You see it everyday when you sign-in to Windows 8 and you may not have noticed it, but like almost every piece of software, Windows 8 has at least one Easter Egg.
This little Easter Egg was revealed by Jensen Harris from the Windows User Experience team at the Windows 8 UX Week event, where he also showed early design mockups of how Windows 8 looked like back in 2010 — worth watching.
As Harris explained, for a time Microsoft was all about building features into things, because they had the capabilities. Moving forward the company has switched to a more design-centric model and paying attention to details by creating its own design language (the tile language), and the result showcases a different point of view from other companies point of view.
Now we have a PC, a phone and an entertainment device (Xbox) in the living room, all sharing the same user interface and typography. All of them can communicate with each other, you can share music between devices and everything works together. The new concept were based in five principles, principles that the Windows team has embedded in the operating system as an Easter Egg, and you can find them in the 5 default Lock screen images — Check them out in the gallery below.
The Five Principles
1. Do More With Less:
The idea of beauty of what you can do with the basic shapes that can be found in nature.
2. Authentically Digital:
The idea of no ornamentation.
3. Pride in Craftsmanship:
The idea of every key of a piano that has been handcrafted and polished.
4. Best fast and fluid:
The idea of a beautiful train zooming around in to a city.
5. Win as one:
Beehive: The ideas of bees working together to do something greater.
You can also watch the explanation of this Easter Egg in our previous article — Watch This: Microsoft reveals Windows 8 early user interface designs (@ time 1:05:00).
If you find another Easter Egg share it in the comments.
Mauro Huculak is a Windows How-To Expert who started Pureinfotech in 2010 as an independent online publication. He has also been a Windows Central contributor for nearly a decade. Mauro has over 15 years of experience writing comprehensive guides and creating professional videos about Windows and software, including Android and Linux. Before becoming a technology writer, he was an IT administrator for seven years. In total, Mauro has over 21 years of combined experience in technology. Throughout his career, he achieved different professional certifications from Microsoft (MSCA), Cisco (CCNP), VMware (VCP), and CompTIA (A+ and Network+), and he has been recognized as a Microsoft MVP for many years. You can follow him on X (Twitter), YouTube, LinkedIn and About.me. Email him at [email protected].