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Upgrading From Windows 1.0 To Windows 7

An anonymous reader writes "YouTube user Andrew Tait has uploaded a video titled Chain of Fools: Upgrading through every version of Windows. Tait starts with MS DOS 5.0 running Windows 1.0 and keeps upgrading the operating system until he reaches Windows 7, taking note of the changes to system settings and application compatibility along the way."

14 of 499 comments (clear)

  1. Re:And the result was? by rmo6 · · Score: 5, Informative

    Well, the video's author had the following conclusions -

    1) That MSFT should be commended that there is a lot of backwards compatibility for over 20 years of operating systems as evidenced by Doom2, program managers, file structures remaining in tact.

    2) That versions of XP, Vista and 7 were a little disappointing that they applied their own theme and color scheme and those settings weren't carried over between versions. Prior versions did in fact keep theme settings.

    3) That the upgrade path and process has changed significantly over 20 years (obviously) and while it may have gotten longer (in time spent), it seems to have gotten easier for the end user.

    Now, I don't know if I agree with any of the conclusions and I don't know if any of those conclusions are substantive, but that's what I got out of the 10 minute video.

  2. Re:should also installed the video driver for high by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Informative

    Should HAVE, dumbfuck, HAVE.

  3. Re:I'm not a fan, but... by pstorry · · Score: 5, Informative

    VMware can grow disks. If I were doing this, I'd start out with a ~400Mb disk and grow it from there. MS-DOS 5 could cope with that, and the first time you'd need to grow the disk would probably be at around the Windows 2000/Windows XP install stage I think.

    (In this case, it probably requires a bootable Linux distro for resizing the partitions on the virtual hardware disk though.)

    VMware can also change the RAM available, too. Again, start small and grow bigger as you go. Whilst I haven't tried something as extreme as this, I've often created a small image (say a 5Gb to 10Gb disk and 256Mb of RAM) when evaluating a distro, only to extend either the RAM or storage at a later date. It's a minor faff, but quite doable...

  4. Short Version for the Lazy by Toreo+asesino · · Score: 4, Informative

    -Apps/games installed on DOS 5 still work in Windows 7 unmodified after all the OS upgrade iterations.
    -Various Windows setting survived 20 years or so in the same way.

    To be fair, this is one of Windows strengths. It's not perfect but lets give credit where credit's due.

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  5. Re:I'm not a fan, but... by TheRaven64 · · Score: 5, Informative

    Not true. You can install DOS 5 on a huge disk, but I don't think it will see anything above 512MB. You can use something like PartitionMagic to enlarge this to 2GB when you get to Windows 95, then to something larger when you get to an OS that supports NTFS.

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    I am TheRaven on Soylent News
  6. Re:I haven't watched the video but... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Informative

    Classic apps won't run on recent versions of OS X, i.e. Snow Leopard or Lion.

    I'm not really criticizing Apple for not maintaining compatibility, but your statement that a brand-new Intel Mac will run any PPC app is false.

  7. Re:Missing OS by tverbeek · · Score: 4, Informative

    As the video explains, it was omitted because there is no upgrade path from WinME to Win2K. Remember that "Millennium Editon" came after Win2K, as a stopgap for the consumer market until WinXP was ready, so going from ME to the business-targeted Win2K would not have made sense.

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  8. Re:I haven't watched the video but... by mswhippingboy · · Score: 5, Informative

    IBM OS/360 programs (circa 1964) are still binary compatible with the latest Z-OS. That's compatibility from OS/360 through MVT, MVS, OS/390 and now z-OS.

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  9. Re:It only took them HOW many years... by baker_tony · · Score: 3, Informative

    Windows 7 does snap windows to the sides to take up half the screen. It's probably the most used feature of Windows 7 for me :-) With multiple monitors you need to use WinKey+Cursor key.

  10. Re:I haven't watched the video but... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Informative

    It's also disingenious as it uses virtualisation. That's like saying my Win7 machine can run any x86 OS just because I can install VMware Workstation on it.

  11. Re:should also installed the video driver for high by ChrisMP1 · · Score: 5, Informative

    "Living language" does not mean that everything that comes out of someone's mouth is correct. It's still possible to be wrong.

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  12. Re:I haven't watched the video but... by Hadlock · · Score: 1, Informative

    Win7 64 professional full (not upgrade) is available at retail for $99 as an "oem version" from a variety of retailers, incl newegg and amazon. Despite some worry warts claiming otherwise, you can transfer the oem licence to a new computer when you retire the old one (done it, working just fine).

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  13. Re:should also installed the video driver for high by MobileTatsu-NJG · · Score: 4, Informative

    Should HAVE, dumbfuck, HAVE.

    Dumb fuck, dumb fuck, DUMB FUCK.

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  14. Re:WIndows ME by MadMaverick9 · · Score: 1, Informative

    I guess you didn't actually watch the video.
    Windows Me to Windows 2000 Upgrade Is Not Supported
    http://support.microsoft.com/kb/272627
    See comment in video at 6:07.