When Your PC Becomes a Trivia Machine: A Mysterious IT Dilemma

Have you ever experienced an unexpected surprise from your computer? Picture this: you’re immersed in work, focused and determined, when suddenly your PC starts announcing, “Did you know?” followed by random facts every thirty minutes. If you think this scenario sounds absurd, think again.

A Reddit user working in IT faced this very peculiar issue with their Windows 10 (20H2) laptop, which seemed to take on a life of its own. Despite being well-versed in technology, they found themselves at a loss trying to pinpoint the problem. Their searches for solutions—terms like “Did you know PC Speech” or “my PC keeps telling me factoids”—yielded frustratingly unrelated results.

The perplexing occurrence involved a voice, reminiscent of Cortana, delivering quirky trivia about everything from the definition of a hairball (known as a bezoar) to strange historical stories, such as the demise of Marie Antoinette. Ironically, this peculiar interruption began during an important work session, further adding to the user’s embarrassment.

In an attempt to regain control, they verified that Cortana was disabled, checked for active hotkeys, and ensured that there were no extensions or recently installed programs that could be causing this peculiar behavior. Each thirty-minute interval marked by an impromptu trivia session made the workday even more challenging.

Update: The Mystery Resolved

It turns out that this whimsical feature was not a technical glitch but rather a prank orchestrated by a coworker. The culprit had cleverly created a .bat file programmed to read quotes from an XML file and scheduled it to run every fifteen minutes using a PowerShell script.

While the user may have felt taken aback by the unexpected prank, it serves as a humorous reminder of how technology, even when it seems frustrating, can also lead to amusing stories. So next time your PC decides to serve up trivia, ask yourself: is it malfunctioning or is someone just having a little fun?