Microsoft “Test” Software 1993 Promotional for Windows

Posted by DrRockBoognish@reddit | vintagecomputing | View on Reddit | 34 comments

I came across this box at a garage sale. I haven’t found a copy similar to this on-line. It’s in incredibly good shape with unopened packaging for the discs. The person I purchased it from was a relative of a computer engineer. He had multiple book cases of vintage software. Was this for in-house production, or was it for market consumption? The tag shows “Promo and Team:N3.

[-]

PorcupineShoelace@reddit

Yep, we used it. Not just at MS but in the test labs at several companies. My career was Software Testing. I was on the Redmond campus 20yrs ago.

It was mostly record/playback/logging.

MS Test > Visual Test. Also Mercury Winrunner > Quick Test Pro (QTP)...IBMs Rational Robot...Segue SilkTest, etc.

Those were the days when armies of testers were thought to be replaceable by automation. Just like AI is doing.

Ultimately it was an expensive boondoggle that required armies of test code developers AND test framework TESTERS! sigh. Humans will work twice as hard to work 25% less hard.

[-]

Ornery-Practice9772@reddit

what did this programme do?

[-]

voxadam@reddit

Test, obviously.

^/s

[-]

MechanicalTurkish@reddit

They use it to run Aperture Science testing facilities.

[-]

Ornery-Practice9772@reddit

test what?

[-]

voxadam@reddit

Microsoft Test is a development tool that automates application regression testing. With it you write scripts that simulate user typing and clicking, and validate the resulting output.

[-]

KingLim1@reddit

Wow! Talk about a trip down memory lane…

I used this at my new job for my first customer engagement in 1995. My boss gave me the manual on Friday and told me to meet the customer on Monday! I was already conversant with VB, so it was just understanding how the extensions work.

It uses a variant of Visual Basic for scripts, with pretty cool extensions. It can tell you which UI element the mouse or current focus is over and allow the test script to ”click” a button or input text data.

The project I worked on needed to migrate data (CSV file) into a Windows app which has no import capability. Wrote a simple script to read each line in the CSV file and simulate a user performing data entry into the app.

Thanks for the nostalgia!

[-]

SamirD@reddit

Sounds like it could still be usable today for data migration. :)

[-]

KingLim1@reddit

Haha, yes. I think most of its features are now baked into the Visual Studio.

[-]

SamirD@reddit

Nice.

[-]

Ornery-Practice9772@reddit

interesting

[-]

dualboot@reddit

It looks like it was likely sold to an employee in the employee store on campus at Microsoft.

It looks like they cut the employee number tag from the front of the box.

[-]

CaptainJeff@reddit

Ah! This was a commercial product, that later became Visual Test.

It's a software development testing automation tool, that Microsoft developed and then sold to Rational to become part of their development tooling suite.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Visual_Test

[-]

jerynowa@reddit

test once repeat as necessary good advice even today

[-]

Suturb-Seyekcub@reddit

I have never heard of this software. Wow!

[-]

couchmaster518@reddit

It was a great resource for automation, not just for testing.

[-]

Nate_bs@reddit

https://winworldpc.com/product/microsoft-test/20 It was probably not meant for home use.

[-]

flama12333@reddit

the 3.5 inch disk are not dumped. only the 5.25 inch

[-]

InsaneGuyReggie@reddit

WinImage will fix that.

[-]

flama12333@reddit

Unless the disk content is the same. One question: Are you new to preservation?

[-]

tpimh@reddit

Yes, the files are probably the same, so the installations from 5.25" and 3.5" would be identical. Still the images would be different, and it's best to preserve both.

[-]

NotAMotivRep@reddit

So you want identical content that resolves to two different hashes. Got it.

[-]

flama12333@reddit

do you known about preservation such dumping eeprom, disk etc?.

and difference if is the same or not by checking checksum?

[-]