TheaterFire

If you had to type /Win to get this open, then you are one of us.

Posted by LeftSmile806@reddit | Xennials | View on Reddit | 380 comments

If you had to type /Win to get this open, then you are one of us.

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380 Comments

vasectomy7@reddit

Turn on computer -------> DOS ------> "win.exe" ![gif](giphy|FoH28ucxZFJZu)
View on Reddit #79365298

handsomeape95@reddit

We were all coders!
View on Reddit #79365831

Nazdrowie79@reddit

Just fumbling around in autexec.bat & config.sys
View on Reddit #79371121

otterbox313@reddit

I had an IBM PS/1 486 and whenever windows opened it had an error window that said: Incorrect midi port setting in the system.ini file (330)
View on Reddit #79983648

grimacefry@reddit

it's WIN.COM but whatever
View on Reddit #79385537

hamburgler26@reddit

Forward slash not required. Assuming path was set correctly just "win" would fire up windows. I'll see myself out now.
View on Reddit #79364631

Gian_Luck_Pickerd@reddit

Also, most of the time it was already in autoexec.bat, so unless you exited Windows, did something in DOS, then wanted to open Windows again, you didn't have to type it at all
View on Reddit #79365086

shulemaker@reddit

I kept it out because half the time I was booting up into DOS to play doom or Rise of the Triad
View on Reddit #79366312

Global-Jury8810@reddit

Rise of the Triad was the shit. My brother had a shareware version and I would automatically get hooked on Big Brother’s shit.
View on Reddit #79367462

otterbox313@reddit

ROTT.EXE
View on Reddit #79409951

Global-Jury8810@reddit

Rise of the Triad, Shadow Warrior…who needed to go outside? Nothing but trouble out there anyway!
View on Reddit #79411656

otterbox313@reddit

Sigh... I was so fortunate to enjoy both as a kid. Judging by your expertise on the subject, is it safe to assume you also had a similar childhood?
View on Reddit #79915262

Global-Jury8810@reddit

I had to have expressed permission to leave the house to play and I could not be very far from the house. I had to stay within the block, which was just a very short road with a cul-de-sac at the end. My brother was given more freedom, but I also grew up with an older autistic brother who could not be by himself, and sometimes an eight year old is the only choice to make sure a teenage autistic brother maintains his focus on his studies, instead of engaging in anything that would lead to accidents.
View on Reddit #79939932

lahimatoa@reddit

LUDICROUS GIBS
View on Reddit #79372129

Logical_Bat_7244@reddit

*boing* *eyeball*
View on Reddit #79386550

Kade7596@reddit

Team *Dog Mode* or Team *Excalibat*?
View on Reddit #79381288

Hopeful_Hamster21@reddit

Warcraft II. We had to modify the system.ini to disable smartdrv.exe file to free up enough RAM to play. Then we'd call our friends to align on the modem settings like baud rate. Hang up, yell "nobody use the phone!" And press dial in the game.
View on Reddit #79711144

GonnaGoFat@reddit

Yup almost every game I played I would go to dos.
View on Reddit #79469689

Ill-Description8517@reddit

LOTR.EXE
View on Reddit #79421003

mruncreativ3@reddit

I have never met anyone else who played Rise of the Triad!
View on Reddit #79369562

Nach0Maker@reddit

Hello.
View on Reddit #79414556

hamburgler26@reddit

You've met many now! Also it was popular enough to get a remake. Actually TWO remakes lol. The new remake is like 2ish year old. The OLD remake is I think 13 years old now. Dear lord haha. My friend and I played it together connected via modem late night when we wouldn't get disconnected from somebody else calling our landlines. What a time to be alive.
View on Reddit #79402124

mrblackc@reddit

Exactly! Hello first 640k memory limitations...
View on Reddit #79404954

thethirdllama@reddit

Exactly. No serious games run in Windows. Who could stomach that kind of performance hit?
View on Reddit #79367062

hamburgler26@reddit

Said it in another comment, but Myst. Didn't have a DOS version. Flight Commander 2 as well. Then lots of shovelware and more novelty type stuff. But definitely it wasn't until Windows 95 that the really serious games migrated away from DOS.
View on Reddit #79401913

shulemaker@reddit

Yeah but Myst wasn’t a 3d shooter, it was mostly pre-rendered screenshots with occasional QuickTime videos.
View on Reddit #79403514

LeftSmile806@reddit (OP)

Ah Doom.. any of you have gaming cafes in your towns where you could play against each other?
View on Reddit #79367169

VegetarianCoating@reddit

I grew up in a small town and the closest thing we had were LAN parties. I remember networking Doom with my buddy using dialup modems. It was really fun using a single phone line to establish the connection and try to troubleshoot problems. It went something like this: - Call friend, hold phone away from ear while his modem picks up and screeches at me - "HEY MAN! PICK UP THE PHONE!" - "Didn't work last time, try decreasing your baud rate and call me back" - Hang up - Wait for modems to renegotiate, fail, repeat... This went on for an hour and by the time it worked neither of us wanted to play anymore.
View on Reddit #79368359

gesis@reddit

We used to drag PCs over to each others houses to battle via null modem cable. I am old.
View on Reddit #79394802

Electrical-Bacon-81@reddit

No, but I did wire ethernet throughout my trailer to 3 PCs so we could.
View on Reddit #79367936

swb0nd@reddit

our home LAN was entirely coax. i didn't use ethernet until i moved out of my parent's house and went to college
View on Reddit #79369751

rickmccombs@reddit

Coax could be 10base2 Ethernet, sometimes called thin-net, Arc net, or Token ring. Actually it could be Thick net. (I can't remember the technical term for that
View on Reddit #79384613

bsensikimori@reddit

Lol token ring madness, losing a terminator plug and losing your mind... Those were the days Carmageddon and Doom was why I booted in DOS most of the time, had a config.sys specifically for it, needed to change something related to HIMEM to start windows :) Also, we used backslashes in DOS, not frontslashes
View on Reddit #79379426

hotcapicola@reddit

I always felt like the backslashes in DOS were the like the still having to use the imperial system of measurements.
View on Reddit #79382004

unkorrupted@reddit

There were a couple dial up bbses in town with multiple lines. The system could link up to eight people who dialed in to a game of Doom 2, Descent, or WarCraft. The performance was awful but the experience was amazing, given the times. Must have been 94 or 95 when i found out about it. Cost $20 a month but included access to something called the internet. I dunno if it is going to catch on, there sure are a lot of protocols to install and coordinate just to read a publicly posted message. Kinda cool though! (One of these companies successfully rebranded as a business hosting provider and only recently closed down when the owner retired and cashed out to a cloud company)
View on Reddit #79381830

chocki305@reddit

My high school had a bunch of 486 machines with graphics cards and math co processers for running Autocad. They all happen to also be networked together to share a plotter. Somehow doom just happen to get installed on every computer. The teacher knew. His rule was as long as it was only used once work was done correctly, and no one told the school administration. He didn't care. Fridays became Death match day. And even the teacher go involved.
View on Reddit #79373540

dpdxguy@reddit

>gaming cafes in your towns No. Well maybe. Don't remember. But the guys in my software department would come in after hours to use the corporate network to play Doom on their workstations.
View on Reddit #79370849

OverZealousCreations@reddit

Our high school had weird half-day Wednesday where the school day started a few hours late. A couple other nerds and I took over the computer lab on those days (these computers were *networked* using a token ring system in the mid 90s!). We weren't allowed to leave the software installed, but we could keep the installer on the "server". So first thing, we'd quickly copy the software of the day to every computer, then play fora few hours (getting yelled at to not get so loud). We started with Doom II (I believe). We also at various times played Heretic, Hexen, Rise of the Triad, and Quake. I seem to remember also playing some heavily modded versions of Quake, where you could play as a bunch of different characters, including an extremely OP Predator that could stick to walls and auto-target other enemies. Then before school would start, we'd wipe the games, shut down, and head out to grab a quick breakfast before going back to class.
View on Reddit #79370382

fcknwayshegoes@reddit

I played Doom against someone over dial-up. That was good times.
View on Reddit #79370160

regeya@reddit

I was in college in a dorm in the 90s when Quake II was all the rage. I wish I'd gotten to play Doom II against other people.
View on Reddit #79369295

onesleekrican@reddit

This is the right answer. Wolfenstein, doom and Duke Nukem
View on Reddit #79370672

5erif@reddit

Heck yeah, those and Heretic too.
View on Reddit #79392849

Diligent_Kitchen7705@reddit

Omg I haven't heard about wolfenstein 3d in ages! Loved that game!
View on Reddit #79373160

onesleekrican@reddit

Just missing “where in the world is Carmen San Diego” too
View on Reddit #79374078

WetMogwai@reddit

I kept that up through Windows 95 and 98 too. BOOTGUI=0 in boot.ini made the GUI go away.
View on Reddit #79389548

RegularCommonSense@reddit

I made DOS menus for my games with custom performance settings for each menu, depending on what I was going to do. I don’t have all those settings in my head any longer, but I think it was something with EMM386.EXE to access the rest of the RAM memory for DOS applications, beyond the standard limitation of a few hundred kilobytes. I was a tweenie when I configured those autoexec.bat and config.sys files. Learned a lot from the software tinkering (and some rookie QBASIC programming).
View on Reddit #79385828

EggstaticAd8262@reddit

After optimizing config.sys and autoexec.bat and move everything possible to himem to even get the thing to start :P Fun times :D
View on Reddit #79380093

Nonsenseinabag@reddit

Yeah, DOS for games and Telix to get on BBSs or the internet, at least until Windows internet became better integrated.
View on Reddit #79373911

Maxfunky@reddit

DOOM? Well la-dee-dah Mr Fancypants 486. Back in my day we played Wolfenstein 3d and that's the way we liked it.
View on Reddit #79370458

Szeth_Vallano@reddit

It was Commander Keen for me.
View on Reddit #79369945

VoidOmatic@reddit

*ROT pistol noises* OWW
View on Reddit #79368152

shulemaker@reddit

Ludicrous gibs!
View on Reddit #79369083

MrWhippyT@reddit

ROTT rocked.
View on Reddit #79368661

guru42101@reddit

In my default autoexec I had it. I also had a floppy with custom autoexec and sysconfig to give the graphics card more memory and tweak other settings for playing games.
View on Reddit #79459634

Tiddex@reddit

I had bootdisks to start in DOS mode and meet the weird EMS/XMS requirements of Tie Fighter
View on Reddit #79435772

Some_Kinda_Username@reddit

autoexec.bat was awesome, I would push the power button, go make a sandwich, come back, and windows 3.1 was loaded up and ready for Juno email and Dogz, and whatever else I was doing that day. Happy memories.
View on Reddit #79434972

Graywulff@reddit

a lot of game ran better in DOS as I recall. Wing Commander 3, when you exited it said "while you sleep, they'll be waiting".
View on Reddit #79403913

jcstrat@reddit

We didn’t have it set up that way. Widows was basically a novelty at that point was mostly useless. We used DOS if we wanted to actually _do_ anything. Windows couldn’t even launch any real games at that point.
View on Reddit #79367397

Albedo101@reddit

Windows 3.x series quite literally created the desktop computer paradigm we still use to this day. OK, maybe "created" isn't the right word, more suitable would be: *"borrowed" from others and then popularized with masses.* Clipboard copy-pasting between apps, multitasking, high resolution support, true color support, international multi-language support. Most staple apps still in use today appeared on Windows 3.x in the form we know them today. Most notably Word, Excel, later Office, AutoCAD, CorelDraw. It was Windows 3.1 that first got ports of famous Apple software: Photoshop, Pagemaker, etc. It was Windows 3.1 that brought support for TrueType fonts, the same that are still in use today. Keyboard shortcuts you use as default today, like Ctr+C, Ctrl+X, Ctrl+V? That didn't exist in DOS (every app had its own shortcuts), until Windows made them universal. First functional web browsers were introduced to the masses on Windows 3.1. DOS had raw performance and sometimes its single-tasking environment could be (and still is) almost relaxing to use. But in reality, by the early 90s it was hopelessly outdated OS. Windows was the way to go for productivity.
View on Reddit #79388882

hamburgler26@reddit

I think 3.11 was definitely a landmark OS, but from what I remember even just regular 3.0 had issues and everything before it was not great so it had a poor reputation for a long time. Hell people shit on Windows regularly even today so its a birthright at this point. Thinking back to childhood, and what I actually do with it now, I think Myst was the really big killer thing that required Windows 3.1. AOL I think got heavy use as well and I don't think we ever had the DOS client installed.
View on Reddit #79401699

Eshin242@reddit

Used to say windows is not a virus. A virus actually does something. 
View on Reddit #79381902

digitalgraffiti-ca@reddit

Your computer didn't start in DoS? What wicked witchcraft is this!?
View on Reddit #79388630

alwayzz0ff@reddit

Changing the shell statement in the config.sys was a fun way to mess with people
View on Reddit #79380363

isuxirl@reddit

Maybe if I'd configured a boot menu to load extended vs expanded RAM for gaming. : /
View on Reddit #79369531

UndeadBuggalo@reddit

3.1 was my first OS, I played so many dos games on it..lemmings, kings quest, Jill of the jungle, Jurassic park
View on Reddit #79368814

Legitimate-Offer-770@reddit

A true Gen X would know that. 🤪
View on Reddit #79472956

jerryweezer@reddit

This is what I was thinking! Well put!
View on Reddit #79424799

UnfortunateSnort12@reddit

Right? OP is a poser!
View on Reddit #79407095

hamburgler26@reddit

I have to admit I have a fully functional Win 3.1 system running at home so have very recent first hand knowledge for firing up the system. Thrilled at the great convo in spawned!
View on Reddit #79424433

Fuckspez42@reddit

Whether or not $path was set correctly, adding the slash (either forward or backward) wouldn’t have worked.
View on Reddit #79423135

hamburgler26@reddit

Oh 100% and that is what I was saying haha. Not gonna work no matter what. Also, love the convo this post sparked about retro win 3.1!
View on Reddit #79424096

Object_Reference@reddit

Ours wasn't, so as a kid I always had to do like ``` C:\> cd windows C:\> win ``` and then get the "ta-da!" followed by a driver failing to load and clicking the close button on the error window to go play missile command.
View on Reddit #79378002

WetMogwai@reddit

It is a little late to let you know now but having to do that first line means it wasn't set up right. The Windows directory should have been in the path, as defined in autoexec.bat. The installer should have done that but it might have gotten messed up later.
View on Reddit #79389783

hamburgler26@reddit

Funny enough my actual DOS / Win 3.1 system I use today has this, I have to CD into windows and then run the win command. I probably removed it by accident setting up something else and have never been bothered to change it. I mainly live in DOS world on it.
View on Reddit #79401280

Yrch1@reddit

Wasn't it win/s?
View on Reddit #79390629

revdon@reddit

Not "startx"?
View on Reddit #79388180

Doc_Hollywood@reddit

TIL. Lmao
View on Reddit #79385633

ILikeBumblebees@reddit

Forward slash not supported. Typing `/win` at a DOS prompt will yield "Bad command or file name."
View on Reddit #79372821

smuckola@reddit

.......these people!!! lol
View on Reddit #79384684

--Citation-Needed--@reddit

Even if path was not set correctly, wouldn't it be backslash? DOS uses forward slashes for flags and backslashes for path.
View on Reddit #79368711

ILikeBumblebees@reddit

A leading backslash indicates the root directory of the current drive. So `\WIN` wouldn't work either, unless you have either installed Windows to your root directory, or have a `WIN.BAT` file in the root directory. Even if you have `C:\WINDOWS` in your path, it would still fail, because you'd be specifying an absolute filename, and it wouldn't do a path search in the first place.
View on Reddit #79373154

mruncreativ3@reddit

Most of the time the backlash was not necessary iirc, but I usually used it as a separator bc I didn't really know what I was doing and sometimes the commands worked for me and sometimes they didn't, lol.
View on Reddit #79369811

LlewellynSinclair@reddit

![gif](giphy|Cz6TlrRVVyv9S)
View on Reddit #79371866

RCP90sKid-@reddit

Yeah, dos was good like that
View on Reddit #79371491

punctum35@reddit

c:\>_ cd windows c:\windows>_ win
View on Reddit #79367509

ObviouslyRealPerson@reddit

Came here to say the same lol
View on Reddit #79367394

jcstrat@reddit

That’s how I remember it.
View on Reddit #79367250

LeftSmile806@reddit (OP)

true true
View on Reddit #79364885

Glittering-Most-9535@reddit

Oh dang. Back when you could turn Windows off and your computer would still be running and capable of doing things.
View on Reddit #79364021

rearwindowpup@reddit

File > Exit Windows, hello DOS prompt my old friend
View on Reddit #79366121

I_Lick_Your_Butt@reddit

C:\
View on Reddit #79370451

CantaloupeAsleep502@reddit

People these days have no idea about backslashes lol
View on Reddit #79380119

otterbox313@reddit

Wait a minute... Do forward slashes both pre and post date the back slash in an OS specific sense?
View on Reddit #79915336

No-Emu-8717@reddit

Yep I am into forward slashes nowm all hail *n*x which basically means linux now, so long sys V
View on Reddit #79411000

No-Mail-8063@reddit

C:\DOS C:\DOS\RUN RUN DOS RUN SYNTAX ERROR
View on Reddit #79382131

DoctorMario1000@reddit

Doom.exe
View on Reddit #79385441

peritonlogon@reddit

I've come to type in you again.
View on Reddit #79370307

rearwindowpup@reddit

Runnings games free of Miiiicrosoft
View on Reddit #79372522

onesleekrican@reddit

No windows to get in the waaaaay
View on Reddit #79376218

digitalgraffiti-ca@reddit

r/Redditsings kinda.
View on Reddit #79388735

nakedcellist@reddit

You could with pc-dos or Dr. Dos.
View on Reddit #79384590

LookingForVoiceWork@reddit

cd quake quake.exe
View on Reddit #79377811

LeftSmile806@reddit (OP)

Do you remember subscribing to a game subscription service where they would come in the mail on floppy disks? There's this game that I remember which I think was called The Abyss that I was having nostalgia over the other day. Basically you were a wizard that walked around level to level shooting monsters and "Stepping in bat guano" would slow you down. There was also a pirate game that I remember that was awesome. But yeah, these were the days.
View on Reddit #79364370

pinkocatgirl@reddit

Nah man all my games were pirated floppies my uncle gave me
View on Reddit #79370463

Eshin242@reddit

We used to call them "Legitimate off-site backup copies" because backing up your software through copying the disks was allowed in the EULA or legal bit in the manual..
View on Reddit #79382043

everythinghappensto@reddit

I don't recall game delivery subscriptions, but I believe I had The Abyss - a somewhat primitive precursor to Wolfenstein 3D iirc? It didn't run well on my PC whereas Wolf3d was smooth.
View on Reddit #79378318

minx_the_tiger@reddit

Core memory unlocked. Holy damn, I haven't thought of this in ages.
View on Reddit #79372406

Glittering-Most-9535@reddit

Don't remember that in the least, no. Though also not the kind of thing my parents would have gone for. We had a golf game, a Donald Duck game where you were building a playground through completing odd jobs, and a Carmen Sandiego game.
View on Reddit #79364500

Nazdrowie79@reddit

Syndicate and Wing Commander were the shit!
View on Reddit #79370969

flamingknifepenis@reddit

Holy crap, I remember that game. The “stepping in bat guano” unlocked a corner of my memory that hasn’t been accessed for a long time.
View on Reddit #79369128

LeftSmile806@reddit (OP)

Yessss! Finally found someone who played this too. I loved that game
View on Reddit #79369328

SimplyTheApnea@reddit

My uncle ran a shareware company for a bit. Little retail shop with floppy disks as far as my childhood series could see
View on Reddit #79367282

Human-Ad1643@reddit

Software of the month club. Basically they would send you floppies of shareware programs and games.
View on Reddit #79366828

theloop82@reddit

I used to get one called “the big blue disk” which predated windows I beleive this would have been like 87
View on Reddit #79366733

Middleage_dad@reddit

I had one of those on my Commodore 64!   
View on Reddit #79366097

DarksunDaFirst@reddit

Remember when you could “Park” computers? Pepperidge Farm Remembers.
View on Reddit #79370243

jaymzx0@reddit

Be sure to park your hard disk before turning it off otherwise the heads will crash!
View on Reddit #79368199

shulemaker@reddit

This is still the experience on Linux.
View on Reddit #79366352

LeftSmile806@reddit (OP)

might be better
View on Reddit #79368146

tuberlord@reddit

I made a batch file called "lose.bat" because Windows drove me nuts and I only used it when I had to.
View on Reddit #79366410

World_still_spins@reddit

At one point I made a batch file called shutup.bat to avoid windows automatic shutdown countdown when I would delete some system processes from task manager, but that was for the newer systems like 98 and XP.
View on Reddit #79583927

World_still_spins@reddit

Run win
View on Reddit #79583545

Ok_Syllabub747@reddit

3.11 had networking
View on Reddit #79548836

Responsible-Code5690@reddit

here lol
View on Reddit #79539714

Left-Paleontologist1@reddit

I remember when winders finally learned about TCP/IP
View on Reddit #79529235

Middleage_dad@reddit

I’ve done IT support for friends and family since these days, and now do it as a side business.  It’s funny how easy it is now. It’s really more about being a therapist than anything about the actual tech. 
View on Reddit #79366057

EggstaticAd8262@reddit

Yes. I went into IT because I thought it was about technology. Turns out, its all about people.
View on Reddit #79380295

digitalgraffiti-ca@reddit

Ugh. This is why I've set up clear rules as the techy of my family: - do what you're told. Do not ask why. Just do. - NO APPLE. You buy that crap, and it's your problem. - if you deviate from what I've told you and you break something, it's your problem. - if I've set something up for you and left extremely clear, concise, color coded instructions and you break said thing, it's your problem. - if you ask for advice on a tech purchase and don't listen to my advice, guess what? It's your problem. This is an unspoken rule: if you eagerly break my first rules, or if you're unpleasant in general, "I don't know how to do that." I've straight up told my father that I don't know how to "do a Google sheet," while I was writing a complicated Google sheets code while he could see my screen. I've also spontaneously forgotten how to reset passwords, do email, print, and other basic tasks. I'm not getting paid minimum wage at an Indian call center, I operate under a strict "fk around, find out" mission statement.
View on Reddit #79389834

EggstaticAd8262@reddit

Have you tried saying "No"? I did that years ago. I do help out a select few, 3 people who are on the older side. Everything is digital in Denmark and I honestly don't think that's fair for someone who was born before hot water was in the house. Also I demand they buy Apple. It really just works. As much as I love tinkering, with a full time job, kids, mortgage, etc. etc., I just dont have time for that. So we run Apple at home too. Except PC's.
View on Reddit #79392487

Middleage_dad@reddit

\+1 for Apple- As long as you're following the way the ecosystem is "supposed" to work, it's great. It's when people get "but I want it this way!" workflows in their heads that things go wonky. Recently had a client that had a Macbook and an iMac, and she wanted mirrored profiles for both her work and personal accounts across both machines, but only wanted to use iCloud for personal, but also wanted all her contacts synced, but also wanted to access some files between both profiles. I told her that was insane.
View on Reddit #79464743

digitalgraffiti-ca@reddit

I started being anti apple because Steve jobs sucked. At some point he pissed off Adobe, so there were rumors that they stopped targeting ease of use from Mac and pointed it at PC instead. Additionally, Mac doesn't support all the games I want to play, and their hardware is _severely_ overpriced for what you get. And the "geniuses" are rude in my limited experience. And their laptops get way too hot. But that's just my take on it. I know lots of people like it, and that's fine with me. You do you. I don't use apple, and I'm uninterested in learning their whole ecosystem, so if my family wants tech support, don't ask me if it's apple. My boyfriend had an iPhone for work, and I needed to use it to take a photo or something, and I genuinely had no clue how. And I'm good with that.
View on Reddit #79512757

EggstaticAd8262@reddit

Super agree. You go with the flow and don't fight it - And it is really good, to be honest. And the more devices you get, phone, watch, tv, ipad, mac, the more that ecosystem makes sense.
View on Reddit #79466371

Middleage_dad@reddit

And in 2026… why are you doing weird shit at the OS level?
View on Reddit #79468265

EggstaticAd8262@reddit

What do you mean?
View on Reddit #79468573

Middleage_dad@reddit

Like 25 years ago, I could see setting up folder automations or creating directory-based workflows for documents or highly organized shared drives for productivity.  But we have so many other ways of working now, like Google Drive, that make a lot of the things you’d want to customize on your desktop irrelevant, or at least more work than they are worth. 
View on Reddit #79471422

EggstaticAd8262@reddit

Very true. Even sorting pictures is handled for you when you use Photos
View on Reddit #79472194

digitalgraffiti-ca@reddit

"No" doesn't work with my father. He's a narcissist, so I just lean into the "I'm too stupid to know how to do that" narrative, because it's faster than no. His incompetence is balanced out by my mom who does exactly what she's told and never buys any tech without my approval. She's a dream for tech support.
View on Reddit #79435173

Middleage_dad@reddit

And convincing people that no, that thing you’re trying to do is a really bad idea, and knowing they will override you, you’ll implement something they way they want, and then you’re stuck supporting it. 
View on Reddit #79380556

EggstaticAd8262@reddit

You say no, but then they get someone external to do it. Now you support their poorly made spaghetti for a decade :P
View on Reddit #79384325

Middleage_dad@reddit

Yep. And then everyone hates on IT, it winds up burned out, they quit, new people with no idea come in, and then it all goes to a cloud-based provider. 
View on Reddit #79386618

jonasgrimms@reddit

As a CLI cowboy this title is triggering. 
View on Reddit #79508846

RetroMulder@reddit

…..Deltree. … and I was never here
View on Reddit #79506495

vabello@reddit

Why would you type a forward slash?
View on Reddit #79364966

SebboNL@reddit

Because his win is an elf executablelocated on root? Idk...
View on Reddit #79365595

Jonnyflash80@reddit

Elf executable ![gif](giphy|xUySTVQyBQfC5ZjdC0)
View on Reddit #79365909

SebboNL@reddit

Different kind of elf, but i'll allow it For now
View on Reddit #79365961

Unanimous_D@reddit

I remember IRQs and TSRs but not elves. What am I forgetting?
View on Reddit #79366399

SebboNL@reddit

Executable and Linking Format. File type for linux executable files :) And on linux (as well as other unix os'es) the backslash is where the root filesystem starts. So, on linux "/win" would be a file allllll the way up in the filesystem, roughly comparable with c:\ on DOS. And if that gile had to start windows the way win.exe did, it'd have to be an ELF file. Silly nerd humour
View on Reddit #79366743

Unanimous_D@reddit

I learn something new every day. Trying to learn linux r n. Using OMV as a media server, considering making the big move once my Windows 10 update extension expires in October.
View on Reddit #79495459

vabello@reddit

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Executable_and_Linkable_Format
View on Reddit #79366588

Jonnyflash80@reddit

I don't remember this in DOS 5 or 6 at all. I was pretty young though and learning by reading the DOS manual a bit at a time. Maybe I glossed over this.
View on Reddit #79367288

SebboNL@reddit

ELF is linux, not DOS :)
View on Reddit #79371118

Jonnyflash80@reddit

I see. I've been misled by a previous comment then.
View on Reddit #79382343

everythinghappensto@reddit

Same, same, and same.
View on Reddit #79378436

FenPhen@reddit

DOS (and now Windows) used backslash \ for paths and forward slash / for switches. And the `win` command was typically available anywhere because the Windows directory was typically placed in the `PATH` variable.
View on Reddit #79371079

vabello@reddit

Stop with your sound logical explanations.
View on Reddit #79365814

SebboNL@reddit

Oops, sorry. Won't happen again!
View on Reddit #79365917

1pt20oneggigawatts@reddit

I'm just here for the flying toaster screensaver (that may have been the Mac come to think of it)
View on Reddit #79488411

LojikSupreme@reddit

Damn, thanks! 😁
View on Reddit #79487001

ntmw@reddit

NC + enter Norton Commander on our 386.
View on Reddit #79479306

GT411TX_fishing@reddit

Ipconfig
View on Reddit #79474409

OsikFTW@reddit

My brother taught me how to use DOS on a computer that had 3.1
View on Reddit #79364831

Procrasturbating@reddit

Did you have to monkey with not loading himem.sys to run Doom II on it? If so, it was 4MB. I upgraded to 8MB to not have to reboot every time I played.
View on Reddit #79366485

Lokken_UK@reddit

I did that!!! We had a family friend who worked for IBM and he had to come and work his magic to get it to load. Played doom 2 so much the levels were in my dreams - best times
View on Reddit #79471192

DarkFather24601@reddit

I struggled to explain to my wife what opening windows in dos was like along with Webcrawler and IRC. She adjust couldn’t wrap her head around it because her exposure to windows was much later.
View on Reddit #79467389

rebelangel@reddit

Yup, our generation had to teach ourselves DOS commands in order to use the computer.
View on Reddit #79466531

LifeClock1509@reddit

Mom probably did that for us. I remember using dos and then we got the first windows. The games were much better on windows.
View on Reddit #79461026

zubairhamed@reddit

DOS 4.1 and Win 3.0 was my first
View on Reddit #79460149

Kerb3r0s@reddit

I loved DOS so much that when I discovered Linux, it was like coming home.
View on Reddit #79366659

duplicati83@reddit

I used to be all about the GUI. Then I started self hosting on my own server. Ran Ubuntu desktop for a year or so, realised most of my things were achievable easier with the command line and switched to the GUI-less server version. Haven’t looked back, it’s just so reliable and powerful and predictable.
View on Reddit #79447873

jncheese@reddit

https://preview.redd.it/q46n11so0vlg1.png?width=1280&format=png&auto=webp&s=8ee5e6a51f3f5711ccd9c26ea7c8c5ec937d0f87 We are not the same
View on Reddit #79366233

duplicati83@reddit

I still use mc on my Linux server
View on Reddit #79447636

disinaccurate@reddit

\*salutes\* Commander.
View on Reddit #79374353

Nonsenseinabag@reddit

My friends and I were team Xtree because it did hex editing.
View on Reddit #79374095

uabassguy@reddit

You're dumb, fuck off with your ragebait bullshit
View on Reddit #79447001

No-Hospital559@reddit

I had Windows 3.11 for Workgroups!
View on Reddit #79446887

TheBillionHeir@reddit

I dual booted this and OS/2 Warp
View on Reddit #79427557

goofytigre@reddit

cd.. cd.. cd..
View on Reddit #79424070

moe_saint_cool@reddit

LOAD "$", 8 LIST
View on Reddit #79418913

Skitzafranik@reddit

My first home windows computer!!😁🥰🥹
View on Reddit #79416789

Cyclopticcolleague@reddit

C:\doom.exe
View on Reddit #79416051

stangAce20@reddit

Earliest version of windows I can remember using is 95
View on Reddit #79415711

JVM_@reddit

autoexec.bat
View on Reddit #79366176

r3layraces@reddit

Config.sys
View on Reddit #79368015

veringer@reddit

command.com
View on Reddit #79376236

Unique-Accountant253@reddit

himem.sys
View on Reddit #79378193

jdallen1222@reddit

dir/p
View on Reddit #79414623

scottishzombie@reddit

MEMMAKER
View on Reddit #79380211

drallafi@reddit

ATDT \*70,7183392
View on Reddit #79397541

Big-Peak6191@reddit

I remember an ad campaign with rolling stones start me up for windows 95 because you no longer needed to do that
View on Reddit #79413872

Pertinax1981@reddit

Makes me want to load up my F-19 Stealth Fighter game 
View on Reddit #79411098

silverfang789@reddit

We used Windows 3.1 with some kind of Novell Netware launcher that stripped out all the settings and customization ability on our tech school computers. But within one week of starting class, someone figured out that if you hit Ctrl+C, you could drop out of the bootstrap to a C:\\ prompt, from which you could type win, and boot into unfettered Windows.
View on Reddit #79410666

valdus@reddit

I had to type the full path. It was a win/win.
View on Reddit #79410006

LeftSmile806@reddit (OP)

That’s quite the situation 
View on Reddit #79410035

drimmie@reddit

my first desktop PC came with MS-DOS and Windows 3.0. we old
View on Reddit #79408441

MajorlyCynical@reddit

![gif](giphy|dtIGTEaGLRvdODtdQe|downsized) Best windows version
View on Reddit #79408298

Zebraitis@reddit

Pffft... Cheap OS/2 clone.
View on Reddit #79406534

cobalt-radiant@reddit

My parents were poor. I'm a later xennial and all we had was a Commodore 64 until 1997.
View on Reddit #79404987

neighborofbrak@reddit

/Win ??? Do you mean \windows\win.exe? /Win would be a switch passed to an executable. Yes, "/" and "\" are not interchangeable!
View on Reddit #79404942

jcmonk@reddit

I remember that there was an alternate UI of the operating system for kids that looked like the inside of a treehouse or something. Is this a wildly misunderstood memory?
View on Reddit #79404883

hernondo@reddit

The good old days, when Windows was an application inside of the DOS operating system.
View on Reddit #79364788

Apprehensive_Hat8986@reddit

That'd be the [Disk Operating System](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DOS) or DOS yeah? DOS OS wasn't a thing, but PC-DOS, MS-DOS, DR-DOS, and more were all options. But many use "PIN number", "ABM machine", and such so ehn. Whatever I suppose.
View on Reddit #79395618

hernondo@reddit

I didn’t want to get too technical and say MS-DOS! Don’t make me start talking about config.sys and autoexec.bat configurations.
View on Reddit #79401255

bath-bubble-babe@reddit

...Version 3.1.1 We also had a Feranti operating system. Both were on 5 1/4 inch floppies. 
View on Reddit #79404102

thinkfloyd_@reddit

If you were lucky. My 086 just had DOS.
View on Reddit #79383723

hernondo@reddit

Yeah, simpler times.
View on Reddit #79384880

bascule@reddit

When protected mode was off-by-default, and every DOS app that wanted to use it including Windows implemented its own protected mode runtime (or just used DOS4GW)
View on Reddit #79366975

Aronacus@reddit

Also if you had to type Win to load Windows each morning. You probably need to take some Aleve for your knee and back pain.
View on Reddit #79365901

royv98@reddit

Probably time for a colonoscopy too.
View on Reddit #79404078

beer_engineer_42@reddit

Hey, fuck you! I take Aleve every day for my *shoulder* pain, thank you very much.
View on Reddit #79387381

digitalgraffiti-ca@reddit

And my neck pain
View on Reddit #79389946

Aronacus@reddit

Oooooolllllllllddddd Man! Better take your fiber to, you fucking geezer. \-I'll Chase you after my Aleve kicks in and my back stops hurting!
View on Reddit #79388045

MetaVulture@reddit

My first windows was 3.0, not 3.1.
View on Reddit #79403870

Maxfunky@reddit

I think kids these days would lose their minds if they saw how we used to interact with computers back in the DOS days.
View on Reddit #79370170

hamburgler26@reddit

I worked with a guy who's kid was completely baffled by the mouse when it was introduced in school. I have made it my mission to make sure my kid knows how to properly operate a computer. He's 4 and can use the mouse and play DOS games that require keyboard commands to do stuff. Touch screen phones really got things to the point that it was so simple a baby could use it and most people never go past that level of technical knowledge.
View on Reddit #79402344

Jagrnght@reddit

I wasn't that rich. The only comps in the house were consoles until Windows 95.
View on Reddit #79378415

LeftSmile806@reddit (OP)

Wouldn’t it be the other way around? We were never rich enough to get a console
View on Reddit #79399434

Jagrnght@reddit

PCs cost a lot more than consoles. I went splits with my sis with our paperboy/girl money to get a SNES when they launched.
View on Reddit #79400089

DrMcJedi@reddit

![gif](giphy|MTdNrKa1i1iy3lrJWH) I was one of these weirdos in the late 80’s…
View on Reddit #79366488

kaotate@reddit

I can hear the hard drive
View on Reddit #79400014

oskich@reddit

I had a Mac at home and Windows 3.1 in school
View on Reddit #79366793

everythinghappensto@reddit

Windows at school?? It was the opposite for me.
View on Reddit #79378589

guyincognito121@reddit

And you had to go to CompUSA to buy the floppy disk with the software to convert documents between Windows and Mac.
View on Reddit #79396011

afleetingmoment@reddit

Same. I can close my eyes and picture the room full of Apple IIs.
View on Reddit #79379520

Nazdrowie79@reddit

![gif](giphy|cO39srN2EUIRaVqaVq) Me back then: Ha! You cant play any of the cool games
View on Reddit #79371558

73-68-70-78-62-73-73@reddit

My dad has a IIci and a fancy grayscale display. I think my own first computer was a Classic II. I remember playing Asterax and Simant for hours in my closet.
View on Reddit #79371050

DarksunDaFirst@reddit

The tail end of Windows CE/ME/NT
View on Reddit #79370323

AdditionalMustard@reddit

I'm the same way. After straight DOS IBMs, I had Macs until Windows 95.
View on Reddit #79367522

snotparty@reddit

Same! I was playing this https://preview.redd.it/qhmhqakf3vlg1.png?width=648&format=png&auto=webp&s=a852654d100f25097364460f3f6b3536b1396f6a
View on Reddit #79367425

Evabythewater@reddit

Le Menu anyone?
View on Reddit #79398950

gyrlonfilm6@reddit

![gif](giphy|Ae7SI3LoPYj8Q)
View on Reddit #79398790

andrewclarkson@reddit

cd\\doom doom
View on Reddit #79398208

freshforma@reddit

oh my packard bell
View on Reddit #79397858

shnex0@reddit

I even remember NOT launching windows but launching games from DOS
View on Reddit #79396984

09Trollhunter09@reddit

![gif](giphy|11Cn7h5PA8cyiY)
View on Reddit #79394846

Tyenkrovy@reddit

I didn't exactly live in an affluent part of the country/my state/my town as a kid. The best I had access to was Apple II or Macintosh Plus computers through elementary and junior high school. When I finally had access to computers that ran Windows, it was in high school in the mid to late 90s and they were running on Windows 95/98.
View on Reddit #79393287

UnicornMeatball@reddit

![gif](giphy|OPUHzs3F10lVK)
View on Reddit #79393008

rockadoodoo01@reddit

I just stuck the command in the autoexec.bat file.
View on Reddit #79392691

ZealousidealPound460@reddit

C:>/ C:/> ^ am I close?, from memory…
View on Reddit #79392475

Digitallydust@reddit

I showed my teenagers how to open files an create folders from the command prompt a few months ago. I blew their minds! There’s another fun command called “tree” that list the entire file path for the directory. When I did that, they suspected I was living a double life as an underground hacker. Nope! Just an 80s kid who REALLY wanted to play Kings Quest V on my dad’s fancy PC
View on Reddit #79367829

KeepItUpThen@reddit

I feel like I owe it to my younger self to find a playthrough video for Kings Quest V. I dont remember where, but I got stuck somewhere in that game and couldn't figure out how to continue.
View on Reddit #79391961

Smokeythemagickamodo@reddit

Yeah I predate this, thanks buddy!
View on Reddit #79391445

Technical-Natural-26@reddit

I’m here. What’d I miss?
View on Reddit #79391388

cheersthanksseeyabye@reddit

Woah. Fully forgot that this was a thing. Yep. First computer 😍
View on Reddit #79391332

Kramereng@reddit

And for the elders here, you'd be typing [this](https://www.c64-wiki.com/wiki/GO64).
View on Reddit #79389703

beeurd@reddit

But DOS was where all the best games were.
View on Reddit #79388405

BigIreland@reddit

I remember. I remember the old school techs who hated 95/98 and would open a command prompt to do everything.
View on Reddit #79388229

BushiByron@reddit

win :
View on Reddit #79387382

BeefSupremeeeeee@reddit

Or modifying the .bat file so it automatically started windows after DOS finished booting.
View on Reddit #79387072

julayla64@reddit

Back then I did
View on Reddit #79386979

FirstNoel@reddit

Ha! I used autoexec.bat to start it automatically!
View on Reddit #79386908

guitartoad@reddit

Yay! I'm a somebody!
View on Reddit #79386731

Bulky_Relative_5364@reddit

wild how some peeps overthink the simplest stuff, just hit win and go bro
View on Reddit #79386357

sonofalink@reddit

If you had to edit config.sys and autoexec.bat to move stuff in and out of memory whenever you got a new game…. I hope your colonoscopy was clear!
View on Reddit #79386113

LarryGoldwater@reddit

Finally an OS than can turn this Dos game into something amazing https://preview.redd.it/kp3gtpfvzulg1.jpeg?width=1600&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=db93a689f10f023a3a18390eabc0d256bcc2c071
View on Reddit #79365881

arnulfslayer@reddit

This game taught me, for the first time, the meaning of "losing track of time". > one more turn > it's two hours later > one more turn > 3am whoops
View on Reddit #79386096

Mackheath1@reddit

Oh and don't forget DOS. We were computer wizards when we learned code - or what we pretended to be was hackers.
View on Reddit #79385639

Doc_Hollywood@reddit

Finally, I have proof I’m a Xennial and not just a geriatric millennial.
View on Reddit #79385595

Way_2_Go_Donny@reddit

I was partial to Norton Commander, but windows 3.11 was cool.
View on Reddit #79367873

red286@reddit

DESQview for the win.
View on Reddit #79385086

tsrubrats@reddit

Did Mavis Beacon teach anyone else how to type
View on Reddit #79367819

red286@reddit

Only in Grade 11. When I took it in Grade 9, we had books and electric typewriters. Very weird switch in only 2 years.
View on Reddit #79385014

LeftSmile806@reddit (OP)

yes!
View on Reddit #79367909

zomgkittenz@reddit

win.exe
View on Reddit #79384424

McArthurWheeler@reddit

Anyone remember working on their autoexec.bat and config.sys to get that extra few KB of memory to get some games to work?
View on Reddit #79383863

stsixtus420@reddit

3.11 was the better version :)
View on Reddit #79366178

manism582@reddit

For Workgroups!
View on Reddit #79383102

Ackymofo@reddit

Came in here to say this. Quick side story...I had a modem that I fried or broke somehow, and could communicate once online, but couldn't make the call itself. So, to get onto AOL, I had to get it to start dialing a blank number, pick up my landline and dial it myself, and then it would handshake and get on. Fond memories. +1
View on Reddit #79371181

prefinality@reddit

Nothing like starting up on a DOS prompt
View on Reddit #79383081

Nami_Pilot@reddit

The first family PC my mom bought was a Mac Performa 640 CD. It had dual boot. Could run Mac OS, or DOS boot Win 3.1
View on Reddit #79382439

CalliopePenelope@reddit

The first desktop computer we had (late 1980s) needed two 5-inch floppy disks to boot up.
View on Reddit #79366493

Illustrious-Tap8069@reddit

Yep, we had one of those.
View on Reddit #79382184

piscian19@reddit

I don't think I've ever seen 3.1 outside of a vm. I suppose we used win95 in school, though I feel like Apple IIs were more prevalent. Weirdly I think outside of OG apples in grade school word munchers and shit Win98 feels like the Os most prevalent in my teens.
View on Reddit #79364724

oskich@reddit

Didn't you have PCs in school? We had 386 computers with Win 3.1 in 1st to 6th grade. Then we got brand new "multimedia" 486/Pentiums with Win 95, CD-ROM, Soundcards and the whole shebang 😁
View on Reddit #79365830

Illustrious-Tap8069@reddit

Computer lab in school had Commodores until I was in high school.
View on Reddit #79382123

itriedicant@reddit

Lol, we had commodore 64s in elementary school, and it was the coolest thing ever
View on Reddit #79366836

oskich@reddit

C64, Amiga 500 and Atari ST were home computer for us. Except for one Atari which was used in music class. Schoolyard floppy/tape swapping was a daily occurrence in those days 😁
View on Reddit #79367862

LeftHandedGuitarist@reddit

I remember the computers being BBC Micros in primary school, and gradually getting upgraded. By the end of secondary school, every classroom had 30 PCs running Windows 95 and able to get online. (We weren't allowed online, of course, but we figured out how to do it!)
View on Reddit #79366795

leshpar@reddit

My first computer that I kept in my bedroom once my parents upgraded to a windows 95 machine ran 3.11. I used that computer for a lot up until I got a Pentium 3 machine running Windows ME in 2000. Before then it was the family PC. My dad was one of those that reluctantly got windows because "DOS works fine. Why would I need windows?" was his opinion for a good part of the late 80s. My dad taught a middle school computer class with Atari 800s for students to use. I'm one of the oldest people who can say I've always had a computer at home my entire life at 41.
View on Reddit #79382027

tomdav226@reddit

I’d had an ibm compatible for a year or two and my Aunt came to visit and brought me windows 3.1. She said I had to try it. I installed it and thought “what a piece of shit this is! Just slows everything down. I uninstalled it and went back to my homemade .bat file menu system.🤣🤣
View on Reddit #79381411

DardaniaIE@reddit

Sometimes I just typed doom
View on Reddit #79380931

dw617@reddit

Win.exe
View on Reddit #79380773

Sdog1981@reddit

CD/doom start
View on Reddit #79380462

Dildo_Shw4ggins@reddit

If you used the Packard Bell computers at Walmart solely to exit to DOS and format the hard drive…gmta.
View on Reddit #79380257

LMurch13@reddit

What about: Load "test drive", 8, 1 Run
View on Reddit #79379714

bsensikimori@reddit

Frontslash? *Laughs in C:\>*
View on Reddit #79379188

kaizencraft@reddit

cd buttpics
View on Reddit #79378824

julianpoe@reddit

“Dir /w” was a game changer for me
View on Reddit #79366863

drkidkill@reddit

Dir /p
View on Reddit #79367452

everythinghappensto@reddit

```dir /p /o:gne``` I don't recall what that did though
View on Reddit #79378679

--Citation-Needed--@reddit

dir \\ /s
View on Reddit #79368989

PurpleDraziNotGreen@reddit

Even better, my dad's OS/2 warp desktop had a button to let you use DOS and Windows
View on Reddit #79378176

SLCIII@reddit

My son was watching the VideoGameNerd Doom video and I explained to him how DOS worked and why is dinosaurs used to do in order to play video games. I don't know how it happened, and I'm not okay with it, but we all got old when we weren't paying attention. Fuck......
View on Reddit #79377738

Sharpshooter188@reddit

Back in my day...we had masters in slaves in our compooters!
View on Reddit #79377519

Ambitious-Cancel-838@reddit

I had to boot DOS to play Tie Fighter and Dark Forces
View on Reddit #79377317

Ok-Payment5950@reddit

Im still on Dos 2.0
View on Reddit #79377082

Responsible-Meal2851@reddit

I’m so old I had to ask for Windows as a Christmas gift.
View on Reddit #79376936

Muertismo@reddit

Nah. Just edited my autoexec.bat file to boot straight into my hotdog stand themed Windows.
View on Reddit #79376650

Chronic_Overthink3r@reddit

Absolutely.
View on Reddit #79376475

paloma_delmar@reddit

Do you even DOS? I still remember some of my peers in HS didn't even know what upload meant 😵‍💫
View on Reddit #79376457

NetworkImportant6888@reddit

ur telling me, getting that path right is always a pain in the ass
View on Reddit #79376335

FoppyRETURNS@reddit

![gif](giphy|J336VCs1JC42zGRhjH)
View on Reddit #79375806

5erif@reddit

I was also typing `LOAD "*",8,1` on my Commodore 64.
View on Reddit #79369080

po_ta_toes_80@reddit

My real OG here
View on Reddit #79375716

Former-Wish-8228@reddit

Before that were versions that launched with specific programs, like excel or word…
View on Reddit #79375070

tawke@reddit

loadwb endcli
View on Reddit #79375020

575_Pilot@reddit

3.11 FTW
View on Reddit #79374401

Ronthelodger@reddit

What about the folks that used the autoexec.bat?
View on Reddit #79374386

MrMeesesPieces@reddit

I had to type Cd\xtreepro for an OS
View on Reddit #79374368

Brob101@reddit

I remember editing that start screen so the Animaniacs characters were in the window.
View on Reddit #79373451

Daysaved@reddit

Using DOS as child doesn't put me in any group more than having a Commodore. Mfer i had video games on a vinyl tape cassette.
View on Reddit #79372866

Nephite11@reddit

My neighbor in the 90s was big into the computer world at the time and had a lot of components sitting around his house. I spent a lot of time there talking with him about details and learning everything that I could. I used his spare parts to build my family’s first computer. It was a Tandy box, had a 3 GB hard drive and I remember installing windows 3.1 from floppy disks. My favorite game at the time was called “Baby” and they were literally throwing babies from a burning building onto trampolines that you had to move back and forth to catch and move them to safety
View on Reddit #79372653

wmxp@reddit

edit autoexec.bat
View on Reddit #79372635

thethreadkiller@reddit

Little over a year ago I got the itch to play some old school games. Loaded up Windows 98 through PC emulator. The operating system and the sounds alone brought back just as much nostalgia as the games I played.
View on Reddit #79372574

Hyperion1144@reddit

I had to configure my batch file to open PowerMenu when I booted DOS 3.3.
View on Reddit #79372466

Hefty-Notice-5841@reddit

"Where's the start button and the wifi connect?" said the Gen Alpha child 😂 The again, this was before my time. I was the first of the years that had a start button with Windows 95, so I had that much at least.
View on Reddit #79372455

JurassicCheesestick@reddit

I may be a millennial (86) but I do remember my dad teaching me this.
View on Reddit #79372342

scuba1277@reddit

You ever tell people younger than you, “I remember when the internet started.”
View on Reddit #79372143

fromthedarqwaves@reddit

https://preview.redd.it/uaxpsuxidvlg1.jpeg?width=250&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=aa4aed3f8aa18ccc2ba5f539872e760144b8ed34 I installed 3.11 on all the computers in my “media” class. I don’t recall what we even did in there besides work on the school newspaper. Maybe yearbook used those computers too? I have no idea what 3.11 offered over 3.1 but I can assure you we didn’t use whatever it was.
View on Reddit #79371966

KudosOfTheFroond@reddit

I remember messing around on my friends Tandy 1000 and getting into QBasic to play Snakes & the gorilla/banana tossing game. We also figured out how to play Leisure Suit Larry. That game had a unique way of logging in to prevent youngsters like us from playing it, as it’s an “adult” type game. There was a book of trivia answers or something that had a red splotch design covering the answers that you needed to use this set of 3-D like paper glasses to uncover the answers. I stole a sheet of red plastic from my parents printshop to be able to read the answers so that we could log into the game. 🫡
View on Reddit #79371822

vhs1138@reddit

exe gang.
View on Reddit #79371782

BilingualClothes27@reddit

I miss when videos games required me to type C:\doom2.exe Hahaha
View on Reddit #79369418

Karrik478@reddit

C:\games\doom\doom2 Sort your directories you savage. And my .exe files didn't need a file type designation to run.
View on Reddit #79371763

BilingualClothes27@reddit

That would be an awesome tattoo has
View on Reddit #79369475

LeftSmile806@reddit (OP)

Nah just put it on a t-shirt.
View on Reddit #79369511

HighScorsese@reddit

I did on my IBM PS/2 486 that we got in 92, but I miss the cutoff date. But yeah, back then we only ran windows when we wanted to run windows software. We ended up using a DosShell to launch software most of the time and dipped into straight command prompt on the regular as you just kinda had to. Anyone else remember having to make a special boot disc to free up enough memory to run Doom and then having to restart your pc when you were done to get back to the rest of it?
View on Reddit #79371412

Runningman787@reddit

cd .. A: Doom.exe
View on Reddit #79371241

mattjopete@reddit

I had one of these growing up. Solely used it to play Solitare I stopped using it for a few years when my family got a Windows 98 machine but went back to it one day. It took me like 15 minutes to remember I had to boot up Windows separately
View on Reddit #79371238

actionerror@reddit

Like I remember how to run windows 3.1 😂
View on Reddit #79371012

AlDonovan12@reddit

I came in just after punch cards. Loved computers since I was a kid. Started programming in 1980? Was there for first PC, Mac... programmed on a VAX mainframe.
View on Reddit #79370845

ihavenoidea81@reddit

I’ve been playing minesweeper since that bitch
View on Reddit #79370720

Hairy-Maximum2994@reddit

autoexec.bat was my friend
View on Reddit #79370605

DigitalAssassin-00@reddit

Win.exe
View on Reddit #79370601

TheVenetianMask@reddit

If you were a Windows 3.1 games nerd you may wanna know r/CastleOfTheWinds is still a thing.
View on Reddit #79370448

Economy-Camp-7339@reddit

But I only ever had Apples or Macs 😢
View on Reddit #79370277

International_Hat113@reddit

The Windows 3.1 and DOS 6.2 combo is near peak nostalgia for me.
View on Reddit #79370207

DarksunDaFirst@reddit

“One of us, one of us, one of us…”
View on Reddit #79370198

jesusmansuperpowers@reddit

Ya I did it. But mostly didn’t bother with it, DOS was doing everything better at the time.
View on Reddit #79369996

Aescwicca@reddit

I was just explaining to someone today I remember having to exit windows 3.1 to run Warcraft 2 from the dos prompt. We also waxed (thankful) that we don't have to first person shooter with mechanical mice anymore.
View on Reddit #79369754

ProfessorOfLies@reddit

I did and then eventually uninstalled it. It wasn't worth the hard drive space
View on Reddit #79369637

Kinetic_Silverwolf@reddit

And when I was done, I exited Windows, waited for the dogs prompt cursor to blink, typed PARK and hit Enter, and waited for the hard drive platter to stop spinning before turning off the system.
View on Reddit #79369594

TheEndOfEverything0@reddit

![gif](giphy|3ohnEIlPb6lcuvdpKM|downsized)
View on Reddit #79369414

LordChauncyDeschamps@reddit

I started using computers in college with Windows 95 and 98 in 1998. I used a word processor for my college homework until my parents bought a computer in 1999. Before that I just used computers at school to play Oregon Trail and Where in the World is Carmen Santiago.
View on Reddit #79368969

mhoke63@reddit

My family used Apple. I rarely used Windows, although, I did do this occasionally. I'm an expert in the Mac OS 9 and before ecosystems.
View on Reddit #79367589

JamieC1610@reddit

I learned on PCs, but since I was one of like 3 kids in the school that had any computer at home (my grandpa was a techie and bought a new one every 6 months or so throughout the 90s and he would just rotate through giving the old ones to the grandkids), I ended up doing tech support on the Apple IIE classroom computers (like literally one computer per classroom). I learned Linux in grad school, but PCs/Windows are my default.
View on Reddit #79368845

ifwinterends@reddit

If you have to solve IT problems for both your parents and your kids, then you are one of us.
View on Reddit #79368808

aytchdave@reddit

I went to a small private elementary school. I think the principal/owner’s son was in college for IT. In kindergarten, I knew enough to run Reader Rabbit, Writer Rabbit, Outnumbered, and some other cool games. I really liked the game Goblins and asked Mr. George if he could give me a copy. I brought my own disk and everything. He informed me that software piracy was illegal and a responsible computer user like him could only make a backup copy in case the original were accidentally destroyed.
View on Reddit #79368722

B4SSF4C3@reddit

Norton Commander or bust
View on Reddit #79368308

znavy264@reddit

My parents had 3.11. This was the first system I ever played PC games on. It includes Doom, Doom 2 and Star Wars: Rebel Assault. I think they also had Wheel of Fortune.
View on Reddit #79368115

Massive_Biscotti_850@reddit

Or using a boot disk to get in to a game
View on Reddit #79367857

VonBrewskie@reddit

Lol. a:setup
View on Reddit #79367792

Only1Skrybe@reddit

What in the Microsoft Encarta is this guy talking about?!
View on Reddit #79367534

drkidkill@reddit

Format c:\
View on Reddit #79367514

Guilty_Eggplant_3529@reddit

Windows 3.1 was not worth the effort, just stay in DOS. It’s where all the good games run.
View on Reddit #79367404

Global-Jury8810@reddit

Once upon a time when you had to turn on a computer, it did not immediately go to the windows program. It went to the Disk Operating System prompt, which was a black screen that said “C:/“ with a cursor indicating to type commands to get the computer to run them. If you turned on the computer but didn’t want to run windows because it bogged the performance of your game (which sometimes happened), it was recommended you started with the DOS prompt.
View on Reddit #79367393

redbeard914@reddit

Honestly, 3.1 didn't last very long. 3.1.1 was significantly different and was the standard for many years.
View on Reddit #79367373

Wactout@reddit

Remember when defragmenting a hard drive took hours. And you stared at it the entire time?
View on Reddit #79367299

SierraHotel84@reddit

Hell I wished for 3.1 because it was needed to run any of the original flight simulators. We had 3.0 and every time we'd go to the store I'd look at the system requirements of any flight sim/game hoping to find something that would run on 3.0. Good times.
View on Reddit #79367294

biffNicholson@reddit

where my - dir \*.txt. People at
View on Reddit #79367272

snotparty@reddit

https://preview.redd.it/coc9va903vlg1.png?width=1536&format=png&auto=webp&s=a6bd50603960bb77ad54555f876abf31d7df969e Or alternatively
View on Reddit #79367253

justsayfaux@reddit

C;/ win -3
View on Reddit #79367195

tjeepdrv2@reddit

Also back then in DOS: "There's no sound in this game!" "Run DOOM, exit, then go back into the other game." "That fixed it!"
View on Reddit #79367092

ferropop@reddit

absolute Minesweeper legends in this sub
View on Reddit #79365638

blue_skive@reddit

👋 4 seconds on the smallest one.
View on Reddit #79366954

DapperRockerGeek@reddit

“One of us?” Now, I am have the scene from the movie “Freaks” in my head. Gooble gobble gooble gobble.”
View on Reddit #79366909

narnarb0t@reddit

My dad had a shop computer for diagnostics on cars. I remember quickly learning dos as a child, figuring out how to install games (commander keen, duke nukem og, jazz jackrabbit) ;; eventually i installed windows 3.1 using like 6 floppy disks! My dad found all the software but I quickly became the family computer guy at 10 years old :D
View on Reddit #79366892

BidSmall186@reddit

/win ?
View on Reddit #79366839

AmazingRefrigerator4@reddit

![gif](giphy|Ae7SI3LoPYj8Q) I was a kid when I first opened windows 3.1 from DOS. I had no clue what it did or why anyone wanted it. I just found it on my dad's hard drive one time when I was playing games. I probably exited and put a different floppy disk in and played a game.
View on Reddit #79366728

itriedicant@reddit

I'm a youngun in this sub (1984), so I'm reaching pretty deep into my memory here. Did this change with Windows 3.1.1? Or am I even misremembering that that was even a thing? I just don't remember actually having to type the prompt to get windows to open, but I'm willing to accept that I'm both wrong about that and wrong about 3.1.1 (3.11?)
View on Reddit #79366724

theloop82@reddit

You could also set up your AUTOEXEC.BAT file to boot into it automatically if you were slick
View on Reddit #79366682

Bruiser80@reddit

Make sure your gaming boot floppy isn't in the drive. You won't have your CDROM or HIMEM.SYS
View on Reddit #79366619

Austin-Tatious1850@reddit

![gif](giphy|Ae7SI3LoPYj8Q)
View on Reddit #79366596

lonely_nipple@reddit

I think we went straight to 3.1.1. I remember the very first PC didn't have that, and dad had to teach us how to access the floppies to play the dinky little games. I don't know why that version number has stuck in my head for so long - I couldn't otherwise tell you every windows version I've had in my life. But I know that one.
View on Reddit #79366516

Cmdr_Monzo@reddit

QUIT TO DOS!
View on Reddit #79366499

Hefty-Prize5713@reddit

My first PC was DOS 6.0 with Windows 3.1 installed…spent every day after school reading the manuals for both and finding incredible fun in doing things like tinkering with File Manager and Dr. Watson 😆
View on Reddit #79366405

Giving_Dad_Advice@reddit

Coincidently, my pentesting college course is talking about this in this week's module.
View on Reddit #79366248

-SandorClegane-@reddit

Bring back dirmagic
View on Reddit #79365823

Reasonable-Ant-1931@reddit

Yessss. My dad was a programmer so we had all the newfangled IT stuff like this. 😂
View on Reddit #79365795

Jonnyflash80@reddit

I've never used the / in front. Also I just put it in Autoexec.bat so rarely typed it anyway.
View on Reddit #79365700

heyitscory@reddit

Only if I screwed up my autoexec.bat
View on Reddit #79365077