Windows Explorer was introduced as the default method of browsing and opening files in Windows 95. The start menu succeeded the Program Manager which was the way of opening applications before the start menu was introduced and it inherited the hierarchy of applications as was in the Program manager. It was provided as a shortcut to open documents and programs both and was an alternative way of opening programs at the time. The taskbar also contained the new Start button and when the start button was clicked, it displayed the start menu which contained the list of installed applications on the Windows 95 operating system. Then taskbar also served as a notification panel by displaying notifications in the notification area on the bottom right of the screen. This made navigating to other applications easier as users would not have to go through the desktop. Whereas in Windows 95, the taskbar was introduced which contained the icons for currently running applications. The difference between the desktop in Windows 3.1 and the Windows 95 desktop is that in Windows 3.1 which was the predecessor of Windows 95, the desktop displayed the icons of the applications that were currently running on the system. The desktop was used in every Windows GUI operating system since then and it is being used today in modern Windows operating systems like Windows 8 and Windows 10. This desktop shell contained files, shortcuts to utilities and other apps as well as folders which can contain files and other folders inside them. The newer shell was made around the metaphor of the top of a desk where the user works.

The reason this does not run on O3DS has nothing to do with available RAM, and people are already looking into fixing this.Windows 95 had a completely new design for its shell which was based on the Windows 3.1 desktop. update: the DOS emulator running on the PSP was actually Bochs, thanks to everyone who corrected me on this) with its 24MB of Ram, and the minimum RAM requirements for Windows 95 is 4MB. Windows 95 used to run on the PSP ( through dosbox again. Some people have claimed this could be because of lack of RAM on the O3DS: these claims are complete BS. People have mentioned that the Dosbox port used here does not run on the O3DS, only on he N3DS. Nonetheless, this is great to see such boiling activity on the 3DS scene.

It’s also likely that the layers of emulation involved here could mean no game will ever be playable through this. Anybody who’s old enough to have used windows 95 though will remember that most games from this era actually ran on DOS itself rather than Windows 95. But once things are shaping up and a proper on-screen-keyboard is added to the build, this could be used to run old windows 95 games. The port takes a while to start for now and doesn’t do let you do much for now.

Windows 95 img for bochs