I think it is sort of a continuum, with 95 being further on the path begun on Windows 3.x "386 Enhanced mode", or maybe it was like that in Windows/386 already

I think it is sort of a continuum, with 95 being further on the path begun on Windows 3.x "386 Enhanced mode", or maybe it was like that in Windows/386 already (that was the branding for Windows 2.0). I have a feeling of reading a Raymond Chen blog post about how that worked, but my search skills fail me at this time. However, here's another site summarizing how that mode worked, allowing MS-DOS app multitasking among other things (32-bit disk I/O!): https://networkencyclopedia.com/windows-3-1/ https://networkencyclopedia.com/windows-3-1/