Looking back at Microsoft Access Easter Eggs
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By Greg Shultz
By Greg Shultz
If you’ve been using computers for a while, you know that an Easter Egg is a small program that is hidden deep inside of an application and is designed by the application’s developers as a way of displaying their names — very similar to the credits that you see at the end of a movie. However, uncovering the Easter Egg is tricky as it almost always involves performing a series of very intricate and non-intuitive steps.
Microsoft now officially bans Eater Eggs as part of their Trustworthy Computing initiative. But before that mandate, Microsoft’s developers used to go to great lengths to secretly embed Easter Eggs into their products.
While the developers for other Microsoft Office products created some really elaborate Easter Eggs, the developers for Access didn’t really push the envelope. I suppose that could indicate that the Access developers were a more serious bunch. Anyway, in this gallery I’ll show you the Easter Eggs that they embedded into Access 95, 97, and 2000.
Access 95 - Easter Egg 1
Access 95 - Easter Egg 1
When you see the Macro window, type anything you want in the Action box and then click the Close button in the upper right corner.
Access 95 - Easter Egg 1
Access 95 - Easter Egg 1
You’ll then see a dialog box displaying an answer from the Magic Eight Ball.
Access 95 - Easter Egg 2
Access 95 - Easter Egg 2
In the User and Group Accounts dialog box, click the New button.
Access 95 - Easter Egg 2
Access 95 - Easter Egg 2
When you see the New User /Group dialog box, you type Pioneer in the Name text box and 092595 in the Personal ID text box.
Access 95 - Easter Egg 2
Access 95 - Easter Egg 2
At the very bottom of the Special Thanks To section, you’ll find your name. Here you can see that my name appears in the credits list.
Access 95 - Easter Egg 2
Access 95 - Easter Egg 2
At the tail end of the credits sequence, you’ll find some humorous phrases.
Access 97 - Easter Egg 1
Access 97 - Easter Egg 1
When you see the Magic Eight Ball macro in the database, pull down the View menu and select Toolbars | Customize. When you see the Customize dialog box, select the Commands tab, scroll down the Categories list and select All Macros.
Access 97 - Easter Egg 1
Access 97 - Easter Egg 1
Close the Customize dialog box, but leave the database window open. Then, think of a yes/no question and click the Magic Eight Ball button.
You’ll then see a dialog box displaying an answer.
Access 97 - Easter Egg 2
Access 97 - Easter Egg 2
The second Easter Egg in Access 97 reveals the developer credits screen. To access it, you begin by creating a new database in Microsoft Access. You then click the New button to create a new Table.
Access 97 - Easter Egg 2
Access 97 - Easter Egg 2
You then save the new table as Go Speed Racer Go
Access 97 - Easter Egg 2
Access 97 - Easter Egg 2
Next, you pull down the Help menu and select the About Microsoft Access command. When you see the About Microsoft Access dialog box, you double click the Access icon with the right mouse button.
Access 97 - Easter Egg 2
Access 97 - Easter Egg 2
As soon as you do, your screen will turn black and the credits will begin scrolling up from the bottom.
Access 97 - Easter Egg 2
Access 97 - Easter Egg 2
At the tail end of the credits sequence, you’ll find your name along with some humorous phrases.
Access 2000
Access 2000
When you see the Magic Eight Ball macro in the Database window, you pull down the View menu and select Toolbars | Customize.
