It’s to do with the 9x kernel. Backwards compatibility BS. 9x is basically a shell on top of MSDOS 6 and 7 until ME. Then stuff was moved over to the NT kernel which was based itself on the work Microsoft did for IBM on OS/2 WARP.
It’s a bunch of stuff that if you’re into computer history gets a little interesting. OS/2 is a fun topic because it’s about the point where IBM and Microsoft stopped getting along.
OS/2 is definitely an interesting fork in the road. IBM and Microsoft parting ways changed a lot of history. Always fun to revisit that period when “what ifs” come up.
What about Windows Chicago from 1993? That’s Windows 95 beta, in each build you can see all the development stages from Windows 3.11 to Windows 95 RTM interface.
Absolutely a masterpiece for OS enthusiasts.