https://dfarq.homeip.net/happy-20th-birthday-to-windows-95/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=happy-20th-birthday-to-windows-95 David L. Farquhar on technology old and new, computer security, and more Tue, 25 Aug 2026 23:16:09 +0000 hourly 1 https://dfarq.homeip.net/happy-20th-birthday-to-windows-95/#comment-57817 Tue, 25 Aug 2026 18:42:57 +0000 https://dfarq.homeip.net/?p=7847#comment-57817 MS-DOS really wasn’t at the “core” of Windows 95. It brought it along for compatibility but DOS was no longer the scheduler or the main memory manager, DOS was not the normal execution environment for Win32 applications and most core services ran as 32-bit protected-mode code and VxDs.

]]> https://dfarq.homeip.net/happy-20th-birthday-to-windows-95/#comment-57173 Mon, 25 Aug 2025 13:57:56 +0000 https://dfarq.homeip.net/?p=7847#comment-57173 The Windows button (still there), the installed program list (still there), the boot-straight-into-windows-ness (still there). Most of our Windows UI lessons come from Win95.
It also kind of coincided with the real emergence of USB, and plug’n’play, which was/is a game changer.
It also blew me away that they gave away national newspapers on launch day – here it was The Times, I think in the US it was the NY Times and a french newspaper too? I went especially to my newsagent to pick up a copy, and explained to him why it was free.

]]> https://dfarq.homeip.net/happy-20th-birthday-to-windows-95/#comment-57172 Mon, 25 Aug 2025 13:47:52 +0000 https://dfarq.homeip.net/?p=7847#comment-57172 Page URL is happy-20th-birthday-to-windows-95 — actually it’s 30th 🙂

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