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Windows 96

windows96.net

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Re: Windows 96

#191

Post by Synaesthesia »

niccl wrote: post #103
deathanatos wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm probably not old enough to qualify as "crotchety old man", but yeah, 3.5" are diskettes to me since they weren't really floppies. I raise your floppy disk install one OS/2 Warp install: https://twitter.com/jhegarty/status/1162326199445655552/phot... I still feel that OS/2 Warp feels more valuable in ones hands, just because of the sheer weight of it… (compared to modern OSes that have no weight because I download…

in South Africa they were known as stiffies, which has a different meaning in some cultures

Surely not just here, right?

Re: Windows 96

#192

Post by _tik_ »

thatwasunusual wrote: post #29

Pretty. :) Gives me PTSD-like flashbacks to the time when I was tasked with installing Windows 95 on 50+ computers on the local school. For the young(er), Windows was on 14-ish 3.5" floppy disks, and I had to do some heavy calculation and logistics copying those discs while installing the OS to make my effort as efficient as possible. IIRC, I managed to keep the installing cyclus going on 28 computers at a time, and…

We used some Norton tools to do this. We swapped the hard disk between the machines.

Re: Windows 96

#193

Post by pjerem »

jamal-kumar wrote: post #109
thatwasunusual wrote: post #29

Pretty. :) Gives me PTSD-like flashbacks to the time when I was tasked with installing Windows 95 on 50+ computers on the local school. For the young(er), Windows was on 14-ish 3.5" floppy disks, and I had to do some heavy calculation and logistics copying those discs while installing the OS to make my effort as efficient as possible. IIRC, I managed to keep the installing cyclus going on 28 computers at a time, and…

I learned computers because in 1996 I was completely ignorant and a little kid who decided to drag everything into the recycle bin because I thought it would be 'recycled' back into place but really it just destroyed windows enough that I had to learn how to reinstall from floppies created in DOS

I like how old OSes let you place anything in the recycle bin, or remove system files without permission (because the concept barely existed).

Simplicity at the extreme. I miss those times where hacking and learning was as easy as breaking things and repairing them. But I think this also was a source of fear against computers for most people : if I click on the wrong place, it will break and cost money.

Nowadays systems are nearly unbreakable, and that’s cool, but o boy when they break, good luck finding why.

Re: Windows 96

#194

Post by _michaelll »

JonathonW wrote: post #137
mopsi wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The old design makes easier to grasp things at a glance, especially in Control Panel. Each icon has a distinct shape and color, in contrast with Windows 10 Settings app that has much more abstract monochrome icons that are difficult to tell apart. Monochrome vector icons make things like dark mode easier to implement. Such small software shops like Microsoft unfortunately cannot afford to hire designers to do multipl…

The new Windows 11 Settings icons are pretty fantastic— full color and lots of distinctive shapes. Unfortunately, we’ll probably be at Windows 20 before the last of the Windows 8-style monochrome icons finally finds its way out of Windows, because that’s how things go at Microsoft. (It’s harder than it used to be, but I’m pretty sure you can still find a few Windows 95-era icons hanging around, and there are definite…

You can find much more than just windows 95 icons, check this out https://ntdotdev.wordpress.com/2021/02/06/state-of-the-windo...

Re: Windows 96

#195

Post by rukshn »

In order to view files and folders on Windows it should be dir isn't it?

So why is it showing files when you type ls and not dir, and why dir command is not found?

Re: Windows 96

#196

Post by dylan604 »

bootlooped wrote: post #125
pram wrote: post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Windows 95/98 definitely decayed over time. Especially after installing stuff like AOL and RealPlayer, your system was like a disgusting cesspool of random trash. I distinctly remember nuking the entire thing would noticeably increase my frame rate in stuff like Homeworld lol

To day I still factory reset my PC and my phone about once a year, just to keep them fresh. I have no idea if it's still helpful with modern a OS.

Why not just reboot the read-only VM? ;-) Fresh install on every boot!

Re: Windows 96

#197

Post by whizzzkid »

_tik_ wrote: post #192
thatwasunusual wrote: post #29

Pretty. :) Gives me PTSD-like flashbacks to the time when I was tasked with installing Windows 95 on 50+ computers on the local school. For the young(er), Windows was on 14-ish 3.5" floppy disks, and I had to do some heavy calculation and logistics copying those discs while installing the OS to make my effort as efficient as possible. IIRC, I managed to keep the installing cyclus going on 28 computers at a time, and…

We used some Norton tools to do this. We swapped the hard disk between the machines.

Wasn't it Norton Ghost?, you could replicate drives.

Re: Windows 96

#198

Post by ycuser2 »

jamal-kumar wrote: post #109
thatwasunusual wrote: post #29

Pretty. :) Gives me PTSD-like flashbacks to the time when I was tasked with installing Windows 95 on 50+ computers on the local school. For the young(er), Windows was on 14-ish 3.5" floppy disks, and I had to do some heavy calculation and logistics copying those discs while installing the OS to make my effort as efficient as possible. IIRC, I managed to keep the installing cyclus going on 28 computers at a time, and…

I learned computers because in 1996 I was completely ignorant and a little kid who decided to drag everything into the recycle bin because I thought it would be 'recycled' back into place but really it just destroyed windows enough that I had to learn how to reinstall from floppies created in DOS

Same here: "Why there are so many files? I only need the .exe to start my game." After deleting the "unnecessary" files the game woudln't work.

Re: Windows 96

#199

Post by dylan604 »

WaitWaitWha wrote: post #89
thatwasunusual wrote: post #29

Pretty. :) Gives me PTSD-like flashbacks to the time when I was tasked with installing Windows 95 on 50+ computers on the local school. For the young(er), Windows was on 14-ish 3.5" floppy disks, and I had to do some heavy calculation and logistics copying those discs while installing the OS to make my effort as efficient as possible. IIRC, I managed to keep the installing cyclus going on 28 computers at a time, and…

I just want to quietly grumble, like an appropriately crotchety old man... '3.5" floppies? Bah! Try 8", and they were really floppy! Try installing AT&T Unix from those...'

The CMX video editor I learned to edit on used these. By the time I was learning on it in '92, it was already an old system but still the top system. All it held was text based EDLs, so it didn't need a lot of space. Once the smaller hub based tapes like 30min BCSP/Digibeta were available, the floppy holding the EDL was bigger than the tape holding the image data. I kinda miss the old tape based edit rooms.

Re: Windows 96

#200

Post by codetrotter »

simonh wrote: post #141
asd wrote: post #128

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I bet a sealed 38 floppy edition of Windows 98, in mint condition, would go for a million USD.

You can get Windows 95 on 15 discs on eBay here for £50.

I’m only seeing one sealed Windows 95 floppy retail box on eBay at the moment, and even though it’s sealed it looks to be in poor condition. Plus I am skeptical that it’s even the original sealing. Could have been resealed. And they want about $200 for it plus shipping.
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