this post was submitted on 04 Feb 2026
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I actually always thought that the mid-aughts trend of putting "My" in front of everything to make it feel personalized was really bizarre, considering that you weren't ever the person labeling it that. Some developer or marketer you never met named it that. It always annoyed me when my icons started getting relabeled with names that a boomer grandpa might put on them, felt really pandery. Prior to the "My" trend, "My Computer" was just "Computer".
Didn’t “My Computer” exist since like Windows 95 or so?
Also back when it was first introduced I heard some explanation that people were expected to rename it using their actual name. So something like “Joe’s Computer.” Though I don’t think anyone really did that in practice, which just resulted in everyone always having the “My Computer” icon on their windows desktop and it became the norm.
Yes, Win95 called it My Computer, but at the time it was maybe the only GUI to do that. I remember the trend really kicked off in the early aughts with MySimon and their advertising campaign. Then all of a sudden every header in the OS got the word "My" tacked on.
What do you mean header in the OS? Like .h files? I haven’t seen this.
No like textual headers of windows and settings sections. Shit like "My Settings".
Is that even still possible? Renaming My Computer i mean.
I would think not. But I’m a tech illiterate Linux user who hasn’t used windows in 20+ years.
My brain:
Someone else posted that somewhere in this thread. I’m on my phone and can’t be bothered to look it up.
Looks like it's coupled with the computers hostname now. Configured with the Run command
sysdm.cpl. Classic new Windows.I kind of think this might have all been the original vision of some small group of engineers. Like on the network you might see “Joe’s Computer” and “Jane’s Computer” and “Bob’s Printer”. But that vision all got lost in the larger Microsoft macrocosm between how they handle host names and networking and their SMB protocol, and their installers not properly renaming that stupid desktop icon. And ultimately we ended up with the ubiquitous My Computer everywhere.
you can actually still do that! enable the desktop icon for 'computer' in settings->personalisation->themes->desktop icon settings, then go to that icon on the desktop and right click it and rename. although i have gotten used to win11's 'user files' one with quick access and recent and use that one instead---when it works, anyway (right now it is not)
Windows is more than a decade older than Windows 95.
Yeah, but "My Computer" was not a thing in the earliest versions of Windows. "My Computer" came with Windows 95.
But I didn’t think previous versions had the My Computer icon. I could be wrong, but that was certainly when I started noticing it.
Tho MySpace has never been space