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                    "How Windows 95 code survives inside Windows 11\n            You\u2019ll probably not be surprised to know that Windows 11 still carries a working piece of the Windows 95 kernel. A compatibility fix called EmulateHeap gives old apps Windows 95\u2019s memory manager when they depend on its forgiving nature, and you can find it on a Windows 11 26H2 PC today.\nThe tradition goes back to SimCity, which only ran on Windows 95 because Microsoft wrote special code for it.\nEmulateHeap, a fix that runs Windows 95\u2019s heap manager, still ships with Windows 11 26H2. Credit: Windows Latest\nMicrosoft changed how Windows 95 managed memory just for SimCity\nApps ask Windows for memory while they run and free it when they\u2019re done. If that memory is still read after being freed, it is a bug known as use-after-free, and the original SimCity for Windows 3.x had one.\nJoel Spolsky, Stack Overflow co-founder and former Microsoft engineer, shared the story in a 2000 essay, citing Jon Ross, who wrote that version of SimCity. Ross admitted he accidentally left a bug where the game \u201cread memory that he had just freed,\u201d and Spolsky explains why nobody noticed. \u201cIt worked fine on Windows 3.x, because the memory never went anywhere.\u201d\nSIMCity 2000 Special Edition for Windows 95. Source: Nap\u2019n\u2019Retrogaming\nSimCity broke on the Windows 95 betas, and instead of waiting for a patched game, Microsoft added code to Windows 95 that looks for SimCity. \u201cIf it finds SimCity running, it runs the memory allocator in a special mode that doesn\u2019t free memory right away,\u201d Spolsky wrote.\nYes, Microsoft modified its OS just to cover up one game\u2019s bug.\nMicrosoft recompiled Windows 95\u2019s heap manager to keep old apps alive\nThe SimCity hack was a one-off, but other apps made similar assumptions. Microsoft engineer Raymond Chen explained in his Windows Confidential column in 2010 that some programs used the quirks of the Windows 95 heap, such as reading freed memory and expecting the old values to still be there.\nUnfortunately for those apps, they crashed on later versions of Windows, which manage memory differently.\nWindows 95 CD. Source: Pinterest\nThe solution was EmulateHeap, which fixes this issue by redirecting an app\u2019s heap calls, \u201cfrom HeapCreate to LocalLock to GlobalReAlloc and everywhere in between,\u201d to replacements that mimic Windows 95. Chen describes it as \u201cextremely simple\u201d yet \u201ccompletely crazy,\u201d and the even crazier part is how Microsoft built it:\n\u201c\u2026they simply took a copy of the Windows 95 Heap Manager source code, recompiled it, and added it to the compatibility infrastructure.\u201d\nIn Chen\u2019s words, \u201cthere\u2019s a copy of a significant chunk of the Windows 95 kernel inside the Windows application compatibility framework.\u201d Chen notes the old code only loads from the hard drive when EmulateHeap is enabled for an app, so your PC isn\u2019t quietly running Windows 95 in the background.\nTo be clear, EmulateHeap isn\u2019t the code Microsoft wrote for SimCity. Both come from the compatibility obsession behind Windows XP\u2019s hidden database of app fixes, but they\u2019re separate fixes.\nHow to find EmulateHeap in Compatibility Administrator on Windows 11\nYou can see EmulateHeap in Compatibility Administrator, a free Microsoft tool for IT admins that lists the compatibility fixes Windows comes with. Microsoft describes a compatibility fix (or shim) as \u201ca small piece of code that intercepts API calls from applications.\u201d\nCompatibility Administrator comes with the Windows Assessment and Deployment Kit (ADK), and the September 2026 release officially supports Windows 11 26H2. I found EmulateHeap on my 26H2 PC with these steps:\n\nDownload the Windows ADK from Microsoft and run the installer.\nSelect only Application Compatibility Tools from the list of features and finish the install.\nSelecting Application Compatibility Tools in Windows Assessment and Deployment kit. Credit: Windows Latest\nSearch Start for Compatibility Administrator and open the 32-bit version, as most Windows 95-era apps are 32-bit.\nCompatibility Administrator 32 bit in Start. Credit: Windows Latest\nUnder Custom Databases, right-click New Database, then select Create New > Compatibility Mode.\nCreating a new database of Compatibility Mode. Credit: Windows Latest\nScroll the list of available compatibility fixes to EmulateHeap.\nEmulateHeap in Compatibility Administrator\u2019s list of compatibility fixes on Windows 11 26H2. Credit: Windows Latest\n\nOf course, a listed fix isn\u2019t a working fix. After the Windows 11 22H2 update, users reported that games like GTA Vice City lost sound and Need for Speed: Most Wanted crashed with the shim enabled.\nIronically, Microsoft is replacing the Windows 95-era Properties dialog with WinUI 3, while it still keeps Windows 95\u2019s heap manager around for a handful of old apps. Microsoft wasn\u2019t kind enough to extend this effort to 3D Pinball, which was dropped because of a 64-bit bug the team couldn\u2019t afford to spend days on."
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