Windows 95
Windows 95 was released Aug. 24, 1995. AFP

It sure seems primitive now, but Windows 95 was an extraordinary leap for personal computing when it hit the scene 20 years ago today. Scores of people grew up with the operating system, using it along with the first editions of the Internet Explorer browser, and reveled in all the new features Microsoft built into the 95 edition. From the plug-and-play to the celebrated Start menu, let's take a look back at Windows 95.

Before 1995, the Windows operating system didn't offer much in terms of features. Upgrades touted for Windows 3.0, released in 1990, included graphics with 16 colors, better icons and faster speeds. Floppy disks were used to install Windows 3.0 and Windows 3.1 and featured the introduction of Solitaire, Hearts and Minesweeper. Windows NT, released in 1993, pushed the envelope of what an OS could be and was the first 32-bit OS for Microsoft.

The best was yet to come and Microsoft made sure everyone knew the release date -- Aug. 24, 1995 -- of Windows 95. Microsoft spent $3 million to license "Start Me Up" by the Rolling Stones for its ad campaign. It was a lot of money, but it was used to introduce Windows 95's biggest advancement: the Start button. The new OS offered the chance to surf the Internet via dial-up and plug-and-play support made installing a printer or a new game easy. Enhanced multitasking functions made it much easier for users to run multiple programs smoothly, a thing we may take for granted when we have 10 tabs open along with Spotify and Word.

Users could install the new OS via CD or floppy disk and needed at least 4 MB of RAM and a 386DX processor or higher.

"A real theme of the PC is to become a great communications tool and Windows 95 is a big step in that direction," Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates said in a launch announcement. Jay Leno was even part of the rollout for the new OS. As Variety noted, Windows was not only the biggest thing in computers, the company was also the coolest.

Microsoft's efforts paid off and it dominated the market. Within a year of its release, 40 million copies of Windows 95 were shipped worldwide. Pretty much every computer -- 86.3 percent -- ran on a Microsoft OS, Variety noted.

Windows 95 may be gone -- Microsoft stopped supporting the OS in 2001 -- but it's not forgotten. Let's take a look back at when Windows 95 was king, courtesy of Jennifer Aniston and Matthew Perry.