Who remembers Windows 1.0 ?

[Daffy D]

Interesting article about Windows through the years, showing all the versions from V1.0 to the present day.

In the early days the UK government had an intensive program to bring computers to the masses with lots of information and support for the BBC Micro computer. In those early days I had a BBC Micro and did not switch to Windows till 98.

http://www.slate.com/blogs/business_insider/2014/11/11/microsoft_windows_is_now_more_than_30_years_old_here_s_how_drastically_it.html

Interesting to see how it's all changed.

[mikebike]

I do not remember Windows 1.0. But 2.0 jumps out at me. 1987... using a Mac and a PC for design/layout and technical drawing. PageMaker and Paint on the Mac GUI... Command-line driven DOS on the PC... Clunky Windows 2.0 was a start!!

[Sayonarax]

I preferred dos with a custom launcher.

I switched to Windows 95 as i never found a use for windows 3.11 as a kid

[Chicog]

I remember rolling Windows 3.1 out on 1,000-odd computers and it was a darned sight easier than it is now.

I those days all you needed was a batch file!

Not secure at all, but then again there weren't the threats then.

Edited November 12, 2014 by Chicog

[harrry]

I still think the cardfile on Windows 1 was one of the most useful little programs of all time. Many times I wish I had it now.

[KhunBENQ]

In my first job (mid 80s), we had to choose between Windows and C/PM (GEM).

We choose for C/PM.

It was a dead end.

But at this time, Windows was so inferior.

Edited November 12, 2014 by KhunBENQ

[ETatBKK]

if my long term memory intact, Microsoft introduced Windows 286 and 386, in 1986. I switched from DOS to Windows. then Windows 3.0 arrived in 1987, full of bugs :- ) then Windows 3.1 upgrade arrived quickly, more bugs ;- )

surely there was no internet at that age, but BBS ( bulletin board service ) ! it was fun !

not sure if Generation X and Z could understand this discussion !

[Chicog]

Prior to Windows we used to run a program called IBM Fixed Disk Organizer which was a nice little way of putting a menu on the front of DOS.

Worked for years and we found out that all the local PC shops were copying our "image" and putting it on all the new computers they sold!

Only in the sandpit!

[Jingthing]

That's an interesting question for me because I was in the epicenter of the PC industry from the start. I guess I missed Window 1.0 as I was using a Radio Shack TRS-80 ("Trash 80") with TRS-DOS operating system at that time. I think so anyway. Perhaps starting with Windows 2.0? But not sure ... the fog of computer wars.

Talking to "kids today" about the early days of personal computing is pretty hilarious. Sure makes me feel old but they're gonna have the same experience later themselves ... with their ancient smartphone memories.

Speaking of memories ... remember when computers didn't connect to the internet? Forget the web ... no connection at all!

Edited November 12, 2014 by Jingthing

[mikebike]

I had to haul my entire Mac II to my printers... SyQuest 45mg removable drives were still a couple of years away, a floppy could not hold a 4 colour design... can you say AppleTalk!!???!

[schweizer]

In my first job (mid 80s), we had to choose between Windows and C/PM (GEM).

We choose for C/PM.

It was a dead end.

But at this time, Windows was so inferior.

I remember GEM well it was a lot better at the time than Windows, first installed it on an Amstrad 1512, then later upgraded to the Amstrad 1640 Gold edition with a massive 10 Megabytes of storage, I remember wondering at the time if i would ever fill all that space

Edited November 12, 2014 by schweizer

[Johnnie99]

I still use it sometimes but they call it Windows 8.1 ... still as clunky and simply a skinned version of goodness knows what.

[helvellyn]

No. The first version of Windows I encountered was 2.0. At the time we had RM Nimbus' at school, where they hid Windows behind a line-art style MS-DOS menu system. At home I had GEM, which I think was more advanced than Windows until Windows 3.0 came out. I remember catching a glance of Windows 3.0 running on an administrator's PC in the school office and asking "wow...what's that!". Not long after I got a copy at home and it definitely blew GEM away. But it was Windows 3.11 that had the networking support that made it viable for businesses to roll out. Windows 3.0 may not seem much now, but it felt like a revolution at the time and it was more robust than it's immediate successors 95, 98 and ME.

Edited November 12, 2014 by helvellyn

[oneday]

I stuck with DOS until Windows 3.0 if memory serves me. With DOS I was a God, now I'm just one of the masses.

[Tywais]

[Chicog]

That's an interesting question for me because I was in the epicenter of the PC industry from the start. I guess I missed Window 1.0 as I was using a Radio Shack TRS-80 ("Trash 80") with TRS-DOS operating system at that time. I think so anyway. Perhaps starting with Windows 2.0? But not sure ... the fog of computer wars.

Talking to "kids today" about the early days of personal computing is pretty hilarious. Sure makes me feel old but they're gonna have the same experience later themselves ... with their ancient smartphone memories.

Speaking of memories ... remember when computers didn't connect to the internet? Forget the web ... no connection at all!

You're as old as I am if you remember this.....

[sweatalot]

I never used windows 1.

I started with computers at university. 1970. No such thing as a Personal Computer. The computer was a big machine hidden in a big building with no access to normal people. We had to learn a computer language like Fortran or Algol or C.

Once a day the holy door opened and a technician came to collect our punchcard piles and brought printouts of our last computer job so we could correct our errors and try again the following day.

Later after climbing up the hierarchie I was given aces to a shared monitor. One out of 60 for a few thousand users, time shared use.

Later in my private life I started with a Commodore Amiga machine. It was the time of DOS. The Amiga user community flouted about the DOS users. Amiga monitors had color and stereo sound, while Dos ... you know.

Then on my workplace I had a DOS system, and later at home my first 386 machine with Windows 3.1. Until now I used every windows version up to 8.1 and a little bit Linux

[technologybytes]

In my first job (mid 80s), we had to choose between Windows and C/PM (GEM).

We choose for C/PM.

It was a dead end.

But at this time, Windows was so inferior.

C/PM and GEM were certainly not the same product.

I do recall C/PM, it was very popular at one point and in fact a variation of CPM survived into the 90's with the Amstrad Word Processor.

C/PM, like MS-DOS was an operating system. Early early versions of Windows and GEM was a Graphic User Interface that sat on top of a Operating System.

I recall Windows 2.0, it was certainly bundled with Aldus Pagemaker. Windows was not really available as a stand alone product until Windows 3.0 arrived, and that was soon replaced by Windows 3.11

I recall purchasing multiple units of Windows 3.1 only to find that it was incompatible with Microsoft's own previous memory standard which was called LIM Memory (because it was developed by Lotus, Intel and Microsoft), it used this new fangled thing called extended memory which was different to expand memory... both different ways of breaking through the inherent 640k limit of MS-DOS, which was still required for Windows 3.1.

Back in those days, when a computer went wrong we had to de-solder components and change them rather than change a whole board like today.

But remember - Nostalgia aint what it used to be.

[Mudcrab]

Ah..the trip down memory lane...(pardon the pun)

About 20 years ago a young female engineer came to my office to see if I still had a 5 1/4 inch disk for some programme she wasusing.

She had only ever known the 3 1/2 inch floppies. At that time the industrial computers (a few years old) were still using 8 inch floppies - 256KB.

When I gave her the 5 1/4 inch floppy I (innocently) mentioned I also had an 8 inch one. The look on her face was one of curiosity.

I reached around to my bookshelf and showed her an 8 inch floppy.

She looked at me strangely and said "Oh, I thought you were bragging".

[Jingthing]

I had access to a first generation Mac as well. Inexplicably I didn't follow down the yellow brick road of a Mac fanatic.

[ezzra]

Remember it? I still use it....

[sweatalot]

That's an interesting question for me because I was in the epicenter of the PC industry from the start. I guess I missed Window 1.0 as I was using a Radio Shack TRS-80 ("Trash 80") with TRS-DOS operating system at that time. I think so anyway. Perhaps starting with Windows 2.0? But not sure ... the fog of computer wars.

Talking to "kids today" about the early days of personal computing is pretty hilarious. Sure makes me feel old but they're gonna have the same experience later themselves ... with their ancient smartphone memories.

Speaking of memories ... remember when computers didn't connect to the internet? Forget the web ... no connection at all!

You're as old as I am if you remember this.....

a telephone modem

[In Search of Space]

That's why I switched to a mac

[harrry]

I remember the days well. When you installed windows in that day you did not have to bother installing product keys. You merely got asked if you would like to register your product with Microsoft (entirely optional)

[Jingthing]

I used to think Bill Gates was the anti-Christ but now I think he fantastic. For the good works he does, not for Windows. I am looking forward to Windows 10 though, avoiding Windows 8 at all costs!

[Gentmartin]

Was using GEM at home and CPM at work in the 80s, I was a datacomms engineer for BT, using the old modem 13a and upto 9600baud for fixed link high grade leased lines. I was also working on X25 packet switching network, Telecom Gold (fprerunner to modern Email and Prestel......come on, who remember those ?

My love at home those were the old BBS, my house at the time had a party line with the next door neighbour.......fill in your own blanks about my cheap phone bills considering the amount of time I spent on line even back then on my trusty BBC micro and C64 ;-)

Pioneering, halcyon days.....

As for the ops original question, i started with win 2.0, i dont remember 1.0 being on general release tbh....i still cant believe its 20 years since the seminal win95 release !!!

damn we're old....Leo anyone ??

[Barin]

I remember DOS 6.0, then DOS 6.22.

Sometimes I wish I could use the good old DOS 6.22 because for many tasks we do not need this fancy GUI that makes our e-mail so sluggish and full of flashing advertisement banners that is distracting our attention from the real task...

[Chicog]

That's an interesting question for me because I was in the epicenter of the PC industry from the start. I guess I missed Window 1.0 as I was using a Radio Shack TRS-80 ("Trash 80") with TRS-DOS operating system at that time. I think so anyway. Perhaps starting with Windows 2.0? But not sure ... the fog of computer wars.

Talking to "kids today" about the early days of personal computing is pretty hilarious. Sure makes me feel old but they're gonna have the same experience later themselves ... with their ancient smartphone memories.

Speaking of memories ... remember when computers didn't connect to the internet? Forget the web ... no connection at all!

You're as old as I am if you remember this.....

a telephone modem

Well kind of. Better known as an Acoustic Coupler.

You had to keep the noise down or it didn't work.

[lucifer666]

I still have a BBC Master 128 with a rom that lets it run Dos 5.5 with Dosshell

[IMHO]

The biggest innovation for Windows - the start button in Windows95.

The biggest mistake in Windows - removing the start button in Windows8.

The second biggest mistake in Windows - never having the balls to drop support for legacy software and start again with a clean slate.