For a program to display the "Designed for Windows 95" logo, it must fulfill a set of Microsoft-mandated requirements:

  1. It must not use any 16 bit legacy code.
  2. It must make use of an automated setup and uninstall program.
  3. It must support long filenames with no 8.3 restrictions.
  4. It must adapt to any system changes, such as screen resolution, new devices being added, etc.
  5. Any icons (including toolbar icons) must have large (32x32) and small (16x16) sizes.
  6. It must respond to drag and drop between applications. (This one is only necessary if the program deals with files.)
  7. Any settings should be saved to the Registry rather than .ini files.

Supplementing these requirements, it was strongly recommended that programs make use of context menus, mimic the 3D style of the rest of the interface rather than the flat white one UI of Windows 3.x, use the Common Dialog control, and use a consistent set of menu items and shortcut keys.

Oddly enough, many of Microsoft's own programs did not fulfill all these requirements when Windows 95 came out. Microsoft Office used completely nonstandard dialog boxes and didn't have scaleable toolbar icons, several programs saved their settings to .ini's (including many of the games and applets), Works didn't allow drag-and-drop for a while, many programs used bold fonts as in Windows 3.1, and a few applets didn't deal properly with long filenames. This didn't stop Microsoft from marking its programs with the "Designed for Windows 95" logo, though.