Short for
CD-ROM File System, the
Windows 95 driver for
CD-ROM players. CDFS replaces
MSCDEX, which was used for
DOS and
Windows 3.x systems. Unlike MSCDEX, which is a 16-bit program that runs only in real mode, CDFS is a
32-bit program that runs in protected mode. In addition, it uses the
VCACHE driver to control the CD-ROM disk cache, which results in much smoother playback.