In 1994, a programmer created a “temporary” interface for Windows. Three decades later he is still with us

Windows is one step away from turning 40 years old. The first version of the operating system appeared in November 1985and since then it has not stopped evolving. However, Microsoft tends to take a long time to update some components of its products.

With Windows 10, for example, it released a renewed user interface, but it was not until years after its launch that it began to get rid of some icons from the Windows 95 era. Now, in Windows 11is renewing programs like paint and Notepad.

Regardless of how modern Windows 11 may feel, and all the new features that come with its updates, the system still retains some elements that we could classify as historical. Among them we find the utility to format disks.

Currently, if you wanted to format a storage drive from Windows 11 you would find a pop-up window practically identical to the one you could find decades ago. In fact, we know exactly who created it.

The format drives dialog in Windows 10

A former Microsoft programmer named Dave Plummer recently shared an some interesting facts about this part of the operating system. The now entrepreneur says he created the Format dialog box one rainy morning from the end of 1994.

He says that they were migrating millions of lines of user interface code from Windows 95 to Windows NT, and that the formatting section was very different between systems, so it was necessary to create a new user interface. And Plummer took on this task.

The programmer did not think of doing a definitive job, but of providing a temporary solution with the help of a sheet, a pen, Visual C++ 2.0 and the Resource Editor. “It wasn’t elegant, but it would do until the elegant user interface arrived,” he says in the message.

Plummer also set the 32GB limit for the format of FAT volumes that morning. It is curious, because FAT is capable of working with larger volumes, although to create volumes with this capacity it is necessary to use the command line.

The disk formatting utility interface appeared in Windows NT-based operating systems, such as Windows 2000 and Windows XPand it has been with us ever since. Throughout this time it has basically been a temporary solution created in 1994.

Images | Windows | Genbeta

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