Retro Potato: Longtime Microsoft software program engineer Raymond Chen not too long ago responded to an intriguing retro-tech query posed by a sport developer on X. The developer inquired concerning the three distinct consumer interfaces used throughout the Home windows 95 setup course of, which transitioned from DOS to Home windows 3.x, and eventually to the basic Win9x GUI. Chen explaining that it was a deliberate design alternative to reduce the quantity of code required for the Home windows 95 configuration expertise.
Skilled PC customers could also be properly conscious of the peculiar relationship between MS-DOS code and the GUI surroundings inside the Win9x ecosystem. Nevertheless, in response to Chen, the multi-OS assist constructed into the Home windows 95 setup program was much more subtle than it’d initially appear.
With over 30 years of expertise shaping the evolution of Home windows, Chen holds deep insights into the hidden intricacies of one of many world’s most generally used software program platforms. Writing The Previous New Factor weblog, he mentioned Home windows 95 setup was designed to improve methods from three potential beginning factors – MS-DOS, Home windows 3.1, and Home windows 95 itself. This necessity dictated the necessity for compatibility with three distinct computing environments.
The setup program was primarily written as an MS-DOS software however was designed to run on three totally different working methods to carry out distinct duties. The DOS portion was obligatory when setup was launched from the MS-DOS immediate, as accessing the Win9x surroundings would have been unattainable with out first putting in it on the onerous drive.
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The MS-DOS setup element put in a minimal model of Home windows 3.1 – simply sufficient to assist the 16-bit portion of the setup instrument. After booting into this miniature Home windows 3.1 surroundings, the 16-bit GUI setup program would launch. This software might additionally run in a full Home windows 3.x surroundings and even inside an already put in Home windows 95 OS, enabling customers to restore a corrupted system if obligatory.
The 16-bit Home windows software was the centerpiece of the method, Chen defined, because it dealt with nearly all of duties required for the “actual” Home windows 95 set up. This graphical interface managed consumer interplay, collected configuration knowledge, decided which OS parts to put in, and carried out {hardware} detection to pick the suitable drivers.
After copying the Home windows 95 information and drivers to the system, the 16-bit setup booted into the Win9x surroundings. The third and closing setup stage concerned a real Win32 software, which finalized the set up by dealing with duties reminiscent of putting in printers and configuring different peripherals.
By chaining collectively these three setup applications, Microsoft was in a position to streamline improvement by reusing a single codebase throughout all three most important set up situations. “Every program takes you one step nearer to the purpose. And all the pieces bought carried out solely as soon as,” the developer mentioned.
