Character

Windows 95-tan wears an oversized teal (#008081) flannel shirt, grey (#c0c0c0) ripped jeans, a graphic tee featuring the Windows 95 logo, grey (#c0c0c0) combat boots and bracelets, hair ties, and patches on the jeans and shirt in orangey red (#d7692e), green (#6cb156), blue (#5887bb), and yellow (#f2cb18). She also has a cream (#ffffd4) coloured belt with the Windows 95 logo on it, but her attire may vary slightly with the colours of the patches and logo. Windows 95's hair is styled in The Twist-Back, held with a Windows 95 logo hair clip.

While she may be cheerful and lively now, this wasn't always the case. Windows 95 started off as a human around 1992. She was friends with Windows 3.X-kun at the time, working closely with him on various projects. Along with them was Windows NT-kun who had... questionable methods but was curious to see if a human could become a OS-tan since he saw Windows 3.X-kun as "dated" but also wanted to rival the Infinite Loop.

He saw Windows 95 as the perfect candidate for this experiment as he observed Windows 95’s potential from afar seeing her as the key to a revolutionary leap in defeating The Infinite Loop. NT-kun approached Windows 95 with a proposition spoke of a future, a new era where Windows 95 could become something even greater and not be a puny human. Initially she was intrigued but cautious. Windows 3.X-kun was supportive but concerned about NT-kun's true intentions with this idea since he sometimes saw NT-kun as mysterious and somewhat enigmatic. Without revealing his full plan, he altered the course of Windows 95’s life forever without Windows 3.X-kun being aware of the full extent of NT-kun's actions at first.

He rendered Windows 95 unconscious and initiated a process that would erase her human memories and transform her into an OS. When Windows 95 awoke, she found her past was now a blank slate. Windows 3.X-kun felt a mix of guilt and pride knowing about what happened but decided to act like nothing happened under the fear that NT-kun would shun him.

NT-kun, seeing Windows 95's transformation as a success, was eager to present her to the world as the newest member of The Windows Order. He set up a grand reveal which positioned her as a pivotal figure in the battle against The Infinite Loop, investing as much money as he could to try and pitch her as the greatest thing ever.

Family and Relationships

MS-DOS

Unlike the previous members of her faction she was also a step forward since she didn't have to rely on MS-DOS-kun being there to help her when she could do things on her own.

Windows 3.X and NT-kun

To this day they 95 and 3.X are still best friends although sometimes he think she is a bit flashy and sometimes over the top. As for NT-kun? Well, she is still not aware he wiped her memories to make her Windows 95.

System 7 and System 7.5

The relationship between her and both System 7 and 7.5 is complicated as after she made her debut, The Infinite Loop was shocked at how well she could things and easily attack them by using other factions weapons and defenses, enough to strike fear into them to convince some of The Infinite Loop's members to support her.

Abilities

Whether you consider this an ability or not is up to you but she is very good at using guns, mainly shotguns and mechs.

References and sources

  • Wikipedia entry on Windows 95.
  • Her attire is based on the RTM release's desktop and RTM release's boot screen. The fact her attire varies slighlty is due to the boot screens on the PC-98 and FM TOWNS versions have slightly different coloured boot screens for the Windows logo, mainly the logo on the PC-98 version looking more like the one from 3.1 but tilted.
  • Windows NT-kun being the one who made Alya an OS-tan is a reference to how internal Microsoft documents from 1992 occasionally refer to the Chicago project as Windows NT Lite. “Windows NT Lite” was likely a term used to characterize the Chicago project and was likely used to also convey the idea that Chicago would be a more consumer-friendly version of Windows compared to Windows NT.
  • Windows 3.X-kun being Windows 95's friend is a reference to how the initial design and planning of Windows 95 can be traced back to around March 1992, just around the time before the release of Windows 3.1.
  • Windows 95 not needing MS-DOS-kun's help is a reference to how unlike previous version of Windows, Windows 95 did not require an existing MS-DOS install but rather came with its own built into it. A standalone retail release for the MS-DOS version used in Windows 95 was also planned at one point, which ultimately ended up not materializing and was never released by Microsoft a standalone product. This MS-DOS version was codenamed "Jaguar" but became MS-DOS 7.0 (Windows 95 MS-DOS Mode).
  • Back around when Windows 95 released, Apple had a fear that it was good enough that everybody who used Macs because they were easier to use, would then be able to say that Windows was just as easy
  • Her "abilities" are reference to how DOOM 95 was the first published DirectX game and DirectX was made for Windows 95 as they wanted devs to port their games from MS-DOS to Windows, and the fact DirectX 2.0 was demonstrated at the 1996 Computer Game Developers Conference. It was at this event that Microsoft first introduced Direct3D, and demonstrated the multiplayer game MechWarrior 2 being played over the internet.