As of today, Windows 95—the first of the “modern” Microsoft OSes—is a quarter-century old. Happy birthday old friend.
We could, of course, take this opportunity to recount the myriad features of 95 that would become staples of Windowses to come: the huge graphical improvements over 3.1, the start button and task bar, file shortcuts, plug-and-play detection of peripherals. Or we could wax lyrical about how much of my childhood unfolded on a 20-pound CRT monitor. Despite ending support almost 20 years ago, Windows 95 continues to persist out in the wild (though we don’t advise running it for anything other than maybe a retro gaming PC.)
Scratch all that though. It’s not a birthday party without a song, and Windows 95 happens to have one of the best, composed by the incomparable Brian Eno:
God that feels good to hear again.
Dear reader, may the sound of nostalgia bring you tranquility.
Correction: the “bliss” wallpaper was stock for Windows XP, a thing which Windows 95 is not.