As bad and horrible as I think that Microsoft is, they have gotten better in the last few years. I just had my first experience with Windows 95 in a while…. about 6 or 7 years I wager, and I know why it was made fun of mercilessly. The XP computer I set up for FireflyMom came back today with problems with the sound card and DirectX not working (symptoms being that Kyodai wouldn’t run). The computer worked fine for me, not sure what is up with that. So that was the typical “if I touch it it will run perfectly” repair I like.
Anyway, they needed to get files off an old Pentium 90 with 32mb ram running Windows 95 Plus! It had a network card in it already, but no file sharing installed. Go into control panel, system, network, try to remember what to do with the funny looking thing, remember you have to install the service, find it under Microsoft, install, and then you see the dreaded “installing new hardware” window come up.
No single view of a computer will strike more fear into the fucking heart of a techie than the phrase “installing new hardware”, and the ones who remember back in the day when that phrase was combined with “Windows 95”, well, it’s coronary time.
I sat there sweating, curled up in the fetal position, watching the files install, hoping and praying that…. yup, there it was, right at the end, “Please insert the CDROM labelled Microsoft Windows 95”. Noooooooooooo!!!!!!!
Of course I don’t have the CD. Who has a Windows 95 CD around?? So I typed in “C:\WINDOWS” and hope. Nope, how about “C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM”…. yes! The final files are installed.
Then you reboot. Remember that, actually having to reboot when you have services added. Reboots should be for kernel updates and hardware changes only.
Finish the reboot (pretty fast actually) and it crashes. Reboot, crash, reboot crash. Remember the “windows has crashed, click ok to let it freeze solid” dialoge? Ah, the memories.
So I got really frustrated, ripped the cables of the POS, took of the cover, and prepared to stick the hard drive into the new computer. Turns out the power fan had come off the CPU, and I guess the thing was overheating. Anyway, put fan back on, reboot again, and voila! I’m on the network and able to transfer files over.
Yay.