The mystery of RGV2cw, Microsoft’s extremely nerdy secret message to developers

When he was still running Microsoft, Steve Ballmer caused quite the stir in the tech world by screaming “Developers! Developers! Developers!” Since the executive retired to spend more time with his basketball team, however, the tech giant’s current CEO is decidedly more…subtle in his approach.

In the kickoff keynote to the first all-virtual Build conference, Satya Nadella delivered a speech in front of a large shelving unit packed with knickknacks and family photos. And there was “RGV2cw.” The seemingly nonsensical string of letters sat to the right of the CEO’s head. But these kinds of backdrops aren’t chosen at