The Operating Environment

The operating environment for Windows 95 consists of a computer's hardware devices and the following software components:

• Virtual machine manager (VMM32.VXD)
• Virtual devices (.VXD files)
• 16- and 32-bit protected-mode installable device drivers for peripheral devices
• 16- and 32-bit Windows dynamic-link libraries, such as USER.EXE and USER32.DLL
• Windows-based and other applications

The virtual machine manager forms the core of this operating environment. It provides the service functions (also called services) needed to create and manage the virtual machines in which applications run. The virtual devices support the device-independent VMM by managing the computer's hardware devices and supporting software. Virtual devices manage software as well as the hardware devices to ensure that no application disrupts the operation of another. The Windows dynamic-link libraries provide the functions and graphical resources that all Windows applications use.