How did the Win 95 user interface code get brought to the Windows NT code base?

Original Article ↗ Hacker News Discussion ↗

Desire for Classic Windows UI on Modern Systems

  • Several commenters wish the Windows 95 or XP shell could be made to run natively atop modern Windows (e.g., “Win11 74-bit kernel,” joking about bitness).
  • Some argue it might not be that hard for basic elements like explorer.exe and the Start menu, while others just want richer theming like in XP.
  • People note you can still access older looks via compatibility modes and remnants like the Windows 2000/Vista basic themes, or third‑party theming tools (e.g., WindowBlinds, now subscription-based).

Source Control and Merging the Win95/NT Code

  • The blog’s description of manual three‑way merging prompts discussion of pre‑git workflows.
  • Debate over what Microsoft actually used (SourceSafe vs. Source Depot vs. SLM) and experiences with exclusive file locking, locked files by absent coworkers, and disappearing files.
  • Commenters stress that three‑way merge tools (e.g., diff3) predate git by decades; the comparison is to today’s integrated workflows, not the existence of merging itself.
  • Broader reminiscence: SCCS, RCS, CVS, Subversion, Perforce, and current norms like git + pull requests; Perforce is praised for large binary assets (especially in game dev).

Perception of Time and Tech Eras

  • People are surprised that Windows 95 and git are only ~10 years apart; Win95 feels “ancient” while git feels “modern.”
  • Explanations include subjective time compression with age, and distinct “eras”:
    • Standalone PCs → Internet culture.
    • PC online → always‑online smartphones.
  • Speculation that LLMs might mark another such era shift.

Layers of Ancient UI in Modern Windows

  • Commenters enjoy (or mock) how deep settings dialogs still surface Windows 3.x/95–era UI components (e.g., ODBC admin, classic color picker, font dialogs, old Word zoom/spacing dialogs).
  • This is seen as a mix of “don’t break what works” and “no longer exposed in modern Settings panels.”
  • One person appreciates that nearly all Windows options are discoverable via GUI somewhere; others counter that the registry is the real equivalent of obscure command‑line flags and is widely disliked.
  • Comparisons with Linux:
    • Some prefer Linux’s text configs/CLI for automation; others say that’s a barrier for non‑technical users.
    • Discussion of fragmentation (kernel vs. shells vs. distros) making Linux‑wide unified settings GUIs hard, versus Windows and macOS having a vertically integrated stack.

Windows as Software Archaeology

  • Windows is likened to “real‑life archaeology,” where ancient layers of UI and behavior remain under a modern skin.
  • A sci‑fi analogy is cited: a far‑future world where nearly all needed software already exists and engineers are more like archaeologists running old code on stacked emulators.
  • A personal anecdote describes a system that’s been migrated from physical hardware through multiple hypervisors over ~25 years.

Unicode, UTF‑16 vs UTF‑8, and Historical Contingency

  • Question: why move Win95/NT UI code from ASCII CHAR to UTF‑16 WCHAR instead of UTF‑8?
  • Responses:
    • NT’s Unicode support started when “Unicode == 16‑bit” (UCS‑2), before UTF‑8 was standardized and clearly dominant.
    • Once WCHAR == Unicode was entrenched across massive APIs, switching everything to UTF‑8 became extraordinarily difficult.
  • Some push back on the exact timing (UTF‑8 conceived around 1992, NT 3.1 released 1993) but agree that reworking a nearly finished OS to UTF‑8 would have been unrealistic.
  • Broader lament that a brief, critical early‑90s window locked huge platforms (Win32, Java, Qt) into 16‑bit character assumptions just before Unicode/UTF‑8 fully stabilized.

Tooling Limits and Microsoft’s Achievement

  • Despite complaints, some commenters are impressed that Microsoft shipped such large, complex systems with comparatively primitive source‑control and merge tooling.

Miscellaneous

  • Ongoing frustration that explorer.exe can still freeze in modern Windows.
  • Meta discussion about Hacker News showing more specific domain labels (e.g., devblogs.microsoft.com/oldnewthing).
  • Curiosity is raised about why the Windows 95 title bar/buttons resemble NeXT’s UI; no clear answer emerges in the thread (marked as unclear).