To say it helped computers is a huge understatement. Seeing Windows 95 within that first year was a real treat. With it turning 25, it is easy to understand what made it stand out. Microsoft had operating systems going for 10 years prior to it. They got better and better with it, but not enough to be convincing. But what helped?
It was accessible. A shell that include a start menu. Menus you could access. Features such as Office and Encarta. Very CD-Rom friendly. The ability to play the hot new games and play older ones. Capable of playing DOS. It hit at the right time when sites like eBay and many dot com places wanted hungry audiences. Tremendous power for the time. You were going to pay a couple thousand dollars, but it was worth it. It wasn't your normal operating system. It paved the way for what computers could do.
What I remember back in 1995-96 was the ability to play all sorts of games. Shareware stuff, to be exact. Playing on a Packard Bell computer and the various pack-in games it had. Tuneland, the Kidstory games. Playing fully released stuff like NASCAR Racing and Doom II. Catching a glimpse of what websites had to offer, though Internet I didn't fully use until the early to mid 2000s. Dial-up sounds. I know it's not going into full detail, but these are what I can remember being a three year old back around that time.
Even though I haven't used Windows 95 since 1999, it is still etched in my head as a memorable operating system. It's why I have grown to enjoy Windows products, use them for personal an professional usage, and find a deep library of titles that make it stand out as much as a game console (though it was more unique 20-25 years ago.) We will never see something to the level of this again.
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