Click photo to see the whole progression

Microsoft Corp. has clarified the identity of the mysterious trio on the installation disks for the business version of Windows Vista.

And no, you can’t play the installation DVDs backwards and hear the devil talking, either.

The tiny photo of three grinning men — less than 1 mm in size — is one of several images incorporated into the hologram’s design intended to make it harder to replicate a Vista DVD, according to Nick White on Microsoft’s Vista team blog.

The men in the photo worked on the team that designed the hologram. The disks also have images of art works now in the public domain. Magnification is required to see the images.

Shucks. I really liked the Easter Egg theory. Can’t Redmond programmers have fun, anymore?



  1. Mike says:

    But I thought one of them was FSJ…

  2. venom monger says:

    The guy in the middle is Chris Peters.

  3. Will says:

    …incorporated into the hologram’s design intended to make it harder to replicate a Vista DVD.

    Replicate the design might be hard, but replicate the DVD… don’t think so.

  4. Angel H. Wong says:

    It’s cute, but that doesn’t stop people from cracking the DVD and making illegal copies of it.

  5. TheGlobalWarmer says:

    It’s Ernie Els, Mac Guy and David Hewlett (Dr. McKay) from Stargate Atlantis.

  6. Dennis says:

    I’m sure I’m just being dense, but what is “Easter Egg” theory?

  7. bill says:

    Why would anyone want Vista?

  8. Dan says:

    I was under the impression that all Vista DVDs were exactly the same but that the printed labels on the disc were different depending on which edition you bought. I which case, the little pic should be on all SKU Vista discs. No?


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