Although Windows 95 is now 30 years old, that doesn't stop some people reminiscing about the OS that made Microsoft a household name. As such, a user on reddit going by the name international-dish78 made a post earlier this week in which they painstakingly recreated the original Windows 95 setup wallpaper in 4K for everyone to enjoy. And after obtaining permission to use the assets and share, we felt that it deserved a little more attention.
First a bit of background, official details about the wallpaper are hard to come by, but according to the Windows Wallpaper Wiki (not affiliated with Microsoft) the setup background features a collage of images comprised of just two colors (blue and black) with a gradient map applied over it. The images are a circuit board, keyboard, mouse, cables, and CDs.
It is believed to have been produced in-house (along with the photos), but it is unknown who designed it. What is known, is that the keyboard was owned by Kevin Kennedy, who lent it to the designer, Kennedy claimed that the group "in the next office" actually created the image. The image itself is just 320x400 (boot screen), but stretches out to 640x400 on setup, stretching even more to fill the monitor size when drivers for the hardware are loaded during setup.
Gallery: Windows 95 Setup wallpaper assets
We've included a full copy of the images that you can download (Neowin obtained permission from the creator to repost). The full assets are available on OneDrive, along with the ~195MB Photoshop document (PSD). The original on which it is based is also included.
Having worked in desktop support back in the 90's, the image certainly brings back some memories of the countless PCs I installed Windows 95 on for clients. In any case we think the effort is pretty cool and worthy of a thumbs up.
Were you around in the Windows 95 days? What are your memories of the OS, let us know in the comments below.
17 Comments - Add comment