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.

Windows 95 OSR 2

Windows 95 offered, at long last, a well designed document-oriented desktop shell that worked much like the 1984 Macintosh Finder. It also included a new way of finding installed applications through a "Start" menu. And it included the same networking abilities as Windows for Workgroups.

It integrated the ability to run 32-bit applications similar to Windows NT or Windows 3.1 with Win32s. It no longer ran on a separate DOS product. But Windows 95 was not a pure "32-bit" OS: It was still based around the framework of Windows 3.x, 2.x and 1.x. It still ran on top of DOS, but bundled its own special "Windows 95" DOS (AKA MS-DOS 7). It could even still make use of DOS drivers. The 95 architecture was continued with Windows 98.

Most 95 CDs are NOT BOOTABLE. If a download does not include a boot floppy, please see Microsoft Windows Boot Disks

If the listed serials below do not work for a specific release, please see the Serials thread

You may also override the install type (no serial needed) by creating a file name MSBATCH.INF with the lines "[Setup]", and then "ProductType=1", placing that in the Win95 setup folder, and then running setup.

VMWare and VirtualBox are problematic with Windows 95. If you use those, you may need to disable various acceleration features first, and/or install the Windows 95 CPU speed fixes. Windows 95 has many issues on faster machines or VMs, requiring a number of patches in order to operate. Consider emulators like x86Box or PCem instead.

Release notes

Windows 95 OSR2 ("B" version) added support for FAT32. It bundles IE 3, Personal Web Server, and MS-DOS "7.1".

OSR2.1 is identical to OSR 2, but includes a seperate USB update installer, that adds the ability to use USB devices. Installing the downloadable USB update brings any OSR 2 system to the level of 2.1.

The OSR 2.x media was ONLY available from OEMs. It was not sold retail.
Installation instructions

Important: Windows 95 CDs are NOT bootable, and require an appropriate Windows 95 Boot Floppy. (A 98FE or 98SE disk will also work fine)

To speed up installation, and to avoid numerous problems, copy the win95 folder to a folder on the hard drive (such as c:\win95) and then run setup from there.

Win 95 OSR 2 ISO File and Product Key

Product Key: 34698-OEM-0039682-72135

Install this on a legacy computer or a virtual machine to bring back memories of using Windows 95!