Tips

Tips is the latest of a series of tutorial hubs in Microsoft Windows that provides information about using features. Information is presented as screenshots, text descriptions, videos, and web links. As Windows upgrades have traditionally been drastic, each version since Windows 95 has had its own tutorial app, and the name has changed frequently. Notably, the feature list shown has tended to expand as newer versions of Windows are released and the most recently released tutorial receives updates through the Microsoft Store, allowing it to receive updates more frequently than Windows itself is upgraded. Evolution Tips originated with a popup in Windows 95 named Welcome to Windows 95, a series of screens that resembled Windows Installer and introduced the user to the Start menu and dial-up networking. The popup appeared the first time a user logged into Windows. A nearly identical popup named Welcome to NT was included in the 1996 release of Windows NT 4.0. The Windows 98 version featured a new sidebar design and a cloud background. The contents were arranged into four categories: Register Now, Connect to the Internet, Discover Windows 98, and Maintain Your Computer. In the Getting Started with Windows 2000 popup, the Maintain Your Computer section was removed and the Windows 2000 logo was added. Windows ME replaced the static information popup with a much larger Flash-based narrated tutorial popup named Welcome to Windows ME. It began with a video and included four main sections: Digital Media, Rich Internet Experience, Home Networking, and Improved User Experience.