Windows O'hare

Windows O'Hare is the codename for a cancelled operating system that was planned to be the successor to Windows 95. Because the OS was essentially an expansion of Chicago, it shares many similarities with it, including the Chicago Shell and functions that are similar to the "twin" it was based on.
The project was a total nightmare for developers as they threw too many ideas at once, and it became apparent that the systems weren't powerful enough to handle the new features.
== The 4 Tapes ==
At some point between September 9 and 30, 2003, LSBA user ARRSKR uploaded images and videos of four VHS tapes to the website, with the description "Some tapes I found. One is a shell test that uses the Chicago Build 116 shell, and the other is voice recognition. There is also a musical composition on the music track, CANYON.MID. The last tape discusses the issues with the development cycle and a request that the project be canned. Sorry about the quality; I found these in very poor condition, but I hope you like them."
The tapes were ripped and uploaded to YouTube on March 7, 2020, though the uploader (who remains unknown) has labeled them as "unlisted" for unknown reasons.
=== Contents ===
==== Shell Test: 06/15/94 ====
This is the first tape. This tape shows a recorded meeting at Microsoft's first "What's Next" conference on June 3, 1994, about Windows O'Hare. The person who is holding the meeting says that "to get an idea of what kind of direction we want to go in, I put together this short system reel." "As you can see, it's very fluid, colorful, and faithful to the original shell of the latest Chicago prototype, as I'm sure you'll agree." This conference went over rather well with the people who attended the meeting, and the O'Hare project would thrive from mid-1994 to late 1996.
==== Voice Recognizer: 12/23/96 ====
This is the second tape. This tape shows a build of Windows O'Hare being tested for the Speech API, a feature that would be removed and later show up in Windows Vista. The app asks the user to speak into their PC microphone when they're ready. The user then says, "Hello, Thomas," and the app starts talking like the user. With the information given in the video, we can confirm that the software tester's first name is Thomas, but not much is known about his middle and last names, his height, or his age, among other things.
==== Midi Test: 02/22/97 ====
This is the third tape. This tape shows a "remastered composition" of CANYON.MID. It was recreated using a Kurzweil K2000 VP and was the first rerecording of any Windows midi. This showcase gives us certain factors that indicate that O'Hare was meant to be more of a multimedia-based system when it was planned for release. In a vlog post from 2002, the person who recreated CANYON.MID on the Kurzweil K2000 VP said that it was difficult for him to get the computer and keyboard to comply with each other, but he had a great time remaking the midi.
==== Phone Call: 09/17/98 ====
This is the fourth tape. Marcus made a phone call (behind his bedroom door) and told the O'Hare Development Team Manager that the project wasn't getting anywhere faster than it already was. He intended that once the final beta was released, O'Hare would be cancelled by October 14, 1998. The request that Marcus made was granted, and the O'Hare project was soon canceled after four painfully long years of development.
Category:Windows
Category:Fictional Windows versions
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