Top 25 Operating System Easter Eggs
Aptitude Version of Moo
- 9.3/10 with 60 votes
Posted Thursday, March 16 in Debian GNU/Linux
$ aptitude moo
There are no Easter Eggs in this program. $ aptitude -v moo There really are no Easter Eggs in this program. $ aptitude -vv moo Didn't I already tell you that there are no Easter Eggs in this program? Keep on adding -v's until after... more 
The ubuntu fish...
- 8.3/10 with 43 votes
Posted Saturday, June 9 in Linux
This no doubt works in versions of ubuntu below feisty too, though I don't know how far back and it might not be ubuntu specific, it might just be gnome.
Press alt+f2 to get the run dialogue box Enter "free the fish" without the quotes of course Observe. 
No Super Cow Powers for Aptitude?
- 8.3/10 with 104 votes
Posted Tuesday, November 16 in Linux
Although aptitude, the successor to apt-get does not have Super Cow powers (typing "aptitude --help" brings up a help screen that informs you of this at the end), it does have an easter egg.
1.Type "aptitude moo" & press ENTER aptitude responds... more 
Pinball Mouse Control (not an egg)
- 8.2/10 with 88 votes
Posted Tuesday, February 12 in Windows XP
This is a cool egg if youare rubbish at microsoft pinball or just want to make your friends know that you rule. This is how to do it:
Press start, All programs, games, Pinball. When you are in pinball wait until the ball appears ahd then type in... more 
Weather Nowhere
- 8.2/10 with 153 votes
Posted Thursday, March 16 in Mac OS X
Bring up the Weather widget:
Open the Dashboard, either by clicking its icon in the Dock or by pressing the 'F12" button on your keyboard. Click on the '+' sign in the bottom left-hand corner of the screen to load up the widget bar. Locate the 'Weather'... more 
Apt-Get and Super Cow Powers
- 7.6/10 with 318 votes
Posted Wednesday, September 4 in Linux
1. Type apt-get help. If the egg is present one, there will be a line "This APT has Super Cow Powers."
2. Type apt-get moo and you will see a picture of a cow drawn in ascii and message "have you mooed today?" You do not need root permissions to do... more 
Got Apt-Get?
- 7.4/10 with 233 votes
Posted Thursday, July 18 in Debian GNU/Linux
The Advanced Package Tool (APT) is a part of the software management system for Debian. Analogous to RedHat's RPM, but infinitely more capable, APT features automatic dependency handling and much more. If you're not a Linux type, it's like Windows Update... more
Easier Way to Force Win in Solitaire
- 7.2/10 with 1052 votes
Posted Friday, June 18 in Windows XP
Select the 'Timed game' and 'Standard' scoring options, then play for over 30 seconds. Press Alt + Shift + 2 (above 'w', not keypad 2). This will end the game, add a bonus to your score, and play the celebration. After the celebration (which may be... more
Hidden Amiga Messages
- 7.2/10 with 239 votes
Posted Sunday, July 25 in Amiga
1. Hold Left-Shift, Left-Alt, Right-Shift and right-alt
2. Press any of the F keys and get a message! 3. To get a rude message toward Commodore, do this 4. Hold down the same as step 1 and hold down an f key 5. Insert a disk and you get the message... more 
Commodore 128 System Programmers
- 7.1/10 with 89 votes
Posted Tuesday, March 13 in Commodore 128
1. Boot machine
2. Type: SYS 32800,123,45,6 3. A list of system programmers is displayed 
This Is Not DOS
- 7.1/10 with 180 votes
Posted Wednesday, April 26 in Mac OS X Server
On the login panel, press Control-Option-Del.
Change Your Windows Decor
- 7.1/10 with 228 votes
An alert panel will pop up with "This is not DOS". Posted Sunday, July 25 in BeOS
1. Hold the CTRL+ALT+SHIFT keys and click on the Be button on the deskbar.
Hidden Recipes in Release Notes
- 7.1/10 with 72 votes
2. You will see a previously hidden menu item called "Window Decor." 3. There are several options available to you there, you can make all of your windows look like the BeOS,... more Posted Thursday, July 15 in Irix
1. Open a shell
The Perfect Hand in Solitaire
- 7.1/10 with 199 votes
2. Type in: relnotes dmedia_eoe 29 3. (This is for IRIX 6.5, the exact page number varies between OS releases) 4. Enjoy the recipes for Kung Pao Chicken and Tiramisu Posted Wednesday, January 26 in Windows CE
It’s frustrating trying to get a good hand in solitaire. With a little trick, you can make things much easier.
Credits in BBC Micro OS ROM
- 7.1/10 with 64 votes
Using the software keyboard, tap Control, tap Shift, then tap the Deal button at the top, and you'll get a perfect hand of solitaire.... more Posted Tuesday, June 6 in BBC Micro OS (all versions?)
1. Find an old BBC Micro or a ROM image of the operating system.
Alternate Intro to Games
- 7.1/10 with 226 votes
2. If a BBC Micro, extract the OS ROM (not the BASIC ROM) and read the contents. 3. Look at locations 3C00-3EFF. These are 'dead' space in the ROM, normally hidden by custom hardware. 4.... more Posted Tuesday, June 4 in GameCube
Before you turn the system on, hold the Z button. Continue to hold it until the GameCube symbol begins to show. Instead of the usual sounds, it will have chimes, a baby's rattle, and a giggle. It laughs in the face of all those who called it a "kiddie... more
Mail.App Developer
- 7.1/10 with 407 votes
Posted Tuesday, May 20 in Mac OS X
1. Go to Applications folder on your Hard Drive
2. Look for Mail 3. ctrl-Click the app and choose "Show package" 4. Look inside for folder Contents - Resources 5. Look for "senders.tiff" and open it with Preview 6. After seconds you can... more 
Dates of History
- 7.1/10 with 56 votes
Posted Thursday, March 16 in Mac OS X
1. Open "Terminal.app" located in the Applications > Utilities folder on your Hard Drive.
2. At the prompt paste the following: cat /usr/share/calendar/calendar.history This is a list of significant dates in history, one for every day of the year. 
Hearts Card Look (NOT AN EGG)
- 7.1/10 with 1940 votes
Posted Sunday, March 5 in Windows 98
1. Press Start Button and then press "Run".
2. Type "regedit". 3. Goto: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Applets\Hearts 4. Insert a new String called "ZB". 5. Then Type "42" as String. 6. Start Hearts 7. Press CTRL+ALT+SHIFT+F12... more 
Easter Egg and Taxi
- 7.1/10 with 949 votes
Posted Thursday, July 15 in Palm OS
1. Go to Preferences, General Tab
AmigaOS 3.X Easter Eggs
- 7.0/10 with 55 votes
2. Draw a small circle, counter-clockwise, on the screen right above the calculator silk-screen button. If done properly, you should see an Easter Egg appear. 3. Now, hold down the page down button in any application... more Posted Wednesday, December 13 in Amiga
1. Turn on your 3.x Amiga and boot into workbench.
Special Kernel Functions
- 7.0/10 with 74 votes
2. Make sure you have less than 16 processes / windows open. 3. Hold down all ctrl, alt and shift keys. (a friend could be useful here) 4. Start opening About boxes, the 16th one should have credits... more Posted Tuesday, July 4 in BeOS
Two special system calls are defined in "/boot/develop/headers/be/kernel/OS.h" at line 551. One is "is_computer_on()". The other is "is_computer_on_fire()". Programmers can use these function to insure that the computer is on and is not...err...burning.... more
Spinal Tap Audio Panel
- 7.0/10 with 52 votes
Posted Thursday, July 15 in Irix
1. Bring up a shell
Handspring Visor - Cartwheeling "Flip" Guy
- 7.0/10 with 157 votes
2. Type "audiopanel -spinaltap" 3. Look at the scales on your new audiopanel Posted Thursday, January 4 in Palm OS
1. Go to the main category.
Printer on Fire!
- 7.0/10 with 554 votes
2. while holding the up button tap the time tab next to the battery indicator. 3. watch flip do cartwheels across the screen in color. This works from other categories as well Posted Sunday, July 25 in Linux
1. Using LINUX 2.2.1 (havent checked others), with bidirectional printer support
2. Print from the network and force a printer jam (tear a corner off a piece of paper and put back into th printer) 3. Issue a print command 4. Watch the output of... more |