Troubleshooting an Annoying PC Quirk: “Did You Know?” Factoids Every 30 Minutes

If you’ve ever been caught off guard by your computer spontaneously announcing quirky facts, you’re not alone. Recently, I encountered a rather perplexing situation where my Windows 10 laptop, despite my efforts to silence it, became a source of random trivia every half hour. Picture this: I’m immersed in work, and suddenly, the device chimes in with fun facts like “Did you know that a hairball is referred to as a bezoar?” Not exactly the office ambiance I was aiming for!

The Frustration of Tech Troubleshooting

As someone who works in IT, I found this peculiar behavior particularly embarrassing. After extensive searching for solutions online—trying various phrases like “Did you know PC speech” and “my PC keeps telling me factoids”—I was met with nothing relevant to my dilemma. Despite having Cortana disabled, her voice continued to interrupt my workflow, repeating the same phrases on the hour and half-hour mark.

To add to my confusion, I had no recent software installations, no extensions that could potentially cause this annoyance, and I meticulously checked all the hotkeys. It appeared that I was in a unique situation, and I was running out of ideas.

The Unexpected Resolution

Just when I thought my troubleshooting skills were faltering, a surprising revelation came to light. It turned out that this whole scenario turned out to be an elaborate prank orchestrated by a coworker. They had cleverly set up a batch (.bat) file that triggered a script to read quotes from an XML file every 15 minutes, hence the regular interruptions.

The prankster used a PowerShell script to schedule the task, which explained why I couldn’t find any trace of the source in my system applications or settings. I couldn’t help but chuckle at the creativity behind the annoyance, albeit with a tinge of irritation at the unexpected interruption during my workday.

Conclusion

While this experience was frustrating at the moment, it serves as a humorous reminder of the unexpected ways technology can be manipulated. If you ever find yourself in a similar situation, remember to check with your colleagues first; you might just uncover a lighthearted prank rather than a technical issue!