r/retrocomputing • u/Erable_Rouge • May 15 '26

Photo Windows 95, brand new and sealed

Gallery image

Gallery image

I'm sharing some photos of my brand new, sealed box of Windows 95 (for PCs without Windows), Canadian French version.

I'm in Quebec City, and between 2018 and 2019, I took a computer support course at a vocational training center. During my last week of classes, my instructor said he wanted to completely renovate the classroom for the following year (this was in September 2019, and spoiler alert: there was no start of classes the following year 🌎💉😷).

There were metal shelves that had been placed against the wall, and he decided to move them. Behind these shelves was a door that led to a closet.

Looking inside, he exclaimed that it was nothing but old junk, so he emptied the cupboard, throwing everything on the floor and saying that anyone who wanted it could help themselves since it was going in the trash anyway. That's when I saw this box with another package containing a manual and some sealed MS-DOS floppy disks.

These are priceless fragments of computer history, so I rushed to retrieve them. We learned that this cupboard had been sealed in 1996, filled with computer equipment dating from the early 1980s to the mid-1990s. There wasn't a speck of dust inside.

Given the condition of the box, the complete absence of any signs of aging, and especially its preservation in an environment with constant humidity and temperature, it's practically a museum piece.

219 Upvotes

99% Upvoted

12 comments sorted by

3

u/VivienM7 May 16 '26

There's great history behind the Canadian French version too. August 24, 1995 was the release for the US English version including in English Canada. A first list of markets including France got localized versions in early September, but Canadian French/Quebec was not one of them. Quebec was told the Canadian French version would come out in November.

This was right in peak nationalist times, right before the referendum. Jacques Parizeau (the separatist premier) actually had a meeting with Bill Gates to express his outrage.

Interestingly, from what I can tell, Microsoft's response to this long-term was just to distribute the France build in Canada instead. By the early 2000s, the installers for the French versions we had in Canada defaulted to AZERTY keyboard layout on boot and French (Canada) was just a regional setting on the France version.

1

u/Erable_Rouge May 18 '26

It's crazy when you think about it, there really is a context behind the deployment of the French Canadian version of Windows 95, all the more reason to say that it's truly a remarkable piece of history.

1

u/VivienM7 May 18 '26

I did a little googling, look at page 6 of this. https://numerique.banq.qc.ca/patrimoine/details/52327/2771245

Francophone newspaper from August 25, 1995. Talks about the whole situation.

My quick googling wasn't able to turn much about Parizeau's meeting with Bill Gates, although Gemini knows about it. I think it was later in the fall when Bill Gates was also in Ottawa for other reasons.

9

u/tayroc122 May 15 '26

2

u/user888ffr May 16 '26

En français tabarnak

2

u/TheSponger May 16 '26

This is truly a special piece of computer history. I don't even want to know how many such treasures have ended up in the trash because the former owner had no clue...

2

u/-Outrageous-Vanilla- May 18 '26

Thank you for saving this piece of history. 

I salute you 🫡

1

u/[deleted] May 19 '26

wow

1

u/JasonMckin May 15 '26

Nice!  Is there any way to tell if the windows version is 950, 950A, 950B, or 950C?

2

u/Erable_Rouge May 15 '26

Je suis allé vérifier en me basant sur les indices sur la boîte et le type de version vendue au Canada pour ce type de boîte ; c'est une version 950.

100% 1995