A quirk of accessibility of low-level formatting meant that you could persuade a 1.44MB disk drive to create a 1.72MB disk reliably, and a 1.76MB disk slightly less reliably.
IIRC, Microsoft decided to use the 1.72MB quirk for physical distribution of their software, since it made a significant cost savings in those days before cheap optical media, in those days before network distribution of commercial consunmer software.
IIRC, Microsoft decided to use the 1.72MB quirk for physical distribution of their software, since it made a significant cost savings in those days before cheap optical media, in those days before network distribution of commercial consunmer software.