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[hybridstorm]

QUOTE (Banquo @ Oct 18 2004, 06:42 AM)

Windows 95 is as much an operating system as Windows 98 is; there isn't that much of a difference between them as far as the kernel. They both use a DOS based loader that gets the OS up and running; but once io.sys loads Windows 95 the 32-bit kernel takes over completely. A DOS layer does remain loaded for compatility with old programs, but Windows itself is managing your hardware resources, drivers, etc. Windows 1.01 to 3.11 are just glorified file managers; 16-bit graphical shell programs running in DOS. There's no comparison between them and 95. Windows 95 is an operating system.

He is correct.

Win95 is a 32 bit OS. It is loaded by dos but the kernel takes over the dos functions.  You must have dos to run windows 95 since dos gets windows 95 "started off."

edit: typo

This post has been edited by hybridstorm: Dec 6 2004, 10:23 PM

[Sgt_Grim_Reaper]

QUOTE(Cathesdus @ Oct 13 2004, 09:19 PM)

That's manually downloading drivers and putting them in a folder, not loading them into ram for use with an operating system.

No wonder, you mis-interpreted the "Myth". It means Non-plug-and-play. Jeez. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/blink.gif)

[Karlos The Jackal]

Funnly we have been studing this in college atm, The truth is:

Windows 3.1, 95A, 95B & 98 all run from dos.

3.1 & 95A you had to type win to start it, when 95B was released they droped having to type win, but it still was a dos OS, This didnt change till 98se when it became a full indpendent OS. But still 98SE did have to use DOS for certain commands.

The only Windows Line of OS which doesnt have dos loaded into the background is the NT family (NT 4.0 and above, ive never used below NT 4.0 so i cant comment on that).

Hope that clears the air a liltle bit. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

[torne]

QUOTE(Karlos The Jackal @ Mar 16 2006, 11:27 AM)

Windows 3.1, 95A, 95B & 98 all run from dos.

3.1 & 95A you had to type win to start it, when 95B was released they droped having to type win, but it still was a dos OS, This didnt change till 98se when it became a full indpendent OS. But still 98SE did have to use DOS for certain commands.

This isn't any more true than when the previous people in the thread said it was. All consumer Windows OSes starting with the very first release of 95 (which is not 95A, 95A is the second) only use DOS as a bootloader environment. The consumer Windows kernel replaces all DOS interrupt vector services (which is the only kind of OS service that DOS really provides). Consumer Windows is pretty stupid as 32-bit OSes go, but it is a real standalone OS nonetheless. There weren't many significant changes to the kernel design at any point - even Windows ME's kernel has the same fundamental architecture as 95.

Running DOS apps inside consumer Windows is accomplished with virtual 8086 mode, a hilariously bizarre set of trickery you can do to the 80386 and above which makes it appear to have returned to real mode, but still allows certain interrupts to be handled by returning to protected mode, which allows the 32-bit OS to regain control to handle device driver interrupts, timers, etc and to allow preemption away from real-mode apps using the timer interrupt. A modified DOS environment runs inside virtual 8086 mode, which implements some DOS interrupt vector services directly, and implements others by using cunning trickery to temporarily return to protected mode and get Windows to do them for it (like displaying things on the screen when in windowed mode). The same virtual 8086 mode is used to run DOS applications in NT-based OSes.

All this is extensively documented in published MS documentation, though many books about Consumer Windows' internals are out of print these days (nobody cares any more). It's not really subject to debate :-)