Yesterday was Easter, and with it comes the great big tradition of parents hiding Easter eggs in homes / gardens etc to be able to search and find them for an added bonus. The tradition of easter eggs were loved by the Software Companies who would have loved to relive their childhood days I think, what they did was hide interesting pieces of code within software such that people could find them, or it would come up when you were trying something unexpected. So this Easter, since I cannot really give real easter eggs to the readers of this blog, I thought I will try providing the next best thing, Software Easter Eggs. 5 of them to be precise.

1. Solitaire made easy (only in XP)

If you are finding it difficult to win in Solitaire, just press Alt + Shift + 2. Presto! The game ends and you win.

2. Foul play at FreeCell (only in XP)

Start a new FreeCell game. Hold down Ctrl + Shift + F10 during play. A dialog box appears asking you to Abort, Retry or Ignore. Select Abort and then move any card anywhere to win the game.

3. Windows Clean Speech

Go to Control Panel, open up the Speech properties applet and in the Preview field type ‘Crotch’ (without the quote). The voice preview says “Crow’s nest” instead.

4. Windows Welcome Music

An ambient music track you might not have heard before. Navigate toC:WindowsSystem32. We are looking for a folder named ‘oobe’. This folder has a subfolder named ‘images’. In ‘images’ click on the sound file called ‘title.wma’ to hear the soothing track ““ Windows welcome music.

5. Firefox and the Kitchen Sink

In the address bar type in “˜about kitchensink‘ (without the quote but with a space). Look at the interesting graphic that opens up.

You can find plenty more of similar Easter Eggs here:

Egg Heaven

A comprehensive site which lists Easter eggs in different categories and also has a section called Curios which mentions tricks and other program quirks.

Eeggs

Another widely inclusive site which has category listings such as DVD Easter Eggs, Software, Movies, Music, TV, Books and Art.

Mac OS Easter Eggs

Mac Users can try out the listings available here.

SoftwareTipsAndTricks

Another good list site with a section on Easter eggs.

Gamespot

The gaming site includes information about some of the greatest Easter eggs in gaming.

In listing just five, I have deliberately missed out a lot more. If you come across any other let me know, it is definitely worth a list here.