EASTER EGGS

Easter Eggs are undocumented, hidden tidbits in software, games, etc., that users accidentally stumble upon. These are fun to find, and thousands have already been documented. Easter eggs started out as a rebellion by early programmers who did not get credit for their work. That’s why some of them are as simple as a scrolling list of programmers. However, you also find some as advanced as a hidden car racing game in Excel 2000. So read on to explore the amusing world of Easter eggs.


Windows XP :

Unexpected shutdown:-You will be needing a software called Resource Hacker. Please refer my earlier post how-to-customise-your-start-button to know how to get Resource Hacker. Resource Hacker is a free tool to view and modify 32-bit Windows executables and resource files.

Open the msgina.dll file, located in the C:\Windows\System32 directory, in Resource Hacker. In the left pane, expand Dialog > 2210 > 1033. A dialog box opens at the bottom right hand of the screen. Notice the line just below the drop-down list entitled ‘Why did the computer shut down unexpectedly?!’


Solitare Win Win:-Force Solitare to win by a hack. Here’s how: Open sol.exe located in C:\Windows\System32\ using Resource Hacker. Expand String Table > 64 > 1033 in the left pane. Notice a line in the right pane saying 1010, “Force a win”. Use these numbers to enable the Easter Egg. Now expand Menu > 1 > 1033. Create a menu by typing the following just before the last closing brace:
POPUP “&Easter Egg”
{
MENUITEM "&Egg 1", 1008
MENUITEM "&Egg 2", 1009
MENUITEM "&Egg 3", 1010
}

Now, click the Compile Script button. Next, go to File > Save and save it in the original location, i.e., C:\Windows\System32\sol.exe. Also, replace sol.exe in the C:\Windows\System32\dllcache folder.

Now, a new menu Easter Egg appears with Egg 1, Egg 2 and Egg 3 as options. Click Egg 3 to force a win.


WinRAR:
Works on: WinRAR 3.20, 3.30
Falling Book:-WinRAR—the popular file compression utility—has a smart Easter Egg. Start WinRAR and go to Help > About. Next, click the book icon and it starts to fall. Further, if you press and hold [Shift], and click the logo, you see a small sail boat near the letter ‘R’. You may have to click a few times to see it , though.



Winamp:

Works on: Winamp 2.91:
Full Screen Credits:- Start Winamp, go to Winamp menu, click Nullsoft Winamp and switch to the Credits tab to see an animated screen. Now, hold down [Ctrl] + [Alt] and rightclick twice on the animation. This changes it to full-screen mode and alters the animation a bit. Repeat the same step to get back to normal mode. This full-screen animation depends on the active visualization. Change it to spectrum and then oscilloscope and repeat the process to see the difference.


Works On: Winamp 5:
Full Screen Credits:An animated logo comes up as you go to Winamp menu > Nullsoft Winamp and click the Winamp tab. Press and hold [Shift] and double-click on this logo to change it to an ASCII art.


Dancing Llamas:This is one amusing egg in Winamp 5. First play a song with fast beats and heavy bass. Now, switch to the modern skin and resize the main window. Increase its width to make the Beat Analyzer visible to the left of the Spectrum Analyzer. Now, hold down [Shift] + [Ctrl] + [Alt] and click the centre of the Beat Analyzer. You’ll see two llamas striking their heads on the ground in tune with each beat.


Requires Windows XP or 2000,Winamp5
Transparent Beats:- Play a song that’s akin to the one described above. Now, ensure that the main window has the focus (its title bar should be brighter than that of other windows) and type ‘NULLSOFT’. However, since pressing [L] opens the File Open dialog, you’ll have to press [Esc] after each [L]. Hence, you end up typing [N] [U] [L] [Esc] [L] [Esc] [S] [O] [F] [T]. This done, you see that the main window goes transparent at each beat and then reverts to being opaque. This Easter egg consumes a lot of system resources. If your system runs slow, type NULLSOFT again to turn it off, or just exit Winamp and restart it. In Winamp 2.91, the title bar shows a funny change when you do the same thing. Try this and see yourself.



Windows 98:
Teapot:
Works on: Windows 98, Windows 95

Right-click on the desktop and select Properties. Go to the Screensaver tab and choose the Pipes screensaver. Click Settings and select Pipes as Multiple, Pipe Style as Traditional, Joint Type as Mixed and Surface Style as Solid. Click OK and then click the Preview button. Watch the screensaver churn out teapots instead of joints!

Windows 98 team:
Go to C:\Windows\ ApplicationData\ Microsoft\WELCOME and find the file Weldata.exe. Right-click it and select Create Shortcut. Now, rightclick the shortcut and select Properties. In the General tab, add Y o u _ a r e _ a_real_rascal to the Target text box, after the path, and choose Minimized in the Run combo box. Click OK, doubleclick the shortcut and enjoy!

Windows 98 team:
Version 2
Works on:Windows 98 There is another way to view
Windows 98 team credits. Double-click the clock in the system tray to bring up the Date and Time Properties. Click the Time Zone tab, hold down [Ctrl] and click and hold the mouse button on Cairo, Egypt. With the mouse button still pressed, drag the pointer to Baton Rouge, LA. Release the mouse button but keep [Ctrl] pressed. Click on Baton Rouge, LA again and drag it to Redmond, WA. The credits movie starts to play once you release the mouse button. You can also try doing the same thing in Regional Settings under Control Panel.




to be continued....




WISE WORDS:Constant practice often excels even talent.