User Interface
Windows 95 introduced a redesigned shell based around a desktop metaphor; unlike Windows 3.1 (where it was used to display running applications), the desktop was re-purposed to hold shortcuts to applications, files, and folders. Running applications were now displayed as buttons on a taskbar across the bottom of the screen, which also contains a notification area used to display icons for background applications, a volume control, and the current time. The Start menu, invoked by clicking the "Start" button also contained on the taskbar, was introduced as an additional means of launching applications or opening documents—while maintaining the program groups used by its predecessor, Program Manager, it now displayed applications within cascading sub-menus. The previous File Manager program was also replaced by Windows Explorer.
When released for Windows 95 and NT4, Internet Explorer 4 came with an optional Windows Desktop Update, which modified the shell to provide new features integrated with Internet Explorer, such as Active Desktop (which allowed internet content to be displayed directly on the desktop) and additional updates to Windows Explorer.
Some of the user interface elements introduced in Windows 95—such as the desktop, taskbar, Start menu, and Windows Explorer file manager, remained fundamentally unchanged on future versions of Windows.
Read more about this topic: Window 95
Famous quotes containing the word user:
“A worker may be the hammer’s master, but the hammer still prevails. A tool knows exactly how it is meant to be handled, while the user of the tool can only have an approximate idea.”
—Milan Kundera (b. 1929)