As the years go by, especially when it comes to technology, what was once considered a luxury becomes a standard expectation for most people. And Windows is a great example of this. Since its early days, more and more features have been added, and features that were once only available as premium features have now become standard in the Home editions of Windows 11.
So today we're going to take a trip back in time to when things were worse. Here are some features you used to have to pay extra for if you had a Windows PC.
8 Task Scheduler (System Agent)
Task automation was not free
The concept of Windows editions wasn't really implemented until Windows XP, but Windows 95 still offered its own way of offering some premium extras with the Microsoft Plus! add-on package. And that first edition of the package included a feature that is now widely used in Windows 11 Home: the Task Scheduler. Or, as it was called back then, System Agent.
The Task Scheduler is probably not a tool you use that often, but you can use it to automate all kinds of tasks, such as launching an app (or apps) at specific times or when certain conditions are met. The first version in the Microsoft Plus! package was the only time it was called System Agent, as it was incorporated into Windows NT 4.0 under the new name Task Scheduler, which it has retained to this day.
7 BitLocker
Device encryption has become the standard
BitLocker is a technology that encrypts the data on a hard disk drive so that others cannot access your data without the key to decrypt it. BitLocker was introduced in Windows Vista, but back then you needed Windows Vista Enterprise or Ultimate to access it. It was only in Windows 8 that it was reduced to Pro editions.
But while BitLocker is technically still reserved for Pro editions today, the technology used for BitLocker is actually used in the Home editions of Windows 11. By default, your PC is always encrypted. The only thing missing from the Home editions are the advanced management features like drive encryption or the ability to store the recovery key outside of your Microsoft account.
6 Windows Fax and Scan
Faxing used to be a selling point
These days, faxing is only used in certain contexts to send documents, but a few decades ago it was a pretty big deal for all kinds of businesses. Perhaps for this reason, when Microsoft introduced the Windows Fax and Scan app in Windows Vista (replacing XP's Fax Console), it was reserved for the Business, Enterprise, and Ultimate editions.
It wasn't long before Windows Fax and Scan were available in every version of Windows starting with Windows 7. And even though faxing is far less common today than it used to be, the app is still included in Windows 11.
5 Windows Mobility Center
Not that anyone cares anymore
As laptops became more common in the mainstream market, it made sense to have some features specific to these devices, and that's exactly what Windows Mobility Center did. This small control panel allowed you to change various settings that were more relevant to laptops, such as power plan, screen brightness, and volume.
However, when it first appeared in Windows Vista, the Mobility Center was exclusive to the Home Premium edition. Of course, given the growing popularity of laptops, this feature was soon built in by default and is still available today in Windows 11. However, no one really cares about this feature because all of these controls are now available elsewhere throughout the operating system.
4 A browser
You had to pay for Internet Explorer
Paying for a web browser sounds completely crazy today, but in the '90s the Internet was in its infancy, so it was a little more justified. After Microsoft got the rights to publish its own version of Spyglass Mosaic, it released Internet Explorer 1.0. And just like Task Scheduler, Internet Explorer was included in the Microsoft Plus! add-on package, which meant you had to pay $50 for it.
Internet Explorer was soon bundled with Windows at no additional cost, and that helped make it a staple on every Windows PC in the late '90s and early 2000s. Technically, however, Internet Explorer is no longer included with Windows, as it was discontinued in 2023.
Believe it or not, this was intended for tablets
The Snipping Tool is now a fairly simple but powerful tool for taking screenshots of your PC, but back then it was considered a tablet feature. In Windows XP, the Snipping Tool was part of the special Tablet PC Edition, and in Windows Vista it still required the Home Premium Edition.
It wasn't until Windows 7 that it became available in every edition of Windows, and has been there ever since. Of course, the Snipping Tool has since been replaced by a completely modernized version that includes video recording, all at no extra cost to you. One could argue that it should have always been this way.
2 Proper tablet support
It wasn't just the Snipping Tool
When it came to tablets, there were a few things that were held back in most versions of Windows. These included the Tablet PC Input Panel, support for swipe gestures, and even support for devices with capacitive touchscreens.
Of course, all of this happened before Windows tablets became mainstream computing devices. Since then, touch capabilities have become more widespread and sometimes they were even the main focus of the operating system, such as during the Windows 8 era. Windows 11 is simply designed to work with touch out of the box, without requiring anything special.
1 More than 8 GB RAM
We are as shocked as you
You read that right. During the Windows 7 era, Microsoft had the brilliant idea of ​​limiting the maximum amount of RAM supported by the operating system depending on the edition, and that was nothing like what we have today. If you had Windows 7 Home Basic, you could only get 8GB of RAM, which is absolutely paltry by today's standards.
To get around this limit, you had to upgrade to Home Premium, and even then you were still limited to a maximum of 16GB. Only the Business editions and above supported up to 128GB. Of course, that was more than enough for almost everyone back then, but today it sounds absurd. And that's helped by the fact that Microsoft itself stopped enforcing such strict limits. Today, Windows 11 Home and Pro both support up to 128GB of RAM, and the Enterprise edition would support up to 2TB. Suffice it to say, things have evolved.
It's still fun to think back to those times
Today it sounds absolutely ridiculous that some of these features were even paid for, but back when they were introduced, these limitations made sense to a certain extent. And it's always fun to reminisce about how things used to be, even if they were objectively worse in many ways.
Personally, I didn't know about most of these limitations until I started writing this article, but I'm sure many people reading this remember using these features in the past. And it's always interesting to think about.