Articles about Windows 95

You’ve possibly seen people online try to use ChatGPT to generate valid product keys for paid software, including different versions of Microsoft Windows.

YouTuber Gameboy Hub set out to test how successful ChatGPT is at generating, or sourcing, product keys to activate various versions of Microsoft Windows -- starting from Windows 95 and working up to Windows 7 (from where, in theory, it could be possible to upgrade to Windows 10 and Windows 11).

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In a move that is sure to make longtime PC users do a double take, the Library of Congress has added two very unexpected sounds to its National Recording Registry. No, it’s not another classic rock album or jazz staple. Believe it or not, it’s actually the “Reboot Chime” from Windows 95 (that played when the operating system started) and the soundtrack from Minecraft! I kid you not, folks. Both of these are linked to Microsoft, a company more known for software than symphonies.

If you ever booted up a Windows 95 machine, chances are you’ve heard that memorable chime. That short, ambient tone was composed by a man named Brian Eno. Microsoft asked him to create something brief, and he delivered a now-legendary 3.25-second sound that played every time the operating system came to life. And now, it’s being preserved forever as part of the nation’s sonic history -- how wild is that?

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These days, we take Windows' built-in zip support for granted, even if we prefer to use an alternative tool like 7-Zip. The story of how Microsoft added zip functionality to its operating system is an interesting one, and the guy responsible for it reveals how its creation nearly got him fired from his job at the tech giant.

Dave Plummer is a retired operating system engineer for Microsoft who worked on MS-DOS and Windows 95, among other things. He wrote the zip file support for Microsoft’s Windows 95 Plus pack, a feature which became an integral part of Windows 98 onwards and which, in his own words, "hasn’t really changed all that much in the 30 years since."

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Despite all of Microsoft's talk of it being a modern operating system, Windows 11 remains firmly rooted in the past. There are numerous elements of the interface that have not changed in years, and there remain options that are only accessible though the old-fashioned Control Panel.

But there is a surprising hangover from days of yore that has just been highlighted by the developer who created the interface for the Format dialog. The design of the UI, the list of options, and even the 32GB size constraint of a FAT volume, were only ever meant to be temporary -- and yet they are still here three decades on.

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OpenAI's ChatGPT can be used for all sorts of things, from answering questions and translating text, to generating original content like stories, poetry and code.

Given the right prompts, it can even be tricked into producing valid license keys for software. YouTuber Enderman managed to overcome ChatGPT’s initial reluctance to do this and got it to provide him with a selection of working keys for Windows 95.

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From Windows 1.01, released in 1985, to Windows 11, introduced in 2021, each iteration of Microsoft's operating system has brought its own set of features and improvements.

Windows 1.01, with its simple and straightforward interface, marked the beginning of an era of graphical user interfaces for the PC. Windows 2.0 introduced support for expanded memory and improved support for graphics, paving the way for more sophisticated programs and applications. Windows 3.0 brought a more refined interface, with a greater emphasis on multitasking and performance.

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Every generation of Windows -- well, from Windows 95 onwards at least -- has had a catchy slogan, designed, in some way, to encapsulate what the software giant hoped the OS would bring to users.

With Windows 95, for example, it was "Start me up", because that was the first time Microsoft’s operating system came with a Start button and menu.

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If you’re looking for a way to feel particularly old, the news that Windows 95 was released a quarter of a century ago today should do it. You can read my recollections of its launch here.

If that’s not enough nostalgia for you, why not experience Microsoft’s game changing OS for yourself, by running Slack developer Felix Rieseberg’s app version.

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I first started writing about computers for a living in 1993, when I joined a UK magazine called PC Home. Back then we used Windows 3.11 and MS-DOS, and much of our online life was spent on CompuServe, although the World Wide Web (and the "information superhighway") was slowly starting to make its presence felt.

After I’d been in the job for a couple of years, Microsoft announced a new version of its OS: Windows 95. The launch event was held on a 12-acre sports field in Redmond. Over 500 press representatives attended, along with 2,000 computer industry heavyweights. Over 70,000 others watched live worldwide via satellite television feeds. The new OS was hugely different to 3.11 -- being 32-bit for starters, integrating DOS and Windows and boasting a smart new look that included a desktop, taskbar and Start button. And I absolutely hated it.

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Developer Felix Rieseberg won our hearts and minds a couple of years ago, when he released Windows 95 as an Electron app that you could run in Windows, macOS and Linux. He even updated it a year ago to make it faster and bundled playable versions of gaming classics such as Doom and Wolfenstein3D alongside the OS.

Now he’s back with an installable version of Mac OS 8 that you can run on any modern computer, and he’s included a number of Mac apps and games with it, including Photoshop 3, Premiere 4, Illustrator 5.5, Oregon Trail, and Duke Nukem 3D.

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For its size and price, the Raspberry Pi 4 is a pretty powerful computer. Sure, it’s not quite the complete desktop alternative the Raspberry Pi Foundation suggested it was at launch, but then it does only cost $35 and will handle most of what you can throw at it, provided you don’t set your sights too high.

If you’ve ever wished the Pi could run an older version of Windows, such as XP, or even Windows 95, then we’ve got some great news for you.

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Microsoft Windows has evolved a lot over the years, and while there are still plenty of people who prefer Windows 7 over Windows 10, I can’t imagine there’s many users out there who truly hanker for the days of Windows 95 or 98.

But there are people who enjoy customizing Microsoft’s operating system, and a Redditor by the name of WunJZ has given his copy of Windows 10 an impressive Windows 98 makeover.

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Windows 95 has been enjoying a nostalgia-fueled revival in recent years. There have been concepts made for modern versions of the ancient OS on desktop and mobile and it’s even now possible to give an Apple iPhone a Windows 95 makeover.

Last year, developer Felix Rieseberg released Windows 95 as an Electron app and a few months later updated it to run gaming classics like Doom. Three months ago he gave the OS a welcome performance boost, and now it gets a smart new user interface and upgraded components.

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Windows 95 has been enjoying a little nostalgia-fueled revival recently. There have been concepts made for modern versions of the ancient OS on desktop and mobile and it’s even possible to give an Apple iPhone a Windows 95 makeover.

Last year, developer Felix Rieseberg released Windows 95 as an Electron app and he updated this a few months ago so it could run gaming classics like Doom. His latest update gives the OS a welcome performance boost.

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Nostalgia is a powerful thing. The 1990s are popular at the moment -- as the new 90s-set Captain Marvel movie shows -- and Windows 95 is suddenly making a comeback of sorts, partially fueled by people's interest in that decade.

If you’ve ever wondered what a modern version of the OS would look like, you can find out here, and you can now run an app version of the original Windows 95 on Windows 10, macOS and Linux. Own an iPhone? You can replace iOS 12 with iOS95 -- here's how.

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