Windows 11: Microsoft has hidden these Easter eggs in the Windows 10 successor

• Microsoft is well known for putting Easter Eggs in their software.
• Naturally, these small and larger functions are not that easy to find.
• We’ll help you find it!

Software developers like to leave humorous gimmicks in their products with so-called Easter Eggs. Like real Easter eggs, these are not immediately visible and must first be found or activated. As with Windows 10, Windows 11 has fewer digital Easter eggs than older Windows versions.

1. 1. Star Wars IV as a text-based telnet story

2. 2. Animated cog in the editor

3. 3. Godmode for the control panel

4. 4. Shut down on touchscreens with a swipe gesture

5. 5. Windows 3.1 File Explorer

6. 6. Playing games with Cortana

7. 7. Hidden surfing game in Edge browser

However, the Microsoft developers have not completely lost their urge to play. Here we present you the previously known Easter Eggs from Windows 11. Some are not part of the system. But they’re still fun.

1. Star Wars IV as a text-based telnet story

You can use the optionally available telnet client in Windows 11 to watch the science fiction classic Star Wars: Episode 4 – A New Hope as a text film.

1. 1

   Opens the “Turn Windows features on or off” menu via the search.

2. 2

   Check the “Telnet Client” box and click “OK”.

3. 3

   Start the Run dialog with the shortcut “Windows + R” and execute the command “telnet towel.blinkenlights.nl”.

4. 4

   You can then watch Star Wars: Episode 4 – A New Hope as a text film in a telnet window.

2. Animated cog in the editor

1. 1

   The wheel for opening the settings in the Windows 11 editor turns wildly in circles when you right-click. Once you know the hidden animation, the “nudge” by right-clicking should bring a small smile to many people’s faces.

3. Godmode for the control panel

1. 1

   As in Windows 10, there is a hidden Godmode for the remnants of the control panel in Windows 11. Once activated, you can use it to display all control panel items as an ordered list. We will show you how to do this in a separate guide.

4. Shut down on touchscreens with a swipe gesture

The function known from Windows 8 for shutting down the computer by swiping from the top edge of the screen is available in Windows 11 in the form of an Easter egg. You can activate this as follows via a new link.

1. 1

   Right click on the desktop and select “New – Shortcut”.

2. 2

   Enter the command “%windir%\System32\SlideToShutDown.exe” and click on “Next”.

3. 3

   Enter any name.

4. 4

   By double-clicking on the shortcut you can now activate the shutdown with a swipe gesture.

5. 5

   A kind of overlapping slider with wallpaper appears, which you can drag down with your finger or mouse.

5. Windows 3.1 File Explorer

If there were still traces of the old file manager from Windows 3.1 in older versions of Windows, you can now completely install and use it in Windows 11.

1. 1

   To do this, download the ZIP file provided by Microsoft from Github and unzip it.

2. 2

   In the x64 subdirectory you can then start the old Windows 3.1 file explorer with a double-click.

3. 3

   The window-in-window mode is quite impractical. Some nostalgia and joy comes up when clicking around with the file manager.

6. Playing games with Cortana

1. 1

   Cortana also has its own “Easter Egg”. You can use the language assistant as a playmate or as a random decision-making aid via the “rock, paper, scissors” or “heads or tails” commands.

7. Hidden surfing game in Edge browser

The Edge Browser is the first browser that you can use on Windows 11. But did you know that the program also comes with a game? It’s a clone of the classic game SkiFree, which is based in a tropical setting and can be easily accessed via the address bar.

1. 1

   Microsoft is already telling you what you have to do on a website dedicated to the Easter Egg: Open the Edge browser for the Easter Egg and navigate to the address bar. Here you give edge://surf and press the Enter key.

2. 2

   The game window opens. Choose your surfer of choice here and press the spacebar to start surfing in the game. Use the arrow keys to control your character. But be careful: Don’t get caught by the squid.

You can find more Easter Eggs in other programs and in services like Google or in popular games in another article.