Where do you want to go to today? Windows 95 is now 25 years old

Microsoft released Windows 95 on this day 25 years ago -- in the years of 486 and Intel Pentium CPUs, IDE and SCSI HDDs, and more.

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Microsoft celebrates the 25th anniversary of Windows 95 -- its most important operating system release of all time. It had industry-setting standards, features, and technologies -- that propelled Microsoft to OS dominance.

Ah, the golden years of PC -- where you had to decide on which Pentium to buy, how many megabytes of RAM you'd buy, the decision between IDE or faster (and more expensive) SCSI hard drives -- and whoaaa the introduction of CD-ROMs, and Creative Sound Blaster.

Oh, and who can forget the Start button, menu, and taskbar -- paradigm-shifting UI introductions with Windows 95 by Microsoft. Windows 95 has a laundry list of features that changed the operating system landscape and created total and utter OS dominance by Microsoft.

Here's just a few things that were introduced with Windows 95:

  • The first operating system in the 9x family of Windows OS
  • The use of the GUI (graphical user interface)
  • 32-bit support
  • Long file names
  • Introduction of DirectX
  • Introduction of 'Plug and Play'
  • Introduction of 'Start' button
  • Introduction of the Taskbar
  • Introduction of FAT32, USB, IEEE, and AGP standards
  • Introduction of the BSOD (heh)
  • Shipped with Internet Explorer

That might not sound like much at all -- but back then, it was like being able to see after years of being blind. Well, I guess looking at a text-based DOS versus the GUI and advanced features and supported technologies of Windows 95.

This was before the internet really took off, and Microsoft could definitely see the future there.

Where do you want to go to today? Windows 95 is now 25 years old 16