As the title says, some enterprising soul made Windows 95 an application that runs in it's own window and runs Windows 95 natively, without the hassle of setting up a virtual machine.
It can be found here if you're interested.
Now, compared to a VM version, this one has some limitations. This is based on a pre-integrated Internet Explorer copy of Windows 95C, meaning it has the classic interface, no IE stuff. It cannot detect USB drives despite larval support for that being possible in the 95C version (admittedly, they are fluky on VMs too), and while a decent amount of pre-included software is added, you basically have to mount ISO images to add anything else.
Regardless, it's impressive all the basics of Windows 95 work out of the box with no special tweaks.
It does have some issues. It does not handle restarting the application well, and changing display settings can lock up the program. It's preconfigured to selected values, essentially a locked VM sandbox, which can be frustrating if you want to customize the hard drive size, memory limit, and so on. I prefer a virtual machine for actually doing anything at this juncture, as even the creator of this app admits it's pretty rough in spots and meant mostly as a proof of concept educational project.
Windows 95 is basically abandonware at this point, though the legality of this is definitely up in the air regardless. I doubt Microsoft will do more than issue a takedown if they really get up in arms over it.
Still, this is a nice project, and proof Windows can be run anywhere without complicated virtual machine setups done by hand, and if fixed up some more, it could be a good way to enjoy good retro Windows and old games and programs.
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