Hello everybody, and welcome back to another video.
Today, we’re going to be talking a little bit about Easter eggs.
You know, those little secrets hidden in video games and computer software.
For the past few decades, software developers have been hiding messages
and images inside of their creations.
It all began back in 1979 at Atari when programmer Warren Robinett hid his
name as a secret message in the video game “Adventure.”
At that time, Atari’s programmers were not credited for their work anywhere on
published games, and Robinett wanted a way to promote himself as the game’s
creator.
So he secretly added a small gray dot in one of the rooms that the player could
pick up and bring to another area of the map.
If done correctly, when the player reached the designated room, the author’s name
would appear in the center of the screen.
This routine was not documented anywhere in the game’s manual.
When it was later discovered, the term “Easter egg” was used to describe it,
a reference to hiding eggs at an Easter egg hunt.
Since then, many other programmers and software companies have taken
inspiration from Adventure and have purposely crafted secret messages and
sometimes extra functionality to be bundled in their software.
One of these companies was Microsoft.
Starting in the early 1990s, developers at Microsoft began to hide Easter eggs in
versions of Windows.
A lot of these eggs were meant to recognize the developers that worked on
Windows,
but some got as advanced as hidden games.
Today we’re gonna be discussing the history of Windows Easter eggs up until
Microsoft formally stopped the inclusion of them in their products in 2002.
The first known Easter egg in a Windows release was hidden in Windows 3.0.
It’s a pretty simple one and is quite similar to the Adventurer Easter egg as it
showcases the names of the development team.
This Easter egg is accessed by pressing a certain key combination if certain
parameters are met.
If you’re on the desktop with all windows minimized, hold down the F3 key and type
the word “win3”.
Then release the F3 key and press backspace.
If done successfully, the names of the developers that worked on Windows 3.0
will appear on the desktop in the form of their email handles.
This is the only known Easter egg in Windows 3.0.
While it was a simple one, it started the unspoken tradition for Microsoft
developers to bundle Easter eggs in future releases of Windows.
Windows 3.1 saw the inclusion of not one, but two Easter eggs.
The first one is very similar to the Easter egg in the previous Windows release in
that it shows the names of the Windows 3.1 development team.
Start by holding down Ctrl Alt and Shift.
You’ll need to hold these keys down during the entire process for this to work.
With the Program Manager open, click on the Help menu and go down to About
Program Manager.
Next, double-click on one of the colored tiles in the Windows logo and press OK.
Do the same process for another Window tile.
You will eventually get a message that reads, “Dedicated to all the hard-working
people of the Windows 3.10 Team!” with an animated Windows flag.
Now, still holding down Ctrl Alt and Shift,
if you press OK once more and go back into About Program Manager and double-
click on another Window tile, you should be able to see a scrolling list of all the
developers once again in the form of their email handle.
For example, Bill Gates is displayed as “billg”.
The second Easter egg actually involves this first one.
See that guy in the yellow suit presenting the developers’ names?
Well, if you follow the same procedure I just mentioned multiple times, there’s a
chance you might get a bear in a yellow suit instead.
This is intended as a reference to the Microsoft Bear, which was the mascot of
the Windows 3.1 Development Team.
With the introduction of Windows 95, Microsoft brought a new, more complex
Easter egg to the system.
Once again, this one shows the names of all the developers that worked on
Windows 95, dubbed the “Microsoft Windows 95 Product Team.”
I actually made a dedicated video back in 2015 on this one,
so if you want to see this egg in its entirety, check it out up in the cards.
This one is accessed by creating a new folder on the desktop and giving it three
different names.
Make sure to type out the names exactly as I have them displayed on the screen
here, as it is case sensitive.
Start by naming the folder “and now, the moment you’ve all been waiting for” and
press Enter.
Then press F2 to rename the folder and type in “we proudly present for your
viewing pleasure”.
Press Enter and then press F2 once again.
This final time, name the folder “The Microsoft Windows 95 Product Team!”
The exclamation point at the end is important.
When you double-click on this folder, a new window will open up with a nice blue
background.
The soundtrack, clouds.midi, will also begin to play.
You will then begin to see all of the names of the members of the product
team scrolling across the screen in a nice animation,
although this time, it’s the actual full names of these people rather than their
email address handle.
It’s definitely a step up from the previous two development team Easter eggs and
it’s one of my favorites overall.
But Windows 95 also introduced a couple of additional Easter eggs.
One of them involves the 3D Text screen saver.
If you click on settings and type in the word “volcano” in the text box,
the screen saver will, instead of just displaying the word “volcano”, display the
name of an actual volcano, which alternates every couple of seconds.
It’s also worth noting that this Easter egg will also work in Windows NT 4.0, 98, ME,
and 2000.
Another egg also involves the developer credits, but it’s not as immersive as the
product team Easter egg we just took a look at.
It also takes a bit longer to get to, but I’ll walk you through it here.
This one is accessed by clicking on the Help option in the Start menu and clicking
on the Find tab.
On the wizard that appears, click Next and then Finish.
Next, click on the options and make sure everything is set as displayed on screen
here.
Press OK and type in the phrase,
“Who knows who built this tool?” in the text box exactly as shown.
Then hold down the Ctrl and Shift keys and press the Clear button.
Go into the options again and change the selections to what is shown here.
Press OK and then type in the phrase, “The Shadow knows!” in the text box.
Then press Ctrl and Shift and click the Clear button once more.
If done correctly, you will now see a pop- up window scrolling through the
development team credits.
Keeping with the tradition started back in Windows 3.0, Windows 98 included yet
another Easter egg to showcase the names of the people who worked on it.
But the interesting thing about this one is that there are two ways to access it.
The first one involves going into the directory shown on screen.
Once you’re there, find the file “weldata.exe.”
Right-click on this executable and click Create Shortcut.
Then, right-click on the new shortcut, click Properties, and place your mouse cursor
at the end of the Target text box.
You want to add the phrase, “You_are_a_real_rascal”
with underlines between each word and the Y in “you” capitalized.
Then under the Run section of the dialog box, choose the Minimized option.
Now just run the program like you normally would and you’ll be presented
with Windows 98’s version of the product team Easter egg.
This one is also more animated like the Windows 95 one and it plays the same
soundtrack used in the Welcome dialog box that displays when you log onto
Windows 98 for the first time.
The second way of accessing this egg involves going into the control panel and
opening up the Regional settings.
This method is more tedious as you have to spot the locations of three places on
the map.
But that’s not all that Windows 98 included.
This next one only works on the RTM release of Windows 98 and it won’t work
on Second Edition.
Open the Start menu,
then go to Programs and Accessories.
Right-click on the Calculator listing and click Properties.
Then click on Change Icon.
Double-click the existing icon and press OK.
When you click the Start menu, a new option for Eject PC should appear after a
few seconds.
If you click on this, it will disappear.
It’s a pretty pointless Easter egg and honestly, it might not even be an Easter
egg at all, but rather a bug.
But still, the Eject PC option is rather interesting.
Alright, so I wanna take a quick break from Windows and talk about one of the
other products that Microsoft bundled Easter eggs into;
Microsoft Office.
This began with version 2.0 of Microsoft Word.
To access this egg, click on the Tools menu and click Macro.
Give it the name, “spiff”, S-P-I-F-F, and then click Edit.
A new window should appear.
Erase everything in the window and then close the window.
The program will ask you if you want to save changes.
Click Yes.
Then go into the Help menu and click About.
When you click the Word icon in the About box, a little animation will begin to
play.
This animation depicts people running from and eventually defeating a giant
green monster.
The monster is holding a sign saying “W.P.”,
which is short for Word Perfect.
Definitely a clever Easter egg, which also doubles as a slight jab to one of
Microsoft’s competitors.
By the time 1995 rolled around, Microsoft released their newest and most advanced
version of Windows yet;
Windows 95.
And with it came more advanced and still very creative Easter eggs.
We already talked about the Product Team one, but I want to discuss another
Easter egg that was bundled in Microsoft Excel 95.
It’s still a way to view the developer credits, but believe me when I say, it is a
much more interactive egg.
To access it, open up Excel 95, create a new book, and scroll down to the 95th
row.
You’ll want to select the entire row by clicking on the far left and then move over
to column B.
Next, click on the Help menu and go to About.
You’ll want to hold down the Ctrl, Shift, and Alt keys and click on the button
labeled “Tech Support”.
If done successfully, you’ll see a new window appear labeled, “Hall of Tortured
Souls.”
Believe it or not, this is actually a small game that the developers bundled into
Excel.
You can walk around to explore the little world, but if you walk straight ahead,
you’ll eventually come to a staircase with scrolling developer credits on each side
as well as straight ahead.
If this seems somewhat familiar to you, then you’ve probably played Doom.
Yeah, this little game is very Doom-like, especially when you consider the hidden
room you can access by typing in a cheat code.
If you type in “EXCELKFA” at any time, the wall behind you will open up revealing
another area of the map.
If you make it across the zig-zag-like bridge, you’ll be able to enter another
room with not only the same developer credits, but some pictures of the actual
developers themselves.
The code used to access this room is a reference to the IDKFA cheat code that
could be used in Doom I and II,
which would give the player full ammo, all weapons and keys, and would set the
mega armor protection to 200%.
This is an example of an Easter egg that was something much more than a hidden
message.
I mean, it’s literally a GAME bundled with a piece of office productivity software.
It really shows the level of depth that the developers went to, and that Easter eggs
can really be a fun way to show off your creativity.
But we’re far from done.
Because in Microsoft Office 97, the developers of Word, Excel, and Access all
created Easter egg games to hide in their software,
which also doubled as a way to credit themselves.
We’ll start with Microsoft Word.
Start by creating a new document.
Type in the word, “Blue” with a capital B.
Select the word, then click on the Format menu and go to the Font option.
You’ll want to change the style to bold and the color to blue.
Then, add a space after the word.
Click on the Help menu and go to About.
If you haven’t noticed by now, a lot of these Easter eggs take place in the About
menu.
While holding down the Ctrl and Shift keys, click on the Microsoft Word icon.
If done correctly, you’ll now be presented with a pinball game.
Use the M key to control the right flipper and the Z key for the left flipper.
And enjoy playing a game of pinball while the developer credits scroll along the right
side.
But that’s not all.
Because the Excel developers had something up their sleeves as well.
Open up a new sheet and press F5.
In the box, type in “X97:L97” and then hit Enter.
Move over to the M column,
hold down Ctrl and shift,
and then click on the Chart Wizard button in the toolbar.
If done correctly, you will now see a fullscreen flight simulator.
Yes, a literal flight simulator is bundled in Excel 97.
Use your mouse to move around and explore the area.
If you were done with all your work for the day and wanted to kill time, well, this is a
great way to do it.
If you want to search around for it, there is another scrolling list of developer
credits just like what we saw in the Excel 95 Easter egg.
All I can say is it’s pretty awesome that Microsoft decided to implement a fun
little game into an Office application that is generally not associated with anything
fun.
Oh, and by the way, if you don’t have DirectDraw installed, you’ll just get a
message box telling you that you need to have it for the game to work.
You’ll still get to view the developer credits though.
Last but not least, let’s discuss the Easter egg in Microsoft Access.
This one is less immersive than the previous two, but it’s still a creative Easter
egg nonetheless.
Start by creating a blank database and click on the Macros tab.
Type in a single space and close the window.
When asked to save the file, click Yes and put in the name “Magic Eight Ball”.
Next, click on the View menu,
go to Toolbars,
and Customize.
In the list that appears, find the Macro design listing and click the corresponding
check box next to it.
Press OK and then drag the macro that you created onto the new toolbar.
You should see a little Eight Ball icon that will function exactly like a real magic
Eight Ball if you click it.
It’s worth noting that this routine will also enable this Easter egg in the Office 2000
version of Access.
The last Office Easter egg I’m gonna show you is found in Excel 2000.
Create a new book and immediately save it as a web page.
The name you give it doesn’t matter, but you want to make sure that you choose
the Published Sheet option and check Add Interactivity.
Also, make sure you save the file as an HTML document.
Open up this new HTML file in Internet Explorer.
Don’t worry, we don’t have to deal with IE for very long.
However, you want to make sure to allow any ActiveX prompts that appear.
You want to scroll all the way over to column WC and scroll down to row 2000.
Select that cell.
Then press Shift and the spacebar.
Next, hold down Ctrl, Alt, and Shift and click on the Office 2000 logo in the top
left.
If done correctly, you should launch into another fullscreen game.
This game is called “Dev Hunter,” which if you can’t tell, takes a little inspiration
from the game, “Spy Hunter.”
Use the arrow keys to move and the spacebar to shoot enemy vehicles.
You can also spill oil by pressing the O key to slow down cars behind you.
At the beginning of the track, you’ll notice some instructions on the road and
developer names as you drive along.
It’s a pretty awesome inclusion, and again, this is in Microsoft Excel of all
programs.
Super cool.
That’s it for the Office ones.
Let’s briefly move back to Windows.
I’ve got one more Easter egg to show you, and I figured that we’ll end things off with
a little bit of holiday cheer.
Yes, I know, Christmas is over, but it’s not quite January yet, so that’s something.
Both Windows XP and Windows 2000 had a hidden texture for the Pipes screensaver.
This one is pretty straightforward to access.
In the screensaver properties dialog, choose the 3D Pipes screensaver and
click on Settings.
In the window that appears, choose the Textured option under Surface Style and
click on the Choose Texture box.
An explorer window should come up.
Click Cancel to close it and press OK to close out of the settings dialog.
When you preview the screensaver, you should now see candy cane-textured 3D
pipes.
Pretty cool, right?
Well, I think so.
Anyways, guys, that is going to wrap it up for today’s video.
I hope you all enjoyed this look back at some of the ways that Microsoft bundled
Easter eggs in their products and just how creative and unique they can be.
If you guys enjoyed this episode, be sure to give it a like and get subscribed.
And as always, I will see you all...
in the next decade.
[♫ Music ♫]