Re: To do the same for free...
Back in the good old days of NT, one of our colleagues was a Man Utd fan. When he left his PC unlocked, we installed an exe running on a timer which periodically changed his desktop background to Arsenal. He immediately took to locking his PC at that point - by that stage it was too late.
Another one is the 2nd wireless keyboard trick (insignificant USB dongle recommended). The joker didn't press keys all the time. He monitored our colleague, and pressed single keys when he was in important dialog boxes (like logins). The prank ended shortly before an imminent nervous breakdown.