25 Years of Windows 95 (Premium)

Microsoft finalized Windows 95 on August 15, 1995 and began selling it to the public 25 years ago today, on August 24, 1995. To celebrate this milestone, I’m looking back on my lengthy article Throwback Thursday: Windows 95 from five years ago. And providing another bit of nostalgia: My first public writing about Windows 95 from the BCLink newsletter ahead of the publication of my Windows 95 book.

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Windows 95
Paul Thurrott and Gary Brent
Scottsdale Community College

If Microsoft has its way, Windows 95 will be the single biggest software release in the history of computing. Touting the upcoming 32-bit operating system as a powerful replacement for MS-DOS, Windows 3.1, and Windows for Workgroups 3.11, Microsoft spokespeople are justifiably excited. Windows 95 is a paradigm shift for the computer industry: for the first time, a company with the market penetration of Microsoft has released a world-class graphical operating system. A change for the better is coming, and Windows 95 will be at the forefront.

So what makes this new release of Windows so interesting? And why does it offer educators such an exciting new platform from which to initiate the frightened new user into the world of computing?

Windows 95 offers the ultimate break from the DOS past while retaining a compatibility with DOS programs that was never possible with Windows 3.x. A DOS program can run on the Windows 95 desktop in a window or in full-screen mode. Multiple DOS programs can run simultaneously, each in its own fully configurable window. In many ways, Windows 95 is the best thing that ever happened to DOS.

Windows 95 offers far more than just excellent DOS compatibility. A fully redesigned "document-centric" user-interface is easy to use and understand. The conspicuous Start button on the standard taskbar begs to he pressed, revealing cascading menus containing shortcuts to programs, recently used documents, configuration options, and help. The taskbar has a button for each running program, offering a quick and easy way to switch between these programs.

Gone is the suite of uninspired "manager" programs—Program Manager, File Manager, and Print Manager. Windows 95 uses the powerful Explorer utility program, which offers cut-and-paste file copying (borrowing the concept from text-based cut-and-paste) and a graphic look at the contents of your computer.

Any object, be it a document, folder, program or shortcut, can be placed right the desktop. In the Windows 3.1 Program Manager there were groups that could only contain icons programs and files. In Windows 95, folders can hold these items as well as other subfolders. There is even a Recycle Bin, reminiscent of the Macintosh trashcan, used to graphically delete files.

The Windows 95 interface creates a 3D effect where all on-screen elements appear to have depth. Icons are animated. When copying a file, for example, little pieces of paper fly from one folder to another. Applications desig...

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