Editing Windows 95 (section)

==Legacy==
On December 31, 2001, Microsoft ended its support for Windows 95, making it an "obsolete" product per the Microsoft Lifecycle Policy.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.microsoft.com/windows95/support/contact/default.asp|title=Windows 95 Support: Contact Support|date=December 13, 2002|publisher=Microsoft|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070522053321/http://www.microsoft.com/windows95/support/contact/default.asp|archive-date=May 22, 2007|access-date=September 9, 2009}} Internet Archive</ref>

Many features have since become key components of the Microsoft Windows series, such as the [[Start menu]] and the [[taskbar]], originated in Windows 95. Neil MacDonald, a [[Gartner]] analyst, said that Windows 95 "was a quantum leap in difference in technological capability and stability." Ina Fried of ''[[CNET]]'' said that "by the time Windows 95 was finally ushered off the market in 2001, it had become a fixture on computer desktops around the world."<ref name="FriedCNET" />

The basic design of Windows 95, with its combination of a desktop that can be used as a storage location, a pop-out application menu, and a taskbar showing running applications, a clock and a [[system tray]], was strongly influential on future user interfaces for desktop operating systems. The core UI concepts of Windows 95 have persisted up to the present day in both Windows itself as well as on other operating systems like [[Linux]], with the default behaviour of desktop environments like [[KDE Software Compilation|KDE]] and [[XFCE]] replicating it in many aspects.<ref>{{cite book |last=Jang |first=Michael |date=2006-07-12 |title=Mastering Fedora Core 5 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=RqowlMJLqGgC&pg=PA899 |publisher=[[Wiley (publisher)|Wiley]] |page=899 |isbn=9780470009994 |access-date=November 7, 2023 |archive-date=November 7, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231107162318/https://books.google.com/books?id=RqowlMJLqGgC&pg=PA899 |url-status=live }}</ref>

Even though support for Windows 95 has ended, the software has occasionally remained in use on legacy systems for various purposes. In addition, some video game enthusiasts choose to use Windows 95 for their [[legacy system]] to play old DOS games, although some other versions of Windows such as Windows 98 can also be used for this purpose.

In April 2025, ''The Microsoft Sound'' was selected to the [[National Recording Registry]] by the [[Library of Congress]] for being "culturally, historically, and/or aesthetically significant".<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.npr.org/2025/04/09/nx-s1-5352774/national-recording-registry-tracy-chapman-elton-john-hamilton-minecraft|title=National Recording Registry adds Tracy Chapman, Hamilton and the Minecraft game soundtrack|date=2025-04-09|access-date=2025-04-09|website=[[NPR]]|last=Ulaby|first=Neda}}</ref>