[hirako2000]

The original likely infringed all Windows design principles.

Yet they pulled off one of the most usable media player.

[Wowfunhappy]

Windows users don’t care about Windows design principles because there basically aren’t any.

[badsectoracula]

At the time there were. Between 1995 and 2001 or so most Windows applications had largely consistent interfaces (yes i can think of exceptions, like WinAMP :-P and even Microsoft's own Office didn't always follow the rest of the OS, but in general at the time following the OS style was considered desirable).