Operating systemsMicrosoft Windows › Windows 95

Windows 95

1995

The landmark 1995 release introducing the Start menu, taskbar and long filenames, fusing DOS and Windows into one product.

Machines

Chips

Reference & documentation

External technical references for programming Windows 95 and for writing emulators.

ResourceTypeNotes
Microsoft PE Format Specification ↗FormatCanonical PE/COFF executable format used by ReactOS
Peering Inside the PE (Matt Pietrek) ↗FormatClassic deep-dive tour of PE file internals
Ralf Brown's Interrupt List (master files) ↗Interrupt listAuthor's canonical release downloads
Architecture of Windows 9x (Wikipedia) ↗Memory mapKernel modules, VMM, protected-mode memory layout overview
Win32 API Programming Reference (Microsoft Learn) ↗ProgrammingFull Win32 API reference organized by header
Building VxDs in Windows 95 (Dr Dobb's) ↗ProgrammingVMM messages, IRQ virtualization, dynamic VxD internals
Windows 95 OSR2 ISO (Internet Archive) ↗ROMsOriginal OSR2 install image plus product key
Windows API Index (Microsoft Learn) ↗ReferenceMaster index of all Windows API subsystems
The Truth About VMM32.VXD ↗ReferenceHow the monolithic VMM32.VXD kernel bundle works
vmdisp9x Display VxD Source (GitHub) ↗SourceModern open-source Win9x display driver VxD code