Help & FAQ's

What is a virtual Easter egg?
Successfully triggering an Easter egg
About Web based eggs
About Microsoft Easter eggs
Found a new egg - how to be sure
How you can contribute to EggHeaven

What is a virtual Easter egg?

A Virtual Easter Egg is a hidden message or feature contained within software and other media products that are not immediately obvious to the user. These are added by the product developers as a bit of fun, and perhaps nowadays, for viral marketing to get people talking about and promoting the item.

Virtual Easter eggs can range from simple animations, messages such as the programmers name, to undocumented features and elaborate built-in extras such as those found in some movie DVD's. Others eggs can be in the form of hidden tracks in music CDs (usually at the end of the disc) and not so-obvious references placed in movies. Most eggs are triggered by a set of commands within the product.

Wikipedia has a comprehensive section on Easter eggs (wikipedia:virtual Easter eggs) and the historical background on the subject for further reading.

Tips for successfully triggering an Easter egg

Make sure to follow the instructions carefully AND within the order as shown.
Do not click outside the area you're working with. This is known as 'changing focus' and can cancel out the exact sequence some eggs need to trigger successfully.
Check for comments under each listing for any additional ideas, and for other peoples experiences.
For software Easter eggs, just a dot-point difference [3.2.6] in a version number (if listed) may result in an Easter egg not working - something to bear in mind if not successful.
For DVD Easter eggs, these are mostly triggered from the DVD players remote. You may have success also with a software DVD player that can emulate the remote control functions.

If you've tried all the above, you can post your experience in the comments section to help determine whether the egg is bad or not.

About web based eggs

Some of the bigger commercial site may keep these in their design long term, but as most sites will undergo design revision on a constant basis, some of these website eggs listed here may not work any longer.

About Microsoft Easter eggs

These were some of the earliest available Windows Easter eggs and the best produced in mainstream products. The Microsoft Excel 2000 racing game Spy Hunter and the Matrix Digit-Rain in Microsoft Money 2000 are some memorable examples. All Microsoft Easter egg implementations officially ended with its Trustworthy Computing Initiative in 2002.

Found a new egg - how to be sure...

Our guideline would be if what you've found has no connection with the usability of the program and looks out of place, then you have either an egg, a curio or maybe an undocumented feature. Please submit it to us for consideration, but do see the next section first!

How you can contribute to EggHeaven

By adding a new Virtual Easter Egg you get recognition by listing your name (or nick-name) beside your listing and enjoy the great honor that comes with contributing knowledge to the biggest virtual Easter egg archive in the World!

We don't generally list Cheat Codes these UNLESS the results are special. Remember, many games do contain Easter eggs in them, so if it looks interesting and your still not sure, you can send it in for consideration.

Easter Egg Submission Form

Don't have a new egg to add? - you can still post a comment (see any egg page) and still contribute your knowledge to the crazy world of Easter eggs!