Windows 95 is a consumer-oriented graphical user interface-based operating system. It was released on
August 24, 1995 by Microsoft, and was a significant progression from
the company's previous Windows products. During development it was
referred to as Windows 4.0 or by the internal codename Chicago.
Windows 95 integrated Microsoft's formerly separate MS-DOS and Windows
products. It featured significant improvements over its predecessor, Windows 3.1, most notably in the
graphical user interface (GUI) and in its relatively simplified
"plug-n-play" features. There were also major changes made at lower
levels of the operating system, such as moving from a mainly 16-bit
architecture to a pre-emptively multitasked 32-bit architecture.
In the marketplace, Windows 95 was a major success, and within a
year or two of its release had become the most successful operating system ever
produced. It also had the effect of driving other major players (including OS/2) out of business, something which
would later be used in court against Microsoft. Some three years
after its introduction, Windows 95 was succeeded by Windows 98.
