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Everything I need is still in in the old settings windows that haven't changed in 23 years (lemmy.world)

submitted 9 months ago by thenewred@lemmy.world to c/memes@lemmy.ml

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I don't know why I even bother opening the settings app

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[-] someguy3@lemmy.world 157 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

You go deep enough and very Windows 95 looking menus pop up. Like are they building over the old system? It's all very strange.

[-] Astrealix@lemmy.world 124 points 9 months ago

yes they are, actually. Backwards compatibility is a huge thing in Windows, it's why you can't name files certain names such as CON, and why you can find things from 3.1 etc. still.

[-] Patches@sh.itjust.works 37 points 9 months ago

Fun Fact: Every single Exe today still checks prior to running whether it is Barbie Riding Club (1998) or can it run normally?

Because when you update your OS and your game breaks - you don't blame Hasbro, you blame Windows every time. You can't just call up Sierra Games and ask them to update - they don't exist anymore and so you must carry everything forward - bugs included.

[-] SeventySeven@sh.itjust.works 21 points 9 months ago

That fact does seem really fun and interesting. Why barbie? Got any links so I can read up on it?

[-] tweeks@feddit.nl 18 points 9 months ago

I googled a bit, and perhaps this statement comes from this old Reddit thread here in the first comments.

There it's mainly used as a joke to describe how Windows is just very backwards compatible in general. The story might have stuck and warped a bit as like it really had a reference to that Barbie game.

[-] QuaternionsRock@lemmy.world 3 points 9 months ago

Well, I did find this.

[-] tweeks@feddit.nl 1 points 9 months ago

I couldn't find a reference to Barbie in your link, or am I missing something?

[-] QuaternionsRock@lemmy.world 1 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

No, I’m just saying that compatibility databases do seem to exist, and the existence of “custom” ones implies that there is a built-in one. It wouldn’t be surprising to find out that Barbie and about a million other widespread legacy executables are in there.

[-] drathvedro@lemm.ee 7 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

I know there was an old hack for simcity but I've never heard about barbie. I've checked and the claim seems to come from (now removed) @pwnallthethings twitter account. What he refers to there is that Windows indeed maintains a compatibility database, which, unlike the normal compatibility menu, allows more compatibility tweaks and works entirely automatically. On my fresh win11 install, the compatibility administrator tool lists a few hundred compatibility shims and thousands of apps listed, with "Barbie Adventure Riding Club" indeed being one of them