Bill Gates became so addicted to Minesweeper that he had to delete it off of his PC to focus on work. He would then go to then-Microsoft president Mike Hallman and borrow his PC when he wanted to play the game, and eventually got a record of 5 seconds. Following this, Microsoft development manager Tom Reeves would cheat at beating Gates' time by building a macro to automatically complete the game. Gates would respond in an email:

The "Mine 2.6" prototype of the 1990 Windows Minesweeper has a custom cursor depicting a foot that, when a mine is unveiled, explodes and exposes a bone.

The "Flower Garden" mode of Minesweeper was created to be more sensitive towards users in countries, such as Italy, where landmines are a common cause of death rather than seen as a war movie trope. It was originally only available to Italian players, but became a customization option in 2007's remake of Minesweeper, with Flower Garden being the only option for Italian players. in 2012's Microsoft Minesweeper, the Flower Garden mode would also be the only aesthetic option on Siberian and Chinese players.