Differentiate Windows 95 from the previous operating systems
Answers
Windows 95 is a consumer-oriented operating system developed by Microsoft as part of its Windows 9x family of operating systems. The first operating system in the 9x family, it is the successor to Windows 3.1x, and was released to manufacturing on August 15, 1995, and generally to retail on August 24, 1995.[4][5] Windows 95 merged Microsoft's formerly separate MS-DOS and Microsoft Windows products, and featured significant improvements over its predecessor, most notably in the graphical user interface (GUI) and in its simplified "plug-and-play" features. There were also major changes made to the core components of the operating system, such as moving from a mainly cooperatively multitasked 16-bit architecture to a 32-bit preemptive multitasking architecture, at least when running only 32-bit protected mode applications.
Windows 95A version of the Windows 9x operating system
Windows 95 desktop, showing its icons, taskbar and welcome screen
DeveloperMicrosoftSource modelClosed sourceReleased to
manufacturingAugust 15, 1995; 24 years agoGeneral
availabilityAugust 24, 1995; 24 years ago[1]Latest releaseOEM Service Release 2.5 (4.0.950 C) / November 26, 1997; 22 years ago[2]PlatformsIA-32Kernel typeMonolithicLicenseProprietary commercial softwarePreceded byWindows 3.11 (1993)Succeeded byWindows 98 (1998)Official websiteWindows 95 at the Wayback Machine (archived March 31, 2007)Support statusMainstream support ended on December 31, 2000[3]
Extended support ended on December 31, 2001[3]
Accompanied by an extensive marketing campaign,[1] Windows 95 introduced numerous functions and features that were featured in later Windows versions, such as the taskbar, the "Start" button and the ways the user could navigate.[dubious – discuss]
Three years after its introduction, Windows 95 was succeeded by Windows 98. Microsoft ended extended support for Windows 95 on December 31, 2001.