Windows 95 shift+restart dropped into real mode to relaunch Windows

Pcgamer reports that the old Windows 95 trick of holding Shift while choosing Restart was deliberately implemented by Microsoft’s engineers so the operating system could relaunch without a full hardware reboot.

The site's look at win.com shows it prints the message "Please wait while Windows restarts…" and then attempts to return the system to the same state it had when win.com was first launched. If checks pass, win.com jumps back to the code that starts protected-mode Windows, re-creates the virtual machine manager and launches the graphical interface — effectively dropping into real mode and then switching back to protected mode rather than performing a complete reboot. The feature reportedly did not always work, which Chen suggests may have been down to unreliable device drivers.

That functionality is not present in modern Windows: holding Shift when restarting now forces a cold reboot and invokes the Windows Recovery Environment. The article notes that faster modern hardware makes such restart shortcuts less impactful, and also mentions a wish for a quick-restart equivalent to the display-driver reset (Windows+Ctrl+Shift+B).

Key Topics

Tech, Win.com, Real Mode, Protected Mode, Windows Recovery Environment, Device Drivers