[1][4] Accompanied by an extensive marketing campaign[1] that generated much prerelease hype,[5] it was a major success[6] and is considered to be one of the biggest and most important products in the personal computing industry.

But soon into the project, the idea of MS-DOS 7 was abandoned and the decision was made to develop only an integrated graphical OS Windows "Chicago."

For example, it is possible to prevent the loading of the graphical user interface and boot the system into a real-mode MS-DOS environment.

This sparked debate amongst users and professionals regarding the extent to which Windows 95 is an operating system or merely a graphical shell running on top of MS-DOS.

[19][21][22] When the graphical user interface is started, the virtual machine manager takes over the filesystem-related and disk-related functionality.

Microsoft partially removed support for File Control Blocks (an API hold-over of DOS 1.x and CP/M) in Windows 95 OSR2 (OEM Service Release 2).

[23][24] Windows 95 introduced a redesigned shell based around a desktop metaphor; File shortcuts (also known as shell links) were introduced [25] and the desktop was re-purposed to hold shortcuts to applications, files and folders, reminiscent of Mac OS.

[26] The taskbar also contained a notification area used to display icons for background applications, a volume control and the current time.

[28] The previous File Manager program was replaced by Windows Explorer and the Explorer-based Control Panel and several other special folders were added such as My Computer, Dial-Up Networking, Recycle Bin, Network Neighborhood, My Documents, Recent documents, Fonts, Printers, and My Briefcase among others.

[30] In 1994, Microsoft designers Mark Malamud and Erik Gavriluk approached Brian Eno to compose music for the Windows 95 project.

Windows 95 included support for 255-character mixed-case long filenames[33] and preemptively multitasked protected-mode 32-bit applications.

In case the need arises to depend on disk utilities that do not recognize long file names, such as the MS-DOS 6.x's defrag utility, a program called LFNBACK for backup and restoration of long file names is provided on the CD-ROM, specifically in its \ADMIN\APPTOOLS\LFNBACK directory.

While the OS kernel is 32-bit, much code (especially for the user interface) remained 16-bit for performance reasons as well as development time constraints.

The introduction of 32-bit file access in Windows for Workgroups 3.11 meant that 16-bit real mode MS-DOS is not used for managing the files while Windows is running, and the earlier introduction of the 32-bit disk access means that the PC BIOS is often no longer used for managing hard disks.

DOS can be used for running old-style drivers for compatibility, but Microsoft discourages using them, as this prevents proper multitasking and impairs system stability.

Control Panel allows a user to see which MS-DOS components are used by the system; optimal performance is achieved when they are bypassed.

These include the Internet Explorer web browser, DriveSpace compression, OpenGL, DirectX, FAT32 file system support, UltraDMA mode for disk drives, Universal Serial Bus, IEEE 1394 (FireWire), and Accelerated Graphics Port.

This configuration would rely heavily on virtual memory and was only optimal for productive use on single-tasking dedicated workstations.

[34] 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.

[35] Windows 95 may fail to boot on computers with a processor faster than 2.1 GHz and more than approximately 480 MB of memory.

pack did not reach as many retail consumers as the operating system itself (it was mainly advertised for its non-Internet-related add-ons such as themes and better disk compression) but was usually included in pre-installed (OEM) sales, and at the time of Windows 95's release, the web was being browsed mainly with a variety of early web browsers such as NCSA Mosaic and Netscape Navigator (promoted by products such as IBox).

[47] It was widely reported that Microsoft paid the Rolling Stones between US$8 and US$14 million for the use of the song in the Windows 95 advertising campaign.

[49] Microsoft's US$200 million advertising campaign featured stories of people waiting in line outside stores to get a copy.

[50] In the UK, the largest computer chain, PC World, received a large quantity of point-of-sale material; many branches opened at midnight to sell the first copies of the product.

Only the original release was sold as a shrink-wrapped product; later editions were provided only to computer OEMs for installation on new PCs.

for Windows 95 pack, which contained several optional components for high-end multimedia PCs, including Internet Explorer, DriveSpace and additional themes.

The first service pack was made available half a year after the original release and fixed several small bugs.

Neil MacDonald, a Gartner analyst, said that Windows 95 "was a quantum leap in difference in technological capability and stability."

Ina Fried of CNET said that "by the time Windows 95 was finally ushered off the market in 2001, it had become a fixture on computer desktops around the world.

"[51] The basic design of Windows 95, with its combination of a desktop that can be used as a storage location, a pop-out application menu, and a taskbar showing running applications, a clock and a system tray, was strongly influential on future user interfaces for desktop operating systems.