r/windows • u/The-Windows-Guy DISMTools Developer • 1d ago
News Windows 95 turns 30 today, August 24, 2025
Windows 95 was originally launched on August 24, 1995 and received critical acclaim. It introduced key concepts that are still used by Windows, like the taskbar and the Start menu.
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u/usrdef Windows 11 - Release Channel 1d ago edited 1d ago
Using it right now. I flip between win98 osr 2.5 and win98se. Granted, getting on a website is a pain in the ass and requires a number of dll patches and TLS 1.2 certs, but once you do that, it works great.
I have a Windows 2000 retro system I'm also building, just waiting on a few parts to get in. But it will have a Voodoo 5 5500 AGP, which is my damn childhood card. Excited about that.
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u/tgp1994 1d ago
Don't you have to feed websites through a proxy so IE doesn't have a heartattack?
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u/usrdef Windows 11 - Release Channel 1d ago edited 1d ago
No.
IE sort of works on my system, and by sort of, I mean some sites don't load.
However, I use Firefox. I have modified my system dramatically. Including KernelEX. I am currently using Firefox v52, which works fine.
I could probably jump to Firefox v60, but there's a few system files I'd need to edit. I haven't taken the time to do yet.
Obviously my Windows 98SE system works better than Windows 95. But I mean, mostly I use Windows 95 for a few games I want to play. I don't use it for web browsing a lot of the time. I just can if I want to download something real quick. Which makes it easier than downloading a file from another system and having to transfer it over.
There's also K-meleon which is an option, and RetroZilla.
For regular browsing, and actual work, I use Windows 11 Pro. But my older systems are mostly for retro gaming, and to take a trip down memory lane.
Hell, I still have MSN Messenger, and yes, it works. A few friends are on it. A developer took over the project and set up his own personal Messenger servers. But it's not like I'm using Messenger to throw credit card information around.
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u/RamBamTyfus 1d ago edited 1d ago
Also the first consumer version of Windows to feature 32-bit support as well as protected mode and preemptive multitasking.
And it introduced the control panel, plug and play detection and long filename support.
Older releases like Windows 3 were still based on DOS and had none of these things.
It sold more than 40 million copies in the first year, a record for the time.
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u/dt7cv 1d ago
32-bit was an NT and 3.1 thing. Someone days ago went in detail over how Microsoft included these.
Windows 95 was the first system however which brought 32-bit support to the masses with ease
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u/RamBamTyfus 1d ago
You are right, I have added the word consumer.
NT was a little earlier but not used by the masses at the time, it was explicitly meant to be used by corporations.
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u/immortalx74 1d ago
I don't think MS gets enough credit for how it perfected the GUI paradigm. Things we take for granted like the visual appearance of disabled controls, the dashed outline on the focused control/item, the raised/sunken buttons, being able to navigate the UI entirely by keyboard, tabstops that moved focus to the next control, the underlined items in menus that showed you the shortcuts, and a myriad other things.
It wasn't the first one that made a GUI driven OS, but they took the best parts of other OSes, added their own sauce, and did hundreds of usability testings before finalizing the design.
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u/ZenQuipster 1d ago
I miss that classic UI.
With a couple API calls you can do fun things with the emboss(3d light/shadow) colors. They didn't have to look 3D, though! You can totally make them flat looking, do a pillow emboss, outlines, just a shadow, etc.
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/win32/api/winuser/nf-winuser-getsyscolor
That retrieves then, then SetSysColor assigns them.
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u/SpriteyRedux 1d ago
No exaggeration: Win95 has the greatest mouse/keyboard UX ever devised. It's all been downhill since then. Windows could look exactly like this today and it would become easier to use
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u/Candid_Report955 1d ago
Microsoft Office 95 still works fine on it. I will never need a CoPilot PC
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u/One-Cardiologist-462 20h ago
Notice how the MSN option gives you the option to 'Cancel', and not 'Remind me later'.
I miss this about older Windows versions.
It just did what you told it to do.
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u/Reasonable_Degree_64 22h ago
Check the emulator Windows 95 on your PC with this Electron-based emulator
Just google it, it's cool.
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u/No-Professional-9618 1d ago
Awesome. If anything, Windows 95 loads much faster than some newer PCs.
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u/Mission-Stomach7588 1d ago
Brings back memories from when I lived with my grandparents, they still used it until Windows Vista came out, but still got XP and typing this from XP SP3, and miss that 95 PC, hard drive died on us, but everything was backed up, thankfully, and we have the computer in our attic, plan on restoring it!
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u/auderita 23h ago
And we were so happy that Microsoft finally perfected their system and we would never need another update or re-install again. Yeah. That was a dream I had.
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u/LeyendaV Windows XP 17h ago
New friends as you meet and develop relationships in the World Wide Web was an actual, advertised feature.
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u/SensitiveHat8374 11h ago
count me in that group of people that had a windows 95 machine as the first machine I bought with my own money
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u/RamiroCruz13 1d ago
The Startup sound remains Timeless! 🙌🌟💯