What Happens When You DELETE system32? - The History of the Infamous Prank

[@theMagos]

Folder named "32": Stores 64-bit files Folder named "64": Stores 32-bit files Logic

[@JamesW81]

Microsoft logic!

[@PantsYT]

Logic 🧻

[@Trevurie]

Genius!!

[@Outside998]

Well, it does make sense. Programs looking for the folder system32 still run on 64bit, and the SysWoW64 folder helps with making those programs run.

[@kristinewalls9819]

ITS EVOLVING JUST BACKWARDS

[@morganlak4337]

So proud of my 10 year old self. I came across one of those images you showed describing how system32 is a Microsoft scam to make your computer slow and I immediately believed it and went to the folder to see what was in it. I didn't know much about computers, but reading the file names clued me in pretty quickly that these were crucial files and I was being pranked, googled it to confirm and did NOT delete system32. Smartest moment of my entire life, sad I peaked at 10

[@ninethetwotailedfox]

@@adg30 bro what 💀

[@adg30]

@@ninethetwotailedfox bro youtube fucked up i meant to comment on another💀💀

[@khyen]

What did bro say? ​@@ninethetwotailedfox

[@sanicmovie4894]

​@@ninethetwotailedfox Tell us what bro said!

[@matix16]

This is one of pranks like „Put your iPhone to a microwave”

[@TheLightingPerson]

Then your phone exploded.

[@Raven-2000]

It is, and both of these pranks originated on 4chan.

[@PikaPerfect]

iirc putting your phone in the microwave DOES charge it a little bit pretty quickly but, yknow, it also explodes, so that 3% charge in 20 seconds is not worth it

[@uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh0]

Well, one is ruin your copy of Windows, and one is explode your phone

[@TheLightingPerson]

@@PikaPerfect yeah but it affect the ports and heating it cause elther phone's motherboard or battery elther explodes or overheat.

[@dani.munoz.a23]

Why I love this channel: -Humor -Tech -Michael's great royalty-free music taste

[@ninethetwotailedfox]

You're very right

[@justinianthegreatandnerd6377]

@@ninethetwotailedfox your avatar looks disgusting. mine is either historical or my favourite game characters

[@justinianthegreatandnerd6377]

@xTH3CONNORx my eyes burn from it.

[@Slaithyte]

aH yEs

[@skeliskull]

XP still looks so familiar even though it’s been probably nearly 15 years since I’ve used it. So nostalgic

[@asinglefrenchfry]

honeslty it’s so much cleaner than windows 10 like even just the file explorer it was so much simpler , and not do mention it was much more consistent in UI design

[@finn9232]

@@asinglefrenchfry for me windows xp looks very nice, but i could never use it. i'm so used to 10

[@asinglefrenchfry]

@@finn9232 I don’t even remember saying this lolol the win10 file explorer is definitely more useful and practical in a lot of ways

[@finn9232]

@@asinglefrenchfry ye! especially for uh.. 100% illegal stuff

[@MichaelHeeHee]

Same. I still have my og laptop with windows XP Professional. A hand me down from my sister. I'll keep it forever. I even still know the password lol

[@AshuraH]

Ah, this wonderful oldie troll.

[@Raven10241]

what would happen if you try it on windows 10 would it allow it and would it redownload it if you deleted it?

[@FlineGuy]

Raven 4096 no

[@bigshlump928]

This prank has been replaced my the alt f4 prank

[@AeroDIEnamiX]

Man yall used to break peoples computers for entertainment...

[@widevader]

@@AeroDIEnamiX always. But its also funny alt f4 when someone is playing a game especially when u do it to a kid or your teacher.

[@meligarcia]

When I was little, I didn't know what System32 was and yet I knew that it was important since I had the assumption that stuff in the Windows folder was important, and I was right! I was a responsible little child :)

[@Pixiuchu]

i broke several computers as a child ...and then I got a laptop for my 18th birthday which was sent for repair three times lol. It hasn't had a repair since over a year now though so i seem to have learned from my mistakes

[@meligarcia]

@Lucas Zhu I didn't even mess with the Windows files anyway. I would just play Flash games 😄

[@meligarcia]

Actually I've never heard of this whole trolling scheme until around 2 years ago

[@MaxUgly]

I remember learning how to make a batch file. First thing I did was make a deltree /Y c: thing and it was flagged as a virus (norton?) as soon as I pressed 'save' in notepad!

[@elnkr2603]

@@MaxUgly dude Max out here writing viruses

[@migu8422]

5:54 *What happens when you delete System32*

[@zahidbutt4325]

Thx

[@manasveer6047]

Thank you

[@lifedestroyer0525]

T hanks

[@ronin_wins]

Thx

[@frootloot6789]

thanks yo

[@BrettOPediaTV]

“System 32” would be a sick band name back in the early 2000’s

[@XeonIsWeird]

early 2000's post hardcore emo band or something

[@who_cares848]

Just Google it there's a ton of shitty Electronica bands with that name

[@kenrickeason]

System 32 would have been a great name for a rock band from the early 2000s..

[@7CapsaicinCookie77]

System 32 Recommended songs: Windows, File

[@progressman95]

they should make a song called "Executable"

[@ryanexx5250]

after I deleted system32, my laptop ran so well it didn’t even need to use the fans!

[@brosthestickmandude]

eh...

[@diamondonyt8397]

Yo I need to try this

[@brosthestickmandude]

@@diamondonyt8397 No do not even...

[@diamondonyt8397]

@@brosthestickmandude it worked! Chrome ran so well it didn’t need ram

[@brosthestickmandude]

@@diamondonyt8397 C'mon u can't trick me, I have a long experience on computers (But don't know how to fix hardware damages).

[@AnnoyedArt1256]

Oh god the intro is funny in a weird kind

[@CocoTheMii]

@YEETUS DELETUS.mp3 weird

[@jogel4162]

Mjd: I'm computer noob. Mjd2: troll loves to del system 32

[@yeahwhatever5319]

It's just a normal funny skit. Nothing weird.

[@mrxarch]

Minecrafter

[@lindahartley7390]

@@Gamezilla899 tf?

[@pasci_lei]

It's faster ..... at crashing.

[@saturniunyttech679]

Lmao. Edit: why is everyone saying that only Americans can fall for it wtf *Read more*

[@aregprograms]

Saturniun YT good one i fell for it

[@noobcloudv2102]

@@aregprograms SAME

[@selvyucro]

@@saturniunyttech679 thought u could fool me

[@gneurshk4906]

@@saturniunyttech679 u tried to fool me but im not american

[@hiddenfromyourview]

The car analogy of this is "What happens when you delete the vehicle engine?"

[@kashmirwillwin3124]

The corporation analogy of this is "What happens when you delete the CEO of the company"

[@kashmirwillwin3124]

The human analogy of this is "What happens when you delete the brain?"

[@kashmirwillwin3124]

The state analogy of this is "What happens when you delete the parliament?"

[@kashmirwillwin3124]

The kitchen analogy of this is "What happens when you delete the stove?"

[@kashmirwillwin3124]

The windows analogy of this is "What happens when you delete the system32 folder?"

[@unownunown1530]

Ah yes the original “just press alt and f4 at the same time“

[@lanzjacobq.borres2150]

No I not gonna do it becuse its prank

[@unownunown1530]

@BradynLee09 no you have to do it when ur playing a game on your pc, its a cheat code kinda like the konami code if u ever heard about that

[@justwilliam4802]

@Ethan Smurf eyyyyyy glad I’m not the only Linux user

[@thomastankengine7898]

Yeah I was gonna troll everyone or teamer, hackers, campers in Roblox to say Press Alt F4

[@justwilliam4802]

@Ethan Smurf I use Ubuntu

[@ktvx.94]

"Why isn't it called System64?" because it would be a Nintendo game

[@fromthegamethrone]

Nintendo: *laughs in lawsuit*

[@jacek349]

Looks like another video to claim *laughs in Nintendo*

[@batorerdyniev9805]

SUPERMARIO64

[@ThanMG]

@@fromthegamethrone 😂🤣

[@anidiot4558]

Exit stage left

[@jordananderson2728]

5:15 "/b/ isn't cool with this" Ah, 4chan. The place where all technology anarchy begins.

[@fl570]

Lmao, had to be /b/.

[@philipramirez5406]

They're hackers on steroids and will not stand for Microsoft's shenanigans

[@gandalf87264]

This brings up a funny memory. About 25 years ago we had a receptionist who had extreme OCD decided to delete some files on her computer that she didn't need, and just tidy up things a little bit. I think the OS was Windows 95 at the time. She wasn't shy about it either. That Windows folder was completely unnecessary. DOS also went with it and any other files she didn't think she needed. Alas, the next morning, her computer wouldn't boot. After that, she never heard the rest of it. I have more stories to tell, but not here.

[@finn9232]

LMAO

[@therealzhenplaz200]

yeah... you can delete so much windows 95 can be 12MB

[@poeterritory]

Pro tip. Rename System32 to System64 and watch your PC run twice as fast.

[@evandex08]

It'll break windows too

[@Randomuser231]

@@evandex08 it'll break twice as fast

[@q__7]

@@Randomuser231 if you multiply 16 by 2,you get 32. 8 by 2 is 16, 4 by 2 is 8, 2 by 2 is 4. So technically, 32 is already very fast. And if you change it to 64... it becomes unstoppable.

[@evandex08]

@Broke gamer bcuz Windows did not refresh where is the system32 file while the system32 is renamed, btw I tried using a picture screensaver locating at my documents folder, I renamed its folder then the screensaver didn't showing any pictures, so I had to browse again lol

[@zad_rasera]

Copy the System32 folder and paste a duplicate of it. Now you have two System32 folders, which makes your PC 4x as fast.

[@markanthony3626]

I remember doing that in my father's pc 😂😂 I'll never forget that intense ass-whooping

[@Philosgamestation]

It's a huge deal

[@ThePhantomSafetyPin]

I hope to God he was able to restore it...

[@zank8470]

Were you the one I saw on the 4chan forums screenshot?

[@sophiacristina]

When i was kid and the computer lacked memory i thought "well, there is lot of notepads and notepad-like icons, notepads are just text, don't? I probably can delete those"... Well, you know what happens later...

[@yefan15]

that was quite a funny troll

[@Rickfernello]

It just makes me sad to think that some people will just try to harm others so inconsequentially, without even getting the satisfaction of knowing what they did. It really makes me sad and hopeless.

[@seaque.]

i wonder how many people corrupted their systems because of this

[@diorsse]

you mad?

[@brosthestickmandude]

Wait.. I have a thing in my pepperoni, If they're us and we're them... then we tell them to delete system32, then they are disappointed when they see an unbootable junkin' PC. What would they feel? see! the KARMA principle

[@DanceTranced]

Don't knock it till you try it

[@brosthestickmandude]

@@DanceTranced well I do (long ago)

[@ckingpro]

Just waiting for someone to come up with this new version of the prank: So if you have a 64-bit version of Windows, system32 is useless (contains 32-bit stuff while sysWOW64 contains the 64-bit stuff) and just takes space, so you have to delete it, right?

[@ttaute]

It's the opposite. System32 contains the 64-bit files and SysWoW64 is for 32-bit stuff. But non-technical people wouldn't care and listen to their pranks and break Windows. Luckily there is that TrustedInstaller thing.

[@namesurname4666]

@@ttaute then why is system32 also in 32 bit os?

[@rafiffairuztama]

@Windows 10 that’s the prank, bro.

[@ckingpro]

@@ttaute Yeah I know, I am just trying to think of a way someone could trick people with a modern version of deleting system32

[@ckingpro]

@Windows 10 I know, I am just trying to reimagine a modern version of deleting system32 prank

[@StarsOfPleiades]

This is the Windows version of the famous "Run 'sudo rm -rf /' for faster boot time" in Linux world.

[@romanhredil3799]

`sudo dd if=/dev/urandom of=/dev/sda` tell them that they have a virus called /dev/sda that slows down the computer and this command deletes the virus the moment they hit enter, they are screwed.

[@user-xr3rb6pn9m]

That's why, as the terminal will tell you when you are getting superuser privileges for the first time, THINK BEFORE YOU TYPE!

[@MegaBobsel]

I do hope the people running Linux are more intelligent than that.

[@malwaretestingfan]

@@MegaBobsel Linux is used mainly by server administrators or professionals which would not fall into the trick.

[@bunself]

@@romanhredil3799 what if my drive isnt sda?

[@nvagn]

Instruction unclear, my PC got so fast it yeeted itself out of my room

[@sargentdoggo297]

Have you tried to put a cookie in the cd drive

[@nvagn]

@@zMkNz Yes

[@LulJim]

Wow. So funny I forgot to laugh

[@DragonBallZKaifan2]

Are you sure that wasn’t Mario doing the Backwards Long Jump?

[@robertreid-8-bit-guy635]

pc be like: *b y e b y e*

[@KlMJONG-UN]

When I was a mischievous adolescent I went to the laptops on display at Walmart and uninstalled system32 on all of them

[@bencurry3044]

lol

[@carpinsho3907]

Hes a hero

[@grease839]

Bruh king

[@deception845]

madlad 100

[@justwoosh]

fucking chad

[@dmitrijsmironovs7513]

5:39 12 year old me trying to delete my search history 'WARNING THIS COMPLETELY CLEARS YOUR BROWSING HISTORY' *Perfect*

[@saghwteam]

I expected : "Hello everybody and welcome back..." What I got : "Hey man..." My world has been turned upside down today

[@leap123_]

"My world has been upside down today" *So, this is happen if Michael was from Australia*

[@MondySpartan]

Greetings, and welcome to an LGR thing. Oh wait, wrong channel.

[@user-zn7qe3kv2n]

Me to

[@UniblueTechX555]

The acting in the beginning is so bad, it's good 🤤

[@setsers1]

XD yep.

[@Pinkcircleguy]

*Visible confusion*

[@seaque.]

it doesn't need to be 'good'

[@stonethemason12]

I think its because he doesnt take the acting too seriously.m

[@protegent3607]

0:22 OOPS, MY SYSTEM CRASHED

[@justanotherspookyskeleton]

no

[@bariodoesrandomstuff4845]

i lOst My dEeTa, bUt i haD pRotEgEnT!

[@obsuser3410]

@@bariodoesrandomstuff4845 (sparkly sounds) protogent is a virus (silence)

[@PichusBlueberryPies]

I lost my data, but I had an anti-virus! (LMFAO)

[@Sharktonic1]

Roses are red My screen is blue I think I know why I deleted system 32...

[@mrappu2884]

@•Charles Calvin• That is one of the original memes

[@toastcart8211]

@@mrappu2884 ive seen this meme over 50 times , and that actually IS NOT exaggeration, that is sad.

[@ryam.9688]

i see this *E V E R Y W H E R E*

[@TRCumbox]

Didnt rhyme

[@TRCumbox]

This Is better

[@koneeche]

everyone: "lol deleting system32 haha" me: "where did he get that windows xp lamp thing?"

[@Jojo2]

I'd like to know as well

[@fridge9734]

Delete System32? Bold of you to assume I still have the Trash Folder.

[@coolsonicsoul7356]

but how do you delete it?

[@Kryptonite-x2q]

@@coolsonicsoul7356 I don't have computer or pc but get a shortcut delete trash delete the short cut and ur never virus free now!

[@coolsonicsoul7356]

@@Kryptonite-x2q how do you delete the shortcut? also I don't think it lets you make a shortcut for trash

[@Enderia2]

You put trash into the trash

[@Destroyer-mt8vs]

😳

[@AMansTech]

I tried taking ownership of SysWoW64 by using the "takown /r /d y /f" command and it bricked Windows. (I tried this on real hardware using Windows 10)

[@AMansTech]

@Ciandi [GD] oh thanks for correcting me.

[@pointed.sphere]

@andybot89 Deleting System32 will definitely brick win7. HKCU only contains files for your user account, so it will brick your user account and nothing else.

[@PantsYT]

Just use GNU/Linux for full control! :)

[@MLWJ1993]

I believe people found a simpler way to brick windows, it involves using windows update & can result in boot loops 🙂 (JK), I've never really had any of such issues in my years of using windows 10 home edition. Other editions might be different & could very well be user settings dependant.

[@ChrisKogos]

Marble Blast Ultra is the shit 🔥

[@LinusTheSecond]

2nd

[@percy.549]

2st

[@TheAmazingDoorknob]

How do you only have 13 likes

[@jaffalouis]

2th

[@jacek349]

?

[@worstie9738]

My teacher: class my camera is not working Me: have you tried deleting system32?

[@MrDudesMom]

Story actually: When my dad was in his 20's, he went to serve in the military. He was on a computer once, and saw this "System32" file. He thought it was nothing too important, maybe a virus or so, and then deleted the file. And then the drill sergeants started yelling at him, lol. I think this is random, just a story. :)

[@SenTHR811]

Nice story

[@frosinajanevska8081]

Hehe

[@CptPrice-qr6ng]

Oh, thank you! Gave me a good laugh!

[@choppermuscle6358]

Prices didn't expect you to be on here but that's what retirement after killing Makerov does to you

[@nicholasxayasith55]

I'm more of a "scotch tape on bottom of mouse sensor" man myself, but I do remember a Mac we had at work years ago that was "sudo'd" by someone fond of getting maintenance information from unreliable sources.

[@PasanAkalanka]

I'm pretty sure that more than 90% of the people watching this already know about system32.

[@zank8470]

the 10%: tell meh ur secrets

[@vardaspavarde6423]

No shit sherlock

[@frosinajanevska8081]

What's that

[@radu8547]

Guess imma be a 10%

[@rhydonmaidik5345]

Guess I've been living under a rock my whole life

[@rogehmarbi]

I remember there was also another troll involving system files back then. There was this file with a bear icon (file name ended with mgr.exe, something like JDJDMGR.exe), and a file with handwritten icon (SULF***.exe). They claimed it was a virus or something. I deleted both (was stupid back then), but I think nothing happened after.

[@markusTegelane]

The one with the bear icon was used to enable or disable Java debugging. Unless you were a Java developer, there would be no effect in deleting that file. Not sure about the other one tough...

[@AhmadWahelsa]

Actually it is a virus and i encountered it when i was younger if im not wrong it was Ramnit virus that would slowdown your computer overtime and overheat your cpu. once you got that virus you will see every applications has a duplicate that always ends with "***mgr.exe" and adds like 100kb of size on it

[@himanshubansal167]

​@@AhmadWahelsa The ***mgr file about which you are taking is jdbgmgr and it is java file so it is not a virus. Detailed information about it (obtained form Wikipedia)is-: The jdbgmgr.exe virus hoax involved an e-mail spam in 2002 that advised computer users to delete a file named jdbgmgr.exe because it was a computer virus. jdbgmgr.exe, which had a little teddy bear like icon (The Microsoft Bear), was actually a valid Microsoft Windows file,the Debugger Registrar for Java (also known as Java Debug Manager, hence jdbgmgr).

[@Scott-cy8qv]

@Ethan Smurf that's SULFNBK.exe

[@weene875]

@@Scott-cy8qv And what is it for?

[@lect0n7]

In the mid-1990s, I had a guy who REALLY wanted to be a computer expert...and he had a 386 DEC pc...and he deleted every everything ending in _.386_ and, so, I’m at his apartment a few hours after he’d done this and I was like “Did you delete all the .386 system files?!?” And he’s like “No!!” so I respond “Who did then?!?” and I had to explain to him that those are for Hardware Interface... having _.386_ things isn’t the difference between his _DEC 386_ & an IBM with a 166 MHZ Pentium CPU....that’s not how it works...

[@ALXMARTIN]

2010: System 32 meme 2020: Apple deletes system 32 from all macOS devices

[@binguslover0508]

macos is linux based, it doesnt/never had system32

[@wojtekpolska1013]

@@binguslover0508 thats literally the joke also MacOS is not based on Linux in any way. Some linux distros look like macos, but thats because their shell was made to look like MacOS

[@binguslover0508]

@@wojtekpolska1013 uh, yeah it is

[@adamwilliams7241]

@@binguslover0508 technically it’s not, but they’re both Unix based OSs

[@somerando6399]

@@binguslover0508 MacOS is based on XNU which is based off from BSD which is based upon Unix, it was never related to linux, Although both of them are POSIX compaitable

[@danielbrunner8312]

I tried to do this myself, but I couldn't find system32 in my machine. I looked in /bin, /usr, /var and even in my home, but its nowhere to be found ;(

[@Wina_Wina]

Try :C/Windows/System32

[@wumi2419]

@@Wina_Wina you got your slashes wrong way. Windows uses backslash unlike rest of the world.

[@zai-tm]

@@wumi2419 you're saying this as if more people use linux than windows

[@wumi2419]

@@zai-tm more people use browsers than windows

[@Bassalicious]

ikr? Even "ls -al /" doesn't list it :(

[@peetey897]

I do computer support for a living and one of my coworkers and I had a computer we needed to deliberately break, so that it couldn’t be booted again. We couldn’t get it to boot to our wipe drive, so we just did this - on purpose - just highlighted the windows folder and deleted as much as it would let us, took ownership of the system files, continued to delete, etc. I think we broke it quite successfully!

[@zenith360]

That honestly sounds really fun lol

[@nikkiofthevalley]

As in, erasing stuff or just keeping it from booting? If you were erasing stuff I would have just have taken a hammer to the storage media if it wasn't too expensive. (One of my old workplaces had a hammer labeled "Data Terminator" for this exact purpose when dealing with highly sensitive information.) Otherwise I'd have just tried to find a way to get the wipe drive to boot.

[@justanenderman9668]

0:00 best animation I’ve seen

[@killian66]

Yes

[@markusTegelane]

Antagonist = red lol

[@amogus7]

boot you up

[@n8sec.569]

32 likes

[@Paperdude101]

@@n8sec.569 Like System 32!

[@H4MEE]

Im only going to ask this once, what happened to the first 31 systems?

[@mizuukiiiii]

they were deleted by the people fooled by the ones who said to delete it

[@age234]

In the 90s I bricked my friend's family computer by deleting the Windows 3.1 system folder. I thought you needed to do that to upgrade to Windows 95.

[@e.6z1]

1. you did not brick it, you just fucked up windows 2. sir windows 3.1 is just a GUI for MS-DOS 3. you can install windows 95

[@abanoub7002]

@@e.6z1 1. What he describes is the definition of bricked 2. The same can be said for any windows os; that they are just ui for dos/nt, but that would be invalid. Same with 3.1 since it had programs made specifically for it and not dos itself. 3. Yes but most people would just use an upgrade floppy/disc/usb

[@e.6z1]

@@abanoub7002 bricked is what happens when for example the power goes out during a bios update, thats bricked. broken OS is when you break your OS also, windows 3.1 is the equivalent of a linux DE, the OS is DOS, windows is the DE, you cant say that of modern windows, since windows is the OS itself, nt is the kernel

[@abanoub7002]

@@e.6z1 true, windows is a de for dos/nt while also expanding on it, but what I'm trying to say is that the programs are *intended* to be used on windows rather then nt or dos, after all how many times do you see "compatible with nt 6" instead of "compatible with windows" on a software website?

[@e.6z1]

@@abanoub7002 again, modern windows isnt a DE for NT, as NT is just the kernel, but windows 3.11 IS a DE for DOS

[@hundredfaye618]

1:33 The system folder was last modified on my birthday (date, not year), it seems.

[@saritar1000]

This is in the same league as "Press ALT + F4 to enable secret cheats"

[@RainyHOF]

What does it really do (I’m not trying this I have a Aura R7 Alienware Gaming Computer😂)

[@doublecrate2490]

@@RainyHOF it closes the app you're using or shuts down the pc if none is open

[@evanultime1305]

@@RainyHOF why are you telling us your pc tho

[@evanultime1305]

The new trick is ctrl+w which closes the current window

[@GBlastMan]

Man this video is quite good indeed, i never knew the origins of this could go so far back in history very informative indeed, if there is any other kind of pranks or stuff like this were you could explain its origins and what they exactly do to the OS i could love to see more videos about them because this was quite refreshing indeed.

[@Enter8909]

MJD: "Seriously, don't try this yourself" Me: how bout i do it in vm anyway?

[@asparagustree7896]

"What happens when you delete system32" To put it simply, your computer just dies

[@darkanonimul6189]

Old but gold

[@rickpin_0612]

Yep

[@Adjuni]

I was an mod and later admin on a big forum in the early 2010's and I pushed hard for making those kind of posts a bannable offence since the grand majority of our users were pre-teens and early teens.

[@bitemykrank1970]

This brings back some not so fond memories, I never got duped into deleting my system32 folder by anyone, but I DID delete it once on purpose to see what would happen. I have clear memories of the hal.dll missing screen. I guess the system really DOES need the "hardware abstraction layer dynamic link library" to run.......and simply installing that file again doesn't fix the issue, as all it's friends have gone too. It's like a wino outside a bar on election day...VERY LONELY and ALONE....

[@legendaryra3590]

Same haha, I was going through my files and thought it was sus. Back then it didn't have any kinda protection either. The PC still ran fine afterwards, but as soon as I turned it off and back on later, I realised the gravity of the situation

[@Fatrick_Star]

i remember this probably in the top 10 best pranks in history

[@thottea434]

As a kid i did it without anyone telling me, i thought i was so smart and i deleted files in it so i can download a game from CD and after i tried downloading the game, the pc shut down and i turned the pc on again and i got black screen all the time. Rip

[@Arkki213]

Uh, I always thought this prank started on an image board when a kid asked how to make his dad computer work again and one of the answers was delete System32 and another one I remember was put a strong magnet on the HardDrive.

[@xddstudiosbywr3cked845]

That's just cruel

[@Juli-lf5kc]

@@xddstudiosbywr3cked845 That's just 4chan.

[@AltHistoryByOsov]

Then: Delete sys.32. Now: Press Altf4

[@dudeblizt6350]

it went from breaking computers to making you close tabs/games

[@xLuis89x]

@@dudeblizt6350 At least! Society has progressed in at least one area!

[@somerando6399]

Now: run 'rm -rf / --no-preserve-root' to speed up your computer!

[@Saber_Nico]

im surprised you didnt mention about this one streamer who actually deleted her system32 because of the trolls lol

[@zad_rasera]

who's that streamer?

[@zomzomtheungodlycapitalist]

Zad Ras Brittany venti I think I remember when she cursed my brother out on her stream because of people hacking and she thought he did it.. LAWL

[@-throat-]

system34

[@yeetionary]

system35 would like to know your location

[@Crit7k]

@Rtu Barmen Shes hot af lmao, she’s an ironic streamer aswell which is nice

[@alexoelkers2292]

I didn't actually know this was a trolling scheme but know enough to never try to dealt it.

[@enaxtry]

Also careful with cleaning programs, some can heavily damage system32 files or registry files.

[@tommyspaghet6877]

How

[@SkyyySi]

"Windows 32 bit on Windows 64 bit" - If you thought that "Windows subsystem for Linux" is a bad name for a Linux subsystem for Windows 10, think again.

[@Helladamnleet]

Yeah, I never would have guessed that's what sysWOW64 stood for

[@ephemeralViolette]

@@Helladamnleet System Windows on Windows 64.

[@SkyyySi]

@@ephemeralViolette That's wrong and he explained it in the video - and so did I in my comment smh

[@cacomeat7385]

Microsoft are just shit at naming things, not just with Windows but with the absurd number of "S" and "X" Xbox consoles

[@SkyyySi]

@@cacomeat7385 People: Microsoft, what comes after 360? Microsoft: 361. People: ... Microsoft: ...

[@themeamer3547]

the four horsemen of being immortal: Knowing how does it feel to chew 5-gum Stepping on Lego's normally Rick rolling KZbin Still using your PC after deleting System32

[@AssortedMold268]

*stepping on legos for fun

[@rogierwbd]

Ah. Never forgot the time I was given our old Windows 98 family computer. I moved the entire Windows folder to the D-drive cause there wasn’t any space for one of my games… 7 year old me learned this the hard way 😅

[@cudi099]

Half a million people are now aware of this! Good Job!

[@masken8355]

You can do sudo rm -rf / --no-preserve-root in WSL to speed up your computer

[@Bamlbo]

I did this in a Windows XP system like you did and It basically did the same message saying "This computer can't boot up because this file is missing" It was very underwhelming but still cool.

[@spedunky7555]

I remember years ago when I was younger and knew nothing about computers. I had a PC with 2 hard drives and wanted to move the Windows files to the other hard drive. So I cut and copied everything from one HDD to the other. Everything just went black and the taskbar had no icons. After a while everything shut off and the pc was unable to start an OS now.

[@Octolicia]

6:42 : Except when you're a flat earther and believe that Microsoft is into conspiracies. :) (I'm not by the way. I'm trolling the Flat earthers.)

[@user-xr3rb6pn9m]

Well, your latter statement is not really false, given all the telemetry which cannot be disabled even if you try your best.

[@PantsYT]

@@user-xr3rb6pn9m did you just run "fortune"

[@waifu_png_pl6854]

bill gates bad, weird facebook articles good

[@mariano1196]

I swear to god I when I was a 11 year old I got pranked with the notepad method and somehow through sheer dumb luck I managed to reverse it by just deleting the notepad file when I logged into safe mode.

[@mlgiyel3021]

0:39 Alternate Subtitle: *WHAT* HOW

[@sujitkumarsingh3200]

To speed up my system, once I moved all OS related files to the root of C:/ thinking that it will have faster read time.

[@merlefi6162]

I didn't even know that such a prank existed back then lmao... Good thing I didn't really knew much about using a PC back then. I remember even being scared to touch my PC as a kid since I was worried of being scolded by my dad if I did something wrong with it so I didn't really had the opportunity or interest to mess around with my PC.

[@morganrussman]

For me, I'm glad I didn't even have one back in the day, partly because I was so young.

[@EMOTIONOGRAPHY]

I'm never going to forget the 4chan thread where they told someone to take a magnet to his hard drive after telling him to delete Sys32. He did both things.

[@banguseater]

lmfao is there an archive of this thread?

[@EMOTIONOGRAPHY]

@@banguseater there's an image archive.

[@NoOne-qn2hv]

I still remember that story of the kid who was convinced to delete system32 on their dad's PC and then rub their hard drives with magnets

[@MrZRACER]

I finally found out why there's two programs files folders on the most random "eh it's short so I'll watch it" video.

[@BUDA20]

I remember Formating the C: drive while on Windows 3, or deleting the Swapfile, just to see what happen, all these things are protected now

[@johndododoe1411]

And those protections get in the way of real repair attempts when something in there is broken. I know exactly what those directories are and sometimes just need to replace a few broken OS components.

[@MetaStudent-1]

Hypothetically speaking; if I moved all files in system32 out of it so that they where running outside the initial folder could I safely delete the folder to prevent someone from getting on my computer and deleting it in the first place?

[@nikkiofthevalley]

No. Some of the files aren't executables, (As in, a program that you could actually run.) they're "dynamic link libraries" (.dll) that are used by the OS and the programs running on it. Plus, basically everything in an OS isn't referenced using the file name (Because that would be slow. You'd have to search through the entire filesystem every single time you wanted to access something.), it's referenced using the file path, and those file paths are usually hardcoded. (As in, cannot change.) So it would do basically the same thing. The OS wouldn't be able to find the DLLs it needs to run properly, then crashes. Also, all of this is assuming some magical "force move everything even if it's in use" command. It would still have the same general result, (system crashes upon reboot) but it wouldn't have any of the previously mentioned behaviors.

[@StillLeanpTTV]

the intro was the best thing I have ever saw

[@katarainnaa]

Someone: creates this troll MJD: ima ruin this mans whole career

[@martinmartin6300]

Probably was one of the few who actually made this 15 years ago. I wanted to reinstall XP from scratch anyways and therefore tried this out.

[@herreiklar]

I liked video just for the Intro Song of this video - keep up the great work!

[@WorlWyrm]

The CPU is red The Monitor is blue I think I deleted "System 32"

[@janardans3860]

So why do you?

[@Anonymous-dm2nl]

@@janardans3860 cuz why not? Never goona give you up

[@janardans3860]

@@Anonymous-dm2nl never gonna let you down

[@janardans3860]

@Razan Amin, and desert you

[@SuperMario62]

@@janardans3860 Never gonna make you cry

[@blainepalmerza]

Oh, I deleted michaelsystem32, just kidding! Awesome video, Michael!

[@OrdinarySonicfanMmKay]

"My computer is slow what do i do" "Well, you can just delete System32, but first make sure to create a bootable recovery usb/disc just in case, ok?"

[@_kurjala]

aw dang, i was gonna wait and see the screen go bazurk and then see it go black

[@BlindingLight]

I have to say that the scariest thing I’ve ever done with my windows PC is interacting with System32. One wrong move, and bye bye everything.

[@spaghetboi5542]

Pootis

[@RanOutOfSpac]

When I first bought my computer, I almost fell for this. I just happened to do a tad more research that managed to convince me not to do it and thank holy moly for that.

[@PhilipKDirty]

I mean I'm pretty sure you can just get a drive with the files from another computer it's not like it ruins everything like ppl say it does

[@RanOutOfSpac]

@@PhilipKDirty Yeah, but that takes effort. Ain’t no one got time for that.

[@fedism]

Watching this has me miss xp interface. So calming.

[@voltarashtavroth]

One of the best

[@WickerBasket9]

I've actually did this on my real machine once since I was going to reinstall Windows, anyway. I transferred all of my personal files and work files over to another computer and rebooted the first computer that I was going to reinstall Windows on, rebooted off from my flash drive, booted into the installation media, fired up the Command Prompt, Notedpad, clicked "Open", navigated my way through the folders, found System32, and deleted it. When I rebooted off from my flash drive and lo and behold! "No operating system was found on this drive. Please install an operating system." I later reinstalled Windows since the install was already borked, anyways ESPECIALLY after deleting the System32 folder and later, the entire C:\ drive.

[@cooxwh]

5:15 they just take “it just a prank bro” to the whole fuckin level 💀

[@attack0nmem0ry]

Fantastic stuff. Informative & hilarious, considering the consequences. Great video!

[@MichaelMJD]

Glad you enjoyed it!

[@hibbiea8841]

Yes

[@Bamlbo]

5:54 You're Welcome

[@minekid4624]

Ty

[@kbzplayz5886]

I actually deleted it and its still working just fine... TotAlLy fiNe

[@saphirdeglace6566]

And when you reboot your pc it should NOT boot :)

[@brosthestickmandude]

@@saphirdeglace6566 Just leaving the computer *ALWAYS ON*

[@CajonPassStudios]

I remember when someone tried to trick me into doing this once, claiming that it would "unlock new features" for Trainz Simulator. Luckily, I was smart enough to not fall for it, as system files have literally nothing to do with certain game files.

[@blenderbachcgi]

3:30 He's using "8 Gadget Pack" (Windows Desktop Gadgets) 😁

[@ImusingX]

dislikes are from people who fell for this in the 2000's

[@saurabhs9795]

Cautions: do at your own risk. If u want to corrupt any windows just switch it off during restoring process or updating process 🐱🐱

[@brosthestickmandude]

Neh it just undoes the changes on me...

[@chrisakaschulbus4903]

This would be 100% something i'd share if i had the knowledge back in the XP days... this is funny AF. All the school PCs would be dead as well ^^

[@godman1117]

Deleting your operating systems most important parts leaves you with a computer that has some code but none of it works, you would need a new hard drive probably to fix that

[@homingslol3982]

New drinking game: every time he says system 32 take a shot

[@Larryeb37]

Take a shot every time he says the

[@vanskis7618]

Take a shot everytime he says a word