Welcome back to another blog post in our series of History of Windows posts. Today, we will be taking a look at Windows 95. Which, aside from being the first OS I ever used, was the biggest update for Windows yet.
Arguably the best operating system of the time, and still a good one to this day, Windows 95 solidified the desktop computer for personal users. So without any further ado, lets get started.
We now move to Thursday, August 24th, 1995. Microsoft releases Windows 95. A operating system that allowed Windows as a whole to turn into what it is today with some improvements and changes.
The first notable improvement of Windows 95 as opposed to Windows 3.0 was the introduction of Plug and Play. Which helped a few users because whenever you plugged in a new device, Windows would go ahead and look for a driver itself without the user doing anything.
In some later versions, Windows 95 also came with Internet Explorer. So you had the ability to browse the internet. Windows 95 also introduced the Microsoft Network (what we now know as MSN.) The Microsoft Network was a dial-up ISP from Microsoft, and it is worth noting that MSN still has a dial-up service.
Windows 95 also had very low minimum requirements to run it. 4 MB of system RAM, and a Intel 8386 processor. Now Microsoft did mean minimal when they announced this. Because not a lot of stuff worked if you ran it using that. And the low requirements was meant to entice Windows 3.x users to upgrade.
Some later versions of Windows 95 also included USB support, which was the first time Windows offered said support. And later, Microsoft introduced an add-on pack for Windows 95 called Microsoft Plus!
At release, Windows 95 was accompanied by an extensive ad campaign ran by Microsoft.
This included, but was not limited to, paying for 1.5 million copies of The Times, a popular newspaper in the United Kingdom.
Many features used in Windows today were introduced in Windows 95. This included the iconic taskbar and start menu.
The successor to Windows 95 was released on Friday, May 15th, 1998. It was called Windows 98.
Microsoft discontinued support for Windows 95 on December 31st, 2001. Upgrades to a newer operating system were slow going, as Windows 95 had become a fixture on personal computers around the world.
Thank you for reading. I invite readers to comment with any questions or comments. And to share your stories of Windows 95.
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