A rare collector"s item for the tech world recently appeared on social media. Former Senior VP and product manager at Microsoft Brad Silverberg took to his social media account and shared the first-ever copy of Windows 95 ever made.
It all started when Microsoft veteran Dave W Plummer posted images of his "Special Edition" copy of Windows 95.
Now here"s something you don"t see every day: My Windows 95 Special Edition still in the shrinkwrap... from launch day. pic.twitter.com/bGMJGd5nuz
— Dave W Plummer (@davepl1968) July 6, 2024
The post caught Silverberg"s attention who responded to it and revealed that he has the first copy of Windows 95 from the production line.
I have the first copy on Windows 95 that came off the production line.
I"ve kept very few mementos from my years at Microsoft. But I kept that one. Priceless.
Silverberg then posted some images of the Windows 95 copy upon request from a Windows fan. Along with the Windows 95 copy was a letter congratulating Silverberg and saying:
This is the first Windows 95 unit ever made. It was produced Friday afternoon, July 14, 1995 at 5:15 PM. Enjoy!
— Brad Silverberg (@bradsilverberg) July 6, 2024
July 14 was the date when Windows 95 was released to manufacturing (RTM), followed by its retail availability on August 24, 1995. It was the time when cloud installs didn"t exist and Microsoft shipped Windows 95 in multiple floppy disks, evident from the floppy icon printed on Silverberg"s copy.
The legacy operating system was a major milestone in Microsoft"s history as it unified MS-DOS and Windows products, transitioned from 16-bit to 32-bit architecture, and introduced a number of improvements over Windows 3.0/3.1.
Microsoft"s new corporate logo introduced in 2012 also finds its roots in commercials of the old operating system. However, Windows 95 might not induce much nostalgia in modern teenagers, some of them posted their reactions publicly as they struggled to use it.
Windows 95 revolutionized desktop computing but over the decades dedicated fans have managed to install the legacy operating system on other devices. We have seen Windows 95 finding a home in a myriad of places, including an iPad, web browser, Apple Watch, and Xbox One.
And who knew Apple indirectly played a small part in Windows 95"s story? Its famous startup sound was produced by ambient music composer Brian Eno on an Apple Macintosh machine. A few years ago, Microsoft celebrated its golden days by giving away Windows 95-themed "Ugly" sweaters.