Windows & the Power of Nostalgia
Have you heard? Windows 3.0 File Manager is back! Like mine, I’m sure your heart is soaring, taking you right back to your first Windows machine: a hulking PC glowing benevolently in the family room, opening your eyes to the thrill of personal computing. Minesweeper! Microsoft Paint! Notepad! That epic Encarta 95 CD-ROM you disguised as homework! Oh, the magic. The possibilities. And at the center of it all, the faithful, humble file manager.
Technically the OS of my upbringing was Windows 95, not Windows 3.0. But the file management design didn’t change much through the PC-empowered 90’s, establishing the most ubiquitous, long-held computing metaphor across the industry. It’s called File Explorer now, a subtle distinction (why manage when you can explore?), but the formative design is solid as ever. So solid that Windows 10 is having a yearbook moment and bringing the quaint 3.0 version back into our lives — a wink and a nod to Windows fans.
This is a perfect idea, and a win for nostalgic Windows users like me. I was among those who read last year’s news that Microsoft Paint was ousted and had a veritable freak-out. So unceremonious! Friends and family scrambled to reach me, mourning the loss, reminiscing days gone by, lost in the whimsy of a pixelated spray can. How dare you, they said, as if I were personally responsible, as if I myself wasn’t desperately searching back channels for a hail-mary download. I loved Microsoft Paint, they said.
Nostalgia is a powerful thing, and Microsoft is well-positioned to recognize it (hi, Oregon Trail for Minecraft!). People remember these experiences, store them, give them a special place in their hearts — without really realizing it. It’s that old don’t know what you got ’til it’s gone feeling. We feel connected to our cars, homes, computers — inanimate things — because we’re silly, emotional humans. We can’t help ourselves. We unwittingly collect formative moments around those objects. We feel it all.
And so, years later, you hear the old dial-up tune somewhere and your heart breaks. Your brain sparks the memory center. You have an overwhelming desire to login to AOL, to ask Jeeves a ridiculous question, to conquer Number Munchers once and for all. This is what Microsoft is giving us, all wrapped up in a little GitHub package. An irreplaceable nostalgia unleashed by the simple design of a file manager.
Ah, memories. Have fun in the way-back machine!
