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.
Other Windows Versions:
| 1.0 | 2.x | 3.x | NT 3.x | 95 | NT 4.0 | 98 | 2000 | ME | All |
OSR2.5 ("C" version) bundles Microsoft Internet Explorer 4 and the IE 4 webby desktop.
It also slipstreams the USB update in to the 95 setup.
If these components are deleted prior to installation, it is identical to OSR 2.
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.
Download name | Version | Language | Architecture | File size | Downloads |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Windows 95 OSR2.5 (OEM) (ISO) | OSR2.5 | English | 384.21MB | 46 | |
Windows 95 OSR2.5 [French] (OEM) (ISO) | OSR2.5 | French | 364.18MB | 0 | |
Windows 95 OSR2.5 [German] (OEM) (ISO) | OSR2.5 | German | 458.31MB | 4 | |
Windows 95 OSR2.5 [Italian] (OEM) (ISO) | OSR2.5 | Italian | 423.07MB | 2 | |
Windows 95 OSR2.5 [Norwegian] (OEM) (ISO) | OSR2.5 | Norwegian | 381.39MB | 0 | |
Windows 95 OSR2.5 [Portuguese-Brazil] (OEM) (ISO) | OSR2.5 | Portuguese - Brazil | 422.09MB | 32 | |
Windows 95 OSR2.5 [Spanish] | OSR2.5 | Spanish | 110.74MB | 2 | |
Windows 95 OSR2.5 [Swedish] | OSR2.5 | Swedish | 118.99MB | 16 | |
Windows 95 and Microsoft Plus OSR2.5 (OEM) (ISO) | 95 and Microsoft Plus OSR2.5 (OEM) | English | 397.25MB | 62 |