Apply here to win a Microsoft Ugly Sweater. It's uglier than ever

It's that time of year again when Microsoft dispatches its latest Ugly Sweater to The Register, and we spoil a lucky reader that makes us smile by sending you the garment in time for Christmas. Compared to previous incarnations, 2025's jerseys are a slightly more sober affair. There are three. The Artifact Sweater features a …

[Korev]

I'm actually afraid to comment in case I win

[msknight]

Me too. I'd actually pay someone NOT to send me this sweater!

[segfault188]

pay someone

> I'd actually pay someone NOT to send me this sweater!

Just provide your bank account details, and I promise to only take what I regard as fair recompense for not sending you this sweater. Merry Xmas (without the xmas sweater).

[kcmjr]

Don't forget, there is always some collector somewhere that wil pay big bucks for this. "Never look a gift horse in the mouth" as they say...

[Korev]

Do you have to set a jumper on the motherboard to win?

[b0llchit]

You need to drain the battery, smash the screen, remove the RAM and put all remains in the shredder to prevent any wins from being recorded on the (wrong) address.

^{_{and you may need to drop a stitch, or two,... three}}

[Tom Chiverton 1]

Pop

[Aladdin Sane]

Start it up

M$'s peak moment was a bunch of nerds dancing on stage. The last time any of it was actually endearing.

[Laura Kerr]

Re: Start it up

That was good, but IMHO this has a bigger cheese factor: https://www.theregister.com/2009/11/18/ms_boogie/

[Korev]

Re: Start it up

Always nice to read an article from the much-missed Mr Haines

[Stumpy]

Re: Start it up

Bloody hell. That actually hurts to watch now that I'm old and crumbling myself...

[Admiral Grace Hopper]

Dave Cutler's last scion

Windows NT 3.51 was the last serious OS that Microsoft produced before the GDI was moved into the kernel. Everything since has had an element of comedy about it, whether intentional or not.

[ChefBytes]

Re: Dave Cutler's last scion

Gotta love NT 4 and their plug and pray!

[Paul Herber]

Size XL. I presume that's American XL. XXXXXL for anyone else.

[CountCadaver]

I would say more ♾️+1L for the rest of the world, bar Asia where judging by vinted it would be ♾️♾️L

(Anyone know how to do superscript/ to the power of on an android keyboard?)

[Antron Argaiv]

A bit too large for me (I'm on the borderline btw M and L, which is annoying) but I have friends who can wear it (but will they?)

[Dippywood]

Peak MS...

October 27th 1955...

(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Gates)

[fnusnu]

I'll be warm under my coat

[mitch 2]

A coat of three arms?

[stewrogers]

Peak Microsoft is the short-lived Windows phone. They already had a decent product in Windows mobile, but then an arrogant lack of innovation caused it to fall behind when, first Blackberry, then Apple and Google raced right past them, so they bought Nokia and produced the actually fantastic Windows Phone, brilliant devices - then even had a funeral for iphone. Got next to Zero traction because they were so late to the game and ultimately wrote off the whole division....

[Gene Cash]

I miss Windows mobile too, if for no other reason than to keep Android and Apple honest. There needs to be an actual third vendor in the cellphone space.

Hell, I'd even welcome Blackberry back, if they were willing to step up and make an actual go of it - and I hated them waybackwhen.

[GlenP]

I liked Windows Mobile, and for a while it was the best option for business use, then Microsoft lost interest or dropped the ball and even their own apps weren't getting updated.

Work wise we were heavily Blackberry with a few Nokia dumb phones around, mainly due to the benefits of BES reducing data volumes, once that all changed and iPhones became common I was pressured into changing and couldn't really argue!

[Ol'Peculier]

I'm going to say Windows 2000 Server. I had a local installation running dev versions of my websites far longer than I should have done.

Things have gone downhill ever since...

[Gene Cash]

Send it to OutsideXbox/OutsideXtra

Jane would rock that sweater.

[TramVanCollision]

Cardigans always remind me of whales..

[Wally Dug]

Cardigan always reminds me of Wales.

[lglethal]

Yes, I can actually imagine the Prince of Wales rocking this "Artifact" Sweater.

It seems to be "the look" that the Royal family are going for these days, to show they really are just "one of the people"...

[ParlezVousFranglais]

1996 - Exchange 4 and the associated version of Outlook - IMHO the only reason that Windows is still around as the dominant business desktop. By managing eventually to all but wipe out Notes and Groupwise, that locked most of the business world into MS Office and thereby into Windows. (Exchange 4.0 was a sod for exploding without warning, and often a complete bitch to restore properly, but that's the fun of being in IT...)

Interestingly MS don't seem to understand that by slowly shifting the code behind Outlook from native Windows to web-based, that could eventually break the need for most enterprises to standardise on Windows

The real "year of Linux on the desktop" might not now be too far away... (much like Nuclear Fusion ツ)

[Roland6]

> 1996 - Exchange 4 and the associated version of Outlook

After all the multi year hype about Microsoft’s Enterprise Messaging System, the actual release was a bit of a let down.

Same applied to Windows Embedded, loads of vapourware and the. They released Wince which similarly didn’t match the hype.

[Korev]

A pint for the FREE WEAR byline

[Anonymous Coward]

The mention of Zune gave me flashbacks to pundits predicting it WAS the new iPod KILLER.

Thankfully this comment isn't funny so I won't be receiving the woolly awfulness.

[breakfast]

Bing it on!

Hard to think of a more Peak Microsoft phrase than "I'll Bing it on my Zune!"

[goblinski]

I was thinking - swimming with sharks, but - like for most things in life - Malcolm has it fully covered.

[Steve Powell 1]

Flushing $7.6bn down the drain buying Nokia and then telling them how to do phones using a crappy photocopy of Apples homework. Writing the whole thing off within 2 years.

Mind you the competition is pretty hot. The $26bn they spaffed on the uber-spam/bullshit engine that is LinkedIn has to be the biggest lump of money ever spent on making yourself even less popular than you already were.

This is a pattern they seem to be repeating with Blizzard so we may not have seen peak MS yet, especially if the AI bubble bursts, maybe OpenAI will turn out to be peak MS.

[Dwarf]

I'd prefer a coat

I'd prefer a coat to a sweater, that way, I have something to protect me from the clouds.

Now, If only we could find something to protect against the AI.

Looking at the sweater, it shows how many things, that they thought were important are now completely irrelevant to us.

[HappyDog]

Xbox 360

Xbox 360

[LBJsPNS]

"It's almost like someone asked Copilot to spray a sweater with iconography, though if that were true, the result would probably also lack a head hole and sport three arms."

So give it to someone in the Army...

[Edwin]

Who cares?

I'm just here for the swag ;)

(on a more serious note - I'm around windows 8 - when they made their first big forays into SaaS (Dynamics and so on)

[Roland6]

“ When do you reckon we hit peak Microsoft, and why?”

‘Do’ seems to imply future not past.

Which suggests when will MS surpass themselves: I suspect it will be with the update to Windows 12, which will be Copilot (aka AI0 assisted. Were we can expect “Clippy” wanting to be helpful, will in “preparing your system for upgrade” delete the hard disk in readiness before downloading the new install file…

[Jason Bloomberg]

Fields of green, skies of blue

The Windows XP backrop will always symbolise 'peak Microsoft' for me. Even if it wasn't.

At the other end of the rack we have Windows 8 Metro start screen. Shudders and nightmares guaranteed.

[Korev]

Re: Fields of green, skies of blue

It was so unintuitive I had to google how to turn the PC off

[wsm]

It looks like you are trying to win a contest...

Would you like some help with that?

Noooooooooooo!

[My other car WAS an IAV Stryker]

I want this for "ugly Christmas sweater" contests (icon)

Peak MS to me was when we had to start caring about Microsoft at all -- mid-to-late 1980s DOS days: To go with our PC clone, Dad got a real IBM PC DOS set from work (manuals in custom-sized binders with 5-1/4 inch "'diskette" pockets, all in a cardboard case, all beige/pale pink) -- I believe it was 2.1. But my older brother quickly found out he couldn't play the latest sneakernet games without an upgrade, and it had to be "genuine" MS-DOS (we mostly used 3.3, maybe also tried 4.something).

That was peak: Microsoft or bust. Computers at school that weren't Apple had DOS, mostly to use WordPerfect, even into high school (mid-90s). I could even fit my own DOS files on a 3-1/2 inch disk and reboot into my own ANSI.sys boot screen / menu and play some games [1].

Windows (3.1) was just a (slow) add-on until it started taking over everything, especially with Win95 [2]. It's all been downhill since.

Bootnotes:

1) Mostly runtimes from QBasic like Nibbles and Gorilla, back when the chips were slow enough.

2) And when Win95 hit, the whole school switched at once and forced us into MS Office from there on (save for Pagemaker for the student newspaper plus the proprietary yearbook layout program).

[wolfetone]

Micro$oft peaked when they released Clippy.

And I would quite like the jumper, and I promise to wear it the day my wife goes in to labour for our second child which is due 23rd December. I can provide photographic proof. Given how it's been during the scans, there is every chance it'll just turn up at the most in opportune time - when I'm sat down for Christmas Dinner lunch wearing that jumper.

Make my kid's christmas great! For the first time anyway.

[Wolfclaw]

I want it as I have no life or style and had Bill Gates poster on my bedroom wall and this will go with my Novell Netware bed T-Shirt that has as many holes it did.

[davemcwish]

Windows 95 Surely?

For me it has to be a launch event where you had Gates, Balmer et al. on stage trying to be cool dancing to the Rolling Stones prior to sheeples lining up to buy the new OS shiny at midnight.

[MyffyW]

2001: Peak MS = Slough of Balmer?

I think Balmer referring to Linux as "Cancer" has to be the point when MS realised how dangerous Linux was to their server OS business.

I mean, seriously Steve, at least SNAP! got a useful rhyme out of using the "C" word.

He might have lacked Charisma, Uniqueness, Nerve and Talent. But Balmer sure knew how to look like one.

[Ravester]

Peak Microsoft twas when Gandalfs hair was still brown and his beard was mere stuble :)

[Wally Dug]

Subjective

Of course, the "peak" for Microsoft will always be subjective. Some people may say it's Windows 7, some Windows XP SP3 and others Windows 98 SE SP2.

Then there's Office. For me, I feel that Word 6 and Excel 4 offered everything that I have ever needed in a word processor and spreadsheet application, and there is no need for all the added-on bloat in subsequent versions.

So, how about this? A stripped down version of each with the basic functions only for normal users, sold at a reduced price. Let's call them Word and Excel. Then, additional "extra large" versions with all the added bells and whistles that they currently have for the premium users, with an "extra large" price tag, too.

Let's call them Word XL and Excel XL.

[GlenP]

Re: Subjective

They had a stripped down all-in-one package, Microsoft Works (and if that isn't an oxymoron I don't know what is! :) ). I first encountered it in probably the early 90s when it came free with a new PC and it wasn't too bad for the basics. Having looked I'm slightly surprised it lasted until 2009.

[TheNix]

Stolen

Steve Ballmer telling the world that "The most common format of music on an iPod is 'stolen'" (https://www.theregister.com/2004/10/04/ballmer_ipod_thieves/).

Pure Microsoft: insult your (potential) customers ("You guys are thieves!"), and demonstrate a willful ignorance of the underlying technology ('stolen' is a format?!).

The nadir of Ballmerism in a highly competitive field.

[AlnotAI]

It has to be Microsoft's 25th anniversary event in September 2000 with Steve Balmer doing his Monkey Boy Dance, running on stage yelling "I LOVE THIS COMPANY!!!" (not to be confused with his sweaty "DEVELOPERS DEVELOPERS DEVELOPERS"! dance a few months before in July, which was almost peak but not quite)

[Fifget Bast]

Best years were in the past

April 1,1975. Microsoft was founded by BG & PA April 4, 1975.

Or June 24, 1981. Microsoft was incorparated June 25, 1981

[Erik Zeek]

Gimme that Microshaft sweater. I need something to wear to my LUG.

[Antron Argaiv]

We need an annual Linux holiday sweater

[ChefBytes]

Ah, the good old Christmas jumper. I'd be more than interested in one of these hideously unfashionable garments if only to be worn to our Christmas Party. Like the good old Windows ME I expect to be crashing within the first couple of hours, so to have something to wear that will advertise this would be superb!

[Not a chatbot]

Peak Microsoft was undoubtedly MS-DOS in 1981. Which makes it as old as I am, and I just can't fault it.

[MyffyW]

MS-DOS - Version 6.x

Controversial, I am sure, but hear me out:

This was the pinnacle of MS-DOS.

Yes, future versions came out tied to the 9x products, but with built in utilities covering automation of memory management (MemMaker), disk compression (DblSpace, sorry DrvSpace), PC-to-PC file transfer (Interlnk) and an anti-virus engine (it was a nice idea), this felt like a fully evolved product. Albeit a technology cul-de-sac for 386 and above PCs.

Run Windows for Workgroups 3.11 on top of that and it was about as good as you could get in 1993.

Windows NT was definitely a better operating system. But everything that came after MS-DOS 6.x took away the personal aspect of personal computer and put the long arm of corporate policy on top of your desktop.

[Lab-rat]

Perfect to win office wrong sweater contest

This one would definitely make me win the office wrong Xmas sweater competition during the Xmas drinks session.

So 2 wins in 1 time bad sweater and too drunk to even remember having worn it ;)

[mainstream_medium]

Need this for my Canonical corporate Ugly Sweater contest

[Jiikoo]

My girlfriend is always stealing my sweaters...

But if I take one of her dresses, suddenly "we need to talk"

[Korev]

That sounds like something you need to address

[Walruzoar]

Win10

I have worked with MS OSes since DOS 6.2.

My faves were 95, 98, NT4, 2000, XP, 7, & 10.

Out of these 10 is the greatest. Stable & sleek enough to run nicely on most modern hardware.

11 is a travesty, Lord save us from what comes next...

Merry Christmas! Blessings, Walruzoar

[Kevil]

Crap Jumper!

Who doesnt love a horrible jumper to wear at christmas!?

[devin3782]

A jumper with all of Microsoft's greatest hits, extensions and extinctions sure I'll take it off your hands for the good humanity

[gryphon]

Windows for Workgroups

Mainly for 'easy' printer and file sharing and then having to back up only one machine without the expense of a proper Netware server.

[willetzky]

I am just surprised it doesn't come with a copilot prompt box

[devin3782]

Sure I'll take it who wouldn't want a ugly jumper with microsofts greatest aquisitions, extensions and extinctions for the good of humanity

[ZAPTHATASTYTANK]

Peak Microsoft was windows 7. Since then Microsoft has gotten more bloated and just a worse off experience over all. Maybe Linux is the next OS I install instead of Win 11

[GBE]

Microsoft C compiler 4.0 for DOS and wired optical mouse.

IMO, Microsoft peaked with version 4.0 of the their DOS C compiler/debugger back in 1986. That was a fine product, with good documentation. The OS it ran on was crap.

The first couple generations of wired optical mice (with wheels) from the mid 90's were also fine products.

Pretty much everything else from MS has been varying levels of awful with an overall downward trend over the decades.

[Sir Sham Cad]

Microsoft Vs Internet

Users: We want to text chat over the Interwebs, how can we do it?

mIRC: Choose me!

pIRCh: or use me!

ircii: Terminal based? choose me!

Microsoft: What can we do to get into this market? I know! let's create Comic Sans!

[AlgernonFlowers4]

When Disaster Struck and Clippy Answered!

It’s wild to think about, but Microsoft hit its peak with a talking paperclip.

The kids are trapped in a cave, panic everywhere — and suddenly Clippy appears:

“It looks like you’re trying to save your offspring.

Would you like me to create a step-by-step rescue plan?”

[CountCadaver]

MSN messenger is where I'll go - got me in contact and kept me in contact with a lot of people, when it died my connection to a lot of others went also.

Software- Word 6.0/97

Operating system - Windows 2000 professional, absolutely rock solid. 7 had more shiny bits but it never quite felt quite as bombproof as 2k professional which barring a hardware failure would probably be found running by aliens surveying the wreck of the planet in a several millennia

[Eambo]

I definitely think either around XP SP2 or most likely, towards the end of Windows 7's life was peak Microsoft.

When the OS actually felt snappy, searching for local files actually found local files, and I could find the settings and options I needed, where I needed them.

Windows 10 started off with good promise but it, and 11, just went so far the wrong path they pushed me to get a Mac as my primary machine after 25 years of Windows loyalty (and Admin!)

I pine for those Windows 7 days :)

[linad181]

Does this peak count?

https://xkcd.com/323/

[AI_78]

I used MS-DOS well into the late-90's as my daily driver. A friend had Windows 3.11 and after the initial wow factor wore off it just felt clunky.

[Dr. G. Freeman]

I don't think we've reached peak Microsoft yet.

Peak would mean a maximum - it still has a little way to go to be totally annoying, unusable, and be a complete waste of space.

Windows 11 and co-pilot are just a camp on the slope, we're not at the summit yet, to put a four boxed flag on it.

[Rory B Bellows]

Bill Gates Jumping over a chair

Don't send me the sweater

[TheGriz]

Windows 7 Hands Down

Microsoft clearly reached it's zenith with Windows 7. They still showed they could LEARN from their own mistakes with the unmitigated disaster that was Windows Vista, and went back to the drawing board and released Windows 7, which was the darling of their OS's. Now they have their own heads so far up their own arses, with A.I. <cough>, they can't see where they came from, much less where they are GOING. Suffice to say, the Microsoft of TODAY is a wretched wraith of what it once was. I want the ICON sweater if I win. :D

[slimshady76]

Being a lifelong Linux guy makes this a trophy only comparable to Linus' socks!

[Fruit and Nutcase]

If you meant used, unwashed...

In absence of a hazardous waste icon ->

[jonesp]

Peak Microsoft was the Bill Gates cleaning Windows screen saver

You asked for something that would make you smile.

I would say that peak Microsoft was when Bill Gates appeared as an endearing smiling character who pushed his spectacles up his nose and helpfully cleaned the inside of your Windows 3.11 PC screen in a screen saver. That was when Bill Gates was a bit of an office hero who made IBM PCs and compatibles easier to use and more fun with the new Windows, Icons, Mouse and Pointers (WIMP) graphical user interface. Here it is:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dFa37e8d9OQ

[Framerateuk]

I've got very fond memories of the late 90's, pre Xbox era games that Microsoft published.

Motocross Madness, Midtown Madness and my favourite, Outwars. It's a seriously cinematic game and doesn't really get the credit it deserves. It has a great atmosphere, the jetpacks were brilliant and the fighting felt frantic.

[Nyle]

#winning isn't #winning........

[robert lindsay]

Peak MS was the glorius mess of windows 1.0

[Dinanziame]

Peak Microsoft was one month ago

when the stock reached its highest ever valuation. You may not agree, but it's all that matters.

[STOP_FORTH]

Not a peak, more of a hillock

Windows Task Manager on XP SP2.

[Fruit and Nutcase]

The Platform...

Let the man himself reveal all...

https://youtu.be/vKMnd-tc2vg

icon: sweater

As we near the northern winter solstice, need to layer up. If I win the sweater, I'll proudly[warmly] wear it under a plain hoodie.

[TheJbird]

Peak was possibly Windows XP.

At the time it was a massive change to windows. After that, newer OSs are just rehashes of XP.

If MS was still supporting XP with updates, many users would still be using it.

[ClippyLover]

Snow on Clippy’s tip,

tiny bow of holiday cheer

guidance wrapped in joy.

[Tejodo]

I am absolutely...

...wearing that to the office party (when I win it, which definitely going to happen. (I'm manifesting here (and, also nesting)))

[Throg]

That’s can’t be a Microsoft jumper, it’s not covered in patches.

[tralfaz]

Fitting

An item of clothing as ugly as the OS it celebrates

[ShaunR3]

XP 64

XP 64 bit with SP3 was the perfect OS that they chose to eliminate.

It just worked much better than enaything that followed, although Windows 7 got close it never beat it

[Roland6]

Re: XP 64

The last edition I got for my dual Xeon workstation was XP 64 Pro SP2b.

For my 32 bit laptop there was XP Pro SP3.

I wasn’t aware of any SPs for Windows XP 64-Bit Edition aka Windows XP for Itanium [Edition].

[RvS513]

July 11, 2011

Peak Microsoft: July 11, 2011.

The first release of PoweBI Desktop.

A free(!) tool to visualize data and connect to almost anything and create data models.

Even the graphs look decent (they explicitly did not want anyone from the Excel team to join).

Subscriptions, cloud and AI have been added now obviously, but the free version is still available and very useful.

[gixo]

Vista

Peak was Vista. It was a brave OS that dared to ask the question: 'Do you really need to use your printer, or would you prefer a nice transparent window border instead?'

[Sambalar]

An age of learning

Biggest thing I've learned from Microsoft, the icons you use, and only ever the icons you use will get moved around and hidden in a maze of menu's in their next release..... everything else, carry of as you were!

I recall being around 15 and getting my first 'desktop computer'. Came with Windows 3.1 (I think) and and upgrade to windows 95. Boy oh boy did i cry my eyes out after the upgrade. Could i find anything, no, could i work out how to find things by looking things up on the internet, No. We didn't have internet. All i had was a leaflet about how exciting Windows 95 would be. I'm not sure I'd have used the words 'exciting', for a 15 year old me, it was a traumatic introduction to the world of Microsoft's 'lets mess about with this' roadmap.

I took a career path into the Computing space, my favorite OS, Windows 2000. Why? It had the right balance of a home configurable system but also if you wanted to get under the hood a bit and tweak, you could, without the latter being magically hidden in a dark corner or causing normal home users to be overwhelmed and getting concerned that anything they touch would somehow cause the computer (and the world) to explode.

[ophintor]

Obvious answer

Without a doubt, it has to be the Windows 95 launch video, with Bill Gates awkwardly dancing and Steve Ballmer up to his face of... enthusiasm. It was the best thing Microsoft as ever given us.

[JBriggs.DEV]

Windows Vista SP2

Vista get's a lot of flack, but when the OS came out it brought along with it features which would transfer over to future operating systems to come. When SP2 came out, a lot of the bugs were ironed out. This definitive version of Windows Vista also fixed the problems introduced with the OS's first ever release. Vista in it's initial release gave us proper user permissions and other UAC features, DirectX 10 and Aero, Desktop Window Manager, and the smallest most important feature being the addition of a search on the start menu. Sure Windows 7 took all of these features and created an operating system which was so good that it held a good market share of users for over a decade, but without the work put into Vista, 7 and other future OS's wouldn't have some of the critical windows features we have today. Unfortunately, with all of these extra features, it created an OS not ready for everyones hardware.

[Will Godfrey]

It's a trick question!

It hasn't been reached yet. They are still piling on more crap and will continue to do so until it becomes a singularity, when it will collapse under it's own weight sucking in the entire universe with it.

Unfortunately at that point there will be nobody left to collect the sweater... maybe that's just as well

[The_Police!]

Long time lurker so commenting in the hope I get some luck and win something!

[Hass]

And here I was thinking last years jumper was a monstrosity

[Pat Harkin]

Peak Microsoft moment?

It's a close call, but I think I'd have to go for 1947 and the invention of the transistor[1].

John Bardeen, Walter H. Brattain, and William Shockley at Bell Labs set us on the path to the future - via Clippy, Windows Vista and Windows ME.

So much potential. Such a waste.

[1] OK, Microsoft didn't yet exist n 1947 but this has Gates' fingerprints all over it. I don't know how he did it - perhaps Copilot can tell us...

[ZAPTHATASTYTANK]

I think Windows 7 was peak Microsoft. Since then Windows releases have been getting worse and worse

[ccshepherd]

Gimme my hideous jumper - my users must be punished further! Size large, possibly XL if delivery after Christmas

[uv]

Trackball Explorer. Beats imho Xbox 360 by a whisker.

Please bring it back. I destroyed mine in a fit of rage (induced by the crappiness of MS Software, what else).

[BebopWeBop]

Surely Microsoft never peaked?

[meanioni]

Age of Mythology

Nothing else comes close. Fighting titans with phoenixes and elephants.

More fun than a pivot table on an Excel spreadsheet with conditional formatting turned on...... :-)

[David Hicklin]

Peak windows for me was windows 7 , sure they had a few slips down the slippery slope with ME (wtf was wrong wrong with Win 98 SE ?) and Vista but Windows 7 just about pulled them back up enough to be the peak.

After that is has been downhill all the way and the slope is only getting steeper

[Diez66]

is it multithreaded

is it multithreaded

[Phlebas]

Xbox - Halo

[sugerbear]

Just when you think Windows can't get any worse

They release a Christmas Jumper. I bet if has "AI" on it somewhere.

I can say that the time I enjoyed Windows the most was probably windows 10 before they started to slowly destroy it with "improvements", then kill it off with 11.

Everything after and before.. meh..

[STUNNN]

The obvious smile answer is.... We haven't.... lol

The obvious smile answer is.... We haven't.... lol.

The sensible answer is NT was amazing.... 2000 Server! :) Rose tinted glasses says that XP was good (although not when you recall giving it new printer drivers, only for it to reboot and then need new printer drivers, only for it to reboot and need new printer drivers....Grrrr)... Windows 7 - Final Answer... and peak Office 2000 - It just worked! unlike bloody Office 365.

Ok, so give me Windows 7, with an NT GUI and Office 2000 please.

[hammarbtyp]

Windows 11 version

Is there a windows 11 version. You know the one that requires the wearer needs an extra arm to fit?

[MrKrotos]

Not long.....

until it will need a few "patches" :P

[Harel]

Windows 95

Peak Microsoft was definitely Windows 95, no other MS OS released after that changed the way we use our PCs as much as it

[Aradalf91]

Longhorn was peak Microsoft, in all senses

Longhorn. It was beautiful and promised to bring generation-defining innovation in UI and UX, both for OS and apps. It was a connected, cohesive experience, with some features that were way ahead of its time (like semantic search). Unfortunately, it turned out to be too visionary and Microsoft ended up giving up Vista. I still liked it, but it was absolutely nowhere near Longhorn. This is why it was peak Microsoft: it held a lot of promise and it had all the right things for it to be groundbreaking and successful, and ended up in a disaster. The same happened actually with Windows Phone and with a whole lot of other things, but Longhorn was probably the most striking.

[liquidsmoke66]

Win95 on floppy disk option

I remember queuing with my old man to get into pc world on the win95 release day! It was actually an exciting event back then! Long suffering on 3.11, i remember we were feeling smug as we had cd drives. Altho win95 was available on floppy too! The weight of the floppy version made me kinda want that one just cos it felt more value. Lols.