Start MSD.EXE
Select Help|About
Press F1
April Fools
Exactly 25 years ago today, some Microsoft coworkers and I launched a complex and costly prank.
We printed up hundreds of realistic shrink-wrapped boxes of a fake product, Microsoft Coffee, and snuck it into stores all around the greater Seattle area.
Customers were amused, retail was confused, and the local news and tech media covered the prank.
Until Microsoft’s PR flacks freaked out, and covered it all up. They scooped up all remaining boxes, denied Microsoft did the prank, downplayed the scale of it to the media, and imposed a ban on real-world pranks which largely remains to this day , ensuring all pranks from then on would need to go through them, as virtual press releases.