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Screenshots from Windows 95

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Re: Screenshots from Windows 95

#51

Post by nunez »

pmontra wrote: post #18
chungy wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Windows 2000 might be the actual peak. It took the good parts of Windows 95 and 98 and combined them into something quite excellent. All downhill ever since.

I agree with the choice of Windows 2000. The reaction to Windows XP was that it was too videogamish with its choice of colors and bezels. Then it lasted for so many years past Vista and in part Windows 8 that it became the reference Windows interface. Then the flat UIs mimicking the web and also the 80s with simple elements (we couldn't do complicated widgets back then, not enough pixels.)

Windows still has the Classic Theme; it's just hidden. https://old.reddit.com/r/windows/comments/11qq0qi/why_did_mi...

Re: Screenshots from Windows 95

#52

Post by gus_massa »

IIRC it was Win95... If you start the computer and do nothing for a while (30 seconds?) then a yellow arrow appears and moves to the start button, so people don't ges stuck the first time they uses Windows. (I can't find a an image.)

Many years ago, I used a similar approach in an internal webpage that the T.A. must use without training. In the hallway usability tests many got stuck. I added an animated gif that is initially transparent, but after a while a yellow arrow appears to point to the "next" button.

Re: Screenshots from Windows 95

#53

Post by chungy »

g232089 wrote: post #49
chungy wrote: post #12

This site makes some weird choices. Calendar: "This GUI doesn't have this feature" -- yes it does. Double click the clock. Clock: The old clock application is still part of Windows 95, but it's also in the corner. Address book: Depends on the version of Windows 95. Ones that came with IE3 or IE4 have an address book. CD player: maybe the floppy version lacked it? But Windows 95 definitely has a CD player. Browser: CD…

>Calendar: "This GUI doesn't have this feature" -- yes it does. Double click the clock. https://devblogs.microsoft.com/oldnewthing/20050621-04/?p=35...

Well I checked my Windows 95 VM, even opening a command prompt and typing "date"; changing the date view in that panel does change the date instantly. I never knew this was the behavior.

He describes changing the behavior in Windows 2000 being "reluctant"; I would say it was the proper and expected design from the onset. Windows 95 does not have instant-change settings anywhere else, it's always safeguarded behind OK and Apply buttons. Changing the date immediately on changing the view is inconsistent with the rest of the operating system's GUI design.

Re: Screenshots from Windows 95

#54

Post by chungy »

AshamedCaptain wrote: post #41
chungy wrote: post #12

This site makes some weird choices. Calendar: "This GUI doesn't have this feature" -- yes it does. Double click the clock. Clock: The old clock application is still part of Windows 95, but it's also in the corner. Address book: Depends on the version of Windows 95. Ones that came with IE3 or IE4 have an address book. CD player: maybe the floppy version lacked it? But Windows 95 definitely has a CD player. Browser: CD…

Double clicking opens the date & time preferences (which already has a screenshot), not a calendar program. 9x did not ship with a clock or calendar program unless you upgraded from 3.x. The article mentions the clock in the taskbar explicitly. And unlike 98, 95 doesn't have a separate logout screen; it is always just another entry in the regular shutdown screen. The only glaring omission I see is the CD player, but…

I don't even think the CD Player is an optional component, my Windows 95 VM doesn't have it in the Add/Remove Programs dialog. It's just there.

Re: Screenshots from Windows 95

#55

Post by trealira »

squarefoot wrote: post #48
trealira wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you have a picture of what that looked like? I'm curious. When I search for it, I can only find pictures of normal Windows XP and older versions of Windows. I can only imagine it looking like Windows 95 again.

Not easy to find, anyway here is a small one: http://toastytech.com/guis/wxpclassic.png Here is a blog post that explains how and why: http://softwaretracker.blogspot.com/2007/08/improve-windows-...

Thanks, that's exactly what I wanted. It did look slightly nicer than the Windows 95 pictures here.

Re: Screenshots from Windows 95

#57

Post by qingcharles »

chungy wrote: post #12

This site makes some weird choices. Calendar: "This GUI doesn't have this feature" -- yes it does. Double click the clock. Clock: The old clock application is still part of Windows 95, but it's also in the corner. Address book: Depends on the version of Windows 95. Ones that came with IE3 or IE4 have an address book. CD player: maybe the floppy version lacked it? But Windows 95 definitely has a CD player. Browser: CD…

95 definitely had a CD Player.

Before 95 came out I was selling the beta versions on CD like crazy. Blank CDs were like $20/ea back then.

But I started an online project to create a database of all the world's CDs by having everyone email me their cdplayer.ini file which contained all the track listings they had typed in.

This project lasted but a few weeks before I realized why it no longer worked properly. dot ini files are limited to 64K on Windows 95 lol

Re: Screenshots from Windows 95

#58

Post by postmodest »

rvieira wrote: post #3

There's always a degree of subjectivity and personal taste, but I do consider this to be the peak of OS UIs. I have an "ironic" machine at home that is an old retina iMac, with Linux installed and themed with Chicago95. My attempt at a machine with a nice hardware, nice OS and nice UI :)

Peak UI happened with OS/2 Warp 3, but, yes. Everything went downhill after the Great Skeumorphic Rebellion of 2010.

OS X 10.0 dug too greedily, and too deep.

Re: Screenshots from Windows 95

#59

Post by sen »

rvieira wrote: post #3

There's always a degree of subjectivity and personal taste, but I do consider this to be the peak of OS UIs. I have an "ironic" machine at home that is an old retina iMac, with Linux installed and themed with Chicago95. My attempt at a machine with a nice hardware, nice OS and nice UI :)

I’m primarily a Mac user (from the 80s until now minus a Linux break), but still think Win98SE was the best OS ever made.

The UI was flawless. Fast/responsive even on low spec PCs, cohesive design across the entire OS, logically laid out, and minimal while still giving access to everything you needed within a couple clicks.

All OSes these days are just a bloated mess.

Re: Screenshots from Windows 95

#60

Post by postmodest »

swatcoder wrote: post #35
LAC-Tech wrote: post #31

Almost everything I use now is either in the terminal or a browser/electron app. I do miss native gui elements that were respectful of your screen real estate.

There’s still dedication to that among macOS developers. It’s like an artisan trade at this point, but it’s still out there. Tons of useful, native macOS tools are available through SetApp (which is nicely curated) or other channels.

The new System Settings would like to have a word about how all new UI is scrolling tablet-first UX.
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