real-mode and protected-mode

[shaharhada]

What are these two in the Old Windows environments (like Windows 95)?
What are the differences?
And -> Are these two modes exist nowadays?

 

[hotaru.hino]

Real and protected mode are operating modes of x86 processors. The key difference between them is real mode has no hardware memory protection system, while protected mode does, hence its name. There are some others but that's the biggest one.

They still exist, and all x86 processors still start in Real Mode.

Memory protection is a way to prevent applications from accessing memory they're not allowed to or should not be allowed to.