Windows 95–20 years old

Previous coverage

Special Report – Windows 95 now 15 years old and a major change to the PC computing platform

Video

“Start Me Up” video ad

To sum up

Windows 95 launch campaign billboard poster

Start It Up campaign billboard for Windows 95

Windows 95 was an operating system that led to a revolution as far as PC-based computing was concerned and was treated as such when it was launched. It actually revised how one thought of the Microsoft DOS / Windows computing platform towards something that was on a par with other computing platforms.

One of the key features that was highlighted was to have the Windows GUI front-end and MS-DOS integrated in to one package. Firstly, you didn’t have to buy Windows as a program nor did you have to type WINDOWS to pull up the graphical user interface. As well, there wasn’t the need to run various menu utilities to provide a user-friendly operating interface where programs are easy to find and run.

Instead, you used Start Menu to find programs and Windows Explorer to know your way around the computer’s file system. There was even the ability to give files and folders a meaningful file name rather than a very short name that wasn’t meaningful at first glance.

Another key feature was to do away with the need to run extra software to add functionality to a computer. Previously, if you were to run a CD-ROM, network abilities or any type of added functionality, you had to run certain memory-resident programs and this became very awkward for most people.

This led to an operating system that was “ready for the Internet and the network” out of the box, thus opening up the possibility for small organisations and households to set up easy-to-administer networks for sharing files and printers, and gaining access to the Internet.

Happy 20th Birthday, Windows 95! Start Me Up!

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