diff --git a/Lib/locale.py b/Lib/locale.py
index dea3ee55cf4d24..ee95c8d6cf2879 100644
--- a/Lib/locale.py
+++ b/Lib/locale.py
@@ -557,6 +557,8 @@ def getdefaultlocale(envvars=('LC_ALL', 'LC_CTYPE', 'LANG', 'LANGUAGE')):
         1766.  code and encoding can be None in case the values cannot
         be determined.
 
+        Returns `None` on Windows if failed to get locale info.
+
     """
 
     return _getdefaultlocale(envvars)
@@ -569,12 +571,10 @@ def _getdefaultlocale(envvars=('LC_ALL', 'LC_CTYPE', 'LANG', 'LANGUAGE')):
         code, encoding = _locale._getdefaultlocale()
     except (ImportError, AttributeError):
         pass
+    except OSError:
+        return None
     else:
-        # make sure the code/encoding values are valid
-        if sys.platform == "win32" and code and code[:2] == "0x":
-            # map windows language identifier to language name
-            code = windows_locale.get(int(code, 0))
-        # ...add other platform-specific processing here, if
+        # add other platform-specific processing here, if
         # necessary...
         return code, encoding
 
diff --git a/Misc/NEWS.d/next/Library/2026-02-21-17-34-53.gh-issue-123853.6RUwWh.rst b/Misc/NEWS.d/next/Library/2026-02-21-17-34-53.gh-issue-123853.6RUwWh.rst
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000000..1babcbfd8e678a
--- /dev/null
+++ b/Misc/NEWS.d/next/Library/2026-02-21-17-34-53.gh-issue-123853.6RUwWh.rst
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+Removed Windows 95 compatibility for :func:`locale.getdefaultlocale`.
diff --git a/Modules/_localemodule.c b/Modules/_localemodule.c
index 7174eebd0c94de..be90dc62f33342 100644
--- a/Modules/_localemodule.c
+++ b/Modules/_localemodule.c
@@ -29,6 +29,7 @@ This software comes with no warranty. Use at your own risk.
 #    define WIN32_LEAN_AND_MEAN
 #  endif
 #  include <windows.h>
+#  include "pyerrors.h"             // PyErr_SetFromWindowsErr()
 #endif
 
 PyDoc_STRVAR(locale__doc__, "Support for POSIX locales.");
@@ -555,20 +556,9 @@ _locale__getdefaultlocale_impl(PyObject *module)
             return Py_BuildValue("ss", locale, encoding);
     }
 
-    /* If we end up here, this windows version didn't know about
-       ISO639/ISO3166 names (it's probably Windows 95).  Return the
-       Windows language identifier instead (a hexadecimal number) */
-
-    locale[0] = '0';
-    locale[1] = 'x';
-    if (GetLocaleInfoA(LOCALE_USER_DEFAULT, LOCALE_IDEFAULTLANGUAGE,
-                      locale+2, sizeof(locale)-2)) {
-        return Py_BuildValue("ss", locale, encoding);
-    }
-
     /* cannot determine the language code (very unlikely) */
-    Py_INCREF(Py_None);
-    return Py_BuildValue("Os", Py_None, encoding);
+    /* if any of GetLocaleInfoA above failed */
+    return PyErr_SetFromWindowsErr(0);
 }
 #endif