How to Get Away With an April Fool's Prank on a Mac Computer

The more computer-savvy pranksters might want to spring this trick onto an unsuspecting co-worker or family member. Some prior knowledge of the computer user's frequently used documents is helpful for this prank. Read on to learn how to get away with an April Fool's prank on a Mac computer.

Instructions

Difficulty: Moderate

1. When the victim is away from their computer for at least five minutes, sneak over to their machine.
2. Hopefully they will have some applications open on their desktop. If not, open a few folders that they normally would use, such as the documents folder.
3. Move the computer mouse arrow down to the extreme bottom right of the screen so you can no longer see the arrow.
4. On an Apple computer, take a screen shot of the entire screen by pressing the "Command," "Shift" and the number "3" buttons.
5. The computer will make a sound similar to a camera shutter to let you know it has taken the screen shot.
6. You can access the screen shot in the system hard drive folder. The image will appear as a generic icon with colored shapes and the title "Picture" followed by a number.
7. Once you find the screen shot image, rename the file as “Replacement desktop.jpg.”
8. Back on the main desktop, close any open programs that are running on that person’s computer.
9. Click on the "System Preferences" menu at the top of the screen.
10. Select the the "Desktop and Screen Saver" option and a menu will appear.
11. Click "Choose Folder" to search for the system hard drive folder that you saved the screen shot image. Find the image within the folder.
12. Double click on the “Replacement desktop” image you have saved in the system hard drive folder and open that image.
13. The screen shot image should appear as the desktop background now.
14. Click the red "X" in the upper left hand corner of the box.
15. Leave the scene of the prank.
16. The victim will find out soon enough that they can not interact with any of the programs that appear to be open on their desktop. This will be a source of frustration and confusion for them.
17. After a few minutes of savoring the victory, wander over and see if you can help them with their problem. Have them describe the issue to you, then casually change the desktop background to the original background.
18. Reveal your masterful idea in pranking them on April Fool's Day.

Tips & Warnings

• If your family member or co-worker uses an Windows computer, please refer to the related articles section to find out how to accomplish this prank on a PC.
• You can also hold down "Control," click the "Desktop" and choose "Change Desktop Background" from the pop-up menu. You can also right click, if you are using a mouse with multiple buttons.

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