Well like OS/2, NT could relegate all 16bit code to a DOS box and be done with it - unfortunately a lot of old code would not run this way because NT's DOS box was brain-dead. Almost all old code would run on Windows 95, it was really an amazing compromise effort. It sucked in an absolute sense next to OS/2, but given the goal of allowing a snap upgrade to 3.1 it was a great success - in the 95b release.