We take for granted these days that Windows is stable, secure and reliable.  We even don’t see the blue screen of death very often any more.  It’s easy to forget then that long before Windows even made the transition to 64-bit, it was far from reliable.  In fact it could safely be said that pre-Windows XP a typical user could face the prospect of having to reinstall their operating system every couple of months (it’s little wonder then why so many people liked XP!)

Nobody ever captured the essence of what it was like to use Windows in the last century better than James Cliffe who’s Windows RG (Really Good Edition) animation went as close to viral as anything in the pre-internet age was able to get.

With Windows 8 now just around the corner having a play with Windows RG is a fun romp.  It’s a fully functioning, interactive experience showing just how bad those early versions of Windows were by parodying them in the most imaginative way.  Who can forget the immortal message “Paperclip.exe has performed 94,708 illegal operations and will now be shot”?

It’s all there, Windows Media Player, Explorer (both Windows and Internet), Word, Windows Update, Solitaire, Paint and an imaginative application that never made it into any final Windows release called Crash.

Windows RG can be found hosted all over the Internet to keep the dream alive, but has its own dedicated website at windowsreallygoodedition.com, where you might expect to find it.

So the next time you fire up the Developer Preview of Windows 8, think back to the days before XP and have a play with Windows RG… it’s really good!