Talk:Easter eggs in Microsoft products

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Cwolfsheep 01:39, 8 July 2006 (UTC)

This article should mention the Internet explorer easter eggs in the About: URI scheme

Contents

[edit] Hover! Easter Egg

I would love to know more about the Hover Easter egg. Does anyone know how to do it? -Hamster2.0 13:18, 4 May 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Notepad

I added information about the Notepad easter egg. Thedarkfreak 22:10, 4 June 2007 (UTC)

And I removed it. It's not an "easter egg", it's an unintended behaviour. Read about it here. -/- Warren 01:55, 5 June 2007 (UTC)
Well, that may be, but I still believe it's an easter egg because of the way it works. When you save it and look at it in a hexeditor, it does not have the Unicode marker, nor the null characters that would cause the faulty routine to identify it as Unicode. It's in regular ANSI, but when you open it in Notepad, it gets "hidden". Thedarkfreak 22:17, 5 June 2007 (UTC)
It's a programming error, no more and no less. --Darkstar 10:43, 17 August 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Cleanup

I've done a bit of a cleanup and removed the cleanup tag. If there are any other aspects of this article that need a cleanup, please list them here. peterl 20:35, 28 May 2007 (UTC)

[edit] XP

I noticed a section titled "Windows XP" that described how to double click the gray region of Task Manager to hide the menu bar and view the processor and memory utilization graphs. IMHO, this isn't an "Easter egg" but is instead just one of those handy built in features that serves an actual, albeit limited, purpose (as opposed to, for example, a video game hidden in Excel). I deleted it.

The bit on the Task Manager was restored by someone, I've since removed it too, along with the decidedly untrue comment about how "Bush hid the facts" in Notepad, as we know, it's a quirk in the way Notepad detects multibyte character sets.Thedarkfreak, please don't post this crap again. W3bbo 23:02, 15 June 2007 (UTC)

[edit] WebTV

There were a few codes which, when punched into the remote control of a Microsoft WebTV while the unit was turned off, would activate various functions. I think 32768 reset the settings on some of these boxes, but the most notable was one where typing 867 5309 would cause the unit to 'phone home to MS for a firmware update. --66.102.80.239 19:46, 22 September 2007 (UTC)

[edit] MIcrosoft Word Egg (rand())

The rand function is not a diagnostic, rather it is used in templates to fill textboxes or sections with text, to display their size clearly. This also happens in Publisher, albeit more frequently. Indomaster 23:44, 3 October 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Fair use rationale for Image:Vista Easter Egg.jpg

Image:Vista Easter Egg.jpg is being used on this article. I notice the image page specifies that the image is being used under fair use but there is no explanation or rationale as to why its use in this Wikipedia article constitutes fair use. In addition to the boilerplate fair use template, you must also write out on the image description page a specific explanation or rationale for why using this image in each article is consistent with fair use.

Please go to the image description page and edit it to include a fair use rationale. Using one of the templates at Wikipedia:Fair use rationale guideline is an easy way to insure that your image is in compliance with Wikipedia policy, but remember that you must complete the template. Do not simply insert a blank template on an image page.

If there is other fair use media, consider checking that you have specified the fair use rationale on the other images used on this page. Note that any fair use images uploaded after 4 May, 2006, and lacking such an explanation will be deleted one week after they have been uploaded, as described on criteria for speedy deletion. If you have any questions please ask them at the Media copyright questions page. Thank you.

BetacommandBot 21:55, 25 October 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Fair use rationale for Image:Word97pinball.jpg

Image:Word97pinball.jpg is being used on this article. I notice the image page specifies that the image is being used under fair use but there is no explanation or rationale as to why its use in this Wikipedia article constitutes fair use. In addition to the boilerplate fair use template, you must also write out on the image description page a specific explanation or rationale for why using this image in each article is consistent with fair use.

Please go to the image description page and edit it to include a fair use rationale. Using one of the templates at Wikipedia:Fair use rationale guideline is an easy way to insure that your image is in compliance with Wikipedia policy, but remember that you must complete the template. Do not simply insert a blank template on an image page.

If there is other fair use media, consider checking that you have specified the fair use rationale on the other images used on this page. Note that any fair use images uploaded after 4 May, 2006, and lacking such an explanation will be deleted one week after they have been uploaded, as described on criteria for speedy deletion. If you have any questions please ask them at the Media copyright questions page. Thank you.

BetacommandBot (talk) 22:01, 26 November 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Wikipedia is not a how-to guide

See WP:NOT, which is policy. Despite this, it shows us how to make the Easter eggs work. Thoughts?--h i s s p a c e r e s e a r c h 03:54, 2 January 2008 (UTC)

This is an easy one. Just because Wikipedia is not a how-to guide does not mean that an article cannot have how-to sections that have encyclopedic value. (This is a spin-out article, and is, thus, just a section). If we are going to take the time to list every Easter egg available in Microsoft products (which that might be a problem), it would be unencyclopedic not to include instructions.

There isn't much else to discuss. Here's how you do it, and here's what happens is pretty much the entire point of any secondary resource about specific Easter eggs. (Note that Wikipedia, as a tertiary source, is still a secondary source).

A quick look at WP:NOT explains your confusion. It is poorly written in this regard. See my comments on it. -- trlkly 16:37, 17 May 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Fair use rationale for Image:Word97pinball.jpg

Image:Word97pinball.jpg is being used on this article. I notice the image page specifies that the image is being used under fair use but there is no explanation or rationale as to why its use in this Wikipedia article constitutes fair use. In addition to the boilerplate fair use template, you must also write out on the image description page a specific explanation or rationale for why using this image in each article is consistent with fair use.

Please go to the image description page and edit it to include a fair use rationale. Using one of the templates at Wikipedia:Fair use rationale guideline is an easy way to insure that your image is in compliance with Wikipedia policy, but remember that you must complete the template. Do not simply insert a blank template on an image page.

If there is other fair use media, consider checking that you have specified the fair use rationale on the other images used on this page. Note that any fair use images lacking such an explanation can be deleted one week after being tagged, as described on criteria for speedy deletion. If you have any questions please ask them at the Media copyright questions page. Thank you.

BetacommandBot (talk) 06:25, 21 January 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Fair use rationale for Image:Windows 98 Credits Easter Egg.png

Image:Windows 98 Credits Easter Egg.png is being used on this article. I notice the image page specifies that the image is being used under fair use but there is no explanation or rationale as to why its use in this Wikipedia article constitutes fair use. In addition to the boilerplate fair use template, you must also write out on the image description page a specific explanation or rationale for why using this image in each article is consistent with fair use.

Please go to the image description page and edit it to include a fair use rationale. Using one of the templates at Wikipedia:Fair use rationale guideline is an easy way to insure that your image is in compliance with Wikipedia policy, but remember that you must complete the template. Do not simply insert a blank template on an image page.

If there is other fair use media, consider checking that you have specified the fair use rationale on the other images used on this page. Note that any fair use images lacking such an explanation can be deleted one week after being tagged, as described on criteria for speedy deletion. If you have any questions please ask them at the Media copyright questions page. Thank you.

BetacommandBot (talk) 03:08, 12 February 2008 (UTC)