Many of these settings were honored in Windows 9x, although the files had begun to be phased out in favor of the Windows registry. Windows XP still acknowledged some entries in the WIN.INI file to provide backwards compatibility with older 16-bit applications.
Windows 9x honored many of these settings, but the files were gradually replaced by the Windows registry for a more modern approach.  To ensure backward compatibility with older 16-bit programs, Windows XP retained some entries from the WIN.INI file.