Windows 95 (13 DMF formatted floppy disks) Windows 95 Incremental Releases Version Number Release 4.00.950 Original full retail version and upgrade from Windows 3.1. The retail floppy disk version of Windows 95 came on 13 DMF formatted floppy disks. Most copies of Windows 95 were on CD-ROM, but a floppy version could also be had for older machines. To achieve optimal performance, Microsoft recommended an Intel 80486 or compatible CPU with at least 8 MB of RAM. It was possible to run Windows 95 on a 386 SX, but this led to even less acceptable performance due to its 16-bit external data bus. This configuration would rely heavily on virtual memory and was only optimal for productive use on single-tasking dedicated workstations. Windows 95 minimum system requirements were an Intel 80386DX CPU of any speed, 4 MB of system RAM and 50–55 MB of hard disk space depending on features selected. Boot and INI files are still supported for backward compatibility with legacy hardware and software.
The registry is the central repository for all hardware and software configuration information. MS-DOS applications run in individual VMs of their own.Īnother change in Windows 95 is that system configuration information that was formerly stored in boot files (config.sys and autoexec.bat) and INI files is stored in a database structure called the registry. VMs in Windows 95 are similar to those implemented in Windows 3.1 except for two differences: in Windows 95, 32-bit Windows applications (Win32 apps) can run within their own protected memory address space within the system VM, and 16-bit Windows applications (Win16 apps) also run in the system VM but share their own address space (since they must be cooperatively multitasked). Windows 95 also supports multithreaded operation and preemptive multitasking operation and manages system resources more effectively than earlier versions of Windows, allowing more and larger applications to be multitasked.įor added protection against application crashes, Windows 95 supports virtual machines (VMs).
However, Windows 95 does includes some 16-bit code and 16-bit components to ensure backward compatibility with MS-DOS, Windows 3.1, and Windows for Workgroups. The Windows 95 architecture evolved from Windows 3.1 and Windows for Workgroups, but in contrast to these 16-bit versions of Windows, which ran on top of MS-DOS, Windows 95 is a 32-bit operating system with a 32-bit kernel, VxDs, and an Installable File System (IFS) manager and does not require that MS-DOS be loaded on the computer.