Strange Case of the Persistent “Did You Know?” Announcements on My PC

As I sat down to work on my laptop running Windows 10 version 20H2, I encountered an unexpected interruption that left me both puzzled and slightly embarrassed. Every 30 minutes, my computer loudly announced, “Did you know,” followed by a random tidbit of trivia. As someone working in IT, I was taken aback; I couldn’t find any mentions of this peculiar behavior online or in my system settings.

In my quest for answers, I did what I thought was reasonable—searching for terms like “Did you know PC Speech” and “my PC keeps telling me factoids.” However, my attempts were in vain. Frustrated, I delved into my settings, discovering that Cortana was disabled, yet her voice persisted, sharing quirky facts like “a hairball is called a bezoar” or detailing how Marie Antoinette met her demise.

While my laptop was critical for work that day, this continuous interruption was distracting and utterly baffling. I scoured through my extensions and paused any recent installations, yet the announcements continued with clockwork precision at intervals like 10:30 and 11:00.

Fortunately, the mystery did not remain unsolved for long. After some inquiries with colleagues, it was revealed that a coworker had pulled a prank on me. Utilizing a scheduled task, they had created a .bat file that executed every 15 minutes, programmed to read trivia from an XML file. This clever manipulation involved a PowerShell script that set up the schedule without my knowledge.

While I may have been a target for this light-hearted prank, it certainly provided a humorous twist to my workday! If you find yourself facing a similar situation, remember to check with your colleagues first before diving deep into troubleshooting your computer. Sometimes, the simplest explanation is right in front of you.