Thread by @jensenharris

As I detailed a few days ago, there was a secret, unsolved puzzle quietly embedded into default Windows wallpapers.

It was misinterpreted as an advanced "anti-leak" security measure by many users, leading to all sorts of craziness.

I also promised you the solution. Here it is:

If you need to catch up on the original story, you can find it all here:

https://twitter.com/jensenharris/status/987544942938542080

One of the most interesting thing that popped up in the discussion was that not only did users outside of Microsoft believe the wallpaper was some form of security, but the Xbox team also did and copied a version of what they thought it was for Xbox:

https://twitter.com/cullend/status/987743533351231488

Ok, so time for the solution. A number of you DM'd me solutions and a few of your got almost, but not quite, all the way there.

The only person who got the whole way to a solution was @RobMutor (hat tip:

https://twitter.com/jmurph74/status/987640295583092736

)

I will quote his solution explanation directly.

And here it is! As you can see, the wallpaper includes a kind of a fractured Wordoku puzzle. Many people figured out it was related to Sudoku in some way, but didn't get all the way to the final phrase solution.

The solution was the phrase START ME UP, a reference to the advertising slogan for Windows 95, itself an intensive parasite to the Rolling Stones song.

Here's the eponymous ad if you've never seen it:

So there you have it: a bit of Windows history baked into another bit of Windows history, encoded into a puzzle left mostly unsolved for the better part of a decade. One of many fun, untold software stories.