What I haven’t seen is side-by-side comparisons of specific pieces of the Windows GUI, and while that makes sense, since it’s a deeply tedious and largely pointless exercise, it’s still been on my mind because I keep running old versions of Windows and finding out that minor elements of the interface are different than I remember. As an example, Notepad prior to – I think – Windows 2000 will not save if you press Ctrl+S. Little things like that that are somehow fascinating to follow through the years.
Recently I discovered there are subtle (but occasionally quite significant) differences between revisions of Windows Explorer (the actual file browser, not the entire shell) that I had never realized were there – Windows 3.0’s File Manager, for instance, is a completely different beast than 3.1’s. Anyway, I checked every major release and compiled screenshots of each, so you can check them out yourself.
A fascinating trip down memory lane.
That was pretty cool. Thanks for finding that.
You can have the windows 3.0 File Explorer in Windows 10. It is from the original source, and they have added some quality of life add-ons (like the Go to Ctrl+G)
Check it out, you may download it from the store.
https://github.com/microsoft/winfile
It’s the NT 4 version (which was I think a slightly patched rebuild of the NT 3.51 version – it may have been identical tho), with fixes to let it build using modern tools and run on modern windows.
It is handy to have on server core machines, I have to say.
I enjoyed the read, particularly the funny comment about the ribbon.
It might be dated now but Windows 2000 is my favourite. Just the right balance of features and simplicity. They perfected the toolbar, in a time before toolbars became uncool.
Paradroid
A lot of people say that and it’s my opinion too. I always set things back to “classic theme” for as long as it was an option.
Great find and good read.
I actually didn’t know this. I’ve internalized ALT+F, S thoroughly heh
In the article they say that the history and browser look was because they thought people would see internet and local files as much the same, and move back and forth. If I remember correctly, the actual reason was due to the whole antitrust suit against forcing the OEMS to including internet explorer. They merged it with the shell so that they could claim it was core to the OS, and impossible to remove.