Windows 9x is a generic term referring to a series of Microsoft Windows computer operating systems produced from 1995 to 2000, which were based on the Windows 95 kernel and its underlying foundation of MS-DOS, both of which were updated in subsequent versions.
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Windows 9x is predominantly known for its use in home desktops.
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The Win32 API first introduced with Windows 9x NT was adopted as the standard 32-bit programming interface, with Win16 compatibility being preserved through a technique known as "thunking".
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The USB support in Windows 9x 98 was more robust than the basic support provided by the OEM editions of Windows 9x 95.
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Windows 9x Me was conceived as a quick one-year project that served as a stopgap release between Windows 9x 98 and Whistler .
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Windows 9x Me was criticized by users for its instability and unreliability, due to frequent freezes and crashes.
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Release of Windows 9x XP confirmed the change of direction for Microsoft, bringing the consumer and business operating systems together under Windows 9x NT.
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One by one, support for the Windows 9x series ended, and Microsoft stopped selling the software to end users, then later to OEMs.
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User-mode parts of Windows 9x consist of three subsystems: the Win16 subsystem, the Win32 subsystem and MS-DOS.
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Some operating systems that were available at the same time as Windows 9x are either multi-user or have multiple user accounts with different access privileges, which allows important system files to be immutable under most user accounts.
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The profile support in the Windows 9x family is meant for convenience only; unless some registry keys are modified, the system can be accessed by pressing "Cancel" at login, even if all profiles have a password.
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Windows 9x Me introduced System File Protection and System Restore to handle common problems caused by this issue.
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Windows 9x offers share-level access control security for file and printer sharing as well as user-level access control if a Windows NT-based operating system is available on the network.
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In contrast, Windows 9x NT-based operating systems offer only user-level access control but integrated with the operating system's own user account security mechanism.
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Windows 9x retains backwards compatibility with many drivers made for Windows 3.
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Windows 9x has no native support for hyper-threading, Data Execution Prevention, symmetric multiprocessing, or multi-core processors.
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Users can control a Windows 9x-based system through a command-line interface, or a graphical user interface .
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On desktop machines, Windows 9x Explorer is the default user interface, though a variety of additional Windows 9x shell replacements exist.
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