Installing Windows 1.0 on an '80s Zenith Portable PC!

Back a few weeks ago, I acquired a boxed copy of Windows 1.0. And today, I'm pulling it off the software shelf so that we can install it on a Zenith Portable PC from the 1980s!
Original Video: • The Holy Grail of Boxe...
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#MichaelMJD #Windows #80s

[@mjdxp5688]

I think this really puts into perspective why Windows was initially so unsuccessful. When you run Windows 1.0 on a modern emulator with unlimited storage, a mouse, and a full color display, you tend to forget that in the mid 80s when Windows released, most PCs looked more like what Michael showed. They typically had no hard drive, a monochrome display, and were much slower than we'd expect from today's computers. Microsoft was clearly trying to compete with Apple's Macintosh and its operating system when they released Windows, but they didn't take into consideration the limitations of IBM PC compatibles of the time. By the time Windows 3.1 released, the entire computer industry was completely different. The mouse, color displays, hard drives, and faster CPUs were much more commonplace by 1992, so it was much easier for it to gain a large userbase.

[@stepheneickhoff4953]

Maybe if they'd had better programmers, because the Mac OS ran smoother and was more functional on a 128K 8 Mhz 68000 classic than on this 640K 8088 8 MHz PC. I am far from an Apple fanboy, but in the 1980s only Apple knew how to make a GUI on a personal computer. Okay, maybe Commodore.

[@mjdxp5688]

@@stepheneickhoff4953 I mean, don't forget that Microsoft had to develop their operating environment to work on potentially dozens of PCs, meaning it's unlikely that Windows could take advantage of any tricks or specialized hardware to run faster. Meanwhile, with the Macintosh, the engineers would have known every little thing about the Macintosh while developing its operating system, including the specifications and all the hardware and software tricks that can make programs run more efficiently.

[@cubedmelons876]

​@@stepheneickhoff4953I mean, it's pretty cringe to be an Apple fanboy now, but back in the 80s? I would've been drooling over those Macintoshes.

[@dovahkiin2108]

Genius

[@MattExzy]

@@destructodisk9074 Success also came with 3.11. As a kid of the 90s, I was always intrigued by my friend's parents whose family PC ran Windows 3.11 right up to the year 2002 before being replaced. It had IE 3 and connected to the 'net on a 14K modem. I believe it was a 16MHz 386. They definitely weren't poor; just extreme misers.

[@Sevenigma777]

I really love the fact he treated this whole vid like a tutorial as if there is another person on this planet doing this exact thing lol

[@duelistlegend2217]

I’m seriously considering it

[@BilisNegra]

@@nR-kv7xo Still, the few nerds who might be doing this will probably at least install this onto a hard drive (or flash card device acting as such) instead of inflicting self torture using floppies only!

[@Sevenigma777]

@@BilisNegra that's kind of the point I was trying to make. Yes sure, there is always going to be a few people dabbling in the most obscure types of tech. However, it is very unlikely those same people would find joy in actively making their experiences needlessly complicated and monotonous..... ... but then again with the sickos this world creates it wouldn't be surprising.

[@HrLBolle]

Clint and Retrospector78 being two of them

[@BilisNegra]

@@HrLBolle I miss Retrospector78. Does anybody know why he doesn't make any videos anympre? I really enjoyed that channel.

[@GiuseppeGaetanoSabatelli]

Fun story! Once upon a time on my dad's old IBM machine back in like 1991ish, he was full screen in an application and didn't know how to close out of it. He came back to one of us babies standing at the desk and the Restore Menu was open and he was able to close/unmaximize (restore) the window. He asked himself "What keys are on the bottom of the keyboard that a baby could reach on their tippy toes?" 😂 That's how he discovered Alt+Space. Which, BTW still works on every version of Windows, including Windows 11 and Universal Windows Apps. Double clocking the "Restore" button (the app icon on the top left) is also a shortcut for closing the application, which works even on applications that don't have an icon there at all. (idk if this one works on UWP Apps). Alt Space is important because you can always bring up the menu if you have focus on the application, so if it's off screen or inaccessible somehow, you can open the Restore menu, and then the "Move" command will snap the Window to your cursor. Useful for bringing lost apps back to reality. Has never failed me from Windows 3.1 to Windows 11.

[@jarnailbrar6732]

thank you, this is useful.

[@FeritYrdsv]

Thanks for the tip!!! New information every day.

[@AaronOfMpls]

Works in the XFCE desktop environment on Linux, too! And I wouldn't be surprised if it was in others like KDE or Gnome or Cinnamon.

[@justingoers]

Whoa. Thanks for this.

[@andrei.c.c.]

@@AaronOfMpls Just tried in Linux Mint Cinnamon and it works

[@tiberiud]

5:53 There's something so odd and charming in seeing "West Germany" displayed as a keyboard setting

[@LCdrDerrick]

Speaking as a kid from W-Germany, we've been really proud of the quality standards our industrial products had back then, cars included or better put, above all. East Germany was no competitor at all and US, British and especially French or Italian products didn't reach the finese and sturdiness, they lacked the precision and stability. A Mercedes-Benz, a Porsche or a BMW had no competition back then. The only competitor qualitywise was Japan, who had in some places even better products, like consumer electronics e.g., but beside their even higher quality standards they also lacked the finish, the look and feel experience of W-Germany manufacturing. Today we're done as a leading industrial nation, done as a culture nation, done as a scientific nation and so is the rest of the West. Two world wars, unlimited economical growth, competition in all the places and neoliberalism as well as a fractional reserve money system left us completely burnt out and broken. China will have its try as the leading cultural era for the future. The US elites want that not to happen, but their people are even more corrupted, are fat and/or addicted and are stupified to the bone like in Idiocracy. They don't find soldiers anymore to stop China. They've got a president, who does not even know which day it is!

[@tetraxis3011]

@@LCdrDerrickThe second half of the Cold War, roughly 1970-1990, sounds like a surprisingly good time to be alive(unless you lived in the communist bloc).

[@rolfmoren6682]

Well, at that time, they were pointing at families of languages. The Germanic family included English. Then, there were Celtic, Italic, and Heleic language families as of stating examples. Chinese belong to the Sino-Tibetan family, and I sometimes wondered if Microsoft translated into those languages. I never saw a Chinese keyboard, but a few different European Germanic keyboards.

[@LCdrDerrick]

A chinese keyboard wouldn't be that easy. The Arab alphabet has just about two dozen letters and sign. There are only ten numbers. Of course there are mutated vowels like Ä or Ü in German, the French have their accents like é and the Turks have theirs. There are punctuation marks, of course, but that fits very easy onto a keyboard. But with Chinese you are reaching a territory, where it gets complicated. They've got about 6000 signs, which a usual Chinese knows and uses. Have you ever seen a Chinese typewriter? There are however means to construct these 6000 signs, which share common patterns, with sort of a keyboard, but that is a different cup of coffee. You cannot transfer a degenerated dialect of German (English), which is Romanic and can as well be considered as Indo-Germanic and so on and so forth into a completely foreign means of communication. @@rolfmoren6682

[@g-reaper2955]

​@@LCdrDerrickI don't know what all that spiel about what seems like an old man pining for a past that will never return has to do with a guy who's just showing off old Windows. I don't know, you say... 🤔

[@vwestlife]

The Z-138 was the portable version of the Zenith Z-148 desktop PC that I did a video about a while ago. The motherboard and I/O board are identical. It's nice that you have the daughterboard for the ISA slot because those are hard to find.

[@RadikAlice]

I was just thinking of that when I saw this in my recommended, glad to see you here!

[@lynnk.7587]

Omg VWestlife!

[@KoopaKid660]

I've never seen Windows 1.0 installed on era-accurate hardware before!

[@diegotr1903]

That must be the only Microsoft product with no bugs.

[@kebab_hill]

@@diegotr1903 i doubt it had no bugs, the product was a failure, it wasn't really popular yet at that time.

[@edb1913]

Windows is a bug.

[@TheRealTroll420]

@@edb1913what system do you use? Kinda wanna avoid it if you guys are like that over wherever you are 🧌🧌🧌

[@sammiches6859]

​@@kebab_hillIf it was successful enough to lead to 7 iterations of DOS based Windows over the next 15 years, it wouldn't really be a failure.

[@interlace84]

Our 8088 booting up dos 3.10 and windows 1.0 in an amber monochrome glow just like that.. is a memory I can still vividly recall from over 3 decades ago. Thanks for lighting up those nostalgic neurons once again 🫶

[@jerryw5508]

For me also. I still have the floppies. But first you had to install DOS versions and I think it was after installing DOS 5 or 6 you could then install Windows 3.1. At first I had a monochrome but upgraded to a color CRT. I got them still somewhere hidden. My 486 is here in the house somewhere. Somehow kept all my machines.

[@luie1]

Wow, Zenith. That is a company name I haven't heard in a while. When I was a kid visiting family in Melrose Park, IL, we would drive past a Zenith Factory that only did TV's. As always, excellent work! Video is awesome.

[@kbhasi]

​@@parkersneathen I think it's through their KZbin channel membership that they get to watch videos early.

[@osvaldovelazquez2247]

@@nickatnite90s no its because they are a member

[@dovahkiin2108]

​@@osvaldovelazquez2247multiple?

[@AdakanUwU]

It's funny becouse Zenith is polish Company that make pens

[@user-lt2rw5nr9s]

I think my family had a talking VCR from them.

[@justinkochenderfer]

WOW! This was really nice to see! I have never seen an install of Windows 1.03! Thank you!

[@gayfemboyuwu]

i've been waiting so long for a video like this including windows 1.0. great video mjd !

[@lynnk.7587]

Felix

[@firenyth]

First time I've actually seen real use of floppy drives, crazy that you can just plug and play them as you like

[@MetalTrabant]

Not as you like, you have to wait for the usage indicator to go out before pulling it out.

[@brian7897]

@@MetalTrabant lol... yep you can't even get the disk back out with out ripping it to shreds...

[@bernardtaylor7768]

When a programme needs to use a diskette it’s easy to use but to run a programme or save your work it required you to tell the computer where the diskette is and then what you want to do on the disk The storage on the disk was only a few hundred kb of space .

[@TheALPHA1550]

​@@bernardtaylor7768what's a programme?

[@bernardtaylor7768]

@@TheALPHA1550 program my bad 🤭

[@exaltedb]

I love your videos like this, as they’re a great way to look back at technology (and its unique processes) that have existed before my time

[@DingleRingle7]

AWWW YUSS I LOVE WHEN MICHAEL MJD UPLOADSSS best vintage computer historian in my opinion i always find your vids interesting no matter how many of ur vids i watch keep up the good work pal!

[@odysseythekidd]

Awesome video idea! Also, I love that amber CRT display!

[@DailyCorvid]

The Zen is one of THE coolest OG's you will ever see, I am amazed he has one in such great condition and the screen is still bright as new. Amazing.

[@MakeLifeExtraordinary]

You truly make me miss the early days of computing. There was just something so special and incredible about it. a feeling you don’t get with modern computing. I guess because everything was new and there were so many leaps coming in technology day after day. Now, it’s kind of stagnated and it’s just not the same. Thank you for the video. Much appreciated. I have a brand new Vic 20, new Atari 600XL and new TI 99 4A sitting here. Ive been collecting brand new systems since the late 80s, early 90s and you don’t know how tempted I am to bust open the 600 XL. I don’t have any hard drives or disk drives for it, which I imagine I could easily find on eBay. Would be pretty awesome to fire up a brand new system. though, I don’t think I have the heart to do it. There’s too many collectors out there who would love to have it sitting on their shelves. And the prices have gone through the roof. Lol.

[@GianmarioScotti]

I appreciate it very much you did the system overview at the beginning. It makes this video ten times better.

[@etherlords88]

I lived in Pittsburgh and drove through that 3482 William penn hwy and that entire area/place is truly relic! That building along with surrounding ones are empty for decades and I wouldn’t surprise it was only used to sell the computers back in 90s and still the related papers can be found inside!

[@bramvandenbroeck5060]

Man this takes me WAY back! I had a 286 with an amber display like that, and i love that color! It so soft on the eyes, you could work for days on a monitor like that!

[@ZetecinsideMotorsport]

I had one of those at work, the field engineers used to take them out on trials. Thanks for the video, brings back so many memories.

[@Stiky_Piston]

Here within 24mins! Didn’t expect this video, and i’m excited to watch it!

[@AmazedStoner]

Something in that monitor's horizontal drive circuitry is starting to fail. If you haven't noticed the picture keeps shrinking and expanding horizontally.

[@MichaelMJD]

Yeah I noticed, definitely has to be looked at

[@eDoc2020]

I wasn't looking too closely but I figured it was happening in line with disk activity. When the drives run the +12v rail will dip. Assuming the monitor doesn't have its own power regulation this will change the deflection strength.

[@Subtome849]

Bro has the JackSucksAtLife pp 💀

[@ChinatownGhoul69696]

@@eDoc2020 my TRS80 Model 4p does this as well... same the problems you stated

[@DailyCorvid]

OHH MY GOOD GOD IT IS PRISTINE INSIDE AND OUT :) Well impressed. Dude this is the best video you've ever done, and that is high praise. Literally this blows the usual top 10 OUT of the water. Well played Micheal!

[@brian_voll]

My dad has an old Zenith computer that looks very similar to this one, even with that orange screen. I used to play DOS games on it growing up. I never even considered it could have run Windows 1.0. Thanks for the video! It’s cool seeing it in action on one of these systems. And brings back a lot of memories.

[@EWARS_2]

OooOOooohh... That's a fancy machine! Beautiful amber display with Windows 1.0. Great video.

[@ashtonsretrocomputerroom]

Absolutely beautiful machine 👌

[@richshealer3755]

I am a fan of the split Microsoft logo that slides together. They also used it with the first few Microsoft Word (for DOS) versions.

[@SidcupRC]

I like how the I/O cover also blocks the fan! Great video. Thanks for uploading.

[@ddc163264]

This brought back so many memories, I worked at a store that sold these units. I sold quite a few of them. Along with many other systems like the QX-10. Nice video.

[@golf-n-guns]

Brought back a lot of memories. The key to using computers in the 80s was patience! Imagine today's generation trying to use an 80s-00s computer.

[@phantom_wolf5274]

By the 2000s computers were very much like they are today and most of “todays generation” grew up in the 2000s

[@MitchMitch77-77]

I know what you're saying! I used an Atari 1040 ST back then, and that thing was a pain in the assbone! (I think it ran Windows 1.0).

[@Penny-ym1sg]

I got my first computer in 1989 and the speed drove me crazy. I'm frustrated with the speed in 2024 sometimes.

[@panopolis8051]

Whenever you test out a calculator program on an old system, I think it would be interesting to see how it reacts to a divide by zero.

[@MichaelMJD]

Haha I should’ve tried that!

[@HedgClan]

The house explodes by it trying to process 0 divided by 0

[@MrWarlock616]

A black hole opens up obviously

[@ballyastrocade5672]

I think just about all calculator programs test for that condition, really. Even the fairly primitive Level I BASIC on the TRS-80 Model I (1977-78) would return an error message of HOW? if you tried to divide by zero. (Level I had only three error messages: WHAT? was any kind of syntax error, HOW? was a mathematically-impossible operation, and SORRY was when you ran out of memory.)

[@baygoesmoo]

i'm, not one for owning or collecting old machines but i love looking back at history and seeing how everything worked before what we have today so thanks for these videos also love seeing you do random things to old computers. 👍

[@user-nl5tm8nq2d]

Keep up the good work!!🎉

[@mielole]

FYI Alt+Spacebar works on modern versions of Windows too (because of course it does). It saved me many times when some Windows scaling or desktop window position restore bug put one of my windows outside of the screen. Just Alt+Spacebar, Move, arrow keys, Enter, badabing, badaboom. It's funny how little known it is, to the point where the default keybind of PowerToys Run (a Microsoft developed tool!) is Alt+Spacebar. I have to change it to Win+Spacebar every time, because I can change my keyboard layouts with Ctrl+Shift already...

[@voldem0rt]

My neighbor had a similar system made by Compaq. His dad worked as a coder over there. Great memories.

[@Allweiner]

This was sooo cool to me, Thank you!

[@mccoymrm]

This reminds me of so much. It puts me into a writing mode haven't felt in 30 years. Thanks for this video.

[@ditherdather]

We still used floppy disks in middle school back in the early to mid 90's. This takes me back. In keyboarding class, if we finished early our teacher would let us play Oregon Trail or Prince of Persia. The OLD original versions. lol. It was all so incredibly intiquated and obtuse by todays metrics with pixels like Legos, but felt lightspeed technological to us then.

[@giedmich]

This was a triumph I'm making a note here Huge success It's hard to overstate my satisfaction

[@oliverjade6998]

Aperture Science. We do what we must because we can.

[@greenknight9000]

For the good of all of us Except the ones who are dead

[@oliverjade6998]

But there's no sense crying over every mistake. You just keep on trying till' you run out of cake!

[@Frostnaut50_official]

And the science is done And you make a neat gun For the people who are still alive!

[@oliverjade6998]

I'm not even angry I'm being so sincere right now

[@Alifrom-Texas]

You took me back in time ! Thanks.... I miss my childhood !

[@darcyska]

Loved this video!

[@stephanieiwaniuk6088]

Thanks for the awesome video! Out of curiosity, what is the oldest computer you own? Have a great weekend!

[@MichaelMJD]

I do have a microcomputer from the '70s that needs some work on it, but I believe that's the oldest!

[@stephanieiwaniuk6088]

That's super cool!​@@MichaelMJD

[@administrator8203]

Upgrade windows 1.0 to windows 3.1 on the 80s Zenith portable pc (But everything goes wrong)

[@andresbravo2003]

Request confirmed!

[@axpuser671]

Can you tho, Windows 3.1 is from 1992 and this PC is from the 80s

[@cooperhanke]

Yeeeeees!!!

[@aaaalex1994]

Windows 3.1 requires a 286 CPU and this computer only has an 8088.

[@ozzie_goat]

​@@aaaalex1994You can't use logic on these types of people, they won't take it

[@windowsxp3790]

Love your videos Been watching since under 100k subs

[@AshNorton747]

so cool dude. I never thought that someone would actually install windows 1.0 today in a very old portable computer.👌👌

[@Lampe2020]

Today I first heard the word "luggable". And I first heard it a few hours ago in an LTT video about a luggable PC chassis and now, a little later, in this video right here XD

[@AaronOfMpls]

Yah, "luggable" was kind of a retronym applied to this kind of portable computer, after laptops started to be a thing.

[@Lampe2020]

@@AaronOfMpls Funny thing is, I've never heard that word before. But the day I hear it, I hear it in two almost unrelated places just a few hours after one another XD

[@MrAntice]

@@AaronOfMpls The term was used for laptops as well for a while into the mid 90's when i finished my education. early laptops were heavy. not as heavy as portables, but still heavy enough that dragging it around with you was tiresome. Higher end models would also give you first degree burns on your lap if you used them the way their name implies.

[@AaronOfMpls]

@@MrAntice > Higher end models would also give you first degree burns on your lap if you used them the way their name implies. Which was partly why manufacturers started calling laptops "notebooks" instead.

[@tttdssdff2267]

I love how cool this computer is!!! It's like a tower with a display and a handle. The insides look really cool and the upgradability is probably record breaking. I wonder how efficiently could someone modernize it. To make a real sleeper pc, by stuffing the latest and greatest internals in a beige box. Would love to see that. Great video

[@ballyastrocade5672]

Heh -- the *actual* upgradeability of the machine really wasn't that great. It was an 8088-based system, and that one ISA slot was actually an extra-cost *option*; if you just bought the "base" machine, it didn't have the ISA slot, or even a place on the PC board where you could solder the right connector in later on. The CGA video was integrated into the board as well, so the only possible upgrade on a base system was to max out the memory at 640K, and add the 8087 math coprocessor. That being said, you probably could do some really interesting upgrades to it today by swapping out the hardware for modern equivalents. The biggest barriers (other than physical mounting) would be the monitor -- it's a CGA-only monochrome, so you'd pretty much *have* to replace it with some kind of equivalently-sized LCD flatpanel, and good luck finding one that's the right size nowadays! -- and the keyboard. Being an 8088-based system, the keyboard uses the XT signaling protocol for the various keystrokes, whereas everything nowadays uses AT signaling or USB. So the existing keyboard won't work with a modern motherboard. So all in all, you'd be in for some serious mechanical customization work!

[@1Morpheus]

man this is sooo coooool im so invested in learning computer science but this is so much better than school !

[@djglitch2.031]

I'm here on release hour lol. Love your channel

[@fsvgm777]

5:57 - ...I am actually genuinely shocked the Win1.0 setup had an option to set the keyboard layout to a Luxembourgish layout of all things. I was actually expecting it to be Swiss French or Swiss German (in the present day, both Luxembourg and Switzerland use the same QWERTZ keyboard layout (either Swiss French or Swiss German, but Luxembourg generally uses Swiss French), but I don't know if things were different back when Win1.0 was released).

[@fsvgm777]

So for fun, I actually installed Win1.03 inside a machine in 86Box (that was as close to era-adequate as possible)....and it turned out, when I ran Windows after setting to use the Luxembourg regional settings (as I found out)...it was using the French keyboard layout, with some country-specific settings.

[@MetalTrabant]

It's quite incredible how ancient these look (both software and hardware) from today's world... and they're only about 40 years old. Development in the IT industry in these last few decades were pretty amazing. Anyway, imagine having to spend a thousand bucks + software to have this user experience... some shitty clock, a basic calculator, and a program to write in plain text. And a game I could never understand the rules of... I had Reversi on my Siemens C35 phone, and couldn't really figure it out. And you had to constantly juggle these giant disks to do all this...

[@santo1563]

Love ur style! ❤😂

[@MrWilsonbw]

I remember learning how to program in Pascal, in the mid 80s, on a dual 5 &1/4 system similar to this. Great memories! Thanks.

[@TzOk]

I'd definitely recommend you a Monotech XT-CF-Mini adapter. This machine should run DOS 5.0 and Windows 3.0 without any problems.

[@FoxosGalaxy]

i cant believe that was portable back then

[@Viky2594]

It was more transportable than anything

[@DrBagPhD]

Absolutely adore this

[@goremael]

This is just pure gold!

[@roflboy2009]

This pc looks comfy

[@eugiblisscast]

That was a convoluted setup indeed 👀

[@jameysummers1577]

Ha ha ha.....That Monroeville 3482 WmPenn Hwy ad that you displayed really brought back memories for me. I am from Pennhills, right outside Monroeville.

[@fra4455]

Great video✌

[@zsombor_99]

I wonder if you put a HDD into this thing is it possible to install Windows 3.0 or 3.1? 🤔

[@dyter424]

3.1 is impossible: 3.0 is the last version to support an 8088 and could (barely) work.

[@zsombor_99]

@@dyter424 This is a 8088? Nevermind then.

[@useracc215]

pov: Michael uploads CLICK THE NOTIFICATION WATCH THE VIDEO

[@doctor.jaimeramirezcientif3206]

Gracias Bro ,ahora necesito una PC retro, para empezar de manitas 😊😊😊😊😊

[@motonavtn20]

wow thank for the vid ❤❤❤❤

[@John-McAfee]

John McAfee is entertained by your quality content. I remember using this bad boy back in the day, crazy to think you can hold a computer in your pocket that's 10,000 times faster than this bad boy

[@captaineldeezee1336]

John McAfee, I thought you were dead.

[@John-McAfee]

@@captaineldeezee1336 Huh, who are you talking to then?

[@ColdWarAviator]

​@@captaineldeezee1336 nah, he's just trying to stay one step ahead of governments and such.... Tough to do these days. Gotta give him this though: he saw the writing on the wall a LONG time ago.

[@John-McAfee]

@@ColdWarAviatorMcAfee antivirus is bullshit and do not use it on your computer no matter what you have to do. Intel sodomized the software and it's a complete ransomware utility at this point. I am pissed at these jerks still for still using my name for the software.

[@JamesSmith-md7fs]

​​@@John-McAfeeImagine a guy like you who's actually honest, I actually tend to respect you John McAfee. After your company got bought out. They totally ruined your software😢😢

[@nizarkayous416]

Yeah but, can it run DOOM?

[@DerekLippold]

It’s a miracle that these even got installed with how much effort this takes though I guess it wasn’t too unusual at the time.

[@thecoffeez]

Liked the Compaq "luggable" better at the time, and they both blew my orginal Osborne 1 away (And CP/M was going the way of the Dodo at the time). Zenith made a couple cool desktops too. Don't really miss 5 1/4 inch disks much. Sigh, the good old days. Great video!

[@waleedyaseen7166]

Great video

[@Soulintent95]

I really like that display. Used to seeing them green, this yellow-orange theme looks great.

[@danielsuarez786]

I absolutely love It. It's just like vanilla Fallout New Vegas Pip Boy's layout.

[@Soulintent95]

@@danielsuarez786 ya exactly what i was thinking. Other displays of the era are like fo3/4 but this one is straight outta new vegas!

[@gm42069]

This was pretty awesome, now I know where the fallout terminal UI comes from

[@DanburyDK]

Wow this is really neat

[@ballyastrocade5672]

Heh -- talk about nostalgia; I *had* one of these Zenith Z-130s back in the day! In fact, it was pretty much my "daily driver" PC up 'til about 1991 or '92, IIRC. Unfortunately, mine was just the "base" model, where the I/O daughterboard only had a floppy controller on it, and no ISA slot. (There were three different daughterboard options, again IIRC -- the base floppy-only model, the floppy + ISA-slot model, and then the "top-end" model that had an ST506 hard-drive interface as well as the floppy and ISA cardslot.) So the 8087 math coprocessor socket was about the only upgrade I could do to it. Still, I used it for years, until the monitor finally failed -- and even then, I stretched its life out a bit longer by putting a green-screen monitor on top of it, until I finally picked up enough bits and bobs at the local swapmeets to actually build a proper PC. (Since the 486s were hitting the market and becoming the "hot" item, there was a lot of surplus and secondhand 386 stuff hitting the swapmeets at the time.)

[@CubeAtlantic]

That is a dead-on wonderful & dope having that retro Windows :D

[@evanbales9728]

4 mins ago...always look forward to your videos michael

[@rogerwa123]

My company had three of these machines that people could check out if they wanted to do some work for home. Ours had 40mb hardcards in them in addition to the 2 floppys. I was doing deskside support at the time and would always have to got to the corporate library where they were stored and reset the hardcard in the ISA slot since it would get dislodged from rough handling. Near that time I took a networking course and the person giving the course said that the upcoming release of Windows 3.0 would change the world. Had no idea how right he would be.

[@baxus]

Thank you for telling me about the ALT+Spacebar hotkey. I couldn't figure it out for Windows 1.01.

[@gakabler]

When this video popped up I had to watch. I HAD TO WATCH!!!!

[@PaulKeppler]

I acquired a very similar zenith system... I didn't invest much time into it due to the missing keyboard cable. I really hope I just missed a hidden compartment. Thx for the video!

[@chaoscontrolsok]

Monochrome screen, floppy's... Awesome! :) Thanks for the video! :)

[@kWYQ1337]

What I find interesting is that older PCs require users to be more programmatic with workflow like swapping floppy discs, cmd interface nav and changing drives. It's a given since old OSes aren't streamlined, but still fascinating that everything is user friendly now.

[@mikesapienza1211]

That one clipping was for a store just outside of Pittsburgh. There was a Hooters, a Chinese Restaurant, and a couple of tech shops in a small plaza at that address. They all are now abandoned.

[@rickkaylor8554]

Amusing video. This video brought back memories from earlier in my career when I worked at Corvus Systems and and Iomega in technical and field support. All of us in technical support despised Windows 1.0. DOS was much easier, reliable and quicker. Windows wasn't really worth using until 3.1. I can remember often spending an hour or more trying to help customers set up their disk drives and networks. Back then you not only had DOS and Windows but a host of competing operating systems like CP/M. Things have come a long way.

[@homeforobsoletetechnology]

I have a Compaq Portable III Clone, wich is one of the coolest things in my collection. Those portable PCs are just awesome!

[@andrewjenery1783]

Amazing video showing yesteryear's computing.

[@dps6198]

Dad had a Compaq computer nearly identical. It was a beast. It was heavy and unruly and took forever to boot up.

[@rolfmoren6682]

Brings some memories back. Both 80286 and 80386 were out on the market when I got my first computer, but all I could afford was an 8086. It had a floppy diskette and the operative system; the DOS had to be loaded first every time I started it. Interestingly, I had Word, Data, and Excel on a floppy, and I had a matrix printer. The commands I was learning are still, to this day, what you can use on the latest versions of Microsoft Office.

[@allthenamesiwantedweretaken]

I love that you had to clarify 1986 wasn't our current year. I dunno why, but that little line is just so funny to me.

[@jimlaymon6021]

Nice. I still have the desktop version of that, the Z-148, which I bought for $999 in 1985 while in college. It also came with 256K upgradable to 640K. No hard drive. I never ran Windows on it. Just MS-DOS. At one point I put a disk controller in it and connected an external hard drive (20MB). That was a great improvement. I booted it up recently and the hard drive is dead and some of the diskettes are corrupt, but it did boot on a floppy disk.

[@nR-kv7xo]

amazing well kept machine

[@GregCooke-lr2ef]

I still use Windows 1.0 on my Zenith Portable PC.... Absolutely Incredible. Saving up now for the TRS 80 Color Computer 2...... That will be a serious boost for me......

[@ryangavigan2049]

Man that's the pc I had in the late 80s and early 90s and have been looking for that model again since...

[@alexanderforselius]

Awesome dude! If you could install Windows 10 it would be even more gorgeus!

[@the_kombinator]

That CRT blooms just like my Hyperion did when I was using it. After a minute or two, it would nicely stabilize. AFAIK it's in New Jersey now, since at least 2018.

[@maubryfer]

very cooll! Thank you.

[@litebkt]

I built a Zenith system sold by Heathkit not long after the computer in this video was released. It was an all in one with a larger CRT and two five inch floppies. I really liked my amber display.

[@gambaskeputih3027]

Once I had a PC with a hinged cover, so easy to open. very nostalgic 😊

[@loz9324]

fantastic keyboards on these with Alps SKCM Green switches!

[@peoplez129]

I love the retro colors, and they're pretty functional but also easy on the eyes. I wish there was an entire Windows 11 color scheme based around it. The color isn't just what makes it, but also the textures with the color, that have a bigger impact than if the color was uniformly solid.

[@recursiveidentity]

So freaking cool! It's a weird synchronicity I've been playing Reversi a whole bunch on the switch past few weeks and then this pops up on my feed. Also my brother had a "word processor" about that size with a similar screen. They feel so much more "personal" to me than a modern flat screen. Like fucking TRON or something. Also to think this thing went up against the Amiga 1000 that came out a few months earlier than Windows 1 did. No wonder it took a while and the Commodore crash for Microsoft to catch up lol.