Windows 1.0 was released in 1985, but it took until 2022 to discover one of its Easter eggs.
As XDA Developers reports, the discovery was made by self-proclaimed Windows fan Lucas Brooks, who shared the Easter egg via a tweet. It’s simply a scrollable list of the people who worked on Windows 1.0 at Microsoft, but we have to remember this is an Easter egg from 37 years ago.
One name you may be surprised to see on that list is Gabe Newell, who founded Valve back in 1996. Newell dropped out of Harvard University to go work at Microsoft in 1983 and spent the next 13 years there. He was a producer on the first three versions of Windows, hence his name’s inclusion on this list.
On the remote chance you have a working copy of Windows 1.0 running, revealing the Easter egg is difficult and requires patching some binaries. The reason why it took this long to discover is because the list is so well hidden (inside a bitmap image of a smiley face), and apparently couldn’t be found by anyone who picked up a copy of the operating system back in the mid-80’s.
Is this the last Windows 1.0 Easter egg? Based on how well hidden this one was, it’s impossible to say. Perhaps someone on that team list could reveal if any more exist.
