List of Easter eggs in Microsoft products

Word for Windows 2

In Word for Windows 2, there is a simple animation involving a WordPerfect 'Monster', a fireworks display and credits roll in the About box. The user's name (entered in Tools Options) was appended to the end of the "Thanks" section of the credits.

Office 4.3

The tip of the day would sometimes display the following fun and inspirational tips. They could also be viewed in the help file. This first appeared in Office 4.3, and also appeared in Office 95, and 97.

• If you do your best, whatever happens will be for the best.
• Things that go away by themselves can come back by themselves.
• Plaid shirts and striped pants rarely make a positive fashion statement.
• You should never dive into murky waters.
• It's never too late to learn to play the piano.
• You can hurt yourself if you run with scissors.
• You should never look directly at the sun.
• This is the last tip.

Office 95

• Microsoft Excel contained a hidden Doom-like mini-game called "The Hall of Tortured Souls".^[12]

Office 97

The Word 97 Pinball

• Microsoft Excel contained a hidden flight simulator.^[13][14]
• Microsoft Word contained a hidden pinball game.^[15]
• Microsoft Access contained a hidden simulation of the Magic 8 Ball toy. This also works in Access 2000.^[16]

Office 2000

Using Microsoft Excel 2000 and the Office Web Components, a small 3-D game called "Dev Hunter" (inspired by Spy Hunter) is accessible.^[17][18] DirectX must be installed for this to work, and the egg is incompatible with certain service pack upgrades. On the roadway shown in this game, a list of comments appear, all capitalized:

• WE ARE SPECIAL TOO
• YOU WILL RESPECT THE RECTANGLES
• DONT SKIMP ON THE DATA
• WHAT DO THESE PEOPLE DO AGAIN
• SO YOUR NAME IS MISSPELLED WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO DO ABOUT IT
• CIRCLES ARE GOOD TOO BUT THEYRE NOT RECTANGLES
• PIVOT PIVOT PIVOT CANT GET ENOUGH
• MALICIOUS PIXIES
• A CHART SAYS SO MUCH EVEN THOUGH IT DOESNT REALLY SAY ANYTHING BECAUSE IT CANT TALK
• THANKS FOR SHARING
• LAST BUT NOT LEAST BUT ALSO NOT COMPRESSED SPAM

Office 2004 Mac

The game Asteroids is included in the Microsoft Office Notifications application.^[19]

Microsoft Word

Every version of Microsoft Word from 97 to 2016 (Windows) or 2004 to 2011 (Word:Mac) contains a function to create filler text: typing =rand() in a Word document and hitting Enter results in 3 paragraphs of 5 repetitions of the pangram "The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog". Typing =rand(X,Y) (with numbers for X and Y) results in X paragraphs of Y repetitions of the sentence. For example, =rand(10,10) will produce ten paragraphs, each with ten repetitions. Microsoft has officially described this as a feature and not an Easter egg.^[24] In Microsoft Word 2007 and 2010, the repeated sentence is replaced with a longer text:

On the Insert tab, the galleries include items that are designed to coordinate with the overall look of your document. You can use these galleries to insert tables, headers, footers, lists, cover pages, and other document building blocks. When you create pictures, charts, or diagrams, they also coordinate with your current document look.

You can easily change the formatting of selected text in the document text by choosing a look for the selected text from the Quick Styles gallery on the Home tab. You can also format text directly by using the other controls on the Home tab. Most controls offer a choice of using the look from the current theme or using a format that you specify directly.

To change the overall look of your document, choose new Theme elements on the Page Layout tab. To change the looks available in the Quick Style gallery, use the Change Current Quick Style Set command. Both the Themes gallery and the Quick Styles gallery provide reset commands so that you can always restore the look of your document to the original contained in your current template.

In Microsoft Word 2013, the text was replaced again with

Video provides a powerful way to help you prove your point. When you click Online Video, you can paste in the embed code for the video you want to add. You can also type a keyword to search online for the video that best fits your document.

To make your document look professionally produced, Word provides header, footer, cover page, and text box designs that complement each other. For example, you can add a matching cover page, header, and sidebar. Click Insert and then choose the elements you want from the different galleries.

Themes and styles also help keep your document coordinated. When you click Design and choose a new Theme, the pictures, charts, and SmartArt graphics change to match your new theme. When you apply styles, your headings change to match the new theme.

Save time in Word with new buttons that show up where you need them. To change the way a picture fits in your document, click it and a button for layout options appears next to it. When you work on a table, click where you want to add a row or a column, and then click the plus sign.

Reading is easier, too, in the new Reading view. You can collapse parts of the document and focus on the text you want. If you need to stop reading before you reach the end, Word remembers where you left off - even on another device.

When =rand(1,1) is written, only a simple sentence is shown: in English, it is "On the Insert tab, the galleries include items that are designed to coordinate with the overall look of your document."

In Word 2007, 2010, and 2013, the pangram "The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog" text is available by typing the command =rand.old() and pressing enter.

Additionally, typing =lorem() gives the following text:

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Maecenas porttitor congue massa. Fusce posuere, magna sed pulvinar ultricies, purus lectus malesuada libero, sit amet commodo magna eros quis urna. Nunc viverra imperdiet enim. Fusce est. Vivamus a tellus. Pellentesque habitant morbi tristique senectus et netus et malesuada fames ac turpis egestas. Proin pharetra nonummy pede. Mauris et orci.

Typing =lorem(N) will produce "N" (where N is an integer) lines of lorem ipsum text. When "N" is larger than 27, the function begins to repeat itself.

All of these features will be disabled when "Replace text as you type" is turned off.

Microsoft Excel

Since version 5, Excel has possessed a "datedif" function, which calculates the difference in whole days, months or years between two dates. Although this function is still present in Excel 2007 and 2010, it was only documented in Excel 2000.^[25]

Microsoft Windows

• In Microsoft Windows, it is not possible to create or rename a file or folder called CON (case insensitive). This has been subject to a hoax that claims Microsoft is unable to explain why.^[26] In reality, however, CON, along with PRN, AUX, COM# (where # is a digit) and NUL, are reserved device names.
• There were features needed to be turned on while Windows 95 was tested, and the secret of turning them on was not removed. Some of the desktop features, including full window drag and anti-aliased fonts, could be turned on by placing the line ILOVEBUNNY32=1 under the Windows section in win.ini.^[27]
• DeskBar was a feature Microsoft planned to introduce in Windows 98. This would allow users to download desktop toolbars (deskbars) from their favorite websites. These mini-toolbars could update themselves automatically at predefined times, supplying the latest information from the websites without the need to launch a web browser. Microsoft did implement this feature in Windows 98 beta builds, but webmasters showed little interest and the feature was subsequently hidden in the Windows 98 RTM version.^[28]
• Windows includes a number of MIDI files for troubleshooting purposes. In Windows 3.1, CANYON.MID and PASSPORT.MID can be found in the directory <drive>:\Windows\Media, with some .WAV and .RMI files. In Windows ME and later versions, these were replaced by ONESTOP.MID, FLOURISH.MID, and TOWN.MID. These files allows for product support technicians to diagnose problems with MIDI playback without requiring the user to go to a Web page and download a known-good MIDI file.^[29] CSSAMP1.MID can also appear if Canon drivers are installed.
• In Windows XP, a music file titled title.wma (an environmental mix by Brian Eno) is found in \WINDOWS\system32\oobe\images folder. The file metadata calls it "Windows Welcome music by Microsoft". This is the background music played during the initial configuration wizard used to perform tasks such as setting up user accounts the first time that a new installation of Windows XP is used. In Windows Server 2003 and some builds of Longhorn, title.wma is updated (No Hay Problema by Pink Martini).
• Since Windows 95, a utility called Phone Dialer is available that allows one to place a call through one's phone port, provided they have one on their computer. There are no Start menu shortcuts for it and one must run its executable file (dialer.exe) directly. This was only documented in Windows 95 and Windows 98.
• In the Pinball game included with Windows, typing "hidden test" when the game is active starts test mode. In this mode, the user can drag the ball with the mouse cursor, and can press H to instantly get a high score, R to increase rank, M to display system memory, and Y to show frame rate. Typing "1max" at the start of a new ball awards an extra ball. Similarly, the user can type "gmax" to activate the gravity well, "rmax" to go up a rank, and "bmax" for unlimited balls (this last one results in an endless game, thereby precluding activation of the other cheats until the game is restarted).
• In the early versions of the Minesweeper game, if the user starts the game, types "xyzzy", and presses Right Shift+↵ Enter simultaneously, the top left-most pixel of the monitor (not the window) will be white or black when the mouse is hovered above a square, indicating that the square is either safe or mined, respectively.^[30] The first click anywhere in Minesweeper is never a mine. A click on a 'black' square, as first click, moves that mine away.
• Starting with Windows Vista, the Windows Master Control Panel shortcut, colloquially known as "God Mode", is commonly mistaken for an Easter egg. Creating a folder that references a specific global unique identifier allows for the creation of a shortcut to a location; in the case of "God Mode" it creates a Control Panel applet with all control panel items view enabled.
• In Windows, port number 666 uses a service named "doom". This is a reference to the Number of the Beast. The port was originally used for the Doom 95 game, but port 666 has remained labeled "doom" since.^[31]