The development and planning of Windows 95 have started in 1992, after the release of Windows 3.1. At this time, Windows for Workgroups 3.1 and Windows NT 3.1 was still in development and Microsoft's plan for the future was to focus on Cairo (codename). Microsoft realized that they need an updated operating system that could support 32-bit applications and preemptive multitasking, but could still run on low-end hardware.