June monthly poll

[Computer Hope Admin]

For the month of June we thought it would be interesting to see what the first version of Microsoft Windows you used was. Feel free to talk about your experiences with Windows, what you liked / didn't like about it and/or what you missed about it when upgrading to a later version of Windows.

All past monthly polls and results can also be found on the Computer Hope poll page.

[macdad-]

Windows ME, first computer that my family owned.

It was Ok at first, but heck all that I did on it was Hot Wheels, and now its complete garbage.

[Carbon Dudeoxide]

First used Windows 95 when I was about 5-6 years old. First family computer.

Nothing but Red Alert 2.

[Calum]

Windows 95, in 1996, when I was 5.
Used that until 1999, when we got a new PC with Windows 98SE.
I started to become dangerous then, removing files at random and uninstalling things.
2005 or so, we got a new machine with a pirated copy of XP (the builder really stung us on that) which is when I started becoming more interested in computers.
Interestingly, I went from XP to XP, then XP X64, Server 03, Vista, then Windows 2000, 98SE, and on back to NT4.  Haven't found a version I really dislike, as I've still not trialed Vista properly and have never used ME.

[kpac]

Don't remember exactly when, but a good few years ago, the first family PC was running Windows 98.

[Aegis]

When I started with computers, desktop systems didn't have built-in hard drives.  Good ol' MS-DOS.  I think Win 3.1 was the first I ever used.  Win95 was the first I owned.  I stayed with DOS on my own computers until Win95 came out.

[EchoLynx]

The first machine I was allowed to use was running Windows 95, and originally used for taxes. Once it became too old to run some software, it was replaced.

I figured out how to overclock it by moving a jumper on the motherboard. (There were only two clock speeds.) I felt really smart.

[BC_Programmer]

windows 3.1, on my ancient 286. It was in 2003, I had been running DOS 3.22 for quite some time after finally figuring out that I had to swap the 3 1/2" drive and 5 1/4" drive in order to boot from the 5 1/4" using some old boot disks that my step dad had with his XT. I remember I had to basically steal the disks and copy them because I apparently wasn't going to be able to "fix" the 286.

I had to work with it without a hard drive for a month or so, until I opened it up and discovered it had a hard drive. I had no clue what to do to get it working, but I was able to access the BIOS, and realized I needed the geometry.

I got the values from CH after a google search for the model number. But not after trying my luck with guessing  I entered geometry that made the drive into a larger, 50MB drive. The directory was intact, but appeared corrupted (my guess, in hindsight, being because the files were added using the drives proper geometry and I was accessing it with the wrong settings). So I formatted it... which took nearly 2 days. The entire time was FORMAT saying "recovering Lost allocation Unit ##" for quite a number of units.

The format succeeded and I was able to run MS-DOS for a month or so... then files started to degrade thanks to the wrong geometry. I got the proper geometry (finally) from CH, and was able to get MS-DOS 6, and I even installed Windows, which looked less then spectacular with a Monochrome screen.

[kaigun]

When I started with computers, desktop systems didn't have built-in hard drives.  Good ol' MS-DOS.  I think Win 3.1 was the first I ever used.  Win95 was the first I owned.  I stayed with DOS on my own computers until Win95 came out.

Thanks Aegis I was feeling like an old man here until I came to your post.  Glad someone else remembers those days too. The first desktop I used was a Zenith in the late '80s, I don't remember it using MS-DOS, it was probably something provided by Zenith.       
 

[patio]

Windows for Workgroups 3.11

[Aegis]

The first system on which I ever worked was a Radio Shack Model II, with TRS-DOS.  (Tandy's version of DOS.)  One built-in eight inch floppy drive (single sided), and an exta cabinet to hold up to three extra floppy drives.  With two drive bays, you could run the operating system, and not have to remove the OS disk to run programs.   

[Broni]

Windows 3.11
I don't even recall how my first computer looked like...hehehe

[Ironman]

Windows 95 baby!

[barklr]

I started with atari an comadors ,using basic ,then dos atari had a tape drive ,but when i got the comador i got a flopy 5" i thank ,
i ran a bbs for 3 years off the comador with 6 flopys a one 10meg hdd,
then i got a emerson 8088 with terbo 2,4,16 hrtz an a10m.hdd an two 8"floppys
it was running an erly version of windows they called icons, with dos 2.6
in 98 i got a new P B 386 with windows 3 ,and PB  navagator, and a 3 gig hdd I never though that i would fil , a cd drive ,my first encounter with a mouse ,by this time i had dos 6, i miss basic.

[computeruler]

I think I used me