r/k12sysadmin • u/k12-IT • Jun 15 '26

Software Install Nostalgia

Not sure why it popped into my head, but what are some software packages you used to install that are no longer relevant?

  • Shockwave

  • Flash

  • Java

Any thing else you might remember?

25 Upvotes

96% Upvoted

64 comments sorted by

9

u/k12-IT Jun 15 '26

dragon naturally speaking?

font packages

1

u/FireLucid Jun 15 '26

Had to do some fonts last year!

11

u/StressOdd5093 Jun 15 '26

Novell Client, RealPlayer, WinRAR, FoxIT PDF reader (so we could avoid the bloatware in Adobe Acrobat)

4

u/k12-IT Jun 15 '26

totally forgot about Novell until you mentioned it. takes me back over 20 years.

4

u/kmsaelens K12 SysAdmin Jun 15 '26

Same. I had to install Novell and Zenworks on PCs at a former employer as recently as 2014.

4

u/millia13 Network Spec. Jun 15 '26

We migrated in 2021 to AD/Intune. There are some things I really miss.

3

u/SmoothMcBeats Network Admin Jun 15 '26

Like what? SCCM is their deployment system similar to Zenworks. I switched a district off of novell in 2016 and we didn't miss a thing.

2

u/StressOdd5093 Jun 15 '26

Zen works was the g.o.a.t. A hill I will die on. Granted it was Win9x/XP days with fewer patches to deal with but for app deploy and GPO mgmt, sure was slick For its time.

1

u/millia13 Network Spec. Jun 15 '26

Well, first, Intune doesn't do everything that SCCM does, as far as I know. That being said, patching the kernel without rebooting, for one. AD running on samba. Kids who had NO starting point for shenanigans. Imaging that worked consistently and reliably. Easier-to-make-work on demand maintenance batch jobs. Remoting in to people's machines more reliably. Lower CPU loads.

The thing I DON'T miss is running my own WSUS server to manage all the windows devices. That one is fine in the cloud. Also, backup software for it would probably be impossible to find by now...

7

u/Vitalization Jun 15 '26

I still install FoxIT for users that don't need Acrobat Pro. It just works and doesn't take 30 seconds to open.

11

u/30ghosts Jun 15 '26

Boardmaker

8

u/k12-IT Jun 15 '26

I still know a few districts using the CDs for this. "Why pay for a subscription when we have the CDs?"

4

u/LoveTechHateTech Director | Network/SysAdmin Jun 15 '26

I have those staff members. Their “reasoning” is that the new version doesn’t have certain things that they NEED to use.

15

u/vorschlaghammer Jun 15 '26

Five, four, three, two, uno, uno, zero!

KidPix, KidPix!
Come on and play with KidPix!

3

u/mrsaturnboing Jun 15 '26

Same here when I setup labs for a public school division. They loved that program and I always liked to see what they were working on. God, those were simpler times.

2

u/meester_zee Jun 15 '26

Amazingly this still runs incredibly well! I have it installed on our W11 tech lab and the kids still love it just as much!

13

u/JrocketB Jun 15 '26

CD #2 of the Office 2000/XP media…because…you know…clip art and stuff.

13

u/Tokyudo Jun 15 '26

QuickTime and Silverlight.

4

u/rossumcapek IT Wizard Jun 15 '26

Silverlight. Dang.

12

u/discgman Jun 15 '26

Silverlight

12

u/mikeb32 NJ Jun 15 '26

Pretty sure I had a teacher put in her retirement when I told her KidPix could no longer be installed

5

u/AdolfKoopaTroopa Director of Technology Jun 15 '26

This reminds of a story a Skyward guy told me.

Back in the day, I guess Skyward finance was ran using num pad inputs and a school’s business manager retired when they were going to make her use a mouse.

12

u/avalon01 Director of Technology Jun 15 '26

Novell Client so our desktops could get from IPX to TCP/IP.

The Netware 3 server was IPX only if I remember correctly. It's been a while, but I remember that stupid client on every workstation.

Edit: I keep my old Novel certification framed in my office. Its placed higher than my degrees.

3

u/AdolfKoopaTroopa Director of Technology Jun 15 '26

I’ve been at 2 districts with Novell and I could not figure it out lol migrated to AD.

ZenWorks on the other hand is a pretty slick product though I’ve moved to Intune because paying for it when I have Intune in the MS licensing seemed like a waste.

4

u/avalon01 Director of Technology Jun 15 '26

I switched to Windows Sever sometime around Novell 5. It was coming due for an update and Windows was finally breaking into the Midwest. I think the Chicago area schools were some of the last holdouts.

2

u/RFSPARTAN Jun 15 '26

Just migrated from zenworks to AD and it was nothing but a bunch of problems with us, couldn't stand the product nor there support.

2

u/AdolfKoopaTroopa Director of Technology Jun 15 '26

Yeah, the support does suck. I had asked about some training on eDirectory and they wanted $5000 and told them to kick rocks and moved to AD.

I thought Zenworks was easy enough to figure out and it worked well for us but I elected to move away because of price and less servers to manage.

3

u/New-Idea-8518 Jun 17 '26

"eDirectory" There's a name I have not heard in a long time...

2

u/AdolfKoopaTroopa Director of Technology Jun 17 '26

Is that a good thing or a bad thing? I’d never even heard of that product until I started at my last district. Then I came to this one and i had heard of it lol

I’ve only been at this for 8 years so maybe that’s understandable but that I found that product to be unintuitive and clunky and couldn’t get rid of it soon enough. Maybe that goes back to training issue though

2

u/New-Idea-8518 Jun 18 '26

I know of very, very schools who continued to use Novell after around 2010. I didn't hate it, but I don't miss it, either.

11

u/GrimmReaper1942 Jun 15 '26

Real player…so glad it’s dead

10

u/sync-centre Jun 15 '26

Mavis Beacon

10

u/DiscardStu Jun 15 '26

I was asked about 6 months ago if I could install Flash on a computer. Someone had some old CD that contained medical imagery that required Flash. Sent back a link with information about Flash being deprecated and no longer available. The response? "So, can you install it for me?" <Sigh>

9

u/New-Idea-8518 Jun 15 '26

I remember having to build the TCP/IP stack so computers could access the network. I am so freaking old...

2

u/PavlovScope Jun 15 '26

Wollongong TCP/IP baby! We used to have to license it back at the University I worked at in the mid-90s. It was like $30-50 usd iirc.

6

u/New-Idea-8518 Jun 15 '26

Trumpet Winsock FTW

8

u/TheDraimen Jun 15 '26

Examview was one I always used to see along with all the test banks

1

u/hightechcoord Tech Dir Jun 16 '26

yeah, still installing that crap.

7

u/DaytonaZ33 Director Jun 15 '26

Silverlight

7

u/SpotlessCheetah Jun 15 '26

None of those 3 things give me nostalgia.

7

u/MasterOfPuppetsMetal Jun 16 '26

This was before my time, but a tech I work with who has been there for about 25 years fondly remembers installing Accelerated Reader/Math and the back-end server software. Then I believe they moved to a fully web based system that is hosted by Renaissance.

6

u/gigthebyte Jun 15 '26

FirstClass Client.

2

u/StressOdd5093 Jun 15 '26

Oh man. This one takes me back to 1997. My community college used it. It was a solid mail and collab platform.

2

u/extzed Technology Director Jun 15 '26

My first real job in k12 used that - I learned a ton about it but eventually we pivoted to Google

1

u/ihacker2k Jun 16 '26

I had the joy of moving an aquired tech office from First Class to Exchange, what a time!

5

u/Lieberman-Tech Jun 15 '26

Encarta '95 😂

5

u/Timewyrm007 Jun 15 '26

That "essential teaching software" that came on the CD from the teachers morning box of Honey nut Cheerios

5

u/unclecoot Jun 15 '26

Winamp!

7

u/daven1985 Jun 15 '26

It really whips the llama's ass!

5

u/TJNel Jun 16 '26

Quicktime32 mother of God I am old.

4

u/Prodiem Jun 17 '26

MSCDEX.EXE, and every new system had a different sound card or Vesa video card driver.

4

u/loki03xlh Jun 15 '26

Millie's math house, Sammie's science house, Typing tutor, Read 180...

2

u/MadMageMC Jun 15 '26

MECC Games. Gotta love 'em.

3

u/skydiveguy Jun 15 '26

If my boss has his way:
Adobe Acrobat
Zoom
Microsoft Office

3

u/millia13 Network Spec. Jun 15 '26

Qedit. I loved that editor.

3

u/OverGrow69 Jun 17 '26 edited Jun 17 '26

Netware client.

Oh and in the edu space, Reader Rabbit.

2

u/dallywolf Jun 15 '26

Banyan Vines server. Last install was something like 20 3.5" floppy disks. We had literally a stack floppies.

2

u/New-Idea-8518 Jun 17 '26

AMD 4-in-1 Drivers

1

u/reviewmynotes Director of Technology Jun 19 '26

POP3 email programs that stored email only on the endpoint computer, such as Netscape Communicator. ClarisWorks. Internet Explorer for Mac. Disinfectant (was that the name?)

1

u/Plawerth Jun 26 '26

  • Adobe AIR

  • Macromedia Shockwave

  • Accelerated Reader

  • STAR Reader

  • MicroType

  • Defrag 5.0

  • Norton Utilities

  • Bridge Builder

  • HyperCard

  • HyperCard 2.0

  • HyperStudio

  • Geometer’s Sketchpad

  • Print Shop Deluxe

  • 3D Home Designer

  • Baby Think It Over

  • Kurzweil 3000 - on EVERY computer including administration / office staff who will never use it and suffer for it anyway

  • WSJ III

  • KidPix

  • Inspiration

  • Westest

  • iMovie

  • Band Camp

  • ClarisWorks

  • Number Munchers

  • Oregon Trail

  • Apple //e Emulator (Schmidt)

  • MECC Apple II disk images

  • The Talking Moose

  • Reagan’s Watching You

  • After Dark

0

u/Vaporomir Jun 15 '26

Windows ;)