Windows Phone 8.1 definitely has a plethora of new options and features. But who knew some of these were hidden? Well, other than Cortana “Easter eggs” like making Cortana turn into the most loved and hated Windows icon – Clippy! To do that you just ask Cortana “Do you like Clippy” twice. After the second inquiry the Cortana icon will turn into Clippy.

But other than interesting Easter eggs in Cortana, there’s other settings that are hidden in the new mobile OS that users are finding daily as they continue to use Windows Phone 8.1 which anyone can install right now for free. One of a recently discovered hidden features allows you to use Cortana and Bing to search for the hidden USB settings menu which provides a couple of interesting features. Whether these settings do anything yet remains up in the air. But since we’re Windows Phone geeks, let’s dive in.

Windows Phone 8.1: Find Hidden USB Options

To find the menu either hit the search button on your phone or the Cortana live tile and type or say: USB. After the results come up, swipe the screen left to bring up the Phone section. There you’ll see USB under settings…tap on it.

Next you’ll see to options: Ask me before using USB data connection and Notify me when I connect to a slower charger. Go ahead and check both if you want.

From my research, it’s not entirely clear what these settings are for. I am thinking if you plug the phone in to a laptop to charge, you’ll get a message. The other setting might have something to do with tethering. Although I checked both options and haven’t seen any results or lack of phone performance, I would imagine when the post-RTM updates are finished in a couple of months, they’ll either do something with these settings, or they’ll be removed. Either way, it’s always fun for enthusiasts to play around with new technology.

For further interesting conversation on this, check out this forum at Windows Phone Central (WPC). According to some members of the WPC forum, these are hidden for developers.

What is your take? Have you found any interesting features, actions, or notifications on your phone after enabling them? if so, leave a comment below and le us know!