Today, Microsoft has image problems. But we’re finally talking about him in positive terms, although… he actually earned it quite a long time ago. In the code of one of the most classic office suites – Office 97 – someone has just unearthed a quite interesting one that takes us back to the late 1990s. w., Easter egg. Today, hardly anyone would play with such a thing.
Office 97 debuted in November 1996 and was a real breakthrough for Microsoft. It was an interface that defined the way of working with Word or Excel for years – and also “Mr. Paperclip”, which some people hated and others still remember fondly to this day. It was also the era of licenses purchased once, but forever. The code that reached the user was largely a closed chapter. Maybe that’s why there’s room for a joke in it that we… discovered only recently: after almost 30 years.
A new Easter egg after almost 30 years
The discovery was made by user X known as Albacorespecializing in messing with old Microsoft software. He came across a completely new sequence, the existence of which had not previously been publicly reported.
Running it is not easy and sounds like a ritual, because the system date must be set to a year later than 1997, in Word 97 you need to hold Ctrlrepeatedly move the toolbar, then click Clippy, and finally enter the phrase ““This is not a contest” and click “Search”.
This is how you get full-fledged end credits with animations and the names of the entire development team. Next to them, Mr. Paperclip comments on events, cracks jokes and reacts to subsequent screens.
Mr. Paperclip as narrator
This Easter egg is, by today’s standards, extremely personal. It’s almost a miniature spectacle in which the “assistant” plays the role of a presenter, sometimes ironic, sometimes almost proud of the people behind the product. Cit’s true, Mr. Paperclip’s reactions are absolutely scripted and have nothing to do with the reasoning of today’s artificial intelligence, but in “those days”, it was impressive.
Modern apps rarely – if ever – show team members’ faces: the last time I saw something like this… I think it was in Cyberpunk 2077, in a special garage room. Even in games, the end credits are sometimes shortened or omitted. In the office suite from the 1990s, developers allowed themselves something that would not be possible today.
“I was here”
In the 1990s, hidden jokes were quite common in software. They were a ritual of joy at the creation of something that lives, works and is useful: in the form of a valve that released stress and frustration caused by deadlines and hardware limitations at the time.. They were also a way to leave a trace, which is absolutely natural.
Today it is a rarity. All because of security audits, compliance, legal risks, blah, blah, blah. People simply prefer to “do their own thing and be done with it.” There is no room for spontaneity in the code, as this may turn out to be a problem.
Read also: Turbocharged Office package. Microsoft has added useful features
Digital artifact
It’s hard to say how Albacore came across this mechanism. Perhaps it was a combination of binary analysis, documentation, and simple curiosity. Regardless of the method, the effect is priceless from the point of view of the history of technology. Even in such an old product you can find a trace of ambition and a sense of humor. Can you imagine how many such Easter eggs we have never found?
