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The great software Easter egg hunt: Day 2 – Windows

James Thornton

James Thornton

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Open up some new XP functionsHaving uncovered a basketful of Photoshop Easter eggs yesterday, today I decided to delve into Windows XP for some more hidden treats. It turns out the guys at Microsoft are pretty kind-hearted, as there are plenty of cool tricks buried in the OS. For instance, as BizzNTech reveals, you can get up-close and personal in MS Paint simply by opening an image, clicking the Zoom tool and left-clicking on the line directly beneath the 8x mark. As if by magic – a 10x zoom function!

Fed up of getting stumped by Solitatire? Well, you can win a game in an instant just by holding down Shift+Alt+2. What about Minesweeper? Bide yourself some time by launching the game then pressing the Windows key+D to display the desktop. Select Minesweeper from the taskbar and you’ll notice that the clock has stopped.

Here’s a great one for all you conspiracy theorists out there, courtesy of The Easter Eggs Archive. Load up Notepad and type “bush hid the facts” into the editor. Save the document (it doesn’t matter what name you choose), close the application, then load the .txt document again. What the heck happened to your text??

Keeping with the censorship theme, it seems Windows won’t tolerate foul language either. Go to the Control Panel and open up the ‘Speech’ properties dialog. Type the word “crotch” into the preview box and click ‘Preview Voice’. Instead of saying “crotch” Windows will say “crow’s nest”. I’ll leave you to watch some more cracking hidden XP features, while I go off to search for some more eggs to serve up to you tomorrow.

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Continue with the Easter egg hunt here.

James Thornton

James Thornton

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