Why did Windows 95 setup use three operating systems?

Most interesting part of the whole thing for me! The later WinPE environments are some of the most overlooked computer environments out there but they were absolutely everywhere. EPOS, ATMs, digital signage, vending machines.

And of course the subject of so many BSOD photos…

None of that stuff was pre-NT, though. Windows 2.1 was not something you'd want to deploy on an ATM.

>The later WinPE environments are some of the most overlooked computer environments out there but they were absolutely everywhere. EPOS, ATMs, digital signage, vending machines.

Those are probably CE and not PE?

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

or Embed based on CE

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_IoT#Embedded_family

Unrelated to WinCE, WinPE is the version of the NT kernel that the Windows setup DVD or netboot installer uses, since Vista and higher.

You could probably build a really nice UI atop of it if one were so inclined. To prevent people from doing this as a way to bypass Windows licensing, there is a timer that will cause WinPE to periodically reboot itself if you leave it running.

If there was a BSoD involved, it was probably one of the NT-based Windows Embedded versions (NT 4.0 Embedded, XP Embedded, …).

WinPE is the Windows Preinstallation Environment, used as the basis for Windows installation and recovery, and available for custom builds as an add-on to the Windows ADK[1], but AFAIK not intended or licensed for embedded use.

[1] https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-hardware/manufactu...

There is also IoT windows and miniNT used for older NT installs bootstrap

Nope. Windows CE was more in the old school “smartphone” (pre iPhone) and PDA, marketed along with a baseline hardware profile and called Pocket PC. Also used in a number of industrial PDAs (think postal service and warehouse scanners), set top boxes. And then various and sundry embedded devices, but usually these tended to be smaller, often battery form factor and/or headless. While x86 a target more often than not, ARM or MIPS. Windows CE was early on pushed for video games on the Sega Dreamcast and a short lived smart car OS called Auto PC. Signage, ATMs (if they weren’t OS/2), and test equipment more often ran bonafide Windows NT on commodity x86.

Triton ATMs very prominently ran Windows CE and then Windows Embedded Compact, the RTOS one that was also under Windows Mobile, not “full” Windows NT.

Actually yes, what I more specifically meant was WinXP Embedded and family.

Of course, it was a related thought

Exactly. Windows PE is used for install and recovery. NOT to run ATMs.

It was probably embedded standard based on NT/XP/7

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_IoT#Embedded_Standard

Yes. No way WinPE was used to run ATMs is what I am saying :)

It was probably embedded standard based on NT/XP/7

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_IoT#Embedded_Standard

It was probably embedded standard based on NT/XP/7

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_IoT#Embedded_Standard

FWIW lots of ATM happily ran OS/2 1.x.