How Microsoft's legal eagles wrangled Happy Days for Windows 95
- Reference: 1770816128
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2026/02/11/chen_weezer_happy_days_windows/
- Source link:
The video in question was to demonstrate the multimedia capabilities of Microsoft's successor to the Windows 3.x era. As well as all that 32-bit goodness, the operating system could play back a small, grainy video, and Microsoft included some music videos to emphasize the point.
One was Edie Brickell's "Good Times" and another was "Buddy Holly" from Weezer's debut album. Both tracks were recent, and Chen recalled the steps Microsoft had to take to get the latter in front of Windows 95 customers.
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"First, Microsoft had to secure the rights to the song itself, which was negotiated directly with Weezer's publisher Geffen Records, and [2]apparently without the knowledge of the band members themselves ," Chen [3]wrote on his Old New Thing blog.
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The band later said the initial disquiet they felt about their music appearing on Windows 95 was offset by the exposure from the operating system's huge sales.
[6]Microsoft veteran explains the one weird trick that made Windows 95 restart faster
[7]How Microsoft gave customers what they wanted: An audience with Bill Gates
[8]Windows keeps obsolete strings forever to avoid breaking translations
[9]To solve compatibility issues, Microsoft would quietly patch other people's code
However, that only accounted for the audio. The video, which took place in a recreation of the Happy Days television show, was a different matter. Happy Days was set in the late 1950s and early 1960s and broadcast during the 1970s and 1980s.
This presented Microsoft's lawyers with a problem. Since clips from the show had been spliced into the video, Microsoft had to get permission from the actors featured. Chen didn't recall if the lawyer in question had to talk to the actors directly, "but I can imagine it being an interesting experience trying to find Henry Winkler's telephone number (or his agent's telephone number) with a chance of talking to The Fonz himself."
Happy Days was responsible for the phrase "jumping the shark," from an episode in which the Fonzie character, on waterskis, jumped over a shark. It was subsequently used to describe a show or concept that has run out of ideas and resorts to increasingly implausible plot devices.
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In other news, Microsoft has continued to load its product lines [11]with AI features , and its flagship operating system, Windows (which has suffered a terrible start to the year with multiple out-of-band fixes), is set [12]to become an agentic OS . ®
Get our [13]Tech Resources
[1] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/oses&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2aYy1tQAQanmuuJtwtrL-UQAAAZc&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[2] https://genius.com/a/weezer-had-no-idea-the-music-video-for-buddy-holly-would-be-included-with-windows-95
[3] https://devblogs.microsoft.com/oldnewthing/20260210-00/?p=112052
[4] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/oses&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44aYy1tQAQanmuuJtwtrL-UQAAAZc&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[5] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/oses&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33aYy1tQAQanmuuJtwtrL-UQAAAZc&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[6] https://www.theregister.com/2026/01/20/chen_shift_reboot_windows/
[7] https://www.theregister.com/2026/01/01/microsofts_approach_to_customer_service/
[8] https://www.theregister.com/2025/11/28/chen_windows_text_translation/
[9] https://www.theregister.com/2025/11/13/microsoft_windows_compatibility_chen/
[10] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/oses&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44aYy1tQAQanmuuJtwtrL-UQAAAZc&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[11] https://www.theregister.com/2026/01/22/microsoft_notepad_update/
[12] https://www.theregister.com/2025/11/17/windows_agentic_os_feedback/
[13] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
Re: Jumping the shark indeed.
I took it as an example of Microsoft running out of ideas and reaching for ever more implausible options in order to keep Windoze relevant. "Jumping the shark" as it were.
Plus it isn't Mr.Speed's job to write an article in a positive or negative slant. His job is to essentially look out of his window and tell us if it's raining or not. It's not for him to tell us if it's good or bad weather. So with the Microsoft stories, if you feel they're negative, it's generally because the situation itself is negative.
Jumped the shark?
Microsoft hasn't only jumped the shark, it's nuked the fridge, and indeed shit the bed
This is hilarious.
Flash forward to today where Copilot and its ilk will happily infringe on any number of copyrights and Microsoft doesn't seem to be very worried about it.
That's the lesson, kids; copyright violations are only bad if you can't get away with it, so yo-ho-ho those torrents over that VPN and don't look back.
Did they remove it from later versions of the CD? I had the final OEM Service Release of Windows 95, but while I recall the "Good Times" video, "Buddy Holly" doesn't bring back any memories, and a bit of checking confirms that it doesn't appear to be there any more.
Sure. Microsoft is no-one holy buddy anymore.
I remember the Buddy Holly one but, despite liking the Win95, can't remember Good Times with it (I'll set 'em up...). TBF, I'm sure it was some years later that I actually discovered the Weezer vid so it's probably just my memory.
To be clear, I did know the Buddy Holly video from elsewhere. I'm just pretty sure I never saw it on the later release (OSR 2.5) of Win95 that came with my PC. The Good Times video is definitely on the disc as I remember it being, but the Buddy Holly one isn't.
I recall there was a Bill Plympton animated advert for Windows ‘95 at around the same time. My memory tells me that it was included on the CD or the Plus! Pack too, but then, 30-year-old cerebellum is about as reliable for data storage as 30-year-old floppies, so don’t take that as gospel.
Those were the days
Edie Brickell may have done all right out of it. I liked that song so much I bought all her albums.
Jumping the shark indeed.
"In other news, Microsoft has continued to load its product lines with AI features, and its flagship operating system, Windows (which has suffered a terrible start to the year with multiple out-of-band fixes), is set to become an agentic OS."
Did Microsoft run over Richard Speed's dog? He seems to write all his Microsoft articles with a negative slant.
This last paragraph has nothing to do with article, so why include it?
I expect better writing here.