Yes, You Can Run Windows 95 on a Calculator

It may have been clunky and full of bugs, but even so, Windows 95 changed personal computing forever when it was released. The intimidating text-based interface of operating systems like DOS was replaced with a user-friendly Start button and plug and play hardware in one fell swoop. We may want to forget the way Microsoft executives danced on stage for the release event, but we will never forget Windows 95.

Redditor Far-Temperature3580 has a Texas Instruments TI-Nspire CX II graphing calculator, and wondered what it would be like to run Windows 95 on it, because why not? As it turns out, it is possible — but definitely not advisable.

The TI-Nspire CX II has a large, full-color display and a relatively powerful Arm processor, so it’s not as ridiculous a platform for running a desktop operating system as it may first seem. However, while the calculator’s Arm processor may have been something pretty special in 1995, Windows wasn’t designed to run on that architecture. Thirty years ago, Windows 95 was running on x86-based Pentium and 486 CPUs.

So to get the operating system running on the Arm chip, Far-Temperature3580 had to emulate an x86 machine with it. This was made possible with a port of Tiny386, which does exactly that job. It is a lightweight emulator for 386 systems (with some 486 and 586 instruction support) that runs on microcontrollers.

Unfortunately, Far-Temperature3580 doesn’t give instructions detailing how Windows 95 was installed on the calculator, but the video shows that it clearly works. However, it’s not very usable. Emulation slows things down a great deal. So much so, that it takes a full seven minutes to boot.

So, what do you do when you get Windows 95 running on a calculator? Launch the calculator app, naturally.