Microsoft

Looking back at Windows Screen Saver Easter Eggs

By · September 19, 2007, 11:22 PM PST

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  • By Greg Shultz

    In addition to hiding Easter Eggs in odd places in the operating system, Windows developers hid a lot of Easter Eggs in plain sight, so to speak. Of course I’m referring to the Screen Saver Easter Eggs.

  • Volcanoes

    In Windows 95 OSR2 and Windows NT, the developers hid the names of 17 of the most notable volcanoes in the Northwest part of the United States in the 3D Text screen saver.

    To see this Easter Egg, you begin by accessing the Screen Saver tab in the Display Properties dialog box. You then select the 3D Text from the Screen Saver drop down list and then click the Settings button. When you see the 3D Text Setup dialog box, you simply have to type Volcano in the Text box. You can change any of the other settings as you wish.

  • Volcanoes

    Once the screen saver activates, you'll see the names of each of the volcanoes. Here is St. Helens.

  • Volcanoes

    Here is Ranier.

  • Volcanoes

    Here is Hood.

  • I Love NT

    In Windows NT 3.51, the developers hid their names in the 3D Text screen saver Easter Egg.

    To see this Easter Egg, you begin by accessing the Control Panel in Program Manager’s Main group. You then double click on the Desktop icon in Control Panel. You then select the 3D Text from the Screen Saver drop down list and then click the Setup button. When you see the 3D Text Setup dialog box, you type I Love NT in the Text box. You can change any of the other settings as you wish.

  • I Love NT

    I’m not sure how many developers’ names appeared in this Easter Egg.

  • I Love NT

    I let the screen saver run for quite some time and different names just kept on flying across the screen in a random order.

  • I Love NT

    The names appeared on the screen long enough for you to read each one.

  • Rock Music

    In addition to listing their own names in the 3D Text screen saver Easter Egg, the Windows NT 3.51 developers decided to create a Rock/Music version.

    To see this Easter Egg, you type Rock or Music in the Text box in the 3D Text Setup dialog box.

  • Rock Music

    You can almost imagine an e-mail going out to all the developers asking them to send in the name of their favorite rock bands.

  • Rock Music

    I’m not sure how many rock bands’ names appeared in this Easter Egg, but the screen saver just kept on pumping out names of bands—some that weren’t familiar and some that were very recognizable.

  • Rock Music

    More often than not, if the band’s name included a color, the text would appear in that color.

  • Beer

    As you can imagine, beer would find its way into many of the Windows NT 3.51 developers’ off duty activities. With that in mind, it not hard to see how beer would find its way into a screen saver Easter Egg.

    To see this Easter Egg, you type Beer in the Text box in the 3D Text Setup dialog box.

  • Beer

    Chances are that the same e-mail that asked the developers to submit the name of their favorite rock band also asked them to submit the name of their favorite beer.

  • Beer

    When this screen saver is running, a bewildering array of beer names float over the screen. I counted close to 100 different beers before I lost track.

  • Beer

    Ahh, my favorite!

  • Not Evil

    In Windows NT 4.0, the developers also hid their names in the 3D Text screen saver Easter Egg.

    To see this Easter Egg, you begin by accessing the Screen Saver tab in the Display Properties dialog box. You then select the 3D Text from the Screen Saver drop down list and then click the Settings button. When you see the 3D Text Setup dialog box, you type not evil in the Text box. You can change any of the other settings as you wish.

  • Not Evil

    Like the NT 3.51 screen saver Easter Egg, the NT 4.0 version contained literally hundreds of names.

  • Not Evil

    Unlike the previous credit screen Easter Eggs, the screen saver versions must have been extremely rewarding in that each member of the team got to have an individual spotlight.

  • Not Evil

    Of course, the names are easier to read if you disabled the Spin Style effect.

  • Teapots

    By the time Windows 2000 was released, the only screen saver Easter Egg in the operating system was hidden in the 3D Pipes screen saver and was called simply Teapots.

    To see this Easter Egg, you begin by accessing the Screen Saver tab in the Display Properties dialog box. You then select the 3D Pipes from the Screen Saver drop down list and then click the Settings button. When you see the 3D Pipes Setup dialog box, you select the Multiple option in the Pipes panel, the Traditional option in the Pipe Style panel, and Mixed in the Joint Type drop down list. You should also set the Resolution slider to the Max position. While you can use the Textured option in the Surface Style panel, the Solid option makes it easier to spot the teapots.

  • Teapots

    Once the screen saver activates, you just have to sit back and watch it. At random times and places, you’ll see a teapot appear as a pipe joint. Here you can see a single teapot.

  • Teapots

    While one teapot per image is the most typical rendition, occasionally, you’ll see more than one. Here I captured an image of two teapot joints.

  • How many teapots do you see?

    The longer the 3D Pipes screen saver runs, the more frequent and the larger the number of teapot joints appear. In this screen shot that I found via Google Image Search, a very large number of teapots appear at one time. I suppose that this image could be tricked out via an image editing program; however, it could be real.

    Regardless of the possible forgery, see how many teapots you can find in this image and post your results in the discussion area. Happy hunting!

By Greg Shultz

In addition to hiding Easter Eggs in odd places in the operating system, Windows developers hid a lot of Easter Eggs in plain sight, so to speak. Of course I’m referring to the Screen Saver Easter Eggs.

Related Topics:

Microsoft Enterprise Software Software Collaboration Mobility Cloud Hardware

By Greg Shultz

Greg Shultz is a freelance Technical Writer. Previously, he has worked as Documentation Specialist in the software industry, a Technical Support Specialist in educational industry, and a Technical Journalist in the computer publishing industry.

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