The first time I attempted to use Windows95 I was sceptical. To me, it seemed like Windows95 was more of a marketing ploy than a new and improved operating system. Boy was I wrong. After a few weeks of general use, I realised that Windows95 actually had a lot of good features that were lacking in previous versions. I am very fond of the "Desktop" and I like the ease of the drag and drop environment. I always hated the command line interface of DOS, but with Windows95 everything is simply a click away. I love the fact that I can run all of my old Windows and DOS applications under Win95. Based on my experience, Windows95 does an excellent job of hopping between 16-bit and 32-bit applications. For use on the average PC, Win95 is fast, efficient, and relatively user friendly.

Although Windows95 has many strong points, I have found a few weaker areas that must be mentioned. First off, I am not too impressed with the Dial-up Networking capabilities. I found Dial-up networking to be a pain to install and, for the most part, the lack of a simple scripting tool to automate log on procedures is annoying. Along with the Dial-up Networking, I also found Windows95 to be a little troublesome in regards to driver configuration. For an operating system which is supposed to be "Plug and Play," I had to do a great deal of tuning in order to get all my hardware to work properly. Like most things, Windows95 is definitely not perfect.

Overall, I would give Windows95 7/10 stars. As an attempt to create a truly superior operating system, Microsoft has done a good job, but there is room for improvement. The good news is that Windows96 (aka. NASHVILLE) is rumoured to address many of the weaker points of Windows95, and apparently does a pretty good job of fixing many it's predecessor's bugs.

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