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Why did Windows 95 setup use three operating systems?

(devblogs.microsoft.com)
304 points mooreds | 3 comments | 17 Nov 24 19:54 UTC | HN request time: 0s | source
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reddalo ◴[17 Nov 24 21:02 UTC] No.42167210[source]▶
Don't modern versions of Windows do the same? For example, I clearly remember that the Windows 10 installer first launches a Windows 7-like environment.
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chungy ◴[18 Nov 24 03:35 UTC] No.42169513[source]▶
All versions of Windows NT setup run in the same kernel that the installed OS is in. Pre-Vista versions would stick to a basic text buffer that was a lowest common denominator.

Windows Vista and newer launch a more substantial version of the OS with the graphics system and Win32 services running, but they never intermix versions. Windows 10's DVD loads Windows 10 to run the installer. That they haven't updated the pre-baked Aero graphics since Vista is a laziness problem, not indicative of being "actually Vista/7" :)

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1. 71bw ◴[18 Nov 24 11:59 UTC] No.42171660[source]▶
>Windows Vista and newer launch a more substantial version of the OS with the graphics system and Win32 services running, but they never intermix versions.

And yet, you can use the Windows 11 installer to install Windows 7 and have it be significantly faster because of that.

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2. WorldMaker ◴[18 Nov 24 16:19 UTC] No.42173866[source]▶
That's as much just the mid-Windows 10 era shift from the Windows installer installing Windows "one file copy at time" to shipping virtual hard disk images and installing the whole thing like (but not exactly as) a container overlay.
3. chungy ◴[18 Nov 24 17:13 UTC] No.42174496[source]▶
Windows Vista introduced a wim-based method of installing where it effectively unpacks a whole prebaked installation image onto the hard disk. It is the X:\Sources\install.wim file on the install DVD.

I'm not surprised that you can mix up versions by modifying your installation image, since the installation method hasn't changed since Vista. As Microsoft ships them, however, you boot Windows 11 to install Windows 11. :)