A Windows hacker has found a never-before-seen Easter egg in the Windows 95 Internet Mail application, twenty-five years after the software was released.
When developing software, it is not uncommon for developers to slip in a secret hidden feature, message, or even a mini-game, that users can discover by performing particular actions in a program.
Easter eggs are always fun to find as they provide a small glimpse into a relaxed moment in the normally hectic and serious pace of software development.
This week, a new Easter egg in Windows 95's Internet Mail program has been discovered by Windows hacker and developer Albacore, opening a secret window that displays a scrolling list of the developer's names.
Before this discovery, there is no known mention of this Easter egg, meaning it has remained undiscovered for close to 25 years.
"It's never too late to find easter eggs. Happened to notice what looks like a never before seen easter egg in Windows 95's / IE4's Internet Mail. You have to open its About window, select one of the files, and type MORTIMER. Names of the program's developers will start scrolling," Albacore tweeted yesterday.
To access the Easter egg, users need to launch Internet Mail, click on Help, and then About. When the About screen opens, click on the listed comctl32.dll file, so it becomes highlighted, and then type MORTIMER on your keyboard.
After typing 'mortimer,' a small window will be displayed that will begin to list the Internet Mail developer's names, as shown in the video above that was shared with BleepingComputer.
Windows 95 Team and NT4 Team Easter eggs
In addition to the Easter egg found in Internet Mail, Albacore also shared a video of a previously known Windows 95's Product Team Easter egg that lists all of the operating system's developers.
Albacore told BleepingComputer that the final version of this Easter egg could be launched by creating a folder named "and now, the moment you've all been waiting for", then renaming it to "we proudly present for your viewing pleasure", and finally renaming it to "The Microsoft Windows 95 Product Team!"
To make it easier to launch the Easter egg, Albacore patched shell32.dll so that it could be launched by opening a folder named 'Clouds,' as demonstrated in the video below.
If you played video games in the days of Windows 95, watching this video will immediately bring back a sense of nostalgia as you listen to the MIDI music playing in the background.
Albacore also shared video of the Windows NT 4.0 team's Easter egg that was found in beta builds of NT 4.
Windows NT 4.0 betas contain their own variant of the Windows 95 Product Team easter egg. The revision found in builds 1130-1175 includes short but real credits which mention people like @davepl1968 — who these days runs the excellent Dave's Garage YouTube channel. pic.twitter.com/3OVeMeeFlT
— Albacore (@thebookisclosed) March 27, 2021
Update 3/27/21: Added further info about the Windows 95 Team Easter egg. Added NT 4.0 Easter egg.
Comments
Some-Other-Guy - 3 years ago
Lawrence,
I have a few questions about your comment >
"Before this discovery, there is no known mention of this Easter egg, meaning it has remained undiscovered for close to 15 years."
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How does this mean it has remained undiscovered ?
I mean, after the vast majority of comments has been removed and deleted from search queries and the Internet itself in all this time, how would you know whether it was discovered or not?
and 15 years?
Windows 95 was released when?
Based on available records, and the ability to adequately search them, it "may" have remained undiscovered for close to 25 years
English Teacher - 3 years ago
Sorry but you misread the article:
In the title: "being hidden for 25 years"
First sentence: "twenty-five years after the software was released."
Sixth sentence: "undiscovered for close to 25 years"
EmanuelJacobsson - 3 years ago
Dont bother replying to him, he/she is just an troll.
Some-Other-Guy - 3 years ago
Sorry, but you missed the original article before the author edited it
I quoted it verbatim (copy / paste)
That means Emanuel Jacobsson is a Troll
forum11 - 3 years ago
Right on, Some-Other-Guy! And the irony should not be lost that the English Teacher apparently was not considering the very principal you cited in your comment, that being the "...vast majority of comments has been removed and deleted from search queries and the Internet itself..." - Folks need to consider that maybe what is being displayed to them now is not the same thing displayed at a prior time when an earlier comment was made. It seemed like a pretty safe bet, at least to me, that your comment was speaking to an earlier edition of the article.
EmanuelJacobsson - 3 years ago
As I said, dont feed the troll.
Wolverine 7 - 3 years ago
I cant help thinking Albacore, needs to get out more..
Hagrinas - 3 years ago
Cool. I can't wait to try this...next time I run Windows 95.
Al_Capella - 3 years ago
Who still has a working copy of Win 95 and how can I get one?
jmotetris - 3 years ago
I've confirmed this works on "Run Win95 from your browser" - https://archive.org/details/win95_in_dosbox
QuantumProphet42 - 3 years ago
@Al_Capella, go to the Winworldpc library (https://winworldpc.com/library/operating-systems). You can download a copy of Windows 95. I run a copy in VMware Player.
tekvax - 3 years ago
This NT40 easter egg is hardly new... I remember seeing this 20 plus years ago...