7 - The colors, THE COLORS!!!

The Prank: Using Universal Access features for evil may seem morally suspect, but can result in some of the best pranks yet. Turn certain features on to befuddle the target.

What You Need: 

>Access to Victim's Mac

The Steps:

1) Go to System Preferences >Universal Access. Turn Zoom on. 

2) Press Command-Option-+. Keep pressing until you get the desired amount of zoom.

Click to embiggen

3) Press Command-Option-Control-8. This will invert the colors on the screen.

4) Run away. This prank is fairly difficult to hide.

The Result: Navigating OS X while both of the settings are enabled is incredibly difficult. Watch them struggle for a while, restart and find out the settings are still enabled, and finally give up in frustration and pay you to fix it. The last part isn’t very likely. We wouldn’t bet on you getting paid. Unless you were being paid in punches.

 

8 - I’m Clicking Dammit

The Prank: Upon returning to his computer after a coffee break, the target will find his desktop un-clickable. This is almost more fun than the desktop collapsing, because the possibilities of causality for this prank are endless. Broken mouse, slow computer, angry God(s) could all be reasons why the desktop stops working. Only thing is, it’s still working. The target just doesn’t know that.

What You Need: 

>Access to Victim's Mac

The Steps:

1) Take a screenshot of the full desktop. The keyboard shortcut is Command-Shift-3

2) Move the dock to another side of the screen, and auto-hide it.

3) Open the screenshot in Preview, and go to View > Slideshow.

4) Move the bezel to the far bottom right of the screen so it is virtually invisible.

*For a more permanent solution. Set the screenshot as the desktop image via System Preferences. 

The Result: The desktop shall be unclickable, and there will be no legitimate reason why. Set a timer for how long it takes for the target to figure this one out.

 

9 - NOOOO It’s My Worst Nightmare

The Prank: Safari is no longer Safari. Now it’s Internet Explorer. Dun dun dun.

What You Need: 

>Access to Victim's Mac
>Square Internet Explorer image

The Steps:

1) Go to the Applications folder and single click on Safari. Press Command-I to "Get Info."

2) Click on the application icon in the top left of the Info Window

3) Find a suitable icon replacement, and make sure it is perfectly square. Crop it if it isn’t. Here is the image search result for Internet Explorer. 

4) Open the file, select all, and copy it to the clipboard.

5) Go back to the inspector window, Edit > Paste.

6) Relaunch Finder (Apple > Force Quit > Finder)

The Result: While you can’t make it an exact replica, because there is no way to make Safari substantially slower, the dock icon and application name for Safari will suddenly become Internet Explorer. It might not cause the target any physical pain, but will definitely cause confusion.

 

10 - AOL Hasn’t Been Relevant Since 1998!

The Prank: It was a long time ago, but we can still remember how that mail notification used to make us die a little inside. When AOL dominated the email space, the ubiquitous 'You’ve got mail' haunted dial up customers everywhere. Now, the target shall relive their worst nightmare.

What You Need: 

>Access to Victim's Mac
>Download "You've Got Mail" sound

The Steps:

1) Put a .aiff sound file in the ~/Library/Sounds folder (we found the "You’ve Got Mail" one at www.entourage.mvps.org/rules/sounds.html scroll to the bottom to find it.)

2) Go to Mail > Preferences > General

3) Click the drop down menu for "New Mail Sound." Click Add/Remove.

5) Choose the file you added in the Mail file chooser.

6) Select your new sound it in the drop down menu.

The Result: The next time the target gets a new mail, he will be greeted to the wonderful sound that you have prepared for them. Chances are, they won’t know how to fix it either.

 

Got a devious prank? Tell us about it in the comments.