Windows 2000 Easter Egg - Minesweeper

. Enter Minesweeper, and type "xyzzy"(No quotes).
2. Press the left shift key.
3. Look at the top-left most pixel on the entire screen. To see this pixel, you have to minimize or shrink Program manager, since this changing pixel resides on the background wallpaper. When the pointer in on a mine the pixel will turn
4. This cheat is known to work under Windows 3.1 and Windows for Workgroups 3.11, but it is belived that the minesweeper under Windows 95 was changed and that this trick won't work.

User Rating:
6.6
  6.6/10 with 1919 votes
Contributed By: Danny T on 02-10-2000
Reviewed By: Webmaster
Special Requirements: windows 2K , Minesweeper
Please correct this Egg if you see errors.

Pictures and Videos

None posted yet. Send us yours and be the first!

Comments

Jon writes:
I've tried this egg under Win98 and Win2k. It works under Win2k but not under Win98.
21 of 39 people found this comment helpful. Did you? Yes No
Poof writes:
This Egg DOES work on Windows 2000 (The Cat SAYS Win2K so why are you saying it doesn't work in 9X? This egg doesn't work on Win9X but works on Win2K(Maybe NT) and Windows 3.1X
21 of 39 people found this comment helpful. Did you? Yes No
Disgruntled writes:
The XYZZY thing is a reference to the magic word used in "Colossal Caves" and the "Zork" games.
21 of 39 people found this comment helpful. Did you? Yes No
Jell-0 writes:
I have Win2K Build 2195 SP1 and it doesn’t seem to work on my system - maybe I am retarded and I'm not doing it right and if that is the case, fell free to correct me... but I couldn’t get it to work.
21 of 39 people found this comment helpful. Did you? Yes No
Big Boppa writes:
i have win2k on my dell laptop and you can see the pixel on the top left change from black to white very well! awsome code, finally beat it on x-pert
21 of 39 people found this comment helpful. Did you? Yes No
Holden writes:
It is a cool egg. Works under Win 2000.
21 of 39 people found this comment helpful. Did you? Yes No
Isaaclev writes:
It worked for me without the shift key.
21 of 39 people found this comment helpful. Did you? Yes No
Squizzy writes:
Fantastic - I'm winning the office minesweeper competition, no one can beat me. Maybe I should have started betting money before all this success, anyway a great egg.
21 of 39 people found this comment helpful. Did you? Yes No
Neocrazy writes:
It doesn't work for me. I have Windows 2000. I tried both ways, with and without the shift key. Help!
21 of 39 people found this comment helpful. Did you? Yes No
jomofo writes:
For those that can't get it to work, make sure your screen is adjusted so that you can actually see the upper-left pixel. If you've got your screen extended all the way to the edge of the viewable area on your monitor it's possible that your magic pixel is being clipped. Also make sure that you have everything but minesweeper minimized so that you can see the desktop.
21 of 39 people found this comment helpful. Did you? Yes No
Simo writes:
To get rid of the dot , you must first close Minesweeper and on the desktop Right-click and goto Refresh, or click once on the desktop in a free space and press F5.
21 of 39 people found this comment helpful. Did you? Yes No
zandro writes:
I have 2K running on an IBM ThinkPad 570, works great, I see that little mine detecting pixel blinking like a champ; but whenever I click on this pixel, my screen explodes.
21 of 39 people found this comment helpful. Did you? Yes No
x7gamma writes:
"xyzzy" is actually a reference to Advent...
21 of 39 people found this comment helpful. Did you? Yes No
Dave2 writes:
It is like the sol one (where it is yxyyz with Ctrl Alt + Shift pressed for 1 casrd at a time)
21 of 39 people found this comment helpful. Did you? Yes No
Well, xyzzy has been a metasyntactic variable for years. Whenever programmers need a word and they can't be bothered to think of one, in goes a metasyntactic variable. Others are: foo bar foobar pop gx fred And so on. A lot of people have their personal favorites and creations. While on the subject, foobar is suggested to be an acronym of "F***ed Up Beyond All Repair".
21 of 39 people found this comment helpful. Did you? Yes No
jello writes:
Works in windows whistler (xp) too. And, btw, "foobar" is correctly spelled fubar, and the "r" can stand for repair OR recognition. (watch full metal jacket for context.)
21 of 39 people found this comment helpful. Did you? Yes No
Huga writes:
fubar also is used in geology. There's a mineral called fubarite, because when they first dug it up, all the layers were twisted and contorted = "F**ked up beyond all recognition"
21 of 39 people found this comment helpful. Did you? Yes No
Sarah3264 writes:
"Foo" and "bar" are Zork references. If you had entered them as a command, you'd get: "Well, FOO, BAR, and BLETCH to you too!"
21 of 39 people found this comment helpful. Did you? Yes No
eggboy2 writes:
It works!!
21 of 39 people found this comment helpful. Did you? Yes No
Craig writes:
This egg don't work under win ME :(
21 of 39 people found this comment helpful. Did you? Yes No
TheCaptn writes:
I'm Running Windows XP Pro Final and it works fine.
21 of 39 people found this comment helpful. Did you? Yes No
This works in WinXPPro as well.
21 of 39 people found this comment helpful. Did you? Yes No
DarkFox writes:
I have Windows XP, and I can tell you it works. Looks like Microsoft missed one in their Easter Egg Hunt.
21 of 39 people found this comment helpful. Did you? Yes No
Sk8tRLee writes:
It works on Windows 95 for me!!! If you put resolution on the lowest, it's not as much as an eye killer
21 of 39 people found this comment helpful. Did you? Yes No
MathGuy2 writes:
"XYZZY" is the code word to get to a certain room in the UNIX 'adventure' game. The game comes with most Linux versions, but not with Mac OS X.
21 of 39 people found this comment helpful. Did you? Yes No
Sarah3264 writes:
And more on the subject: I have both the 3.1 and the 95 Minesweeper, and they are different- the type is different in the 3.1, and sometimes in the 3.1 there is an explosion screen. In other words, they would have taken it out in the 'new' Minesweeper.
21 of 39 people found this comment helpful. Did you? Yes No
pman13 writes:
foobar is actually supposed to be fubar, and it is a superlative for f*cked up beyond all recognition, not all repair
21 of 39 people found this comment helpful. Did you? Yes No
gandalf109 writes:
I just by chance found that if you hit the escape key while playing minesweeper in Win 2K, the timer stops, but you can keep on playing, 1 second looks pretty impressive as the fastest expert time.
21 of 39 people found this comment helpful. Did you? Yes No
mtw writes:
Works just fine on Final English Windows XP Pro Corp.(build 2600)
21 of 39 people found this comment helpful. Did you? Yes No
Oisín writes:
fubar - F***ed Up Beyond All Recognition, according to the hacker's jargon file. :) From the second world war or something...
21 of 39 people found this comment helpful. Did you? Yes No
shinji_muyo writes:
The dot can be removed by pressing the left shift key again.
21 of 39 people found this comment helpful. Did you? Yes No
Asthore writes:
It worked on Windows 2000 for me. Just had to refresh the desktop as previously suggested.
21 of 39 people found this comment helpful. Did you? Yes No
Leea writes:
Well I have Windows ME running and when I open Minesweeper and just type in "x" or "z" is says £¥Ü.P£Ü[{{+§ has caused an error in WINMINE.EXE or WINMINE.EXE has caused an error in SMILEYKILL.DLL and then it gives me the bsod(blue screen of death)a few hundred times. Then I have to restart my computer!! Does anyone know why it does this??? <_>;;
21 of 39 people found this comment helpful. Did you? Yes No
Stheg writes:
This works for W2K with DirectX8, IE5.5, but all other patches and hotfixes available as of 27JUN04.
21 of 39 people found this comment helpful. Did you? Yes No
Huguitow writes:
xyzzy sounds like "Cheesy"
21 of 39 people found this comment helpful. Did you? Yes No
burdeesrule writes:
The easiest way to see the pixel is to change your background picture to pure black temporarily. The little white pixel shines bright and clear!
21 of 39 people found this comment helpful. Did you? Yes No
Armiris writes:
I have XP and all this does is make a 3x3 block selected......
21 of 39 people found this comment helpful. Did you? Yes No
Kelton2 writes:
This doesn't work in Vista and 7 and 8. Only in XP and previous.
21 of 39 people found this comment helpful. Did you? Yes No


Related Pages
All Windows 2000 Easter Eggs
More Operating Systems Easter Eggs
Top 25 Operating System Easter Eggs
Site Friends
Slipups.com
Cocktails and Drink Recipes at Drinkswap.com
Register - Privacy Policy - About Us - Contact Us