Since it’s just turned 20, we thought we’d look back at a defining OS
DOS 6.22 and Windows 3.11 were a great combination. We could have the best of DOS gaming, while still being able to type ‘win’ into the command prompt and get a fully functional GUI to type out that college essay. It worked, and it was an easy setup to fix if anything ever went wrong, which it rarely did. Then Microsoft went and released Windows 95.
Windows 95 was totally different to those of us who were used to the whole DOS and 3.11 combo. It looked radically different, it behaved in a completely different way from what we were used to and created a new set of problems and potential fixes that we never thought were possible previously.
It was a strange thing to behold, the Windows 95 desktop when you saw it for the first time. Those of us who had previously used Atari STs and Amigas saw some familiarity to the OS and the way it behaved. Of course, we were also used to Windows 3.11, and we were young enough to simply accept that things were going to be very different from this moment on.
Windows 95 wasn’t all that bad. Sure it had a few problems, and it did crash a fair amount – much more than Windows 3.11 ever did (from my point of view, anyway), but with things like a Start button and menu, it represented the future of what desktops would look like on PC for the next 20 years.
Its History
Windows 95, codenamed Chicago, started life in 1992 as part of a revolutionary new desktop and OS design from deep within Microsoft.
The company needed to start shipping a 32-bit operating system to keep up with the likes OS/2 and what Apple was up to at the time. Interestingly, it was due for a 1993 release and was going to be called Windows 93. There was even going to be a version of Windows 93 with a complementary copy of DOS 7.0 as an operating system installation for older machines that weren’t able to run the new desktop OS.
However, things were changed around a bit, and as a result Windows 95 came into being with DOS as its underlying base system. This method did have some users scratching their heads, as you could load up the DOS portion of Windows 95 without it ever going into the GUI. So in some ways, Windows 95 wasn’t all that different in its operation to DOS 6.22 and Windows 3.11.
Once you loaded the GUI, though, the memory management took over, and you were able to launch both 16- and 32-bit programs thanks to the Win32 API.
The new OS brought support for long filenames, Internet Explorer, Active Desktop and a much improved network file structure, not to mention Plug and Play (when it worked). It was quite radical, but to begin with, a bit of a nightmare.
Although new, the first release of Windows 95 didn’t support FAT32, AGP, USB or UDMA, and it was buggy with MMX processors. It took until Service Release 2 the following year before all the problems were finally addressed and supported.
The Good
A quantum leap in design, and the way it performed was astonishing.
The Bad
Poor support for hardware to begin with. The Briefcase.
Conclusion
Windows 95 ended up being a great OS that was finally succeeded by the even better Windows 98. It was the first step in a brave new world and a fond farewell to the old DOS days.
Did You Know?
• You can run Windows 95 from within your browser by going to goo.gl/5eSZIi.
• The CD version had a video of Weezer’s ‘Buddy Holly’.
• Brian Eno composed the Windows 95 start-up chime.
• It sold 40-million copies in the first year alone.