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Windows 95 is 25 years old today (released August 24, 1995)

gagewood

gagewood

Member
Oct 25, 2017
1,209
oj4PVKu.png


His face says it all - what excitement!

Here are some articles and videos for your nostalgic pleasure:

Windows 95 turns 25: Relive the glory days with this nostalgic app (PC World)

Windows 95 turns 25 years old today! (Windows Central)

Twenty-five years ago today: Microsoft launched Windows 95 (ZDNet)

Windows 95 Turns 25: When Windows Went Mainstream (How-To Geek)

Windows 95 came out 25 years ago and it was a game changer for PCs (PC Gamer)

Windows 95: The world's most important OS, says ex-Microsoft veteran engineer (ZDNet)









www.youtube.com

The Computer Chronicles - Windows 95 (1995)

Special thanks to archive.org for hosting these episodes. Downloads of all these episodes and more can be found at: http://archive.org/details/computerchroni...
www.youtube.com www.youtube.com

and most importantly...

www.youtube.com

Microsoft Windows 95 Startup Sound

Successor of 3.1, Windows 95 became a major succes for Microsoft. Download link below. Download MP3 (free): http://ballyweg.net/windows.html Download WAV (fr...
www.youtube.com www.youtube.com

What were your favorite aspects and memories of using Windows 95?
 
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Josh5890

Josh5890

I'm Your Favorite Poster's Favorite Poster
The Fallen
Oct 25, 2017
23,240
25 years. Wow. I remember Windows 95 being a staple in mylife between home and grade school.
 
Professor Fate

Professor Fate

Member
Oct 25, 2017
6,815
My dad brought home a Gateway desktop with Windows 95 when I was four years old and it was my first experience with a computer.

We should bring back startup sounds that have strange existential dread-inducing chords.
 
Vanpastel

Vanpastel

Member
Oct 30, 2017
98
25 years already? Holy cow I'm getting old. Weirdly, I feel tons of nostalgia for my Ms-Dos gaming era, but I have 0 nostalgia for Windows 95 or Windows 98 for that matter.
 
aerie

aerie

wonky
Administrator
Oct 25, 2017
8,036
I went to a midnight launch for Windows 95. There really was a lot of excitement for it.

And my gosh, I love that startup sound.
 
Fatoy

Fatoy

Member
Mar 13, 2019
7,231
I remember Windows 95 being a big event when my dad installed it on his Pentium 90. We were coming off Windows 3.11, and prior to that I was used to playing games in MS-DOS and using XTree Gold to move files around.
 
Inugami

Inugami

Member
Oct 25, 2017
14,995
Windows 95 was a legitimate cultural phenomenon that I don't think younger people realize. It was actually possible for people to be obsessed and amazed by an operating system.


Part of that euphoria fell through when they realized a lot of 3.1 software absolutely hated 95... but hey, at least it still had actual DOS.
 
ConfusingJazz

ConfusingJazz

Not the Ron Paul Texas Fan.
Member
Oct 26, 2017
3,900
China
The proper way to learn how to use a computer, through the brand new hit show Friends, Thursdays on NBC.

 
Ferrio

Ferrio

Member
Oct 25, 2017
18,076
I remember there being a barrage of Windows 95 stories on the news constantly for a long while.
 
Juryvicious

Juryvicious

Member
Oct 28, 2017
6,843
tokkun said:
I would have to go with the internet, which started getting to home users around the same time period.

W95 was a pretty big deal, though.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

Though Windows 95 certainly helped improved home based internet accessibility and popularity, the internet was definitely is homes before Windows 95 was released, I was using the internet on a home computer long before Windows 95 was released.
 
ConfusingJazz

ConfusingJazz

Not the Ron Paul Texas Fan.
Member
Oct 26, 2017
3,900
China
Juryvicious said:
The internet was definitely is homes before Windows 95 was released, I was using the internet on a home computer before Windows 95 was released.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

It was. Hell, "The Net" and "Hackers" both came out in 1995, but the amount of people using the Internet on a casual basis skyrocketed because of a combination of Windows 95 and AOL (which changed from hourly (!) to monthly in 1996)

I completely forgot AOL charged hourly.
 
Serule

Serule

Member
Oct 25, 2017
1,766
I was working at Circuit City when it launched. It was a big deal. I remember playing the Buddy Holly video for customers.
 
Teiresias

Teiresias

Member
Oct 27, 2017
8,224
I remember reading all of the PC Gamer articles leading up to launch talking about how to launch DOS games and setup default autoexec and config default settings for applications and what the OS was supposed to bring to PnP peripherals, etc.

Win95 startup sound is probably still my most favorite startup sound ever created.

The internet was certainly a thing before Windows 95, I was on the Prodigy service using DOS and dial-up on a 286 computer. There was bulletin boards, rudimentary games (think first person adventure games in the vein of Shadowgate or an illustrated Zork). There was a even a bulletin board for RP-ing Star Trek that I remember checking out once.

1x9xB19.jpg
 
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Chakoo

Member
Oct 27, 2017
2,842
Toronto, Canada
0fx9cmqy5pp01.jpg


Ahh good times good times, until disk 10 ends up being faulty and you have to run back to the store to get your copy exchanged for a working one (I had a bad disk in my pack).
 
mrchad

mrchad

Member
Oct 27, 2017
765
Microsoft paid The Rolling Stones a lot of money to use "Start Me Up" for their ads.
 
fallengorn

fallengorn

Community Resettler
Member
Oct 25, 2017
8,122
New York City
ConfusingJazz said:
It was. Hell, "The Net" and "Hackers" both came out in 1995, but the amount of people using the Internet on a casual basis skyrocketed because of a combination of Windows 95 and AOL (which changed from hourly (!) to monthly in 1996)

I completely forgot AOL charged hourly.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
I remember inadvertently running up my brother's card because I was on AOL so much. Thank god for unlimited.
 
WascallyWabbit

WascallyWabbit

Member
Oct 25, 2017
10,432
Man I remember the days when you still had to boot up games through DOS then you had to to restart to get back to Win95, oh how things have changed
 
Serule

Serule

Member
Oct 25, 2017
1,766
Between this and the Digital Foundry 3D Accelerator video, been getting a lot of nostalgia for old timey PC gaming today
 
nekkid

nekkid

Banned
Oct 27, 2017
21,823
I remember being about as annoyed about being forced to consume Weezer as having U2 installed on my iPhone.
 
Candeldandel

Candeldandel

Member
Oct 27, 2017
150
Pacific Northwest
I remember my mom being so fckin excited for this, I even think she waited in line for it! then it went on the good ol gateway 2000 lol. I miss thoss chunky old computers :(
 
Starmud

Starmud

Member
Oct 27, 2017
1,443
i remember being in middle school and actually feeling excited about spending the rest of the day at my mothers office to install and play with windows 95 on their computers...

the first time hearing the start up sound felt like a moment, until the shine died off in like an hour and i went back to duke nukem on a bell running 3.1, life was much simpler lol
 
CreepingFear

CreepingFear

Banned
Oct 27, 2017
16,766
First PC my family owned had Windows 95. This would have been around 1995 or 1996. Most of the games will had to be run from dos. I never did get Madden working. I had to give it away to a family member.
 
Log!

Log!

Member
Oct 27, 2017
1,413
One of the big features of Windows 95 was being able to run DOS programs without having to exit Windows. So naturally my friend and I tried to get Hexen running.

It worked! Not well, but it worked!

Tom Nook said:
I had a Packard Bell computer like this back in the day.
6e9_3ae4f12b89.jpg


Good times.
Click to expand...
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Holy shit so did I. Though mine didn't have Windows 95 on it.
 
Cess007

Cess007

Member
Oct 27, 2017
14,128
B.C., Mexico
I remember being actually afraid of use the PC when my Dad updated the family PC to Win95. I was so used to DOS, that I was afraid I was gonna break the PC with the new OS.
 
Damaniel

Damaniel

The Fallen
Oct 27, 2017
6,536
Portland, OR
My first PC ran Windows 95 - it was actually a Packard Bell, not unlike the one that Michael MJD has in the video that OP posted. While I still think that Windows 98 was a more usable OS overall, Windows 95 did so much to define what operating systems are like even today. I know that Microsoft still likes to tinker with the formula, but I can't imagine an OS without some kind of start menu or a file browser like Explorer.
 
navanman

navanman

Member
Oct 27, 2017
1,718
Dublin
The nostalgia is strong with this one.

It was HUGE when it launched, I remember it was big TV and radio news during launch phase.
My Dad even got W95 Plus from work a while later which had lots of little visual improvements.

I want an LGR retro review.
 
Daniel Jackson

Daniel Jackson

Member
Oct 27, 2017
1,135
Early versions of win95 had the unintended feature of the user being able to shutdown/close the start button. That was a nice prank to play on friends
 

Deleted member 11637

Oct 27, 2017
18,204
Shout out to Encarta 95 and Mindmaze.




I miss 90s edutainment software.
 
The Real Abed

The Real Abed

Member
Oct 25, 2017
7,723
Pennsylvania
I remember the first time I tried Windows 95 at school after only using 3.1 and DOS and I came home and begged dad to upgrade our home computer, even though it was a work machine. Eventually he brought it home again with Windows 95 on it and I stayed home all night playing with it.

To celebrate, here's a nice present for you, Windows 95!



I prefer Windows 98SE though.
 

Random Painted Highway

Member
Oct 25, 2017
6,710
I remember the release. Those were wild surreal times to look back upon now. Super hyped for an os. So many memories on that, it hit when I was a jr in high school, so prime nerd-age.
 
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