I wouldn’t be surprised if an abandoned salt mine in Montana were somehow involved. Putting something up for download is a complicated process with forms to fill out in triplicate and dark rooms with card readers. Just throw it up there and watch what happens. No digital signatures, no virus checking, no paperwork. This was all back in the day when it was easy to put up something for download. I also wrote the somewhat whimsical original blurb.) (In reality, it was I who wrote all of the Kernel Toys, except for the Time Zone Editor, which came from the Windows NT Resource Kit.

Alas, the original blurb text is not on the Microsoft downloads site, but here’s an archived copy. Later, the kernel team released their own set of toys, known as the Windows 95 Kernel Toys. The second edition of the Windows 95 PowerToys added FindX, Send To X, the Telephony Locator Selector, XMouse, and Tweak UI.

This time, people knew that they were writing a PowerToy, as opposed to the first edition of the PowerToys which was merely cobbled together from stuff lying around. Upon the enormous success of the PowerToys, a second edition was developed. (Probably somebody just made it up because it sounded neat.) Nor do I know where the name PowerToy came from.

I wasn’t around when the decision was made to package these toys up and ship them, so I don’t know what the rule was for deciding what was PowerToy-worthy and what wasn’t. Shortcut Target Menu This was a feature idea that didn’t quite make it.

Round Clock This was a program to test regional windows. Command Prompt Here, Explore From Here These were proof-of-concept toys which tested the shell command extension design. CDAutoPlay, DeskMenu, FlexiCD, QuickRes These were side toys originally written by shell developers for their own personal use. After Windows 95 shipped, some of those programs were collected into the first edition of the Windows 95 Power Toys.Īs I recall, the first edition contained the following toys: CabView This was a handy internal tool which also served as a test of the shell folder design. During the development of Windows 95, as with the development of any project, the people working on the project write side programs to test the features they are adding or to prototype a feature.

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