Computer Geeks Dept.: Upgrading from Dos5 Through Win7

By Saturday March 5, 2011

This should bring back some memories.



29 Comments
  1. rectagon says:
    3/5/2011 at 12:39 pm

    OK… that was cool. Completely useless… but cool! Long live Windows!

    Reply
  2. Benjamin says:
    3/5/2011 at 1:01 pm

    That seems cool. The red/pink color scheme seems too ugly to keep through all those versions though. I prefer the blue/gray color scheme. Interesting how they kept those settings all the way to Windows 2000.

    The fact that the Cardview and Calendar application still worked from Windows 3.1 was amazing.

    I followed a similar path, but I did Windows 3.1 -> Windows 95 OSR2 -> Windows 98 -> Windows ME -> Windows XP -> Windows 7 across five machines.

    Reply
  3. sargasso_c says:
    3/5/2011 at 1:43 pm

    This is hard to explain to normal people.

    Reply
  4. Brian says:
    3/5/2011 at 2:15 pm

    I well remember going through all this pain! In fact, I guess I started earlier as I started development of business applications on MS-DOS 3.3. Windows 7 is GREAT! Can’t wait for Windows 8 :)

    One O/S that was left out was the very important Windows NT — that was an interesting time with the IBM OS/2 vs. Windows NT battles…

    Reply
  5. WmDE says:
    3/5/2011 at 2:57 pm

    1978 to present
    Kansas City Standard Audio Tape (Heathkit)
    HeathDOS 100k floppies
    CP/M
    Ms/DOS
    WIN3.1 and Slackware
    WIN95
    WIN98 and SUSE
    Ubuntu and Vista

    Reply
  6. EnemyOfTheState says:
    3/5/2011 at 3:37 pm

    Where is Bob?

    Reply
  7. ArianeB says:
    3/5/2011 at 4:00 pm

    Did anyone ever use Windows 1 or 2? Having played with computers in the 80s in college, none of the computers on campus ever bothered to install windows until 3.1 came out. We just ran Dos 6.0 and loved it.

    The first PC that I owned came with Windows 3.1 on it, which I eventually upgraded to 95, then 98, then NT which was a mistake because many programs that ran on 98 would not run at all on NT. To get DOS support back I went to ME, and then XP, bypassing 2000. I probably never would have bothered with Vista, except my computer broke, and instead of building a new one, I just bought one off the shelf and it came with Vista.

    Vista gets a lot of trash talk because everyone had to upgrade drivers to run it, and it was horribly bloated (12 GB minimum, while 7 only requires 8 GB), but Vista paved the way to 7, which uses the same Vista drivers.

    Windows 7 is far and away the best. Yes, it is possible to play 20 year old DOS games on 7.

    Reply
  8. CrankyGeeksFan says:
    3/5/2011 at 4:12 pm

    In 2009 at a doctor’s office, the billing system was an MS-DOS program from 1989 or 1990. The operating system on the computer was Windows XP Professional or Vista. I was amazed as I didn’t think that could run.

    The US Navy still uses an MS-DOS program to keep track of its mess halls on its surface ships.

    Reply
  9. CrankyGeeksFan says:
    3/5/2011 at 4:14 pm

    # 7 ArianeB – Don’t the DOS games have to be “slowed down”?

    Reply
  10. azure says:
    3/5/2011 at 4:15 pm

    I used an earlier version of windows, 1 or 2 can;t remember now, to run pagemaker. originally only available on the apple, once an early version of windows was available they ported it and photoshop.

    Reply
  11. Grandpa says:
    3/5/2011 at 6:25 pm

    Amazingly, the security holes have all been transferred without change. Windows 8 to follow.

    Reply
  12. What? says:
    3/5/2011 at 8:05 pm

    Grampa,

    You’ve obviously never used a computer to process GBs of data. It must be only a pr0n delivery device for you, and not a tool to do work.

    Reply
  13. Animby says:
    3/5/2011 at 8:18 pm

    # 7 ArianeB said, “Yes, it is possible to play 20 year old DOS games on 7.”

    Ariane? Hint: if you haven’t figured out Monkey Island by now…

    Reply
  14. Grandpa says:
    3/5/2011 at 8:42 pm

    #12 You are half right. I have had difficulties transferring large files using Windows in the past. I’ve also encountered difficulties processing large video files in the past. In fact, there isn’t much I haven’t had problems doing in Windows in the past, which is probably the reason I will not purchase a Windows phone. Unlike yourself, a Windows pointy clicky I love Bill Gates type, who never has had a problem with Windows.

    Reply
  15. The Watcher says:
    3/5/2011 at 9:26 pm

    Dunno…. Doom and Doom2 needed a shareware front end to run here on XP or Vista….

    That said (and yes, I did test-drive Windows 2), I consider Vista to be XP ME :( , but it’s working on two machines here. XP on four more…. Probably will go to 7 or 8 eventually….

    I was convinced to say with Win98SE until a client bought XP, and I had to put it on something. During the installation, it fixed a driver problem with my video that had been a constant fight for a while. Just for the heck of it, I installed it on my daughter’s junker and it fixed the same problem on hers! Worth the $65-ish to quit fighting that v.s. Win98.

    She was out of town when I did that, and when she came back, after a couple weeks, I had to re-boot her machine. “WHAT the heck is that?” That’s when we realized that she’d never seen XP boot, whereas Win98 was something like once a day….

    I wish Vista was more stable – I like it better than Windows 7, but that’s strictly me. I’m going to have to put it on something here for client purposes eventually. My biggest problem is that the 64-bit edition won’t run any of my old programs.

    (My daughter wasn’t happy – she liked the password program I wrote for her….)

    Reply
  16. What? says:
    3/5/2011 at 9:50 pm

    Gramps,

    Do you also complain that you have to have your car’s oil changed??

    I have used SunOS, MS Windows, and VMS at work, and they all have point and click interfaces. Are you a moran?

    Everything has issues, the commercial and open source stuff I use at work, the operating systems, the hardware, even my own software creations. Yet, it all works well enough that I can calculate things that would be impossible without a computer.

    I almost find it disgusting that the most you seem to need a computer to do is to play some banal movie.

    Really, you have no idea the power you have sitting before you, and how that power was desired by intelligent minds for the last several thousand years. I’m not even that bright, but I can appreciate the accomplishment that it is.

    Reply
  17. pedro says:
    3/6/2011 at 6:14 am

    You can make it a lot easier & faster with macos. You can upgrade right from CP/M to Snow Leopard.

    #14 Like every macfan in the world. They never have a clue how to do anything. Thank god they have Steve to give them training wheels

    Reply
  18. JMJahn says:
    3/6/2011 at 6:40 am

    Yes,where is Windows ME ? That was in my path
    like a dog doo, it was……

    Reply
  19. splootch says:
    3/6/2011 at 7:26 am

    Brought back a lot of memories,I started off on a Commodore Vic 20 to a PET and then every O/S there was on DOS machines through to Vista. (had a small affair with Apple in the mid 80′s, but returned to Windoze after a lack of available software) As far as the video goes,for an obviously pretty smart guy – did anyone else notice the dying smoke alarm beep in the background?

    Reply
  20. Greg Allen says:
    3/6/2011 at 7:50 am

    That was pretty interesting!

    I have been upgrading my same desktop from about ten years ago. There aren’t many of the original pieces left but it’s sort of endearing to come across something original when I start digging in there.

    Reply

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