Windows™ Fun Tricks, Tips & Easter eggs!

By: Ang Biondo

There are a number of shortcuts and “Easter eggs” built into the Windows™ operating system ©.  For instance, did you know you can turn on “mouse keys” to control the pointer on your screen by pressing the [Alt] key + the “left [Shift] key and [Num Lock] key together to give you control of your mouse pointer with the Key pad keys.  Pressing the combination again toggles off or cancels control.

When working in Microsoft™ Word, and you have a need for the registered symbol “®” or the copyright symbol “©”, or maybe the trademark symbol “™”, you can easily insert these symbols by replacing the letter between the parenthesis with a “c” or “tm”.  Be sure not to use spaces and word will automatically  convert it to ®, ©, or ™, without having to open the character table.  You can also create a smiley face J symbol by typing a colon, “:” + right parenthesis “)” and Microsoft Word© will produce a J.

The programmers at Microsoft have left or built a number of “Easter eggs” (small hidden files or programs within windows), to leave their mark and possible show off their skills.  Most Windows users don’t even know they exist, while others know of them, but don’t know how to access them.  There are a great number of them and they add a lot of unnecessary size to the Windows operating system.  I get a kick out of most of them and compensate with a terabyte hard drive and 4 GB of high performance of DDR2 ram.   
 

Though these “Easter eggs”, might pose a problem on some notebooks with small drives, I am not aware of any way to remove them.  If you need the space there are other things you can do to reduce the size of Windows™.  Some suggestions would be:

ü  If you are installing Windows™, as a new installation, use the minimum features option.

ü  Remove all unused Themes

ü  Remove all but select backgrounds

ü  Delete all or unused Windows™ games

ü  Store personal pictures on an external drive

ü  If your laptop or notebook is equipped with a DVD/CD writer, store archived or stored files not often used on a DVD/CD re-writable disc., etc.

 It would seem the Microsoft™ programming teamss are proud of their hidden toys and neither want you to know about them (or they would be in the manual), nor delete them (or they would have told us how), so all we can do with them (as long as they are there) is try to find them, learn about them and enjoy them. 

 Many of these Easter Eggs are shortcuts or built in utilities used in programming, others are actually bugs in the program and misrepresented as Easter Eggs, and some are true Easter Eggs that entertain and/or list credits.  At any rate to find one is as exciting as watching your 4 year find an Easter Egg on a real Easter Egg hunt.

You can research “Easter eggs” on your own by merely doing a search on “Windows Easter eggs” using your favorite search engine.  I’ve listed a few links, but there are far too many to list here.  Also, all versions of the Windows™ operating systems have their own unique “Easter eggs” and although some are carried over from earlier versions, it is better to search for “Easter eggs” for the version of Windows™ you are running on your system.  I have listed some of my favorite “Easter eggs” below for Windows™ XP©.  So far the search for these tads of entertainment hidden in Vista© have managed to remain a secret for the most part.  We know or anticipate a sizeable number of Easter eggs in Vista™, but few have been found to date.  As they are found they are posted on the net by the forum or bloggers who find them, but they seem to be better hidden than in earlier versions of Windows™.  So far many of the Easter Eggs found in the Vista© versions of Windows™ are questionable.  Many are or might be bugs in the operating system that the finders are claiming to be Easter Eggs.  You can be assured there a many yet to be discovered.  Bookmark and visit the URL’s you find most favorable from time to time to check for additional postings or updates.  If you are fortunate to discover some Easter Eggs on your own personal hunt, report and share them. 

Here are some of my favorites:

In Applications For Windows XP™:

ü  Defrag:  defrag has a hidden line switch “-b”, to use it simply click on “Start” then “ run” and type “defrag c: -b” (without the quotations).  This will defrag a newly installed program improving its boot time and operation.)

Note: Windows™, runs this feature every several days automatically, but when the program is initially installed it will be loaded into any vacant sectors available.  If Windows™ finds a sector in use, it merely jumps to the next available sector leaving the file fragmented.

ü   MS DOS Editor:  This isn’t really a secret, but a left over from the old  MS DOS (Microsoft™ Disc Operating System)  Those who never had to edit a file in DOS™, are not aware or unaware that it still exists.  It is a lot like “Notepad”™, but has some features not available in “Notepad”.  To use it simply click on “Start” then “run” and type “edit” (without the quotations and the file name I.e.: “edit myfile.bat”, etc.

ü  Notepad:  Notepad has a unique feature that you can use to create a log file.  To create a log, open notepad and type “log” on the first line and hit enter to proceed to the next line.  Next save the file, typing whatever you would like to call it in the filename box and click on save.  The next time you open the file you will see the date and time has been appended to the right of the “log” you typed before you saved it.

ü  NetMeeting:  Although “NetMeeting” is not available in the communications menu Windows™ has a built conferencing software.  To use simply click on “Start” then “run” and type “conf” (without the “”) and hit enter.  This will bring up the “setup” window to configure “NetMeeting”.  NetMeeting has both video and audio capabilities as well as a white board to draw on.  The video ability is limited to two people, but the ability to communicate with several people at a time by text messaging between them. 

ü  Secret Hidden Font Editor: Can be used to create or edit fonts for that special letter head.  It can be accessed by clicking on “Start” then “run” then typing “eudcedit” and click “ok”, edit or create your special font and save it to your font library.

Game “Cheats” For XP™: 

• Windows™ Freecell© - To force an instant win simply press [Alt] + [Shift] + [F10], when the window pops up asking if you wish to abort, click on abort – then double click or move a card and it will force an automatic win.
• Windows™ Solitare© - [Alt] + [Shift] + [2], will force a win here. 

Some good sites to check for the latest found “Easter Eggs” are: 

• XP Secrets  
• Easter Eggs Your Really Shoud Try , (some for all versions of Windows™ 
• Easter Eggs , This site features Easter Eggs for many different programs 

Copyright© January, 2009 

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