An Old Idea Made New
When Windows 98 finally reaches its destination it will mark a significant occasion: the completion of the original “Chicago” project.
Remember Chicago In the early 1990s, it was Microsofts grand vision for an operating system, a new version of Windows. At the time, Windows 3.1 was flying high and quickly becoming the platform of choice for business and home users alike. The user interface consisted of Program Manager and File Manager. You customized and optimized Windows 3.1 by tweaking the CONFIG.SYS, AUTOEXEC.BAT, SYSTEM.INI, AND WIN.INI Files. The new Operating System anticipated by Microsoft sported nested folders and what was called a “tray”(is now called the taskbar) where running programs would reside. Shortcut icons would exist right on the Desktop-not in the ProgMan Window. Instead of system files, you would tweak a “Registry,” a single item that contained all the system and user information, and was created at every boot-up.
All that and much more, of course, shipped in Windows 95. However it wasnt the complete vision: Two of the coolest aspects of the original Chicago project fell off the priority list before the product went to market.
The first of these was that the “shell” would be a true “OLE container.” That meant
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