Windows 95

Windows 95 was an operating system with a 16 bit and 32 bit hybrid graphical user interface. It was released on August 24, 1995, achieving remarkable sales success. The key name of the development process was Chicago

It was aimed at incorporating a new graphical interface that competed with that of OS/2. Although it shared a lot of code with Windows 3.x and MS-DOS, it was intended to introduce the 32 bit architecture and support multitasking, such as OS/2 or windows NT. However only part of Windows 95 used the 32 bit architecture, most of which continued to use a 16 bit architecture. Microsoft argued that a full conversion would have delayed its publication too much and would have raised project costs

Windows 95 was released with a strong marketing campaign, including an ad with the Rolling Stones song , "Start Me Up". Microsoft's detractors rushed to point out that the second verse of the song began with "you make a grown man cry", a line that is repeated several times. The phrase was used humorously in many Windows 95 reviews. Microsoft paid the Rolling Stones between $8 million and $14 million to use the song (which belongs to the 1981 album Tattoo You) in the ad campaign. Microsoft's 300 million campaign showed stories of people queueing outside stores, just to get a copy

In New York, the Empire State skyscraper was prepared to light up matching the colors of the Windows logo. Meanwhile, in Toronto, they hung a Windows sign about 100 meters aloft of the CN Tower. And in the UK, The Times distributed it for free because Microsoft had purchased a circulation of 1.5 million copies (twice as many as usual at the time)

Windows 95 marked the introduction of the Microsoft Interface Start button and taskbar, which are still present in current versions

It replaced MS-DOS as the operating system and Windows 3.x as a graphical environment. It falls within the Microsoft operating system family called Windows 9x. In the OSR2 version it incorporated the FAT32 file system, in addition to the first glimpse of the then-novel USB. As a novelty, it included support for Plug and Play technology

Microsoft developed a new API to replace the 16 bit Windows API. This API was named Win32, since then Microsoft called the old 16 bit API Win16. This API was developed in three versions: one for Windows NT, one for Windows 95 and one called Win32s, which was a subset of Win32 that could be used on Systems running Windows 3.1 in this way Microsoft tried to ensure some degree of compatibility between Windows 95, Windows NT and Windows 3.1, even if the two systems had radically different architectures

Windows 95 provided two great advantages for PC:

1. Although its interface still ran over MS-DOS, its built-in installation made it look like an operating system (you no longer needed to buy MS-DOS and install Windows on top)
2. It introduced a protected mode subsystem that was specially written for processors 80386 or higher, which prevented new Win32 applications from damaging the memory area of other Win32 applications. In this respect Windows 95 was closer to Windows NT, but at the same time, since it shared Windows 3.x code, applications could continue to completely block the system in case they invaded the Win16 application area

The direct successors to Windows 95 were Windows 98 and Windows ME. With the unification of the professional and home line with Windows XP, this family of Windows systems continued its development with Windows Vista, Windows 7, Windows 8 and Windows 10

There are versions on both floppy disk and CD-ROM. The 13-floppy disk version used a non-standard format known as DMF that allowed it to store a larger capacity than normal of 1.44 MiB. The CD-ROM version offered a much larger selection of accessories and multimedia add-ons, as well as some device drivers, games and demo versions of some programs

A rescue floppy disk was created during installation, with MS-DOS 7.0. This version of MS-DOS was restricted because it disabled certain parts that with previous versions were available through the PC BIOS, such as access to the serial port, in which a call was returned without modification, pointing to a RET statement (assembly language statement that returns the procedure called the calling procedure) , while with previous versions, it pointed to the existing routine in the BIOS itself

Windows 95 became a huge success worldwide. The evolution of the Internet and the power of computers, with increasing capacity, resulted in a binomial in which Intel and Microsoft dominated the global landscape. Manufacturers were beginning to turn to this system when developing drivers for their devices and, although some problems arose from unavoidable incompatibilities, the success of the platform was absolute

Editions

Windows 95

It was published on August 24, 1995. Its version was 4.00.950, it had no native support for USB. It also didn't include Internet Explorer

Windows 95 SP1

This was the first service pack for Windows 95, which corresponded to version 4.00.950A, this update was released in 1996. This release included Internet Explorer, as its predecessor did not include it

This version had native support for USB in that your hardware is not what I needed and was not installed on the system

Your support for FAT32 was non-existent only supported the reading of files in FAT16 since it was the most widely used at that time

Support for UDMA enabled transfer rates of 33.3 Mbit / s that exceeded previous PC hard drive standards

Windows 95 OSR 1

This was the third version, its full name being Windows 95 OEM Service Release 1, although it still corresponded to version 4.00.950A. The acronym that complements its name is because it was never released to the market; Microsoft provided it to OEMs to include pre-installed

Appeared the same year (1996) Windows 95 SP1, this version containing the new version of Internet Explorer called 2.0. Like previous versions, it also did not have usb support, but it had improvements to the system as some bugs had been fixed

It also did not have support for FAT32 as the system continued to use FAT16 as the standard for the file system, nor did it have support for using UDMA. But the next version of Windows 95 was already expected to include improvements for FAT32 and UDMA

Windows 95 OSR 2

This was the fourth version of Windows 95 that was released, in 1996, its version is 4.00.950B (4.00.1111). This version completely renewed it, in previous versions it got stuck from time to time, which was fixed, an improvement that made it as stable as Windows 3.11

This version contained the new version of Internet Explorer called 3.0, it did not yet have support for USB, because at the time it was released the USB was not popular. It was the first version of Windows with support for the FAT32 file system, in addition to supporting UDMA

This version also did not go on the market, the only way to achieve this was by purchasing an Original Equipment (OEM) that included it pre-installed

Windows 95 OSR 2.1

This version, which appeared in 1996, introduced small variants in relation to the OSR2 version, although it still corresponded to version 4.00.950B (4.03.1212)

Due to being an OEM version, it had very few users since like its predecessors OSR, the only way to achieve this was to buy an Original Equipment (OEM) that included it pre-installed

One of its main features was the support of the latest technologies existing in 1996, such as the Intel Pentium II processor, in addition to the 386DX and 486

Same as its previous version, it included the Internet Explorer 3.0 browser. It was the first version of Windows with USB support, supported the FAT32 file system and had support for UDMA. It also supported AGP

Windows 95 OSR 2.5 C

This was the latest version of Windows 95 that came to light in 1997, its version being 4.00.950C (4.03.1214). The only way to achieve this was by purchasing an Original Equipment (OEM) that included it pre-installed

This version fixed many bugs found in the previous ones, including improved USB support and certain improvements in overall system performance, boot and shutdown time, as well as security. It's the most stable version of Windows 95

Windows 95 Plus!

Windows 95 Plus! was a package created by Microsoft as an "addon" that included improvements to the operating system especially at the aesthetic, graphical interface and customization level

Ending support

Standard support for Windows 95 ended on December 31, 2000 and extended support for Windows 95 ended december 31, 2001

Features

• 32 bits:
  • The inclusion of 32 bit file access in Windows 3.11 for Workgroups meant that MS-DOS' 16 bit Real mode would no longer be used to handle files while Windows was running, and the introduction of 32 bit disk access meant that a PC's BIOS would no longer be used to manage the hard drive
  • This reduced MS-DOS to the role of a simple Bootloader for the kernel in Windows Protected Mode. MS-DOS was included to run older drivers for compatibility reasons, although Microsoft did not recommend its use, given the performance and stability impact of the operating system
  • The Windows Control Panel allowed users to see which MS-DOS components remained on the system, improving overall performance when they were not in use. The Windows kernel still used the old real mode of MS-DOS drivers in so-called Safe Mode, although this special mode was designed to allow a user to fix issues that might arise with loading native drivers in protected mode
• File system and long names:
  • With the entry of 32 bits in file access, the use of long file names could be added to the system, which was available both for system programs and for MS-DOS programs loaded from Windows. In the first version of Windows 95, the FAT16 file system was used, which was accessible by previous versions of MS-DOS, however, they were not displayed with compatible MS-DOS systems from other companies, which needed to include updates
  • Starting with OEM Service Release 2 (OSR2), the new FAT32 file system was included, with several notable innovations such as support for more than 2 GiB on partitions, and incompatibility with previous Microsoft operating systems
• Graphical user interface:
  • Windows 95 debuted a new user interface that is more manageable and powerful than its predecessors, making the operating system in less than two years the most successful of all time, despite its major flaws
  • The installation of Internet Explorer 4.0 included an update called Windows Desktop Update, which once installed conferred on Windows 95 and NT 4.0, a user interface very similar to what would be its successor, Windows 98. This update disappeared in the following versions of Internet Explorer

Minimum requirements

Component	Minimum requirements
Processor	80386 DX/SX or compatible without specifying minimum speed
Free space on hard disk	Upgrade to Windows 95: from 35 to 40 MiB From a clean system: 50 to 55 MiB (varies, depending on the features you choose to install)
Memory	4 MiB (8 MiB recommended)
Screen	640 x 480 VGA Monitor (recommended 1,024 x 768 or SVGA 256 colors)
CD-ROM drive	Recommended 12x or higher
Additional units	Disquetera de alta densidad de 3,5 pulgadas, a no ser que pueda usar la unidad desde CD-ROM y que soporte el inicio del programa de instalación desde un CD-ROM
Additional components	Mouse or other pointing device

Note: These requirements were intended to cover the market already available from Windows 3.x users. However, this configuration was completely insufficient for daily work beyond the use of one application per workstation, due to the constant use of virtual memory. Even on some occasions, if any network components were installed, the system refused to boot with 4 MiB of RAM. Finally, although Windows 95 could be booted into an 80386 DS/SX, the performance was quite low. To achieve acceptable performance, Microsoft recommended an Intel 80486 or compatible with (at least) 8 MiB of RAM