We learned our lesson the hard way. In Windows 95, we gave programmatic access to the Start menu "Fast items" list - the items that appear at the top of the Start menu above the Programs list. This area was meant for the user to customize with their favorite links, but programs quickly saw th...
Backwards compatibility applies not only to software. It also applies to hardware. And when hardware goes bad, the software usually takes the blame. The HLT instruction tells the CPU to shut itself down until the next hardware interrupt. This is a big win on laptops since it reduces power consumption...
It seems that no matter what you do, somebody will get offended. Every Windows 95 box has an anti-piracy hologram on the side. The photographer chose his infant son as his model, since the human face is very hard to copy accurately. The baby sits next to a computer, and as you turn the hologram, his ...
In the original release of Windows 95, you could change your time zone by clicking on the map, and the time zone you selected would highlight. Similarly, you could change your Region Settings by clicking on the world map. This was one of those little touches that made Windows 95 that much more fun to use. ...
At the Windows 95 Launch and at various other marketing events, guests were given a copy of "Windows 95 Special Edition". What is so special about the box? Answer: The box. The contents of the box are exactly the same as a regular copy of Windows 95. The only thing special about it...
If you dig back into your Windows 95 files, you'll find that some internal system functions are given names like , and . Surely there is a story behind these silly names, isn't there? Of course there is. "Bear" is the name of the Windows 3.1 mascot, a stuffed teddy bear seemingly-obsessively ...
The inner workings of the Windows 95 memory manager's bootstrap algorithm.
"Why can't I remove 'for test/evaluation purposes only'? I know I'm running an evaluation edition, I don't need it rubbed in my face." This prevents unscrupulous OEMs from selling machines with the evaluation edition of the product instead of the retail version. (Yes, this has happened before. Many ...
Useless trivia day. Why is a registry file called a "hive"? Because one of the original developers of Windows NT hated bees. So the developer who was responsible for the registry snuck in as many bee references as he could. A registry file is called a "hive", and registry...
Ancient history lesson. When Win9x loads a 32-bit DLL, it creates a shadow 16-bit DLL so 16-bit code (like USER) can access resources in it. The shadow DLL is effectively a resource-only 16-bit DLL, created by taking the 32-bit resources and converting them to 16-bit format. If the...
