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Windows 95
The new Windows operating system with the internal version 4.0 is the successor of Windows 3.11 and brings a completely new design of the interface and of the kernel with it. 32-bit applications are supported fully, DOS applications can also virtually be used now in a DOS box, furthermore 16-bits of programs are supported. Windows 95 to ME still needs DOS for the loading up program and for the DOS box. New hardware is comfortably recognized by plug and play, the memory management was developed further considerably.
Important part of Windows 95 is the Registry now, which is responsible for the system behaviour like file association, program parameter, driver software, system configuration and others. The Registry consists of the files system.dat and user.dat, these are located in the Windows directory. The files system.ini and win.ini are less important but are necessary for the system start furthermore. For user profiles one user.dat is placed in each user directory and loaded upon login of the user for the individual user settings.
DOS driver software are no longer necessary in compare to Windows 3.x by now, the driver software model was changed and the hardware is used through virtual device drivers (*.VxD) directly under Windows.
Area of application
- private users
- PC Games
- Office application
- network client
Structure information
- 32-bit operating system, with 16-bit code
- up to 512 mbyte RAM addressable
- file size up to 4 gbyte
System environment
- Shell is "Explorer.exe", optional is the Program Manager "Progman.exe" from Windows 3.1 included
- Minimal hardware requirements: 4 mbyte RAM, 50 mbyte harddisk storage
- Integration of the Internet Explorer 3.0
- supports now FAT32 (since Version B), FAT16, VFAT
- preemptive multitasking for 32-bit programs
- cooperative multitasking for 16-bit programs
- ACPI Power save mode partly supported (except suspend to disk)
- x86 and compatible processors
Features
- plug and play, high number of device drivers
- high compatibility to DOS, Windows 3.x
- high number of software
- no multiprocessing
- low local/network security
- old system architecture (16-bit software compatibility)
- badly scalable
31st December 2001: Windows 95 Support has ended
Phone support that may charged on an hourly base and extended, limited hotfix support has ended.
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| Windows 95 B, boot process | Windows 95 B, start menu, fetures of the display, in the background the utility programs for the harddisk storage | Windows 95 B, preinstalled Internet Explorer 3.0, the Windows interface is kept rather simple | Windows 95 B, Windows Explorer with detailed view, version information in the DOS box |
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| Windows 95 B, features of the system and system control in the symbol view | Windows 95 B, In the full installation of Windows 95 many simple programs are preinstalled | Windows 95 B, with the Active Desktop of the Internet Explorer v4.0 a web view is integrated optionally in Windows 95 | Windows 95c - Windows setup |
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| Windows 95 C, setup assistant | Windows 95 C, Selection of the configuration | Windows 95 C, hardware detection | Windows 95 C, Base settings of the computer |
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| Windows 95 C, file copy process | Windows 95 C, Installation of the Internet Explorer 4.0 | Windows 95 C, file and directory Explorer | Windows 95 C, start menu and version informations |
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| Windows 95 C, Quiet of Windows (shut down, restart, DOS mode, log off) | Windows 95 C, Internet Explorer mit Website | Windows 95 C, Information about the space consumption of a partition | Windows 95 C, playback of videos in the Media player |
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| Windows 95 C, network view, shared folders and files | Windows 95 C, View of the drives and system control | Windows 95 C, view of the root directory and device manager | Windows 95 C, Registry and system files |
Date - Version
1995 Aug. - 4.00.950, Windows 95 base version, codename "Chicago"1996 Feb. - 4.00.950a, Windows 95 A (OSR1)1996 Aug. - 4.00.1111b, Windows 95 B (OSR2), first time with FAT-32 support, sale only through OEM, IE 3.0 integrated1997 April - Windows 95 B (OSR2.1)1997 Nov. - 4.03.1214c, Windows 95 C (OSR2.5), Y2K update2001 Dec. - Windows 95 Support terminated