Former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer hosted a gala reception for the Windows 1.0 development team at his Bellevue office. The event connected with the 40th anniversary of the operating system’s release and featured an evening of reflection on the foundational era of the personal computing industry.
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Easter Egg from 1985 Sparks Reunion
The reunion originated from a hidden feature the team embedded in Windows 1.0 during its development in the mid-1980s. Developers secretly inserted an Easter egg: A list of their names that appeared only when users entered a specific and complex key combination.
Note: The list mentions then-Microsoft employee, the legendary Gabe Newell of Valve.
According to company lore, Bill Gates inadvertently triggered the list after striking his keyboard in frustration over the system’s sluggish performance. Instead of diagnostic output, the screen displayed the developers’ names, which further angered Gates. Rather than remove the feature, the team made the activation sequence even more obscure.
Easter Egg Remained Hidden Until 2022
The general public remained unaware of this hidden tribute for almost 40 years until 2022, when Lucas Brooks/@mswin_bat on X uncovered the list in the Windows 1.0 initial release. This discovery served as the catalyst for the anniversary dinner invitations.
During the gala, Microsoft veterans recalled the demanding conditions under which they developed Windows 1.0. Rao Remala, one of the project’s original programmers, noted the drastic differences between development environments then and now.
“Developers today have a ton of tools, drag-and-drop interfaces, and so on. I’d challenge any modern developer to try creating a working operating environment within a 64KB memory segment,” Remala remarked.
Steve Ballmer responded with a quip: “Have you tried doing that in ChatGPT?”
Microsoft Marks Multiple Milestones in 2025
This year, Microsoft is celebrating several significant anniversaries: the company's 50th anniversary, Excel's 40th anniversary, and the 30th anniversary of its strategic pivot to internet technologies. Among these, the Windows 1.0 team meeting stands out as a tribute to an era when dedicated enthusiasts created fundamental software under severe budget and computing constraints.
Source: GeekWire
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