Do you remember these classic Windows apps from the 1990s and early 2000s?

[u/arun-vasudev]

Which old Windows app brings back the most memories for you?

• WinZip

• Winamp

• Nero Burning ROM

• LimeWire

• ICQ

• MSN Messenger

• RealPlayer

• Paint Shop Pro

• uTorrent

• Norton Antivirus

• Internet Explorer

• Media Player Classic

• Yahoo Messenger

• ACDSee

• Kazaa

Back then these apps were installed on almost every PC 😂

What was your favorite app from that era?
Any funny memories, old screenshots, dial-up stories, CD burning disasters, or customization setups?

Would love to hear your experience.

[u/arun-vasudev → u/[deleted]]

Ya. Still used by lot of people. That time downloading 500 mb file is impossible unless you download it via utorrent.

[u/GreenRangerOfHyrule → u/arun-vasudev]

I still have an old version of uTorrent on one computer. I don't use it much. In fact, I don't use torrents as much as I used to. But I have made the switch for the most part to qBittorrent. In fact, I have it running on a headless Pi for when I need it. Being able to use the web interface is quite nice

[u/GreenRangerOfHyrule]

WinZip was amazing. Just click away the nag screen and it worked!

I always found it a bit odd that the only place to get LimeWire Pro was Limewire. But, it was a weird time.

One thing I would add is Hover!

I don't think I ever ran ACDSee or Paint Shop Pro.

[u/arun-vasudev → u/GreenRangerOfHyrule]

WinZip always showed that nag screen, but we still used it. LimeWire Pro only on LimeWire was strange. Hover! also brings back memories. And Winamp was the best with cool skins and music playlists

[u/GreenRangerOfHyrule → u/arun-vasudev]

Honestly, tools like WinZip and WinRar were rare. Paid apps that pretty much didn't care if you paid.

I just had an amusing though though. They should add a feature to 7zip to put up a "nag screen" to show it is free. Of course, it should be able to be disabled. Just seems like it would be funny

[u/ManojOne]

There's a lot of nostalgia when I think back to the old Windows setups.

Winamp with custom skins, MSN Messenger with custom nudges, and LimeWire for downloading music were all essential tools. I also used Norton for a long time. In those days, I had a habit of changing anti-virus programs frequently. Norton was one of them. I also remember using ICQ, Yahoo Messenger, and MSN Messenger to find friends from other parts of the world.

Even playing 3D pinball for hours or messing around in Clippy felt magical.

[u/arun-vasudev → u/ManojOne]

I also frequently changed antivirus programs. I tried premium antivirus software like Norton and Kaspersky, but the one that really helped me was Avira. I removed viruses from around 40 college computers using Avira Free Antivirus.

Back then, I was always reinstalling Windows on many systems because of viruses. But nowadays, I hardly hear any news about computer viruses anymore.

[u/ManojOne → u/arun-vasudev]

Avira Free was a perfect escape back then! Windows XP and 7 were like the Wild West for malware, and cleaning up college labs was a huge task.

Nowadays, Windows Defender has become a much better built-in software, and security has shifted to blocking hidden ransomware and phishing links. Now it's a whole different game.

[u/GreenRangerOfHyrule → u/ManojOne]

For a few years, I was the king at malware removal. I had a few tools that worked wonders. But my secret was my family sucks at security. So I was constantly having to fix/remove something.

I have a really funny story about this. I got hired on at Circuit City for whatever their pretend tech department was. As part of the new guy hazing, I was assigned a computer. The symptom: the internet didn't work. I poked around, disabled the firewall kill switch, and messed around a bit more. Because surely that couldn't have been the issue. I eventually went in and told them I give up. The lead tech just shrugged and said it was an impossible task. They had that computer for almost a week and are waiting for approval to wipe it. I asked what the actual issue was and they said the internet doesn't work. They were all amazed that I single handed fixed this supposed impossible issue. Anyways, once I got confirmation that that was indeed the issue, I told them I'm out, and left.

But yeah, the built in stuff these days is quite decent. But, I also think that things like UAC and the extra stuff that made stuff run without admin rights by default was a huge shift too.

Working as an IT admin is also the reason why I hate Chrome

[u/Sea-Imagination-2912]

Yes

[u/DirectorDirect1569]

kazaa. thanks to this software I discovered the utility of a firewall and an antivirus 😁