Easter Eggs

Windows 98 Easter Egg

Here is an interesting easter egg that a friend showed me the other day.

1. Firstly get to the Windows Date/Time Properties by double clicking on your clock in the system tray, then click on the Time Zone tab.
2. Move your window over this page so you have enough room to compare your window with the picture below.
3. Now, hold down the CTRL key on your keyboard and with your left mouse button and click and hold where the 1 is shown in the picture below.
4. While you are still holding down the CTRL key, drag to point 2 and release the mouse button but don't let go of the CTRL key.
5. Next press and hold the left mouse button over 2 and drag your cursor over to the point marked 3.
6. Release the mouse button and the CTRL key and the Windows 98 Easter Egg should begin!

Note: If this doesn't work the first time keep trying, it took me about 7 tries before it worked. Try to keep your cursor moving in a straight line between each point.

Microsoft Windows 95 Easter Egg!!!

In each version of Windows, there's a series of keys you have to press to activate the credit screen. Here's how to activate it on Windows 95: (if you have sound card you can also listen to a pretty good theme, too.)

1. Right click on the desktop - Select "New Folder" and name the folder:

• and now, the moment you've all been waiting for

2. Right click the folder and rename it to:

• we proudly present for your viewing pleasure

3. Right click the folder and rename it again to:

• The Microsoft Windows 95 Product Team!

Note: Make sure that you type EXACTLY what is written above and this is case sensitive.

4. Open the folder and enjoy! (You can use the Double-click or menu to open.)

Microsoft Windows 3.0

Hang the most boring wallpaper of all time! If you happen to have a spare copy of Windows 3.0 lying around on your hard disk (OK, we realize you probably terminated it when 3.1 came out, but if you do), load it and follow these steps. Minimize all of your applications, then hold down F3. Type WIN3, then release F3. Press Backspace.

The wallpaper turns into a list of all the people involved in programming Windows, divided into groups. Each of them is listed by e-mail address, so if you feel like sending personal congratulations to one of the Windows 3.0 parents, all you'll need to know is Microsoft's Internet domain--which, for your information, is microsoft.com. A quick click on the left-mouse button clears the display.

Microsoft Windows 3.1

Windows 3.1's cast list has better production values than its predecessor: waving flags, cartoon characters, and a full scrolling list of credits. Hold down Ctrl and Shift while performing all the following steps. In Program Manager, select Help, About Program Manager. Double-click on the left-hand side of the Windows flag logo where it disintegrates into small squares. Nothing will happen, so click on OK to close the box. Again select Help, About and double-click on the flag. A tiny Windows flag blowing in the wind will appear next to a general dedication to the developers of Windows. This is not the real show.

Click on OK to close the box. Once again, select Help, About and double-click on one of the panes on the right-hand portion of the flag. Release Ctrl and Shift. A list of e-mail IDs will scroll by. The head of the cartoon pointing to the list changes if you repeat the process and select a different pane on the Windows logo. There are four heads in all (one for each pane) including a teddy bear and Bill Gates.

Microsoft Excel 8.0 (for Windows 95/98)

In Excel 97, open a new blank worksheet. Press F5 (go to) and type in the range X97:L97, then click OK. Now press Tab once (this should put you in cell M97) and press Ctrl+Shift while clicking once on the chart wizard button (the blue-yellow-red barchart icon). After a few moments, you will be flying over an eerie fractal landscape. Fly around awhile and soon you'll notice a mesa with a shallow depression and a small scrolling shrine to Excel 97 and those who made it happen. Careful, the controls are very sensitive. You can exit the screen by pressing Ctrl+Shift+Esc (thanks to Phil for pointing this out).

Microsoft Excel 7.0 (for Windows 95)

Doom-style credit screen .. pretty cool!

1. Load Excel 95 with a blank work sheet
2. Go down to the 95th row
3. Select the whole row
4. Tab over to column B
5. GoTo Help/About
6. Hold down Ctrl-Alt-Shift and click on the Tech Support button
7. A window appears call "Hall of Tortured souls
8. At the end of the hall and all the programmers names
9. Do a 180 turn and type excelkfa. Do a 180 again and walk up the ramp at the end of the room.
10. By the way the excelkfa is spelled correctly don’t change it.

Microsoft Excel 5.0

Start with a blank book. Right mouse click on the toolbar and select Customize. Select Custom from the categories list and drag the Solitaire icon onto the blank spreadsheet. Click on Cancel to close the Assign Macro dialog box without assigning a macro. Click on Close to quit the Customize dialog box. Press Ctrl-Alt-Shift and then click on the Solitaire icon.

Microsoft Excel 4.0

Open a blank document and Select Options, Toolbars. Click on the Customize button. Select Custom in the Categories list box. From the top row of icons, select the Solitaire icon and drag it onto the regular toolbar. Click on OK without assigning a command to the button, then click on Close. Maximize the worksheet with the up arrow in the top right hand corner of the window. Press Ctrl-Shift and click on the Solitaire icon.

Microsoft Excel 3.0

In a blank worksheet, select Formula, GoTo. In the reference box, type IV16384 and click on OK. This brings you to the bottom-right corner of the worksheet. Click on the down- and right-scroll bar arrows until cell IV16384 is the only cell you can see. Select Format, Row Height and type 05. Select Format, Column Width and type 0. Click on the button and watch the action.

Microsoft Word 6.0 for Windows

Type t3! and select it. Hit the Bold button, then the Autoformat button. Now Select Help, About... and click on the flying Windows icon.

Microsoft Word 2.0 for Windows

The program's hidden monster movie borrows from 1950s cold war science fiction. Start Word 2.0 for Windows with any document open (even Document1). Select Tools, Macro and type Spiff (capital letters are optional) in the Macro Name box. Press Enter or click on the Edit button. In the macro box that appears, highlight and delete the lines Sub MAIN and End Sub and the blank lines in between the two. Close the macro document and save the changes. Now choose Help, About, and click once on the Word for Windows icon.

What follows is a few minutes worth of animated running men, a green monster that gets his comeuppance in the end, and men jumping up and down in triumph. Then, there's a fireworks display with credits. You can watch this movie in reruns any time during your Word for Windows session by just repeating the last step--but be aware that this little routine tends to hog Windows' resources. If you have a large print job or a BBS download going on in the background, this will call it to a halt. One note of warning: Don't save the global changes to the glossary when you quit Word for Windows.

Microsoft Word 1.x for Windows

It's not Word 2.0 for Windows' monster movie, but it's not Word 6.0's bland cast list either. Word 1.0's fireworks display is still entertaining. Open Word for Windows, and in Document1 choose Format, Define Styles. In the dialog box that pops up, press the Options button. In the Based on. . . box, type the word Normal. You'll get an error message--ignore it and click on OK to close the error box. Click on Cancel to close the Define Style dialog box and return to the document. Select Help, About. Turn CapsLock on, press O, P, U, and S simultaneously, then release them. You'll catch a fireworks display with rolling credits--nothing too thrilling, but entertaining in a pinch.

Microsoft Access 1.x

Open Help and search for Error messages: Reference. Click on the T section and press the Page Up key, then locate and select the entry "Syntax error in LEVEL clause." After the sentence "Punctuation is incorrect," there's a period with a hot spot. Click on it for a static (read: boring--what did you expect from Version 1 of a database?) cast list.

Procomm Plus for Windows

From the Window menu, select Monitor, and click on the Monitor window's title bar to make it active. Type GO DATASTORM! (case doesn't matter, but the exclamation mark is essential). Ignore any beeps you hear. Then select Help, About Procomm. . . and click on the Credits button. Instead of the usual list of names, you should see the faces of the primary developers. Check out the cursor when it's on the photograph--it turns into a big-nose-and-glasses face that you can put over the developers' faces.

Quattro Pro for Windows

Type in any text in any cell in a workbook, and press Enter. Select Data, Parse from the menu. Click on the Create Button, then on the Edit button. Hold down Shift and press the question-mark key three times. On the third stroke of the question mark, the menu for Cafe Borland will pop up. The chefs and tasters of the fare on the menu are mentioned by name, along with the recommended meal for the day from the French chef Philippe.

Lotus Ami Pro 3.01

Lotus combined the teen obsessions of two decades--namely Elvis and video games--into a single masterful Easter egg for Versions 2.0 and 3.0 of Ami Pro. To start the fun in Ami Pro 3.01, pull down the Tools menu and click on User Setup. Change the user's initials to GPB (all caps). Select Help, About. Hold down Ctrl-Shift-Alt, and press the function key with the number that corresponds to the current day of the week (Sunday = F1, Monday = F2, and so on). Continue to hold down Ctrl-Alt-Shift and type the word SHANK. The fast-moving heads on the screen are Ami Pro developers. Elvis (T. King) chases the jelly donut. The jelly donut avoids the mouse. You can vaporize anyone (except Elvis, of course) by clicking on their head, but they'll come back in the nearest corner.

Lotus Ami Pro 2.x

In Ami Pro 2.x choose Help, About Ami Pro, and hold down Shift-Ctrl-Alt as you follow these steps: Press F7 and type S, P, A, and M. Note the amount of available memory (in kilobytes) listed in the lower left corner of the Help, About box. Enter the last number in the available memory listing, then the third- to-last number. Release Shift-Ctrl-Alt. What you'll see is a black screen with bouncing heads floating around in it. Click on a head, and it will disappear. As each head disappears, the remaining heads bounce faster and faster, until you're left with a few heads moving around so quickly that you can barely keep up with them. One of the heads (it seems to change every time) will turn into a remarkably familiar teen idol of the 1950s, bearing the name T. King. Try as you might, you can't get rid of this head with any amount of clicking. Sounds like a sleazy tabloid story, doesn't it?

Lotus Organizer

With Organizer in full flow, hold down the Shift, Ctrl, and Alt keys on the left-hand side of your keyboard, and simultaneously double-click on the wastebasket icon at the bottom-left corner of Organizer's main window. The flames in the trash can flare up between one and three times. Click on the can and, after the flare-up, watch the show. Press Esc to escape.

Note: will not work in ver 2.1

Quicken 3.0

Hold down any one of the following keys: S, R, or V. Click on Help, About and ignore the beeps. Depending on which key you held down, you'll see an animated windsurfer, green snake, or promotional message from the sponsor. Now go back and hold down the other key.

CorelDraw 4.0

Select Help, About CorelDraw. In the About CorelDraw screen, locate the hot-air balloon icon in the upper-left corner. Double-click on the icon. Use the left-mouse button to raise and lower the hot-air balloon that appears, and click the right-mouse button a couple of times. Elvis impersonators will parachute out of the sky.

Aldus PageMaker 5.0

Shift-select Help, About PageMaker. . . for a tasteful homage to a previous developer, complete with flower.

Aldus PageMaker 4.0

Hold down Shift-Ctrl as you select Help, About PageMaker 4.0. A list of PageMaker authors and contributors scrolls in the dialog box.

Lotus Notes

Notes will scroll several developers' names through the title bar when you select Help, About, and click on the words Lotus or Iris from the third paragraph.

Aldus Freehand

In Freehand's regular About box you get a list of AltSys developers. To get a bigger list, hold down Shift-Alt, then select Help, About FreeHand. . . . The title, TailGun, was FreeHand's code name during its early development.

Minesweeper for Windows 3.1/3.11

When All Else Fails, Cheat

Launch Minesweeper and type XYZZY. Press the Enter key, then the Shift key. Move the mouse pointer over the game and you'll notice that, whenever it's over a safe square, the pixel in the upper-left corner of your desktop turns white. Make sure you close or minimize all other applications before you start Minesweeper and use dark wallpaper to make sure you can see that pixel!

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