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It sorta did through Windows/Microsoft update. They just didn't focus on releasing major editions often or at all for Windows, but it got security patches and m
by joecool1029 5y ago
It sorta did through Windows/Microsoft update. They just didn't focus on releasing major editions often or at all for Windows, but it got security patches and minor point releases all the time.
- cesarb 5y agoActually, IIRC the very first versions of Windows Update were an ActiveX control. You had to use IE to run it, so from a certain point of view, that was IE updating itself.
- chungy 5y agoThe very first version was a native application for Windows 95 and 98 (First Edition). It was retired in short order in favor of the ActiveX page.
- cesarb 5y agoInteresting. Do you know of anywhere that has screenshots of that native application, for curiosity's sake? When I first used Windows Update in Windows 9x, it was already a (very slow) ActiveX applet.
- banana_giraffe 5y agoI was curious, because that's very much not my memory of how things were. After fighting with QEMU and getting Windows 98 4.10.1998 up and running, the wupdmgr.exe stub that it ships with just detects if the machine is connected to the Internet, if it is, it opens MSIE and sends you to a page that doesn't exist anymore. If you're not connected, it loads a local webpage in MSIE telling you about how great Windows Update is. Funnily enough, that page also includes instructions to get rid of the Windows Update launcher should you not want to see it anymore.