Welcome back to the Adventure!
this is Adam, and today we are talking about the differences between every version of Windows
95.
We will get started right after this
In the mid to late 90s you may have heard about Windows 95 a, b, and c, or OSR1 and
OSR2.
These are names given to different versions of the operating system.
Let's clarify what this all means.
Windows 95 code named Chicago was released on August 24th, 1995.
This was the first and only retail release of the operating system.
While a step up from Windows 3.11 Chicago did not include support for FAT32, UDMA, USB,
Firewire, or AGP, and had buggy compatibility with Intel's P6 series of processors and the
MMX instruction set.
However, the operating system did include several features that are still found in Windows
today including but not limited to the Start Menu, Task Bar, System Tray, and Windows updates.
lots and lots of updates.
Chicago also included MS-DOS version 7
on December 31st 1995 Windows 95 received its first and only Service Pack available
as a windows update.
Service Pack 1 is a collection of previously released add-ons and updates like Internet
Explorer 2.0 and the Microsoft Word Viewer for Windows 95.
Support for infrared devices was also added.
All later releases of Windows 95 were for computer manufactures to ship with their PCs.
These versions are refereed to as OEM Service Releases or OSR
Windows 95 OSR1 was released on February 14th 1996.
and had the build number 4.00.950a.
This release is also known as Windows 95a and is essentially Windows 95 with Service
Pack 1 pre-installed.
On August 24th , 1996 Windows 95 OSR2 also known as 95b was released.
With it came support for FAT32, UDMA, Firewire and the MMX instruction set.
MS-DOS version 7.1 was also bundled.
A little over a year later on August 27th 1997 came the USB Supplement to OSR2 which
was subsequently bundled and referred to as OSR 2.1 as you may have guessed this release
added support for USB devices
Windows 95 saw one final release known as OSR2.5 or 95c which added proper support for
Intel's P6 series of processors and included a number of enhancements to the Windows Explorer
and its integration with Internet Explorer 4.0 as well as DirectX v5.0
There is an unofficial service pack for Windows 95 OSR2 that comes with various security updates
and hotfixes no longer available from Windows updates as well as DirectX 8.0a and Windows
Media Player 6.4.
That concludes our look at the different versions of Windows 95.
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