The Picard ManeuverThe clues were right in front of us.
infinitesunriseI actually always thought that the mid-aughts trend of putting “My” in front of everything to make it feel personalized was really bizarre, considering that you weren’t ever the person labeling it that. Some developer or marketer you never met named it that. It always annoyed me when my icons started getting relabeled with names that a boomer grandpa might put on them, felt really pandery. Prior to the “My” trend, “My Computer” was just “Computer”.
jayboneDidn’t “My Computer” exist since like Windows 95 or so?
Also back when it was first introduced I heard some explanation that people were expected to rename it using their actual name. So something like “Joe’s Computer.” Though I don’t think anyone really did that in practice, which just resulted in everyone always having the “My Computer” icon on their windows desktop and it became the norm.
Is that even still possible?
I would think not. But I’m a tech illiterate Linux user who hasn’t used windows in 20+ years.
Looks like it’s coupled with the computers hostname now. Configured with the Run command
sysdm.cpl. Classic Windows.
I kind of think this might have all been the original
vision of some small group of engineers. Like on the network you might see “Joe’s Computer” and “Jane’s Computer” and “Bob’s Printer”. But that vision all got lost in the larger Microsoft macrocosm between how they handle host names and networking and their SMB protocol, and their installers not properly renaming that stupid desktop icon. And ultimately we ended up with the ubiquitous My Computer everywhere.