We’d like to offer up a perfect April Fools Day prank to play on the Mac users in your life — the Kernel Panic screen saver. Download and install this beauty onto your target’s Mac. The result is a harmless (see warning) screensaver that faithfully emulates the horrifying experience of a Mac kernel panic.

Doomslaser: Kernel Panic Screensaver.

Or, if you’ve got a friend who uses a PC, we’ve got something for you too. Someone in Redmond obviously has a sense of humor, because the Microsoft TechNet site hosts a Windows screen saver that emulates the infamous Blue Screen of Death:

BSOD (Blue Screen of Death) Screensaver.

Have a fun (and safe) April Fools day tomorrow.

WARNING: The screensaver itself is perfectly harmless — move your mouse and the false screen error disappears. But this joke could cause real pain if you are not there to step in. If your victim thinks their computer has crashed, they are likely to restart their computer (as the Kernel Panic screen instructs) which could lose any unsaved work.

Source: It has been a while since our weekly publishing schedule overlapped with April Fools day. Our last April Fools day issue was back in April 1, 2005 when we offered up a tip to Turn your friend’s Mac into Windows XP. The year after that, we didn’t publish a April Fools tip, but we did provide a tip on Troubleshooting a Mac OS X Kernel Panic.