Windows 98 Easter Egg - Teapot Screensaver

1. Go to Display properties for screensavers
2. Select pipes as "multiple"
3. Select Pipe style as "Traditional"
4. Select joint type as "mixed"
5. Surface style to be "solid"
6. Click OK
7. Watch the screensaver for teapots instead of joints!

Also works on Win95.

User Rating:
2.4
  2.4/10 with 3407 votes
Contributed By: aerodecked on 09-18-1999
Reviewed By: Webmaster
Please correct this Egg if you see errors.

Pictures and Videos

WinXP-one-in-25 A great view of the teapot's spout in all it's glory Another teapot!
WinXP-one-in-25 A great view of the teapot's spout in all it's glory Another teapot!
the candy cane version Two Teapots in One Shot! 8-) Rarest - three at once, ok - so I'm a computer super nerd
the candy cane version Two Teapots in One Shot! 8-) Rarest - three at once, ok - so I'm a computer super nerd

Do you have another one? Send us a picture or video of this Egg!

Comments

At first I thought it did not work. Not every joint is a Teapot. They are hard to find at times and the most I have found at once has ben two. Keep looking and when you least expect it you will find one or two.
22 of 40 people found this comment helpful. Did you? Yes No
It doesn't work for me on W98 1st or 2nd Edition. Could someone make me feel better by saying its false?
21 of 39 people found this comment helpful. Did you? Yes No
Out4Zero writes:
This DOES work (I'm on W98 1st Edition) BUT--- You do have to look hard (concentrate!!!)
21 of 39 people found this comment helpful. Did you? Yes No
Whiteknight writes:
It does work but be very patient. I had to wait for over 5 minutes once watching the screen before a teapot appeared. They also really look like teapots so there is no mistaking them. If only they appeared much more often. Then this would be a great egg.
21 of 39 people found this comment helpful. Did you? Yes No
Betacam-man writes:
Very nice...subtle, not a word I normally associate with Gates. Good to see the old classic 3D Studio teapot get an outing once in a while. Now where did I put that dormouse.....?
21 of 39 people found this comment helpful. Did you? Yes No
she17 writes:
this egg works...the teapots are hidden in the pipes
21 of 39 people found this comment helpful. Did you? Yes No
pandorah writes:
At first I thought I would never see one, but now we have a lovely screen shot of a big, giant teapot. How cool. What a great way to waste time at work!
21 of 39 people found this comment helpful. Did you? Yes No
Ben writes:
Just in case anyone wonders if this one is for real (I did myself at first). I have posted an image of the teapot at: http://www.integrityonline2.com/Nelson_Family/teapot.gif (zoomed in 2X)
21 of 39 people found this comment helpful. Did you? Yes No
narcc writes:
Don't dispair! Teapots really do appear, or else I just convinced myself that I saw one... it took a long time.
21 of 39 people found this comment helpful. Did you? Yes No
Lemming writes:
Yep, it works... and I've caught one on film! Well, ok, a screen dump:-) If you can't see the teapot and want to know what to look for, go to www.tibblestone.i12.com/becky (and click on Easter Eggs)
21 of 39 people found this comment helpful. Did you? Yes No
Kar_in_NJ writes:
This is really cool. You can see them both from the side, (handle and spout sticking out) and also from the top (the lid)! Sometimes you get lucky, and a big one appears up close.
21 of 39 people found this comment helpful. Did you? Yes No
StaticKnot writes:
This also Works in Windows 95!
21 of 39 people found this comment helpful. Did you? Yes No
GraaL writes:
IT WORKS! I only looked for a few seconds and I saw one! How can you get a picture of it?
21 of 39 people found this comment helpful. Did you? Yes No
Mr. Shiro writes:
Press the "Print Scrn" button on your keyboard. Then, go to the Paint program, click on the edit menu, and hopefully, the Paste option will be on. If so, click and edit the picture!
21 of 39 people found this comment helpful. Did you? Yes No
Jedi chick writes:
Yep, this works. I've got a great picture of it that I can send to you if you like. Please just put your email address up and I'll send you the picture.
21 of 39 people found this comment helpful. Did you? Yes No
carynn writes:
I've been watching the tea kettles for years or so.....I've counted up to 5 in one session...I was beginning to despair because I thought no one else knew about them...and here you all are...it's nice to know I'm not crazy and not alone....I didn't know this kind of thing eggsisted..how cool to have a web page dedicated to this neat thing.....glad I found you...actually microsoft told me about the site....
21 of 39 people found this comment helpful. Did you? Yes No
opello writes:
Hey, I have seen one within 25 seconds (23x in a row). They are always about 5-15 sec. inside the second session. At least for me. I'm workin on a 19" monitor, and one was DEAD CENTER on the screen... Then another pipe covered it up. It was gold colored. =)
21 of 39 people found this comment helpful. Did you? Yes No
I'm thinking of starting up a new Teapot competition. People email me pictures of their teapot snapshots, and once a fortnight or so I put the winning snapshot up on geocities or somewhere. Comments? [email protected]
21 of 39 people found this comment helpful. Did you? Yes No
cyclops writes:
The egg does work in 98se, and I was lucky to see the teapots the seccond time the screen filled it self with pipes and it was right upclose to the screen and not way back behind other pipes
21 of 39 people found this comment helpful. Did you? Yes No
Twillkickers writes:
I guess it does not work with Windows 98 Second Edition.
21 of 39 people found this comment helpful. Did you? Yes No
tampabrat writes:
This is a pretty neat "egg"! But it can take quite a while to spot one. Sometimes they just popped right out and other times I had to wait for a few minutes. Good Luck Spotting them!
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VCVain writes:
It also works with textures and single pipes!
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MadProf writes:
Yeh, it's there but it sometimes is elusive! Here's a better picture of one: http://www.choppingfields.alchemyzone.com/tpot.htm
21 of 39 people found this comment helpful. Did you? Yes No
lharms writes:
On the Visual C++ 5.0 disk is the source code to the screensaver. There is a #define in the code that controls how often the teapot shows up. BLUEMOON I think it is called. It has been awhile since i messed around with it. It is easy to modify the code to make it ONLY show the teapot. However it makes the machine crawwwwwwl.
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@ssKicker writes:
It took ages for me to find! I showed my family, they said it was fake. They saw some later, but it was great fun watching my little sister staring at the screen, then shouting, "I found a teapot! I found a teapot!" (That sounds a bit like that film where these kids found some fairies and faked some photos, doesn't it?)
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sunshine writes:
It took a couple of minutes to find one. But then I found several...they can be very tiny to very large and in the forefront of the screen. But they are obvious teapots.
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voice god writes:
Ok, here's like BASIC instructions on how to do this for the challenged. They ARE there, and I am running Win98 SE with all available update, so there's NO excuse! Go here folks: http://www.geocities.com/wolffe69/teapot.htm VERY clear instructions on how to do it all! I saw teapots, and was bored enough to throw out a SIMPLE web page on it. Enjoy kids!!!
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Egghead¾ writes:
Yea lharms your right i loaded the cpp(c++)files of it and i switched it around where you can see the windows symbols and some other kool stuff by changing some code. **But my computer never did "crawl" when i loaded it**
21 of 39 people found this comment helpful. Did you? Yes No
Egghead¾ writes:
%^It does to work for Windows Second Edition^%
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lharms writes:
Yep. My bad. Much better now. Last time I did this was 2 years ago. It's fairly snappy now with a newer card.
21 of 39 people found this comment helpful. Did you? Yes No
Ali writes:
Wow! This really works. It's one of the first easter eggs that I have actually managed to get to work but I watched it for about 5 minutes and only two teapots appeared. How on earth did you find this out???
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MadProf writes:
He he, teapot mania. It's the only screen-saver I have at work now and everyone is looking for them, most people there don't believe me ;-D This might drive some mad but I have actually seen one on its own not connected to a pipe although it was near one. On my machine at work, after about an hour, the screen-saver starts to go real slow and I walked in to behold the lowly teapot, a silver one....I haven't washed my screen since ! For tea-pot skeptics check this out : http://www.choppingfields.alchemyzone.com/tpot.htm
21 of 39 people found this comment helpful. Did you? Yes No
TCCKyle writes:
Carynn, you didn't, by any chance, actually call Microsoft and ask them why you were seeing teapots did you? I'd like to hear what their response was :)
21 of 39 people found this comment helpful. Did you? Yes No
Ason Gar writes:
This Definatly Works at least with Win98 SE. I even got a picture of it as proof. If you want it, email me.
21 of 39 people found this comment helpful. Did you? Yes No
Lorelei7609 writes:
Here are three pictures of the teapot easter eggs. One: close up view of a huge rust-colored pot, shown from above, in front right-hand corner. http://www.zing.com/picture/p2b3c64641cb2dc0526a3a4fd416ab829/ff374021.jpg.orig.jpg Two: Teal blue teapot, shown from side, dead center. http://www.zing.com/picture/p7b1ba93dc1dd8d21b1b01fa0f6113125/ff374023.jpg.orig.jpg Three: Close-up of teal blue teapot (it's a bit jaggedy-looking because I was too lazy to enlarge it nicely). http://www.zing.com/picture/p9333e07c8e22809e23879a750dd62870/ff374025.jpg.orig.jpg
21 of 39 people found this comment helpful. Did you? Yes No
Ern Yoka writes:
This is neat. AND it works in Win ME too. I got a teapot at the very first screen after I selected it :o)
21 of 39 people found this comment helpful. Did you? Yes No
Joe writes:
This is a cool and fun egg. At first I didn't think it was working on my machine because it was quite a while before I spotted a teapot. The downside is that, now that I have seen them, I keep wasting way too much of my valuable time staring at the screen with my finger poised over the Print Screen button... I did manage to catch three nice teapots right close together. Unfortunately they all have pipes growing out of the tops, and you can't see the lids on any of them. Here is my picture... http://members.aol.com/ickyslug/3Tpots.jpg I will leave this pic up for a few weeks probably.
21 of 39 people found this comment helpful. Did you? Yes No
There is a page with pictures, VERY clear instructions, and other helpful hints too located at... whitedingos.cjb.net
21 of 39 people found this comment helpful. Did you? Yes No
Wow!! This is becoming a shrine to teapots!! And to think, M$ did this FIVE (5) years ago!! (from this year, being 2000) Can the person who know how to modify the actual .scr file post a modified version of it ? So we can download 3D pipes - teapot version ! :) And/or, tell us how often they do appear (exactly). Thanks
21 of 39 people found this comment helpful. Did you? Yes No
Silver757 writes:
This egg DOES work, you just need these things: 1. Patience 2. 20/20 vision (at least, since my vision is better than 20/20) 3. Luck It doesn't appear all the time because many people who use this screen saver like the options. I only saw one.
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Benjamin writes:
I use textures and it looks great, try different back ground files...
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tigerangel writes:
OK-If you want to see the TeaPot,Check it Out-I caught a good one for you to see. It is in upper right corner of Pipes. http://tigerangel.tripod.com/teapot.htm
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lharms writes:
it happens about 1000*rand()/32767 times, or about one out of every thousand times. When the number from that calculation is 137 (or the BLUE_MOON) you get a teapot.
21 of 39 people found this comment helpful. Did you? Yes No
Okay, people. I finally decided to try again and look for it. After quite a while I saw one. It was tiny, but I saw it. Now STOP E-MAILING ME! (You'll notice I'm at the top of the comments list saying I couldn't find it if you don't notice who I am...)
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Sarah3264 writes:
This is cool... especially the textures! Those are extremely good. I have started a Teapot Picture archive- e-mail me for additions.
21 of 39 people found this comment helpful. Did you? Yes No
Wow! I just tried the "Rainbow Texture" trick from http://www.eeggs.com/items/1959.html (The volcano screensaver egg) And the teapots are all swirly with red and white! It looks pretty darn cool, esp. on the lid. I got a screen dump I will reluctantly send to all who request it, since I don't know how to upload it to a site. Anyone who'll do that for me, please do!
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yerxa01 writes:
Teapot are cool. E-mail me your pictures at [email protected].
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Eevee writes:
WARNING - If you've never done this egg before, do NOT try it out at work. It is addictive and your boss will notice that you have spent the whole day staring at your screensaver and saying 'Teapot!'. Screensaver = not doing any work. It's almost as guaranteed to get you into trouble as going on the internet........
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walrus1 writes:
MS used to include source code for 3d pipes in the SDK (they may still). The code had a constant 'BLUEMOON', which when some random event was equal to BLUEMOON, a teapot would show up. We of course altered the program in some way so that the moon was always blue, and had screens full of teapots.
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Dark Hassen writes:
If you want to see a close up of this teapot egg, I have uploaded a gif image of one. It is found at http://www.geocities.com/dark_apocau/pot.gif and is in the left hand corner. Dark
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Not only will you see an occasional teapot on the pipeline, if you leave the saver on for 26 hours apprx. you will see three toilets. I know this is hard to believe, but several have verified it.
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TLF writes:
Hehe, those are cool. I've seen quite a few now, here are some nice close-ups... http://www.larafans.homestead.com/files/teapot1.gif http://www.larafans.homestead.com/files/teapot2.gif http://www.larafans.homestead.com/files/teapot3.gif http://www.larafans.homestead.com/files/teapot4.gif http://www.larafans.homestead.com/files/teapot5.gif =)
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Peter writes:
I also noticed that, as with the volcano screen saver, if you choose texture and then cancel out and hit OK you get candy cane pipes.
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Jenn writes:
I dunno if my past post got posted so Im doing this again: A side view of a teapot (it's small, so you'll have to copy it to some application and zoom in on it yourself cuz the program I used is crap and doesnt enlarge images properly, so do it yourself): http://www.angelfire.com/ct2/vietnam12/sideteapot.jpg Front view of teapot: http://www.angelfire.com/ct2/vietnam12/teapot.jpg Teapot with a lid: http://www.angelfire.com/ct2/vietnam12/teapotlid.jpg Alright, thats my input. I rememeber someone said the teapots dont have lids, well the above URL proves you wrong.
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will writes:
I saw a few for the first time. and i actually left my computer on for two days with the screen saver on and i did not see toilets.
21 of 39 people found this comment helpful. Did you? Yes No
Rotocub writes:
What's the closest you've seen two teapots? I was caught off guard and didn't get a screen shot of it, but I did get a glimpse of two that were only two or three joints apart on the same pipe. One was almost immediately covered by another pipe, dang it.
21 of 39 people found this comment helpful. Did you? Yes No
I have two perfectly-sized textured teapots. One is silver and the other is swirly. I made the silver texture in case you are wondering where I got it.
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emcee writes:
To capture the picture, you have to press Alt + Print Screen, right? Well will this print the screen or just save the frame?
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skedar writes:
Works fine with 98 Second Edition, I got a nice clear picture of one with a lid. See it here: http://home.iprimus.com.au/skedar/pics/teapoteegg.jpg I saw that one in under a minute, on the second 'refresh' of pipes. Oh yeah, it does get addictive, kind of, "one more refresh just one more then I'm giving up". Flatmates look at you funny too when they walk past your room! Rock On!!!
21 of 39 people found this comment helpful. Did you? Yes No
skedar writes:
RE: The floccinaucinhilipilificator.... I tried the 'candy cane' egg as well and it worked fine with 98SE, I have posted the picture here: http://home.iprimus.com.au/skedar/pics/candyteapot.jpg http://home.iprimus.com.au/skedar/pics/teapoteegg.jpg There is a pic of the normal pipes with a lid and also the 'candycane' effect which also has a teapot. The teapot is harder to spot when it is in candycane style, so I drew a pretty green arrow at it. :P Actually there are 2 on this picture, the top one is a bit 'iffy' so let the picture load, the bottom one is good.
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Ton writes:
Does it works also in Windows 98 SE Dutch?? Or am I not waiting long enough??
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mick writes:
nice one. certainly helps your eyesight trying to spot them especially on the grey pipes.
21 of 39 people found this comment helpful. Did you? Yes No
Andrea writes:
The egg is a hard one to find sometimes. You need three good things: Eyes, patience, and lots of luck! Look at pictures for like 25 seconds. This is a really cool egg! I really enjoy sitting there at work during lunch hour at my desk just staring aimlessly at my screen while clients eye me strangely.
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garrick writes:
it does work on second edition, i saw one before it was covered up with another pipe, whoop there goes another one
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Johnny writes:
Does it work on windows xp?
21 of 39 people found this comment helpful. Did you? Yes No
Hallen writes:
The "Candy Cane" part works in XP.
21 of 39 people found this comment helpful. Did you? Yes No
fats writes:
I agree with marcc and Bukaroo Banzai. Not every joint is a teapot, so keep looking. It could take quite a while, but once you have seen one, there is no mistaking that it is, in fact, a teapot. I wonder why teapots? P.S. It is ok to do this egg when others are near, just be careful not to shout "Ooo, Teapot!" every time you see one. You could get some very odd looks, like me!
21 of 39 people found this comment helpful. Did you? Yes No
Stampyguy writes:
Does this work on Win98 SE?
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SteveDAWGZZ writes:
Actually, I was browsing my computers system files (my daily patrol) and I saw a file called "Dmteepot.x". I have never heard of an "X" file (haha, X-File), but someone out there probably has. There's also "Dmcar.x" and others. The directory is: "C:\Windows\Media". I'm just a VB programmer, but maybe one of you Big, Strong Interdev/C++ programmers can figure what's up with the "X-Files" and what they modify.
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i was here writes:
one time i was looking for it. my mum shouted 'come to dinner!' and i said 'but mum, but i'm counting teapots!' it sounded really funny at the time
21 of 39 people found this comment helpful. Did you? Yes No
wesley58 writes:
where did you get the candy cane version?
21 of 39 people found this comment helpful. Did you? Yes No
The programmers kept this Egg (including the candy cane) in Windows XP as well. Unfortunately, they didn't keep the maze (with its egg)....
21 of 39 people found this comment helpful. Did you? Yes No
I need help! I have a Windows XP, and I am DYING to have this screen saver. Where is this "traditional"? Can someone please tell me how to get it on Windows XP, step by step?
21 of 39 people found this comment helpful. Did you? Yes No
Clicko man writes:
How do you make it work on XP?
21 of 39 people found this comment helpful. Did you? Yes No


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