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Comment by jbullock35 | Hacker News Reader

Missing: Microsoft Bookshelf [1]. Encarta was a somewhat similar product, but the reference sources in Bookshelf were arguably better. For example, Bookshelf contained the unabridged American Heritage Dictionary, while Encarta used (I think) a Webster's dictionary [2].

I still use Bookshelf 1996 on most days of the week.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Bookshelf

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Encarta_Webster%27s_Dictionary

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What line of work are you in where you’re using this tool regularly? Curious to know

I'm a professor. I write a lot, and I use Bookshelf 1996 mainly for the third edition of the American Heritage Dictionary, which is great. The interface is better than the interface for the iOS app.

You can get the 4th edition for free at https://ahdictionary.com, and it's good. I'm just old-fashioned enough to dislike some of the changes that they made between the third and fourth editions.

Unless you have a Windows 3.1 vm kicking around just to support this, that seems unlikely.

No need for a VM. I'm running Windows 10. Setup is easy if you still have a drive that can read CDs: just mount the ISO (for example, with ImgBurn), copy all of the files to your SSD, and run AAMSSTP\APP\BSHELF96.EXE. The registry is never touched, so it's a very portable installation.

I suppose that the ability to run this nearly-30-year-old program with ease is testament to Microsoft's commitment to backward compatibility. And if I wanted, I could probably run it straight from the CD, as people did back in 1996.

> And if I wanted, I could probably run it straight from the CD, as people did back in 1996.

1996?

More like 1987: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yBupNdYe08g

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