Bill Gates was arrested for driving without a license, and that’s where one of Windows’ craziest secrets came from

Bill Gates was arrested for driving without a license after running a traffic light. Did you know that his mug shot photo shows up in Windows? So you can search for it.

Bill Gates is one of those people who has changed the history of millions of people. Microsoft, the company of which he is the founder, allowed the development of new professions and hobbies. Subsequently, he would arrive at everything else. He has a brilliant mentality, for sure, but the truth is that he has not always been as good as he seems to be. Did you know that when he was a boy it occurred to him to drive a car without a license Through the streets of New Mexico? There is knowledge of it because the police hunted him down and arrested him.

So yes, the good old Bill Gates has a police file and the characteristic image at the police station with a sign on which his identification appears. This has led to many conspiracies, but the truth is that It remained as a simple anecdote. Such was the memory of that mythical photograph that it decided to include the shadows of the image in the operating system itself, which it has supported for decades. Years and years have passed and it has been relatively recently that everything has been uncovered. In Windows you can see the reflection of his photo after his arrest.

During the development of Windows 8 (2012), in builds 8161-8176 from late 2011/early 2012, an oddly-detailed generic user account picture was presented. It was a nod to the now infamous mugshot of Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, taken in 1977 for a traffic violation. 🫣 pic.twitter.com/KvPWzzMUpX

—Windows On Windows (@wowstartsnow) June 9, 2023

Let us see, therefore, what are the keys to understanding what happened on that occasion and how Bill Gates knew how to profit from that experience. In the same way, it’s time to find out how this silhouette came to appear in a version of Windows and, of course, to what extent it was a consensual decision or if, on the contrary, it was a joke played by the developers of the OS.

Bill Gates and his arrest after driving a car without a license

The year was 1977 and Bill Gates was still a young boy with multiple business aspirations, but also with a crazy desire to have fun. Under this shaker, he decided that it could be a good alternative to take someone else’s car and walk the streets of New Mexico. The gossip says that the reason for the arrest was that he jumped the occasional red light, but the doubt will always remain there. The truth is that he was arrested for committing a crime and, after that, he was sent to the police station to register the police file.

Bill Gates was booked by the police for driving without a license after running a traffic light.

Well, what relationship does this event have with what happened in Windows 8? If you have this version and haven’t added a photo to a profile, go to the login screen and you’ll see a person’s silhouette. That’s Bill Gates at the time of the mugshot capture. Certainly, this image generated some doubts, since it showed a lot of details for a simple icon guiding the user on the action to be taken.

As can be seen in the previous tweet, the photo taken by the police remarkably matches the silhouette featured on the Windows 8 icon. It is evident, without a doubt, that there is a great correlation between both images. Now, did you know that Microsoft used this image again in another of its characteristic silhouettes? In the Outlook service, after the integration of the Social Connector function, this silhouette was incorporated, but the truth is that this symbol was much more hidden.