paste a picture of the screen by pressing the "Print Screen - SysRq" key (to the right of "F12"), opening Paint, and clicking "Paste." This button will copy everything on screen, including the task bar. This is also a great way to show off a website design. See How to Take a Screenshot of the Entire Screen for more ideas.
   
   
   
10. 10
    Watch videos. Youtube.com and Google Videos allow you to watch videos other users have put up; it may be something you are interested in, such as your favorite comedian or band. The links are in "External Links".
    
    
    
11. 11
    Browse the Internet Use programs such as StumbleUpon or Digg to find interesting sites, and share them with other people.
    
    
    
12. 12
    Play with Rover, the computer dog. Click on the Start bar and find the "Search" option (there should be a magnifying glass next to it). You can also open up a folder (such as My Pictures) and click on the magnifying glass icon. Rover the dog is the default assistant. Click on him to have him perform a trick or change assistants. The tricks are performed randomly, and some may be repeated before you have seen them all.
    
    
    
13. 13
    Write a crazy conversation backwards on any kind of word document. Try NOT to write it normally first and then copy the spelling; that just takes all the fun away! Do it properly; it gets you thinking and it's enjoyable, too. Afterwards have someone else try to read it; it's great to watch readers struggle!
    
    
    
14. 14
    Play with Google Earth Download the program "Google Earth" and see high quality satelite pictures all over the world. Fun to play with, and really good quality when you zoom in. Also try "Google StreetView" where you can go on the streets in alot of cities like London, New York and such.
    
    
    
15. 15
    Advise Others If you are good at answering people's questions you can find very good platforms to do this. Yahoo Answers and Wiki Answers are popular Question sites where you can not only post your own questions but also help others by answering their questions.
    
    
    
16. 16
    Listen to Music. There are a lot of great sites that allow you to listen to your favorite songs for free. There are many excellent sites that allow you to do just this. Pandora Radio is a great site that allows you to listen to your own personalized radio based on your favorite songs. Grooveshark is a great free site where you can listen to all your favorite songs of your choice.
    
    
    
17. 17
    Write a story. You can use Word, Notepad, TextEdit, or any word processing application. It can be fun to write a short story, and you're completely equipped to write one with a computer. Think about something that interests you, or look up "Story Ideas" on the internet to find some cool ideas. To make the writing process more fun, listen to some music. You can easily find free music listening sites by searching the internet. Also, if you have a laptop, consider moving it to a cozy area in your house, such as a living room.
    
    
    

Tips

• If all else fails, just search for fun software on Google and see if you can find anything fun to mess about on.
• If you get bored of any of the items on this list, try something different!

Warnings

• Be careful when looking for freeware games on unfamiliar websites. Some "free" games are infected with viruses and/or malware. If in doubt, always research the site's public reputation (Wikipedia often has articles about websites and dangerous software), or restrict yourself to only "open source" games.
• Remember that not all the information you find on the Internet is reliable. Books are just a tad safer.