Cut and Obscure Tech Content

In 2004, Microsoft tried adding an alternative to screensavers which would blare a loud noise, which was supposed to "increase time users spent using Microsoft Windows". This quickly fell through in testing.

In 2004, Google tried to automate Google Doodles. However, a font rendering bug made the default logo lowercase for around 3 hours.

The "Hall of Tortured Souls" is a hidden 3D easter egg in Microsoft Excel 95. Accessed by a specific sequence in Excel 95, it features a 3D gallery displaying the names and faces of the software's developers.

There was never an Office assistant in Microsoft Office.

You used to be able to dial and contact the police by pressing the 911 button on specific versions of Windows 98's channel bar.

Only screenshot of mobile (dot) x (dot) com, only available for a singular day.

In Microsoft InkBall, there was a debug option to select the Eraser mode, which would erase the map where the user was holding left click on the mouse, it was pretty obvious why it was removed, as the ball could get out of the game, and closing it is the only way to fix it.

Image from: technologynews (dot) com, a now defunct news site about technology.

In 2011, Bill Gates was caught chewing on his USB, then he dropped it and lost it.

Intel once proposed a SATA video output on motherboards, so you could watch your disk’s bytes directly on a monitor. Here's a working prototype!

Did you know? @MyPayIndia used to have a gaming section where you could play a various assortment of games to earn more money, albeit it was slower than the traditional method. This phased out once people began hacking in them.

On some versions of Wyse 700 drivers for Windows 3.1, it was possible to see a menu option in the Program Manager with the text "F̲UCK YOU". Not many copies of the drivers with this menu option have remained and it was lost until very recently.

Starting today, the ants will have been unleashed on Windows 7.

@sandwolf_465 This is real. Actual Server 2003 user here, been running workstations up to 3rd gen Core i7s on Server 2003 with XP's normal features enabled, and few Server 2003 features installed via xpconv. I even ran as much as 32GB of DDR3 on a Core i7-3770K with Server 2003!

@ScrappedTech This is not real. Actual Server 2003 user here, been running workstations up to 3rd gen core i7s on Server 2003 with XP's normal features enabled, and few Server 2003 features installed via xpconv. I even ran as much as 32GB of DDR3 on a Core i7-3770K with Server 2003!

The "Barbeque Chicken Alert" developer tool, mistakenly being pushed out in an update for Windows XP and Server 2003. It is still unknown what it is for.

For a brief period of time, images posted to the Microsoft Community Hub would have watermarks automatically added onto them.

Microsoft Professional was a piece of software that may have allowed you to be professional. Not sure though, still looking into this.👀

An early version of "title.wma" was found in the form of an OOBE walkthrough on Vimeo, uploaded by a former Microsoft employee.

In 1997, AOL rolled out a feature where you could read your e-mails with a text-to-speech feature. This was quickly pulled due to people using a Russian text string to emit a loud noise.

Windows XP Flattened Edition (2003)