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Your favourite Windows is...

What is your favourite Windows

  • Windows 3.1

    Votes: 2 0.8%

  • Windows 95

    Votes: 7 2.7%

  • Windows 98 / 98SE

    Votes: 14 5.4%

  • Windows Millennium Edition

    Votes: 6 2.3%

  • Windows 2000 / NT

    Votes: 14 5.4%

  • Windows XP

    Votes: 65 25.2%

  • Windows Vista

    Votes: 6 2.3%

  • Windows 7

    Votes: 78 30.2%

  • Windows 8 / 8.1

    Votes: 2 0.8%

  • Windows 10

    Votes: 20 7.8%

  • Windows 11

    Votes: 30 11.6%

  • I only use Linux / MacOS / Android / Other

    Votes: 14 5.4%
  • Total voters
    258
winjer

winjer

Gold Member
Windows has been around for over 3 decades. Some good, some bad, some terrible.
So the question is which one is your favourite?
There are many reasons, such as interface, visual appeal, nostalgia, stability, performance, features, etc.
Tell us why you like that version so much.

 
7 felt cool to use. Did you know that if commodore and made some of the right choices and not fucked up they would have been another modern computer platform today?
 
XP for nostalgia

winxppro.png
 
XP
7 is in second place but is losing points because that's when they really started obfuscating stuff and having that wild inconsistency between GUI elements.
 
I've been using mac since around 2010 but before that I have fond memories of XP, because everything just worked they way I wanted. That said, nothing will beat the joy of installing windows 95 for the first time.
 
I'm extremely nostalgic for 98 (was my first Windows OS), but I definitely think its tied between XP, 7, and 10.
XP was such a massive leap from 98 (2000 was more for enterprise use so it wasn't very common and ME sucked ass), and was so intuitive for its time, plus I think it has the nicest default background (Bliss) of any Windows OS.
7 was basically just Vista but not a buggy mess, so it felt extremely refined, however I do think its one of the more overrated Windows OSes because 10 is essentially better in every way at this point. Despite rocking Windows 11 on all of my machines, I still prefer 10, it just looked great for a desktop environment and feels snappier, I also greatly prefer the boxy, square design over the rounded, MacOS look of 11. That being said, certain things about 11 do look more refined, but 11 doesn't really offer enough at the moment to make it better than 10.

It absolutely bugs the crap out of me how pointlessly bigger certain things like the taskbar and UI are in 11 compared to 10, 10 looked neat and compact which was great.
 
I'm going with the simplicity of Windows 7. I like Windows 11 but I shouldn't have to run Chris Titus' debloat script to remove Microsoft's bullshit.
 
7

Without a doubt

It was the last time Windows felt cohesive and consistent across the entire OS top to bottom. I wish they just kept the UI language and just constantly updated the kernel like they're doing with 11 when it was obvious 12 was a thing.
 
Greenshot-2024-08-15-21-06-51.png

breaking-bad-walter-white.gif


Hard to pick between XP, 7, 10, 95 and 98, i guess 10 since its the most advanced version of Windows currently.
 
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For work, Windows 2000/NT - was very stable, although ugly.
For home - 7 for the traditional windows experience. I hated 8 because settings were now all scattered around - that you have control panel, then have another setting menu etc etc. Got used to it a bit, but I still don't follow logic behind it.
 
XP had a distinct feel to it, and benefited from being there during my favorite time in PC gaming. Vista still had some of that aesthetic flair and I actually liked the color scheme a lot... shame about everything else.

Most of the others just feel soulless. Like, it works, but what's fun about Windows 10? Nothing.
 
I have a fond memory with XP. It was beautiful, colourful, vivid... But 7 will probably be the OS that surpasses time
 
Windows 98 crashed a lot.

Windows 10/11 are fine, but dont like all the new age colourful boxes ad shit.

Windows 7. It might be bland looking, but rock solid. Seemed like a big jump in stability with W7.

Never tried Windows 8, 2000, NT.
 
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Windows 98 was a good update.
XP & Win7 were the last good ones, nowadays I have to google how to do stuff as shit gets drowned in UI spaghetti.
 
Puscifer said:
7

Without a doubt

It was the last time Windows felt cohesive and consistent across the entire OS top to bottom. I wish they just kept the UI language and just constantly updated the kernel like they're doing with 11 when it was obvious 12 was a thing.
Click to expand...

Absolutely agree with this. Windows 7 felt like they took all the good parts of Win2000, XP, and Vista and finally merged them into a cohesive package.

Then they fucked it all up with Windows 8 and beyond.

I have a special place in hell for Windows 98 and 98SE but that's mainly because I was working at Gateway at the time where all their client machines were Win98 and they never played nice with Novell Netware servers Gateway insisted on using rather than Windows NT.
 
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Windows 2000 because every consumer Microsoft OS before then sucked badly and every Microsoft OS since then was bloated with too much nonsense.
 
Toughie. XP was my first build and it was decent enough that the upgrade to Vista didn't really have any issues, quite liked Vista to be fair. 7 is a fan favourite but wasn't much of an upgrade over Vista for me. 8.1 was certainly different, but was decent once you got used to it or used something like the iobit start menu app to add a proper one. 10 was buggy as hell for the first year or so but come good in the end. Currently using 11 and it's fine, no issues. Also have a smaller build running Windows 7 as it's better for older game compatibility than newer ones with decent drivers for GPU etc still.

Maybe I'll just vote Vista :messenger_grinning_sweat:
 
Windows Vista (early on) and Windows 8/8.1 (which I skipped entirely after testing via VM) are the only ones I'd say I disliked.

As for a favorite, I'd go with XP, just because it seemed like most things really hit stride around that time (the internet browsers, GPUs, media software, etc.).
 
winjer said:
Windows has been around for over 3 decades. Some good, some bad, some terrible.
So the question is which one is your favourite?
There are many reasons, such as interface, visual appeal, nostalgia, stability, performance, features, etc.
Tell us why you like that version so much.

Click to expand...

Where is Windows 2.0 and 3.0 in that list? and there should really be a multi split for Win95 : Win 95 OG, Win 95 OG + ie4 Service pack, Windows 95 OS R2, and Windows 95 OS R2 + IE4 service pack.

For most 3DFX/dos level gaming Win95 OG with IE4 service pack was the best performance for a system with the Win98/2000 Pro desktop/file manager visual feature/shortcut enhancements, but equally Win NT4 with IE4 service pack and DX5 installed via regedits was robust and performant, but less compatible for games leaning more on DirectX Input/media features.

I still miss Windows 2.0-3.1 for the ability to drop back to a real dos prompt like an Init 1 single user state of linux, but 8.0-10 have also been good with my family's use leaning more into touchscreens - Win 11 is useless without proper full screen panel mode for touch, and is very sluggish.

Shout out to XP for being the last system where the device manager felt it didn't have a background genie altering drivers without the user getting the final confirmation to make changes.

On balance I'd probably still choose too-the-metal Win95 OG + IE4 service pack.
 
1445HZy.jpeg


Fuck y'all, I'm a rebel

God this OS was so bad lol
 
Dacvak said:
1445HZy.jpeg


Fuck y'all, I'm a rebel

God this OS was so bad lol
Click to expand...

LOL. You are bad to the bone.

But in all seriousness, for me, Windows ME was the best of the 9x kernel.
Windows 98 was a nightmare of bugs and crashes. Windows 98SE was significantly better, but still very bad.
But Windows ME ran well, comparatively. Not perfect, it had some bugs and a few crashes.
Though I know that the reason most people had issues were due to drivers. Many companies did not update their drivers to support ME, so people just had to use the 98 drivers.
This would become a similar problem for some people with Vista.
 
winjer said:
LOL. You are bad to the bone.

But in all seriousness, for me, Windows ME was the best of the 9x kernel.
Windows 98 was a nightmare of bugs and crashes. Windows 98SE was significantly better, but still very bad.
But Windows ME ran well, comparatively. Not perfect, it had some bugs and a few crashes.
Though I know that the reason most people had issues were due to drivers. Many companies did not update their drivers to support ME, so people just had to use the 98 drivers.
This would become a similar problem for some people with Vista.
Click to expand...
Yeah, honestly I didn't have a ton of issues with my ME pc. I remember having some driver problems initially, but I think I also just installed the 98 drivers instead.
 
95/98 is my nostalgia one (even ME to an extent but that's bad memories), XP was stable but I hated the design, but will admit Bliss was a banger of a wallpaper. 7 is the best modern Windows.
 
I'm just waiting for the dumb MF'er who votes for Windows 8/8.1. I will do everything in my power to convince the admins to ban anyone who selects that option. And it won't take much, because I'm pretty sure EviLore EviLore doesn't want that kind of riff-raff hanging out at NeoGAF.

We are too classy for that nonsense...

fat guy GIF

EDIT: I went for Windows 10. Other than the bloat (which, while annoying, can be removed), it improved on Windows 7.
 
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