As Windows evolves, along with the rest of the tech world, many programs and features come and go. I've already recently talked about features I miss from old Windows versions, but today, I want to go over old Windows programs that are no longer available and that I dearly miss.

Keep in mind, this is entirely based on my own personal experience, so don't be surprised to see some things you may not know of, or to have some of your favorite programs missing. Let's get right into it.

5 Windows (Live) Movie Maker

The video editor for everyone

I've touched on Windows Movie Maker (later known as Windows Live Movie Maker) a couple of times in past articles, and it's easy to see why it's a recurring thought when it comes to nostalgic programs. Despite video content creation only growing in demand over the past decade, Microsoft decided to abandon its free video editor in 2012, leaving users to find more cumbersome or expensive alternatives to make their own video projects.

I remember making videos and watching my cousin make videos on Windows Movie Maker, and it felt very intuitive and easy to use for a free tool. This was also before Microsoft tried to monetize every single aspect of every app, so there weren't things like ads or upsells. It was just a straightforward app that did the job.

These days, we have Clipchamp, which is... fine, but I hate that it's web-based and it requires a payment for many features, including exporting 4K video. If Windows Movie Maker had kept evolving all this time, it would probably be a much better competitor to Apple's iMovie.

4 Rockmelt

Rock-what now?

This item is the reason I included that disclaimer at the start about this being based on my own experiences. You probably haven't heard of Rockmelt, and hearing of it today probably won't do much to convince you it was cool. But as a high-schooler in 2012, having access to my Facebook chats at all times was an amazing idea, and Rockmelt executed it perfectly.

This was a Chromium-based web browser but it had a slightly different UI I much preferred, and more important, it included Facebook integration directly in the UI. This wasn't some sidebar that just opened the website like most "integrations" are these days — not at all. Rockmelt had the three quick notification buttons from Facebook at the time (for friend requests, messages, and general activity notifications) built right into the menu bar, updated in real-time, so all your Facebook activity was immediately accessible. Plus, Facebook's Messenger was also built in, so you could have your chats open while browsing any website.

At the time, this was a dream, and while I don't care much for Facebook these days, I would still love this kind of tight integration with some kind of social network.

3 Windows Media Center

It could have become interesting

I will admit, when I first got a Windows Vista PC, and later a Windows 7 one, I don't think I really understood the point of Windows Media Center. The PC my family got did come with a Media Center remote, but TV tuning on a PC or using a dedicated media management interface didn't make much sense to any of us. I do think there were some games built-in that were exclusive to this UI, though maybe these were dependent on the PC manufacturer, as I don't think Microsoft ever made games specifically for this UI.

Either way, looking at it today, I definitely feel like Windows Media Center would make a ton more sense. Many more people have Home Theater PCs (HTPC) these days, and streaming services are more prevalent than ever. Having a unified UI you can use to browse all this content makes a lot of sense — though admittedly, most people may just use a smart TV for that now.

But there's still another potential use case: gaming. Windows-based gaming handhelds have left it entirely up to manufacturers to create a decent UI for use with a game controller, and Windows 11 itself is still terrible for it. The same problem would affect an HTPC if you want to use it for gaming. The Media Center UI, had it evolved throughout the years, would have lent itself perfectly to these use cases, and it would provide a more consistent user experience. Yet another case of Microsoft killing a product before it really had a chance to shine.

2 The Windows XP games

Who doesn't miss them?

You can't talk about nostalgic programs in Windows without talking about the games, arguably some of the most nostalgic and iconic pieces of Windows software ever. Everyone remembers wasting time in some of these games, and for me, it never got better than 3D Pinball: Space Cadet. To this day, I love pinball games, and I'm pretty sure this little game started it all. I loved hitting all the right spots to get parts of the board to light up or make the bumpers change color, which I believe indicated some kind of leveling system.

There were a lot more games in Windows XP that I miss, though. I was never good at most of the card games, but I loved Hearts, and I remember feeling really smart learning the phrase "shoot the moon", especially knowing it in English when it wasn't my native language. Of course, there was also Minesweeper, another classic that I mostly played completely at random until the fateful day I learned that the numbers on the board actually meant something.

I never had much of an attachment to Purble Place in Windows Vista and 7, but I do remember some of those mini-games, and I know a lot of people are also nostalgic about them. For me, I'd say that era was more emblematic for Chess Titans than anything else — not that I was very good at chess, either.

1 Windows Live Messenger

I always liked it more than Skype

I've vented my frustrations with Microsoft's messaging app history in the past, but it all started when the company decided to acquire Skype and discontinue Windows Live Messenger in 2012. Windows Live Messenger, previously known as Windows Messenger (and MSN Messenger before that) was a messaging service that, in my opinion, worked perfectly at the time.

It had tabbed conversations, a nice home screen that made it easy to see all your online contacts (I had a lot more of them back then), and I always loved how it handled video calls and screen sharing. Video calls would just expand inside the messaging window, replacing the user's profile picture, which felt really natural and didn't take away from the messaging experience. And if someone needed help with their PC, Windows Live Messenger integrated directly with Remote Assistance in Windows, so you could easily take control over a friend's PC to sort something out. I also remember all the custom emoticons you could use and create. I knew some people who would just replace letters with an emoticon, such as using the iconic Disney "D" instead of just using the proper letter. That may have been too much, but it was definitely memorable.

Nostalgia is always going to give you some rose-tinted glasses, but this isn't an app I just miss now. I always hated being forced to move to Skype, and it never convinced me that it was better than the previous solution. And now that it's being replaced with Teams, I'm not sure that's much better, either.

Sometimes, newer isn't better

Many of these apps have received spiritual successors in some way on newer versions of Windows, but whether it's nostalgia or not, I think it's safe to say things aren't really the same. Clipchamp is just not as intuitive and easy to use as Windows Movie Maker was at the time. Skype and Teams lack the fun customization of custom emoticons in Windows Live Messenger. And the games included in Windows today are just loaded with ads and a loud UI that feels like it's constantly trying to get your attention.

There was more of a fun aspect to using a computer back in the day, and everything today feels really streamlined and boring in comparison.