These 5 Windows 11 Features Have Been Used Since Windows 95

The Windows operating system has existed for over 40 years, and in that time, it’s obviously evolved a lot, and it looks radically different from what debuted in 1983. But not every part of Windows can be abandoned or replaced when a new version releases, and sometimes, old code can be left lingering around for years or even decades.

And even when it does change, some features are so important that they just stick around for generations and become landmarks of the software. Because of that, even in 2024, you can find pieces of Windows 95 (and earlier) in Windows 11. If you don’t believe me, let me show you.

File Explorer

File Explorer is one of the most integral parts of Windows, and it made its debut under its current name back in Windows 95. Prior to this, Microsoft had initially shipped Windows with the MS-DOS Executive, and later replaced it with File Manager in Windows 3.x, but Windows 95 introduced the basic UI we know today, with large icons for folders and items and a menu bar at the top.

Of course, since then, a ton of changes have come to File Explorer, but that concept of a file browser with large icons is still what we have today. It’s just sharper, more colorful, and there’s a lot more stuff around it. Now there’s a navigation tree on the left side and a command bar with a lot of quick options at the top. Windows 11 even added support for tabs, so things have certainly changed a lot.

You can even look beyond the UI, though. Windows 95 was the first to feature support for ZIP files through a shell extension developed by Dave Plummer. Microsoft bought that extension and integrated it into Windows, and the code for handling ZIP files has been mostly unchanged for decades — though Microsoft recently added support for other archive types, too.

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The Start menu and taskbar

Here’s another one that might be sort of surprising. The taskbar and Start menu have been part of the Windows paradigm for as long as many of us can remember, and indeed, this entire concept made its debut in Windows 95. And yes, there have been some big changes here and there, but even putting the two side by side, it’s impossible not to see the similarities between Windows 11 and Windows 95 in this regard.

Of course, the taskbar in Windows 95 didn’t support pinning apps to the taskbar initially, but that feature was added with the Quick Launch bar, and today, pinned items are just shown together with open apps. But at its core, the functionality hasn’t changed all that much. Meanwhile, the Start menu has gone through a bunch of designs, and it does look very different in Windows 11, with the ability to pin items and see recent files front and center. Back then, the Start menu kind of listed everything you might want to do on your PC through sub-menus, and in some ways, it’s much simpler now. But it is still the launchpad for almost everything you’d want to do on your PC.

Heck, even the concept of the desktop in general is still a remnant of Windows 95. The idea of pinning icons to the desktop wasn’t really a thing before Windows 95. Sure, open apps would appear at the bottom of the screen, and later versions of Windows let you move those icons around, but you could just put a folder or app on the desktop permanently. That simple, but foundational concept for modern Windows made its debut in Windows 95, and that shouldn’t be forgotten.

Drive formatting

Okay, we’ve covered the more obvious stuff, so let’s get weirder. Have you ever tried formatting a drive on your Windows PC? Maybe you’re familiar with the dialog giving you options for the file system and other drive formatting settings. But did you know that this exact dialog has been used since Windows NT 4.0? Okay, that’s not really Windows 95, but Windows NT 4.0 was the equivalent of Windows 95, but based on Windows NT, rather than MS-DOS, so it’s close enough. And most of the code is still kind of the same.

Sure, the dialog on Windows 11 looks a bit more modern, but it’s only because of changes to the Windows design language as a whole, like new title bars and higher-resolution UI elements like radio buttons. Everything else about this window is exactly the same today as it was back in Windows NT 4.0.

And the fun thing is, it wasn’t meant to be that way. Former Microsoft engineer Dave Plummer actually coded this dialog as a makeshift solution when porting the code from Windows 95 to Windows NT 4.0, fully expecting it to be replaced for the final release. 30 years later, we’re still waiting for that polished-up version.

Character Map

Have you ever wanted to insert a special character on your PC that isn’t visible on your keyboard? For example, if you’re using a US keyboard, typing my name correctly isn’t very straightforward. Windows 10 and 11 made this easier with the input panel, but back in the day, Windows had something called the Character Map, which first appeared in Windows NT 3.1, even before Windows 95.

Character Map contains a list of just about every character under the sun, accounting for different languages, alphabets, special symbols, and even different fonts. It’s a bit clunkier for quickly grabbing a character compared to the modern input panel, but it does the job.

And if the title of this article didn’t make it obvious — yes, Character Map is still available in Windows 11. It’s not even hidden or deprecated just yet, you can easily find it by searching for it in the Start menu. It does look a little different, ut it’s mostly just a different layout, with a lot of the same options still available. Will it go away anytime soon? Honestly, probably not.

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Phone dialer

Let’s wrap things up with a real doozy. Did you know Windows has had a Phone Dialer app ever since Windows 95? We’re not talking about dialers in apps like Skype or Phone Link, but an actual built-in Phone Dialer for PCs with modems built-in? Yes, it’s a thing, and it also made its debut in Windows 95.

The version we have today doesn’t look very different at all from that initial release, either. There’s a text box for typing in the number, a dial pad if you’d rather click the numbers, and a list for up to eight speed dial numbers. Again, aside from modernizations in the Windows design, barely anything has changed. However, that wasn’t always the case, as Microsoft did replace Phone Dialer with a completely redesigned version for Windows 2000 and XP, but the old-school design was reinstated with Windows Vista (Windows Server 2003 did it first, technically), and it’s been around ever since.

But how do you find the Phone Dialer in Windows 11? Well, you can’t just browse for it easily these days, but if you open up the Run dialog and enter dialeryou’ll see it, looking just like it did back in Windows 95, low-resolution icon and all. It’s fascinating that something like this is still around, especially since no modern PCs really have phone modems built-in.

There’s so much more

Truth be told, we could have picked a lot more components here, as Windows 95 was the origin of a ton of things we know in Windows today. Some of them have changed dramatically, while others are almost identical to the way they were back in the day. A good example would be WordPad, though that app is actually being phased out by Microsoft, so soon enough, it won’t really count. Many Control Panel dialogs are also still the exact same.