{"slug": "windows-9x", "name": "Windows 9x", "category": "os", "category_name": "Operating systems and desktop", "description": "", "recommenders": 18, "commenters": 51, "warners": 11, "score": 11.188, "rising": 3.4, "first": "2025-11-18", "latest": "2026-10-27", "why": "My memories of windows 95 are very fond. I used to install it on Pentium 133 and boy it flew.", "why_is_quote": true, "has_verdict": false, "sentiment": {"recommend": 18, "neutral": 19, "compare": 4, "warn": 11}, "spark": [0, 0, 3, 4, 0, 2, 0, 1, 1, 6, 0, 1], "listed": true, "loved": [], "caveat": "", "short_quote": "My memories of windows 95 are very fond. I used to install it on Pentium 133 and boy it flew.", "kind": "", "icon": false, "domain": "wikipedia.org", "github_repo": null, "official_url": "", "pricing": "", "aliases": ["Windows 95", "Windows 98", "Windows 98 SE", "Windows 9x", "Windows 98\u00bd"], "verdict": null, "praise": [{"label": "", "summary": "", "quotes": [{"id": 804041777, "item_id": 50252611, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50252611", "by": "queenkjuul", "date": "2026-10-26", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "98SE/2000 is outrageously modern", "excerpt": "95 feels kinda backwards tbh but 98SE/2000 is outrageously modern. A lot of the windows admin tools are unchanged from 2000 apart from the icons. I really think if you could run a modern browser on 2000 it could be a daily driver for most people", "context": "", "use_case": "desktop operating system", "switched_from": "", "story": "Oldest GUI application that still runs on Windows 11"}, {"id": 791910210, "item_id": 49494388, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49494388", "by": "someothherguyy", "date": "2026-08-30", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "if you want the real deal, you can run windows 95 in the browser quick", "excerpt": "author commenting on such things: https://morello.dev/blog/defrag98-rebuild what it looked like before https://morello.dev/blog/windows-98-defrag-simulator a previous discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40962195 here is another version i found when googling these things that seems somewhat similar, but with a few more \"accurate\" features. also, has the source available in a single file. https://horatioco", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Defrag98: Windows 98 Disk Defragmenter Simulator Online"}, {"id": 791111328, "item_id": 49444458, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49444458", "by": "p0w3n3d", "date": "2026-08-26", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "My memories of windows 95 are very fond. I used to install it on Pentium 133 and boy it flew.", "excerpt": "My memories of windows 95 are very fond. I used to install it on Pentium 133 and boy it flew. However the most wonderful thing about software written at that time was it was written with care and skill.", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Windows 95 released August 24, 1995"}, {"id": 791010576, "item_id": 49438161, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49438161", "by": "miffe", "date": "2026-08-25", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "https://winworldpc.com/product/windows-95/osr-2", "excerpt": "https://winworldpc.com/product/windows-95/osr-2", "context": "", "use_case": "Retro OS", "switched_from": "", "story": "Windows 95 released August 24, 1995"}, {"id": 790995792, "item_id": 49437237, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49437237", "by": "rconti", "date": "2026-08-25", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "It's hard to imagine not being impressed by the step up from 3.1", "excerpt": "It's hard to imagine not being impressed by the step up from 3.1 My 486 only had 4MB of RAM and I couldn't afford the $400-$500 to take it to 16GB so I actually switched to Linux in August of 95, amusingly enough.", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Windows 95 released August 24, 1995"}]}], "caveats": [{"label": "", "summary": "", "quotes": [{"id": 804261952, "item_id": 50266372, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50266372", "by": "kbolino", "date": "2026-10-27", "version": null, "stance": "warn", "quote": "scroll-follows-mouse was not truly possible in Windows 95", "excerpt": "Note: I've deleted this once, and edited it even after reposting it, apologies for rapid changes I've been trying to piece together what was actually there based upon some historical sources [1], [2], [3] and it's quite murky to me. As far as I can tell, scroll-follows-mouse was not truly possible in Windows 95, because the custom MSH_MOUSEWHEEL event lacked a way to carry the keyboard state, and an unfocused window ", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Software may be getting worse, but it used to be horrible"}, {"id": 799014129, "item_id": 49938383, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49938383", "by": "fragmede", "date": "2026-10-02", "version": null, "stance": "warn", "quote": "the Windows 98 (lack of) security model doesn't work", "excerpt": "And despite hyperbole about Apple locking down macOS, ending the era of personal computing, it's hidden behind a toggle in settings. https://www.xkcd.com/1200/ applies, and in the era of downloading random programs off the Internet and cryptocurrency, random programs should have to jump through an extra hoop before getting access to everything. Imo Apple went a bit overboard with granularity, but it's not 1990 and th", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Updates to Full Disk Access in macOS"}, {"id": 795117920, "item_id": 49694870, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49694870", "by": "st_goliath", "date": "2026-09-14", "version": null, "stance": "warn", "quote": "I highly doubt that Windows 95 on minimum requirements would be anything but endlessly frustrating", "excerpt": "> Win95 can technically run on a 20Mhz 386DX s/technically/allegedly/ supposedly with a minimum of 4M RAM even! [1] I have a machine with twice that clock and twice that RAM that a friends parents wanted to toss out[2]. I spent the better part of a day getting Windows 3.11 and Office 4.3 to run. Playing around with it for a bit, I highly doubt that Windows 95 on minimum requirements would be anything but endlessly fr", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "A 386 PC for Your RP2350"}, {"id": 791047232, "item_id": 49440452, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49440452", "by": "mananaysiempre", "date": "2026-08-25", "version": null, "stance": "warn", "quote": "not worry about the system crashing on you every half an hour", "excerpt": "It\u2019s not correct to say it was \u201creally 16-bit\u201d, no, but as Unauthorized Windows 95[1] eloquently demonstrates, neither was Windows 3.1 or 3.11, especially with Win32s, and Windows 95 was much more of a direct descendant of that environment that the marketing implied. And on a more personal note, reading the descriptions of the mixed 16/32-bit architecture always makes me feel conflicted. On one hand, the technical ac", "context": "", "use_case": "Desktop operating system", "switched_from": "", "story": "Windows 95 released August 24, 1995"}]}], "who": [{"by": "ForOldHack", "context": "former employee at C_", "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48217612", "date": "2026-05-20"}, {"by": "hnthrowaway0315", "context": "30+ years in tech", "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47201499", "date": "2026-02-28"}, {"by": "theandrewbailey", "context": "installs Linux at an e-waste recycling company", "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46134393", "date": "2025-12-03"}], "tags": [], "use_cases": ["desktop operating system", "reprogramming car ecm", "retro os", "cd burning", "verifying machine setup", "playing solitaire in browser"], "compared": [{"slug": "windows-2000", "name": "Windows 2000", "co": 7, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 0}, {"slug": "windows-nt", "name": "Windows NT", "co": 4, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 1}, {"slug": "windows-7", "name": "Windows 7", "co": 4, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 0}, {"slug": "windows-xp", "name": "Windows XP", "co": 4, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 0}, {"slug": "linux", "name": "Linux", "co": 2, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 1}, {"slug": "macos", "name": "macOS", "co": 3, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 0}, {"slug": "windows-3-x", "name": "Windows 3.x", "co": 3, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 0}, {"slug": "nextstep", "name": "NeXTSTEP", "co": 2, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 0}], "makers": [], "threads": [{"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49430007", "title": "Windows 95 released August 24, 1995", "mentions": 7}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47200904", "title": "The Windows 95 user interface: A case study in usability engineering (1996)", "mentions": 4}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49693613", "title": "A 386 PC for Your RP2350", "mentions": 3}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50257548", "title": "Software may be getting worse, but it used to be horrible", "mentions": 2}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50248055", "title": "Oldest GUI application that still runs on Windows 11", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50159726", "title": "Why Windows 11 still ships with Windows 95's memory manager hidden inside it", "mentions": 1}], "sentiment_by_month": {"2025-11": {"neutral": 1}, "2025-12": {"warn": 1, "neutral": 1}, "2026-01": {"neutral": 2, "recommend": 3}, "2026-02": {"warn": 1, "recommend": 4, "neutral": 1, "compare": 1}, "2026-03": {"compare": 1}, "2026-04": {"neutral": 3, "recommend": 2, "warn": 1}, "2026-05": {"neutral": 4, "warn": 1}, "2026-06": {"neutral": 1, "recommend": 1, "warn": 1}, "2026-07": {"warn": 2, "recommend": 1}, "2026-08": {"neutral": 1, "recommend": 6, "warn": 1}, "2026-09": {"neutral": 3, "warn": 1}, "2026-10": {"warn": 2, "compare": 2, "neutral": 2, "recommend": 1}}, "versions": [], "version_unnamed": 0, "family_ref": null, "runs_on": null, "lines": [], "quotes": [{"id": 804261952, "item_id": 50266372, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50266372", "by": "kbolino", "date": "2026-10-27", "version": null, "stance": "warn", "quote": "scroll-follows-mouse was not truly possible in Windows 95", "excerpt": "Note: I've deleted this once, and edited it even after reposting it, apologies for rapid changes I've been trying to piece together what was actually there based upon some historical sources [1], [2], [3] and it's quite murky to me. As far as I can tell, scroll-follows-mouse was not truly possible in Windows 95, because the custom MSH_MOUSEWHEEL event lacked a way to carry the keyboard state, and an unfocused window ", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Software may be getting worse, but it used to be horrible"}, {"id": 804257776, "item_id": 50266111, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50266111", "by": "ndiddy", "date": "2026-10-27", "version": null, "stance": "neutral", "quote": "The initial Windows 95 design had different buttons for different functionality.", "excerpt": "They didn't start from \"everything is in the Start menu\" for no reason. The initial Windows 95 design had different buttons for different functionality. They ended up combining the buttons into a single \"Start\" button because during user testing, they saw that users found multiple buttons hard to use. They had to learn which button did what, and it was often confusing because sometimes the functionality overlapped be", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Software may be getting worse, but it used to be horrible"}, {"id": 804041777, "item_id": 50252611, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50252611", "by": "queenkjuul", "date": "2026-10-26", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "98SE/2000 is outrageously modern", "excerpt": "95 feels kinda backwards tbh but 98SE/2000 is outrageously modern. A lot of the windows admin tools are unchanged from 2000 apart from the icons. I really think if you could run a modern browser on 2000 it could be a daily driver for most people", "context": "", "use_case": "desktop operating system", "switched_from": "", "story": "Oldest GUI application that still runs on Windows 11"}, {"id": 803022208, "item_id": 50188888, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50188888", "by": "okanat", "date": "2026-10-21", "version": null, "stance": "compare", "quote": "", "excerpt": "> Also, the optimism just highlighted how out of touch they were, that they thought people would actually just rewrite everything in 5 years is bizarre and suggests a fundamental lack of understanding to me. Same thing with Wayland and GPLv3 to me. It is the fundamental difference in the developer's origin/experience in FOSS projects vs commercial software. However, there is an even bigger paradigm difference underne", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Why Windows 11 still ships with Windows 95's memory manager hidden inside it"}, {"id": 803019392, "item_id": 50188712, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50188712", "by": "mpyne", "date": "2026-10-21", "version": null, "stance": "neutral", "quote": "Windows 95 significantly overhauled the desktop GUI metaphor", "excerpt": "> We can also lay some blame at Agile's feet. I've seen UX and UI designers genuinely struggle to fit their work into the sprint treadmill. 2 weeks' notice is not enough time to do any sort of serious usability design study. Windows 95 significantly overhauled the desktop GUI metaphor, in a way that is still the skeletal structure of desktops today. Its U/I design since Windows 3.11 came about because of agile, not i", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "No more icons in every menu by default"}, {"id": 800407232, "item_id": 50025452, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50025452", "by": "hestermofet", "date": "2026-10-09", "version": null, "stance": "compare", "quote": "functionally equivalent at the minimum to Windows 95", "excerpt": "Thank you for the kind words, I'm the author. Yes, this was a huge labour of love that took 100s of hours. \"i'm assuming if you know what the code is doing you don't need to audit them...\" I frankly disagree. Really depends on how you define \"what the code does\". If you need to know what a particular function will result in when you put an input into it, sure, yeah, you need to know how that code works. But if a func", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "UnoDOS"}, {"id": 799014129, "item_id": 49938383, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49938383", "by": "fragmede", "date": "2026-10-02", "version": null, "stance": "warn", "quote": "the Windows 98 (lack of) security model doesn't work", "excerpt": "And despite hyperbole about Apple locking down macOS, ending the era of personal computing, it's hidden behind a toggle in settings. https://www.xkcd.com/1200/ applies, and in the era of downloading random programs off the Internet and cryptocurrency, random programs should have to jump through an extra hoop before getting access to everything. Imo Apple went a bit overboard with granularity, but it's not 1990 and th", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Updates to Full Disk Access in macOS"}, {"id": 797631408, "item_id": 49851963, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49851963", "by": "Froedlich", "date": "2026-09-26", "version": null, "stance": "neutral", "quote": "I still have a circa-1996 486 running Windows 95.", "excerpt": "I still have a circa-1996 486 running Windows 95. It has an EPROM burner card and software that I use to reprogram the ECM in my car. The cost of upgrading to modern software and hardware is substantial, plus the learning curve for something I only do rarely nowadays.", "context": "", "use_case": "reprogramming car ECM", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ask HN: Who's still keeping a DOS machine up because the business depends on it?"}, {"id": 795286720, "item_id": 49705420, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49705420", "by": "skissane", "date": "2026-09-14", "version": null, "stance": "neutral", "quote": "Windows 95 had a beta build for 286 systems", "excerpt": "> Windows 95 had a beta build for 286 systems, which is what this system 'ran.' I think you are confused. There was an Windows 95 build 286, but despite its name it didn't run on a 286 \u2013 it was just an incrementing counter which happened to have reached that number. https://betawiki.net/wiki/Windows_95_build_286 At some point early in Windows 95's development, Microsoft dropped the standard-mode only 286 kernel, KRNL", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "A 386 PC for Your RP2350"}, {"id": 795117920, "item_id": 49694870, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49694870", "by": "st_goliath", "date": "2026-09-14", "version": null, "stance": "warn", "quote": "I highly doubt that Windows 95 on minimum requirements would be anything but endlessly frustrating", "excerpt": "> Win95 can technically run on a 20Mhz 386DX s/technically/allegedly/ supposedly with a minimum of 4M RAM even! [1] I have a machine with twice that clock and twice that RAM that a friends parents wanted to toss out[2]. I spent the better part of a day getting Windows 3.11 and Office 4.3 to run. Playing around with it for a bit, I highly doubt that Windows 95 on minimum requirements would be anything but endlessly fr", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "A 386 PC for Your RP2350"}, {"id": 795116976, "item_id": 49694811, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49694811", "by": "badsectoracula", "date": "2026-09-14", "version": null, "stance": "neutral", "quote": "i used Win95 on an AMD 386DX with 4MB of RAM back in the 90s", "excerpt": "It \"technically\" can - i used Win95 on an AMD 386DX with 4MB of RAM back in the 90s for a little. Most of the time was spent waiting for the computer to do something while the HDD was constantly working. The Pentium MMX with 32MB i replaced it with was MUCH faster, practically everything was instant.", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "A 386 PC for Your RP2350"}, {"id": 791910210, "item_id": 49494388, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49494388", "by": "someothherguyy", "date": "2026-08-30", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "if you want the real deal, you can run windows 95 in the browser quick", "excerpt": "author commenting on such things: https://morello.dev/blog/defrag98-rebuild what it looked like before https://morello.dev/blog/windows-98-defrag-simulator a previous discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40962195 here is another version i found when googling these things that seems somewhat similar, but with a few more \"accurate\" features. also, has the source available in a single file. https://horatioco", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Defrag98: Windows 98 Disk Defragmenter Simulator Online"}, {"id": 791111328, "item_id": 49444458, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49444458", "by": "p0w3n3d", "date": "2026-08-26", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "My memories of windows 95 are very fond. I used to install it on Pentium 133 and boy it flew.", "excerpt": "My memories of windows 95 are very fond. I used to install it on Pentium 133 and boy it flew. However the most wonderful thing about software written at that time was it was written with care and skill.", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Windows 95 released August 24, 1995"}, {"id": 791047232, "item_id": 49440452, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49440452", "by": "mananaysiempre", "date": "2026-08-25", "version": null, "stance": "warn", "quote": "not worry about the system crashing on you every half an hour", "excerpt": "It\u2019s not correct to say it was \u201creally 16-bit\u201d, no, but as Unauthorized Windows 95[1] eloquently demonstrates, neither was Windows 3.1 or 3.11, especially with Win32s, and Windows 95 was much more of a direct descendant of that environment that the marketing implied. And on a more personal note, reading the descriptions of the mixed 16/32-bit architecture always makes me feel conflicted. On one hand, the technical ac", "context": "", "use_case": "Desktop operating system", "switched_from": "", "story": "Windows 95 released August 24, 1995"}, {"id": 791010576, "item_id": 49438161, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49438161", "by": "miffe", "date": "2026-08-25", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "https://winworldpc.com/product/windows-95/osr-2", "excerpt": "https://winworldpc.com/product/windows-95/osr-2", "context": "", "use_case": "Retro OS", "switched_from": "", "story": "Windows 95 released August 24, 1995"}, {"id": 790995792, "item_id": 49437237, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49437237", "by": "rconti", "date": "2026-08-25", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "It's hard to imagine not being impressed by the step up from 3.1", "excerpt": "It's hard to imagine not being impressed by the step up from 3.1 My 486 only had 4MB of RAM and I couldn't afford the $400-$500 to take it to 16GB so I actually switched to Linux in August of 95, amusingly enough.", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Windows 95 released August 24, 1995"}, {"id": 790991264, "item_id": 49436954, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49436954", "by": "anonymars", "date": "2026-08-25", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "", "excerpt": "Related implication: the slow floppy formatting (https://devblogs.microsoft.com/oldnewthing/20090102-00/?p=19623)", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Windows 95 released August 24, 1995"}, {"id": 790980176, "item_id": 49436261, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49436261", "by": "TazeTSchnitzel", "date": "2026-08-25", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "The way Windows 95 could use DOS device drivers despite being 32-bit was fairly incredible.", "excerpt": "The way Windows 95 could use DOS device drivers despite being 32-bit was fairly incredible. I think that fooled a lot of people into thinking it really was running on top of DOS, when in reality, once it has booted, the reverse is the case. https://devblogs.microsoft.com/oldnewthing/20071224-00/?p=24063", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Windows 95 released August 24, 1995"}, {"id": 790975168, "item_id": 49435948, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49435948", "by": "vlowrian", "date": "2026-08-25", "version": null, "stance": "neutral", "quote": "For anyone interested in a celebratory flashback", "excerpt": "For anyone interested in a celebratory flashback: set your desktop background color to #008080 (https://desktopcolors.com/os/windows-95).", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Windows 95 released August 24, 1995"}, {"id": 784647520, "item_id": 49040470, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49040470", "by": "Atheros", "date": "2026-07-24", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Evidence-based UI design maxed out in 1995 with the release of Windows 95.", "excerpt": "Evidence-based UI design maxed out in 1995 with the release of Windows 95. Evidence-based design was popular in all sorts of areas back then. Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987-1994) I think is the gold-standard of set and costume design and the modern cartoon mostly follows that design. Cargo pants were in style. The MTA in New York City used this map[0] which was designed by sociologists and psychologists to be m", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Nothing works and everyone is euphoric"}, {"id": 784311952, "item_id": 49019497, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49019497", "by": "amiga386", "date": "2026-07-23", "version": null, "stance": "warn", "quote": "The mouse pointer judders!", "excerpt": "To give a corresponding example, try moving the mouse while loading from floppy disk on Windows 95, ten years later. The mouse pointer judders! This does not happen on a 1985 Amiga, even with a fraction of the CPU power, which it needs all of it to redraw UI damage as seen. The reason is that the Amiga system prioritised input processing above normal tasks, it had preemptive multitasking where hardware timers trigger", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "July 23 1985, Commodore introduced its Amiga 1000: 10 years ahead of its time"}, {"id": 781343120, "item_id": 48833945, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48833945", "by": "Someone", "date": "2026-07-08", "version": null, "stance": "warn", "quote": "", "excerpt": "> When people make comparisons to clunky Model T cars in the 20\u2019s and Win95, they aren\u2019t far off. I think they are. Model T\u2019s were clunky because they were minimalistic; Windows 95 was clunky because it tried to do impossible things. This is a fine example. In the Windows 95 architecture, it\u2019s impossible to detect whether a program is an installer, but they tried anyways. Another example is Plug and Play. The origina", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "How did Windows 95 decide that a setup program ran?"}, {"id": 778379825, "item_id": 48648739, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48648739", "by": "bombcar", "date": "2026-06-23", "version": null, "stance": "warn", "quote": "the CD-burner that couldn't work under Windows 95 without dying", "excerpt": "I can remember the day I switched to using Linux - the third coaster from the CD-burner that couldn't work under Windows 95 without dying, but Linux handled it fine while playing music if I reniced it. Terminators - now there's something I'm glad are gone, it was always fun finding out that something \"auto-terminated\" to \"help\" you.", "context": "", "use_case": "CD burning", "switched_from": "", "story": "Nintendo Wii U games running from a 1980's Bernoulli disk [video]"}, {"id": 777878736, "item_id": 48617421, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48617421", "by": "reddalo", "date": "2026-06-21", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I think Windows 9x was peak Windows.", "excerpt": "I think Windows 9x was peak Windows. Everything is clear, you know what's a button and what's not. Information density is also high, which is a good thing on a computer screen. But the main thing is that Windows 9x felt responsive. The Windows widgets felt solid and performant, while \"modern\" UWP apps feel clunky and prone to breakage. And don't even get me started on Electron. Edit. See OP's previous article here, h", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Windows UI evolution: Clicking an unassociated file"}, {"id": 777396368, "item_id": 48587273, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48587273", "by": "petilon", "date": "2026-06-18", "version": null, "stance": "neutral", "quote": "Windows 95 copied everything from them.", "excerpt": "Hold on, don't give cred it to Windows 95. The beveled 3D look was the invention of NeXT. Windows 95 copied everything from them. https://guidebookgallery.org/screenshots/openstep42", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "What was nice about the UI of Windows 2000"}, {"id": 771949426, "item_id": 48246839, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48246839", "by": "Tostino", "date": "2026-05-23", "version": null, "stance": "neutral", "quote": "I had 98se on my first (handmedown) computer", "excerpt": "I pretty much skipped XP entirely when I was a kid. I had 98se on my first (handmedown) computer, and when I built my first machine I put win2k pro on it, because it had a debloated UI and none of that fancy animation crap. I used that until I got a 64bit machine years later and had to suffer through XP (64bit) which was way buggier than regular XP SP2.", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "The Best Windows is Linux"}, {"id": 771481792, "item_id": 48217612, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48217612", "by": "ForOldHack", "date": "2026-05-20", "version": null, "stance": "neutral", "quote": "to verify that Windows98SE was in 32-bit mode", "excerpt": "This is exactly why I come to HN, vs Wikishemedia... People here WERE THERE! When I worked at C_ we used to load Some solitaire game (Freecell) to verify that Windows98SE was in 32-bit mode before installing the network stack, and Chief Legal Officer, and from what I understand CLO was $4,000 a seat. Load Driver, Reboot, Solitare, CLO. and then onward to disk optimizing, and then virus scanning... Two people did 89 m", "context": "former employee at C_", "use_case": "verifying machine setup", "switched_from": "", "story": "DOS Zone"}, {"id": 770177249, "item_id": 48136078, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48136078", "by": "ConceptJunkie", "date": "2026-05-14", "version": null, "stance": "neutral", "quote": "I did later run Windows 98 on my kids' machine for games", "excerpt": "I used Windows 95 for a few months and switched to NT and never looked back. I did later run Windows 98 on my kids' machine for games, but I never tried, or wanted to try Windows ME. Windows 2000 has the best look and feel for the GUI, but I do recall that I usually saw my first Explorer crash within an hour of a fresh install. Windows 7 was peak Windows because you could still get the \"Classic\" Windows 2000 theme, b", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Classic 7 is a Windows 10 LTSC mod to look 1:1 to Windows 7"}, {"id": 770006161, "item_id": 48125385, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48125385", "by": "dleslie", "date": "2026-05-13", "version": null, "stance": "warn", "quote": "Windows 98 was an unstable mess", "excerpt": "Be made inroads in radio and sound production; though I don't think they knew it.[0] There was a market starved for a stable, high quality and responsive operating system that would run on the x86 hardware that was abundant everywhere. Windows wasn't it, yet; recall this is years before XP, and Windows 98 was an unstable mess while NT was slow. 0: https://birdhouse.org/beos/byte/27-tune_tracker/", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Haiku"}, {"id": 768708496, "item_id": 48044281, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48044281", "by": "twoodfin", "date": "2026-05-06", "version": null, "stance": "neutral", "quote": "Windows 95 was (if you believe Steven Sinofsky, who should know) heavily influenced by NeXT!", "excerpt": "I think that\u2019s right, but it\u2019s fair to point out that Windows 95 was (if you believe Steven Sinofsky, who should know) heavily influenced by NeXT! https://hardcoresoftware.learningbyshipping.com/p/009-password-is-nextstep", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "IBM didn't want Microsoft to use the Tab key to move between dialog fields"}, {"id": 766303936, "item_id": 47893996, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47893996", "by": "NetOpWibby", "date": "2026-04-24", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I love your Windows 98\u00bd project", "excerpt": "The \"sense of boundless horizon\" you speak of is literally what I feel when I play the Megaman Battle Network series or listen to the internet music. That feeling drives me when nothing else does. I love your Windows 98\u00bd project, that dialup sounds so good to me haha! I'm finally at a point where I can see a viable path towards a spatial internet (\"metaverse\" has been ruined by Facebook). I can't wait to start buildi", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Using the internet like it's 1999"}, {"id": 765836832, "item_id": 47864802, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47864802", "by": "anonymars", "date": "2026-04-22", "version": null, "stance": "neutral", "quote": "Windows 9x was able to run DOS, and that took no shortage of wizardry", "excerpt": "All of this is true, but this is not unprecedented: after all Windows 9x was able to run DOS, and that took no shortage of wizardry Some interesting reading: 1. What was the role of MS-DOS in Windows 95? (https://devblogs.microsoft.com/oldnewthing/20071224-00/?p=24063) 2. Why doesn\u2019t Windows 95 format floppy disks smoothly? (https://devblogs.microsoft.com/oldnewthing/20090102-00/?p=19623) 3. Running MS-DOS programs i", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Windows 9x Subsystem for Linux"}, {"id": 762669808, "item_id": 47666863, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47666863", "by": "loloquwowndueo", "date": "2026-04-06", "version": null, "stance": "warn", "quote": "Windows 95 would crash if you looked at it funny.", "excerpt": "The article does mention a few instances found over the years, including the windows one. That\u2019s the one I remember though because we used to joke it was not a big deal - the only way for a windows 95 computer to reach 49 days of uptime is if it\u2019s literally not doing anything or being used in any way. Windows 95 would crash if you looked at it funny.", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "A macOS kernel bug can cause OpenClaw to stop working after 49.7 days"}, {"id": 762634032, "item_id": 47664627, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47664627", "by": "whynotmaybe", "date": "2026-04-06", "version": null, "stance": "neutral", "quote": "I use win95 emulator in the browser to play it.", "excerpt": "I wish for the original solitaire to come back. I use win95 emulator in the browser to play it.", "context": "", "use_case": "Playing Solitaire in browser", "switched_from": "", "story": "How many products does Microsoft have named 'Copilot'? I mapped every one"}, {"id": 762365088, "item_id": 47647818, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47647818", "by": "wkjagt", "date": "2026-04-05", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I use a 27 year old Pentium 2 laptop with Windows 98 for a hobby project.", "excerpt": "I use a 27 year old Pentium 2 laptop with Windows 98 for a hobby project. And I keep asking myself: why does this thing feel so fast? And it could be even faster if I replaced the HDD with a CF card.", "context": "", "use_case": "Hobby project on old laptop", "switched_from": "", "story": "Modern Generic SVGA driver for Windows 3.1"}, {"id": 761766928, "item_id": 47610433, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47610433", "by": "ruevs", "date": "2026-04-01", "version": null, "stance": "neutral", "quote": "actually tried it on Windows 95", "excerpt": "I wondered the same and actually tried it on Windows 95 - it will be a bit more work. The bottom screen shots in this comment https://github.com/solvespace/solvespace/issues/1036#issuecomment-3405830198 are the missing APIs on Win95... I expect the build for Windows 2000 may work on NT 4.0, because it has OpenGL, but Windows 3.11 with Win32s will probably not - because it does not (I think...). And Unicode will also ", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Open source CAD for Windows 2000 (SolveSpace)"}, {"id": 755297681, "item_id": 47206105, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47206105", "by": "steve1977", "date": "2026-03-01", "version": null, "stance": "compare", "quote": "Windows 95 uses more or less the same window decorations as NeXTSTEP", "excerpt": "As mentioned, Windows 95 uses more or less the same window decorations as NeXTSTEP - although with different semantics. What is minimize in NeXTSTEP is maximize in Windows 95 IIRC. https://www.operating-system.org/betriebssystem/bsgfx/apple/nextstep-01-scr-.jpg It could be coincidence of course, but... > my favourite example to point to is how eerily-similar the Eurofighter Typhoon, Saab Gripen, and Dassault Rafale a", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "The Windows 95 user interface: A case study in usability engineering (1996)"}, {"id": 755228608, "item_id": 47201788, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47201788", "by": "linguae", "date": "2026-02-28", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I have fond memories of Windows 95/NT 4/98/2000, Office 97, and Visual Basic 6.", "excerpt": "Steve Jobs is famous for his 1996 quote about Microsoft not having taste (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UiOzGI4MqSU). I disagree; as much as I love the classic Mac OS and Jobs-era Mac OS X, and despite my feelings about Microsoft's monopolistic behavior, 1995-2000 Microsoft's user interfaces were quite tasteful, in my opinion, and this was Microsoft's most tasteful period. I have fond memories of Windows 95/NT 4/98", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "The Windows 95 user interface: A case study in usability engineering (1996)"}, {"id": 755223984, "item_id": 47201499, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47201499", "by": "hnthrowaway0315", "date": "2026-02-28", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I think Windows 95/2000 and the contemporary MacOS (including the then future MacOS X) have the best UI", "excerpt": "I think Windows 95/2000 and the contemporary MacOS (including the then future MacOS X) have the best UI in everything I used in my 30+ years of tech life. I sincerely hope that one day we could go back to that road. If you want that achieved, please support me to join Apple/Microsoft to become the UI boss, fire all flat-design people and hire a small team to implement the older UI, then give a few passionate talks on", "context": "30+ years in tech", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "The Windows 95 user interface: A case study in usability engineering (1996)"}, {"id": 755238672, "item_id": 47202417, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47202417", "by": "AnotherGoodName", "date": "2026-02-28", "version": null, "stance": "compare", "quote": "", "excerpt": "I'll also give the opinion that Apple consistently creates some absolutely crap designs and when they do this, release something really really mind mindbogglingly stupid that it should be embarrassing they are instead met with applause on the \"amazing design\". It's a tiresome pattern repeated for decades now. eg. The 'breathing status light' that lit up the room at night due to extreme brightness which meant every ma", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "The Windows 95 user interface: A case study in usability engineering (1996)"}]}