@fbl.fun
Documenting software history, one piece at a time • also known as @thebookisclosed/Albacore on Twitter
I did find this as well but it seems like a crazy explanation, plus this site seems to belong to a sysadmin and not an MS employee outright
January 13, 2026 at 3:39 PM
I did find this as well but it seems like a crazy explanation, plus this site seems to belong to a sysadmin and not an MS employee outright
Ah, I see. Thanks a bunch for replying anyway 😄 Would be fun to one day learn where secret phrases like "This is not a contest." came from. There's also this silly audio file in Outlook 97's 1st Early Test Release, not referenced anywhere in code as far as I can tell.
January 13, 2026 at 3:28 PM
Ah, I see. Thanks a bunch for replying anyway 😄 Would be fun to one day learn where secret phrases like "This is not a contest." came from. There's also this silly audio file in Outlook 97's 1st Early Test Release, not referenced anywhere in code as far as I can tell.
Does anyone know why Office 2013 changed Outlook's app / brand color from yellow to blue? Other hallmark apps kept their colors, so this is puzzling to me 🤔 The cherry on top is that it effectively collides with Word's color which makes it an extra absurd choice in my eyes.
January 13, 2026 at 3:11 PM
Does anyone know why Office 2013 changed Outlook's app / brand color from yellow to blue? Other hallmark apps kept their colors, so this is puzzling to me 🤔 The cherry on top is that it effectively collides with Word's color which makes it an extra absurd choice in my eyes.
Reposted
That's bad. But what's worse is the Windows 11 Setting dialog (System > Sound > Properties if it matters) using 6.6% of a CPU core while sitting idle. WTF Microsoft? Why are you spinning waiting on vblanks when you aren't even visible? Make your XAML message processing stop!
January 13, 2026 at 5:24 AM
That's bad. But what's worse is the Windows 11 Setting dialog (System > Sound > Properties if it matters) using 6.6% of a CPU core while sitting idle. WTF Microsoft? Why are you spinning waiting on vblanks when you aren't even visible? Make your XAML message processing stop!
Reposted
Another day, another Intel monitoring process that is consuming significant CPU time. This time I have esrv_svc.exe using 4% of a CPU core on an otherwise idle machine.
January 13, 2026 at 5:24 AM
Another day, another Intel monitoring process that is consuming significant CPU time. This time I have esrv_svc.exe using 4% of a CPU core on an otherwise idle machine.
They really were. Would it be okay if I sent you an email with a couple questions regarding the secret/hidden Easter egg text & access methods I found in Office 97 betas? It's been a long time so I understand that it might be a bit too late to ask for origins & context.
January 12, 2026 at 5:25 AM
They really were. Would it be okay if I sent you an email with a couple questions regarding the secret/hidden Easter egg text & access methods I found in Office 97 betas? It's been a long time so I understand that it might be a bit too late to ask for origins & context.
Additionally if you hold Shift while you press Search you enable a couple more animations like selection boxes around the small icons.
January 11, 2026 at 8:02 PM
Additionally if you hold Shift while you press Search you enable a couple more animations like selection boxes around the small icons.
With such a convoluted activation sequence I'm not surprised that there are no obvious traces of the Easter egg even now, 29 years later. The comments Clippit provides are a cherry on top.
January 11, 2026 at 7:59 PM
With such a convoluted activation sequence I'm not surprised that there are no obvious traces of the Easter egg even now, 29 years later. The comments Clippit provides are a cherry on top.
Accessing this is silly. The system date has to be 1997+. You have to hold Ctrl, grab the Standard toolbar, move it to a specific side, let go of Ctrl, then press it again, move to next. The sides: top, left, bottom, right, top. Click on 📎, enter "This is not a contest.", and 🔍
January 11, 2026 at 7:54 PM
Accessing this is silly. The system date has to be 1997+. You have to hold Ctrl, grab the Standard toolbar, move it to a specific side, let go of Ctrl, then press it again, move to next. The sides: top, left, bottom, right, top. Click on 📎, enter "This is not a contest.", and 🔍
Reading @stevesi.xyz's amazing posts about Office 97's development got me wondering.. could there be more fun stuff hiding under the hood that nobody found yet? Yessir! There's a whole developer credits sequence incl. commentary from Clippit that starts 1 minute in. Take a look! 📹📎
January 11, 2026 at 7:50 PM
Reading @stevesi.xyz's amazing posts about Office 97's development got me wondering.. could there be more fun stuff hiding under the hood that nobody found yet? Yessir! There's a whole developer credits sequence incl. commentary from Clippit that starts 1 minute in. Take a look! 📹📎
Any MSFTies who wouldn't mind enlightening me about what Device Interface IDs 919bc09f-b93c-4d4c-80fa-8ed0017d628e and 588c8d20-c0e3-4fd3-b511-8f2f692156f8 are?
They seem to have something to do with new Virtual Camera stuff in Windows 11 and there's 0 docs or headers w/ them 🥲
They seem to have something to do with new Virtual Camera stuff in Windows 11 and there's 0 docs or headers w/ them 🥲
December 10, 2025 at 8:00 PM
Any MSFTies who wouldn't mind enlightening me about what Device Interface IDs 919bc09f-b93c-4d4c-80fa-8ed0017d628e and 588c8d20-c0e3-4fd3-b511-8f2f692156f8 are?
They seem to have something to do with new Virtual Camera stuff in Windows 11 and there's 0 docs or headers w/ them 🥲
They seem to have something to do with new Virtual Camera stuff in Windows 11 and there's 0 docs or headers w/ them 🥲
Oh well, thank you so much for your time ❤️ Minecraft made for many memorable, fun packed summer breaks. All the recent additions make it feel so lively and I still love coming back to it with my friends.
August 5, 2025 at 4:24 PM
Oh well, thank you so much for your time ❤️ Minecraft made for many memorable, fun packed summer breaks. All the recent additions make it feel so lively and I still love coming back to it with my friends.
If you don't mind me asking, do you think devs from back then kept various in-progress versions of the Adventure Update or are those bits most likely lost to time after so many years had passed?
August 4, 2025 at 3:13 PM
If you don't mind me asking, do you think devs from back then kept various in-progress versions of the Adventure Update or are those bits most likely lost to time after so many years had passed?
I see, thanks a bunch for answering either way, I really appreciate it. 😊 My fantasy went all over the place those 10+ years ago, wondering what sort of item would've repaired those hypothetical Sky portals but I suppose that's far removed from actual development priorities of back then. 😅
August 4, 2025 at 3:11 PM
I see, thanks a bunch for answering either way, I really appreciate it. 😊 My fantasy went all over the place those 10+ years ago, wondering what sort of item would've repaired those hypothetical Sky portals but I suppose that's far removed from actual development priorities of back then. 😅
Of course, I respect that. I was mostly curious about the original vision of (surface exposed) Strongholds. Were they created with dimension travel in mind from the start? The magical blue portal textures in B1.9 pre3 made me wonder if this was originally a way to get to the Sky in B1.7 development.
August 4, 2025 at 12:10 PM
Of course, I respect that. I was mostly curious about the original vision of (surface exposed) Strongholds. Were they created with dimension travel in mind from the start? The magical blue portal textures in B1.9 pre3 made me wonder if this was originally a way to get to the Sky in B1.7 development.
@jebox.bsky.social Hi Jens! Sorry to bother you, I was wondering if I could ask a couple questions regarding ideas floated around all the way back during Beta 1.7. Childhood curiosity is getting the best of me and I’d love to learn a bit more about development history 😊
August 2, 2025 at 10:06 AM
@jebox.bsky.social Hi Jens! Sorry to bother you, I was wondering if I could ask a couple questions regarding ideas floated around all the way back during Beta 1.7. Childhood curiosity is getting the best of me and I’d love to learn a bit more about development history 😊
Reposted
a complete demo of runlevel 0 -> 1 -> 2
May 2, 2025 at 8:07 PM
a complete demo of runlevel 0 -> 1 -> 2
Reposted
IT'S STILL ALIVE. THE VALIDATION OS ISO ACTUALLY IS *GETTING UPDATED* AND IT APPARENTLY CONTAINS AMAZING STUFF LIKE THIS.
there's apparently even win0 bits in there I NEED TO GET THIS RUNNING
there's apparently even win0 bits in there I NEED TO GET THIS RUNNING
![a screenshot of a hyper-v vm showing a text-mode windows edition.
the text shown is as follows:
"
HELLO!
The OS is booted to RunLevel 1 - ONLY.
Services are not available at this run level.
Native and CUI apps can run.
To run, your app must depend on
ntdll, kernelbase and UCRT only.
Run 'memstat' to see memory usage.
Run 'tlist' to see running processes.
'njoy.
C:\Windows\System32>ver
Microsoft Windows [Version 10.0.26100.3916]"](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:uc7e6sv2dk26iqxwuh4jw2yt/bafkreic5u2plknleyplrjdqvqudljr3rkvua6323hqaorhl6nvc3ofxkca@jpeg)
May 2, 2025 at 5:56 PM
IT'S STILL ALIVE. THE VALIDATION OS ISO ACTUALLY IS *GETTING UPDATED* AND IT APPARENTLY CONTAINS AMAZING STUFF LIKE THIS.
there's apparently even win0 bits in there I NEED TO GET THIS RUNNING
there's apparently even win0 bits in there I NEED TO GET THIS RUNNING
Reposted
economy can collapse whenever it wants ive got all my assets in steam trading cards
April 26, 2025 at 12:43 AM
economy can collapse whenever it wants ive got all my assets in steam trading cards