EPISODES OF NOSTALGIA: MICROSOFT WINDOWS 95 THROUGH 7 PT. II

Windows ME, a.k.a Windows Millenial, was a Microsoft operating system released in late 2000. It was a continuation of the model started by 95 and 98. Windows ME came  a year later than Windows 98 SE or Second Edition which really didn’t bring a lot of noticeable changes to the desktop, while Windows ME is bit of a revamp in some areas as we’ll see. Windows 2000 was released several months before, but it has little to do with ME, 2000 was more server related and for Enterprise. Windows ME did get some system sounds from 2000 though. Windows ME was one of the first iteration of Windows OS to come with an automatic update feature. Windows ME’s desktop came with enhancements derived from 2000 and Windows ME was supposed to eventually move from the old 9x kernel to a NT kernel, however, this never happened so the whole thing was rushed and the next year saw a completely new OS in Windows XP.

Other important changes from the era of Windows ME were updated built-in applications and shell improvements. Also on the list of improvements, Windows 95 and 98 were slow at booting, Windows ME made changes to attempt and rectify that by cutting down on how often the registry was loaded, Parallelizing enumeration of plug and play devices, bypass of certain config files and even a few BIOS POST changes. As I said earlier that Windows ME had an improved interface, a new version of Windows Explorer was used, and icons in the notification area were supported in 16 bit color. Windows offered “special folders” in their start menu. Task bar had a new disable drag and drop feature to prevent moving of the task bar.

A few new things included in Windows ME aside from the before mentioned auto-update feature, was a net crawler, Windows 2000 network stack, System Restore, System File Protection, SCANDISK, and of course, their requirements for system hardware also increased. A minimum RAM requirement was for 32 megabytes all the way up to 512 addressable, 500 megabyte hard drive space, fat-16 to 32 file system and a 32 bit cpu.

WINDOWS XP

Moving on to Windows XP. Released in 2001, this iteration of Windows Operating system offered the new NT kernel, fat-32 file system, more polished graphics and themes, Windows XP had an automatic update feature much like Windows ME did, but it was so abysmally slow. Seemed as if it got even slower around the end of life. Windows XP offered internet Explorer 6 among its upgraded packages. Internet explorer was replaced by Firefox later in 2003, but that’s not we’re talking about. Windows XP was released initially as a 32bit operating system, but later released a 64 bit version. Windows XP had two ways to update, the updater application or through an online updater. Windows XP included the product activation application in its early beta, but this carried over to the final product.

Windows XP interface was enhanced over that of ME by the use of drop shadows, alpha compositing and visual styles all determined by the operating system based on processor power. The original wallpaper and color scheme was often blue and green. Windows XP offered under the hood color and clear type changes which for many made it easier to read. 

Several inclusions were in this release of Windows, CHKDSK, Disk Defrag, Shadow Copy, now you were able to edit the registry with a builtin registry editor. Group Policy was added for more control over file access in a company setting. A firewall was added as well as network sharing. Windows Xp also received updates to its restore and recovery, it also had an update in error reporting, this was to help improve stability.

Windows XP did have some programs removed, a few of these were built-in, but many people could simply just download third party and add their functionality back in to the system. Windows XP offered three separate service packs. A service pack is merely a set of updates for Net. Framework and other builtin applications as well as modifications to OS security. In two of the three service packs, more items were removed by Windows. With the release of a service pack, the system requirements did get increased as well. Windows XP was the longest running Windows OS to date, with support finally ending April 8, 2014. XP had a very loyal following, it was also arguably one of the best operating systems of its time. XP was also the most patched as it saw patches for over thirteen years. You would think in that time that Microsoft would have gotten it right.

WINDOWS VISTA

Windows Vista, another rushed iteration of Microsoft Windows,was released worldwide in 2007. Originally codenamed “Longhorn”, Vista offered many good features albeit it ran through so much RAM that no one could comfortably run it on their system. Still, Vista was an improvement to Windows XP. The time between XP and Vista was also one of the longest between Windows versions. You’d think it would have been ready by that time.

Windows Vista was the first to offer Aero, a Windows theme which added makeup on to Windows XP’s beautiful, yet dated look. Windows Vista Microsoft’s big goal to increase security on Windows. Another thing about XP is that it was very susceptible to malware infections. It seems that even I was cleaning my Windows XP computer ever week, but often it was my own fault. Windows XP brought more choices in browsers and other software, so it’s no surprise that it brought on more bad guys writing code for it, often these pieces of code were embedded in a website, sometimes embedded in videos on unsavory sites as well. The early 2000’s were a huge time for getting Trojans and replicating viruses. Windows Vista added patches and service packs to try and prevent some of that.

Another big feature added in Windows Vista was User Account Control. What User Account Control did was to ask the user each time a system file was accessed and I mean everytime. It didn’t differentiate between the user accessing the file and another third party file accessing it. User Account Control offered three main settings, Low, Medium and High.

Many users of Windows decided to stick with Windows XP due to the rushed initial release of Windows Vista. While Windows 7 did offer a more stable system once it was released, some users still waited. Some users didn’t have the requirements needed to run Windows 7 and didn’t want to go out and purchase a new and expensive computer. Microsoft ended support for Vista on the 11^th of April, 2017.

WINDOWS 7

Windows 7, the newest and most polished version of Windows released since XP, Windows 7 was released in 2009. Two short years after the rushed release of Vista. Windows 7 promised better usage under more modest requirements and carried over all of Windows Vista’s security enhancements.

In a Cnet review Windows 7 got a good rating, especially in comparison to Vista. The writer, Seth Rosenblatt, stated in his bottom line: “Windows 7 is more than what Vista should have been, it's where Microsoft needed to go. How much damage Vista did and whether Windows 7 is enough for people to finally abandon Windows XP are questions that nobody has the answers to right now.”

Windows 7 is currently supported until 2020, however, in a marketing scheme, Windows did try to convert everyone’s installation of Windows 7 to Windows 10. Personally I think this was a bad idea. Windows users should be able to choose rather than be covered up in Windows advertisements worse than adware that many of the applications they install on a Windows desktop are meant to protect against.

Windows 7 like Windows XP came in multiple editions, but Windows 7 came in up to six. Starter, Home Basic, Home Premium, Professional, Enterprise, and Ultimate. Each edition aside from Starter included a 64 bit version, however, for Home Premium, if you wanted to gain access to a 64 bit version, you might have to get that separately from Microsoft. All editions included most of the features and software you’d need on the system, regardless of which edition one purchased, but to access a more feature rich version, you’d have to use something Windows 7 introduced called Windows Anytime Upgrade.

This concludes Episode II of this series, I will continue on to Windows 10 after New Years. Happy Holidays!!