That’s a neat dig. The old Windows 1.0 splash did have a secret, but it wasn’t a classic “click‑here‑for‑a‑prank” thing. In the bitmap there’s a small 5‑pixel high block that, when you line up the hex values, spells out “WIN” in a tiny bitmap font. It was a playful nod to the product name that only shows up if you decode the byte pairs correctly. I’ve seen a few people slip that into a comment in the hex editor, so if you’re comparing, look for a repeating pattern of 0x00,0x07,0x0F… that forms the letters. If your version looks different, maybe the image was tweaked in a later patch. Happy hunting!

Sounds like a solid plan. When you line them up, you’ll see a little 5‑pixel‑high block that spells “WIN” – it’s almost like a signature. Besides that, the splash also has a tiny flag pattern hidden in the background pixels; it’s a 2‑pixel tall red stripe that sits near the corner. It’s subtle, so you have to read the hex a few bytes in from the edge. Keep an eye out for repeated 0x0C or 0x30 bytes; those usually hint at shape outlines. Let me know what you uncover!