Windows 95 build 81

Windows 95 build 81 is an internal Milestone 5 build of Windows 95.

While the build itself is real, some copies found online are said to have a modified boot screen saying "January 1994". The unmodified copy still has the "November 1993" boot screen, identical to builds 73f and 73g.

New features and changes

 * Setup has been slightly updated, and the "Please wait while Setup initiates" message is moved to the center of the screen.

Shell features

 * This build is the earliest leaked build to have a single Start button and menu enabled by default (though builds 73f and 73g also have it, it is disabled by default and there is no UI to enable it).
 * This build now has the ubiquitous close button on the right side of window titlebars, instead of using the style from Windows 3.1.
 * Tray Properties is now renamed to "Taskbar Properties" and has the ability to re-minimize windows.
 * Selected options now have shadow effect on the text instead of bold.
 * Some icons have been updated, such as the CD-ROM icon and the Control Panel icon.
 * The option to view as Detail/Folder view on the Explorer has been removed from the upper toolbar.
 * Shutdown Windows renamed all references of "Windows" to "Chicago".

Application features

 * Dr. Watson has been removed and no longer starts up on boot.
 * This build includes the System Monitor, which serves to monitor CPU activity and replace the WinMeter application later on.

Control Panel features

 * The Color applet has been merged with the Display applet (which was renamed from Desktop) as the Appearance tab.
 * The Advanced System applet has also been merged with the System applet as the Device Manager tab.
 * There is now a new "New Device" applet to allow the user to easily install hardware onto the system.

CONFIG.SYS Note
In order to boot to the GUI, the CONFIG.SYS needs to be edited.

After the installation finishes, the OS will boot from the command line by default. Type "edit config.sys" and change the number variables of "Files=" and "Buffers=" from 30 to 90. Then reboot, your Windows installation should be booting with GUI shell now.

File differences
The following files have been introduced or removed compared to build 73g: