So was there a Windows 95 (4.00.950) Full Retail CD-ROM version?

[assenort]

Hi guys,

I have been reading on the internets for several days trying to find a definitive answer to the question - was there a legit Windows 95 US-English Full Retail CD-ROM edition back in 1995? Thus far, I have not been able to find a convincing answer, even though some posts on different forums/boards claim so.

On Archive.org I was able to spot a full retail edition which came on floppy disks; several fake CD-ROM images are also available, as well as images from the OEM CD-ROM (which people often confuse with the Retail version, as it seems).

So I'd appreciate it if someone with legit experience / knowledge shed light on this issue. Thanks muchos in advance.

Best!

 

Edited yesterday at 08:08 PM by assenort

[NotHereToPlayGames]

Our college campus sold Win 95 *upgrade* cd-rom in the bookstore.

ie, it did NOT have the "for sale only with new pc" printed on the disk.

Not sure if that helps you, but to me, if it was sold SEPARATE from a new pc and sold at a college campus bookstore, that tells me "retail".

You might try looking through *EBAY* listings, that may be a better source than any source including "fake cd-rom images".

[NotHereToPlayGames]

So I was hoping to get a pic of my 95 *upgrade* cd (would be very FIRST version sold at college campus bookstore, there were "A", "B", and "C" releases of 95).
I have three prime-suspect locations to search in my "small hoard", but I could not find it

Online reading seems to label releases as RTM, Plus, SP1, OSR1, OSR2, OSR2.1, OSR2.5, but I simply *do not remember* them being called that when being sold at the college bookstore, I remember them being called 95a, 95b, and 95c and I know mine would have been the VERY FIRST and that it was an "upgrade" and does *NOT* have the "for sale only with new pc" on its label.

Online reading also seem to suggest that the difference between "retail" and "oem" is whether it *includes* Internet Explorer and/or which *version* it includes.
From memory, I guess I do not remember it rolling out that way.

Here in the USA, the largest (be it "good" or "bad" is a discussion for another day) consumer market, we-in-the-US think of the word "retail" as a distinction of WHO can BUY the item.
*Supply Chains* are broken down into classifications like "Tier 1", "Tier 2", and "Tier 3".

In the vane of an *OEM* (Microsoft) building/creating Win95 and SELLING it, if Acer, IBM, NEC, HP, Dell, Packard Bell, Texas Instrument, and the like could BUY them to INCLUDE in their manufactured-then-sold computers, that is not (at least here in the US) considered as *RETAIL*.

If Amazon, Best Buy, Radio Shack, Tiger Direct, Costco, Walmart *retail stores* were allowed to BUY them and turn around and sell to people like you and me, THAT is considered a *RETAIL* item.

I guess I see things that way.  But maybe the rest of the world doesn't?

[Karla Sleutel]

Search Assist

https://duckduckgo.com/?q=Windows+95+(4.00.950)+Retail+CD-ROM

Windows 95 (4.00.950) was the first retail release of Microsoft's operating system, available on CD-ROM starting August 24, 1995. It introduced features like a graphical user interface, support for 32-bit applications, and long filenames, marking a significant upgrade from its predecessor, Windows 3.1.

betawiki.net 

https://betawiki.net/wiki/Windows_95_build_950_r-6

pcjs.org

https://www.pcjs.org/software/pcx86/sys/windows/win95/4.00.950/

 

[ABCDEFG]

No. The retail version of Windows 95 - "Windows 95 for PCs Without Windows" was only available on floppy disks. OEM and upgrade versions were available on CDs.

[NotHereToPlayGames]

I have to think that the answer is technically different from one country to the next.

Especially THIRTY YEARS ago.

I guarantee that what was *available* to me here in the USA is not the same as what was *available* in other countries THIRTY YEARS AGO.

Commerce is more "global" nowadays.  But it really wasn't as "global" in the mid-90s when Toyota's and Honda's were still a bit of a rarity in many parts of the US.

[ABCDEFG]

@NotHereToPlayGames  So, do you have the "Windows 95 for PCs Without Windows" on a CD??

Nobody has it.

[NotHereToPlayGames]

No.  Mine is an *upgrade* that was *NOT* sold "with a pc".

It was purchased at my college's/university's campus bookstore.

Here in the USA (30yrs ago), that is a *retail* purchase (Microsoft is located in the USA).

What the word "retail" (and "oem") means is different today than it was 30yrs ago.

30yrs ago, you had to be HP, Dell, Packard Bell, Gateway, etc in order to buy an "oem" disc of Windows.

You could NOT walk into a BOOKSTORE to buy the "oem" version of Windows.

In order to obtain an "oem" disk, you had to buy the WHOLE COMPUTER and the disc was in the box that contained that computer.

**ONLY** "retail" versions were available as a standalone purchase.

**ONLY** "retail" versions were available at BOOKSTORES.

 

I don't doubt that there were "retail" versions that were UPGRADES and there were "retail" versions that did NOT require a PREVIOUS version of Windows to be already present.

So there were "retail upgrades" AND "retail standalones".

[ABCDEFG]

You have the right to install a retail version of Windows on your PC regardless of whether you previously had a previous version of Windows or not.

The upgrade version is for people who already have a previous version of Windows on their PCs.

The OEM version is for computer manufacturers and system builders. OEMs are required to use an OEM preinstall kit (OPK) to prepare the installation with all necessary drivers and/or software and configurations for their PCs.

Any other use is a violation of the license terms.

Many people in the US and most people in the rest of the world were using Windows 95 illegally, because most people bought upgrade versions because they were cheaper, but only those who already had a previous version of Windows or DOS on their PC were actually entitled to install the Windows 95 upgrade version, and no one except OEMs and System Builders had the right to install the OEM version of Windows.

Poor Microsoft. 

Even so, thanks to Windows 95, Microsoft managed to become the most powerful company at the time.