Mastodawn

ARGVMI~1.PIF Oct 4, 2025

#Microsoft 's #RaymondChen posted an interesting explanation of why most of the #Windows 95 installer ran on Windows 3.1 and not on a stripped-down Windows 95 like you'd expect.

https://devblogs.microsoft.com/oldnewthing/20250926-00/?p=111629

Tl;dr: floppies are too small for a second copy of 95.

#Floppy based #Linux installers, unlike Windows, did use the same Linux kernel for the installer…but unlike Windows they didn't have a GUI with a pretty background picture. If they did, they'd have had the same problem!

#retrocomputing

Why didn't Windows 95 setup install a miniature Windows 95 so that it could be written as a 32-bit program? - The Old New Thing

Getting to the GUI quickly, and rebooting only once.

The Old New Thing

Show thread

ARGVMI~1.PIF Oct 4, 2025

Windows XP Setup, by contrast, ran on the same Windows NT kernel and graphics system as Windows XP itself did. 🎉 But by this point, the operating system's core was already quite mature, and the distribution medium (CD-ROM) had plenty of space for a second copy of it.

Similar story with Linux installers: they started to go graphical after moving away from floppy to CD/DVD/USB.

Show thread

ARGVMI~1.PIF Oct 6, 2025

There was a fun twist: although most of Windows 95 Setup ran in Windows 3.1, it did use some fancy GUI controls that were new in Windows 95. To achieve this, they were ported to Windows 3.1, solely for use by Windows 95 Setup.

https://devblogs.microsoft.com/oldnewthing/20241119-00/?p=110543

A wrinkle in how Windows 95 setup bootstrapped its initial GUI step - The Old New Thing

Getting access to the common controls that don't exist until Windows 95.

The Old New Thing

Show thread

ARGVMI~1.PIF

#RaymondChen later discusses the possibility of simply using #MSDOS to draw the graphics in #Windows 95 Setup.

https://devblogs.microsoft.com/oldnewthing/20250211-00/?p=110862

This was not done because it would involve developing a whole entire operating system—one that would only run Windows 95 Setup. May as well use the already perfectly serviceable Windows 3.1.

Graphical #Linux installers are the same story: they use Linux GPU drivers and a regular GUI toolkit like GTK for their graphics.

#OldNewThing #retrocomputing #Microsoft

Did the Windows 95 setup team forget that MS-DOS can do graphics? - The Old New Thing

Oh look what you just made there.

The Old New Thing