95 didn't support title bar gradients natively, but it was trivially easily to add support for it into your application manually. If I recall correctly, it was only one win32 API.
I used to love hacking about with the Win32 Apis in the old days. I wrote all sorts of neat tricks like turning the start button into a paddle for a weird desktop-based game of Breakout.
turning the start button into a paddle for a weird desktop-based game of Breakout.
I've done a bit of fun "repurposing" of the Win32 controls too, and that is something I'd definitely love to see --- probably along with quite a few others on HN.
Sadly I don't think I have the source for it any more - I've been running Linux since XP was released and this was long before then. The core logic was quite easy though; just grab the hWnd of the start button and use the usual Win32 APIs to move the thing about. What took longer to write was the ball and blocks you needed to smash.
The game wasn't pretty though. But it was thrown together when I was at college and should have been writing course work. In fact, I'd be surprised if it would even still play on modern Windows.
Oh wow. That's a blast from the past. I don't think I've been on that site since the 90s.
I still have an unclaimed prize ticket for winning best submission one month.
It's a pity the owner never gave the UI more love as that site had the member base long before StackExchange et al but it just failed to compete. Even now, it still looks like a 90s site and that's not even the same design it had in the 90s.
I used to love hacking about with the Win32 Apis in the old days. I wrote all sorts of neat tricks like turning the start button into a paddle for a weird desktop-based game of Breakout.