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Windows Sources Win 95 Virtual Walkthrough -- ASCII text version

Complete text of Windows Sources special feature for March, 1995

Note: Due to the large amount of information contained in this
special feature, the Windows Help version (available as WIN95.ZIP
in the same library from which this file was downloaded) is highly
recommended. The WinHelp version contains sneak preview screenshots,
and is organized into easy-to-navigate point and click departments.
This version provided for the convenience of DOS users only.

***********************************************************************

Windows 95: Stay or Switch?

Richard Butner, Joseph Moran, Larry Seltzer, Gregory Smith, Gus
Venditto

Should you switch? Our Windows 95 preview proves it's not just
a new interface. Architectural changes smooth multitasking and
speed communications.

Grab something solid and hold on tight. That rumbling you hear
is the sound of Windows 95 coming down the pipeline. Although
the final version is not due till August, Windows 95 is already
shaking up everything on the computer landscape. The results of
our tests of a beta version of Windows 95 (Beta 2, M7 build
224) will show you why.

Windows 3.1 is inarguably one of the most influential programs
ever written. It has been installed on over 50 million
machines, inspired several thousand new applications, and
shifted the direction of computing. Windows 95 is even more
ambitious. It has the potential to usher in a new array of
hardware, ranging from PBX telephone systems to wireless
personal communicators.

The first step, however, is to win the desktops of Windows 3.1
users. That's not as straightforward as it might seem. Windows
95 isn't simply an upgrade; in some ways, it's a radical
departure. This is most evident in the user interface (UI).
Microsoft has changed even the most basic components. New
symbols--a straight line and a box--replace the minimize and
maximize buttons. Program Manager is now an obscure option you
set in system.INI. And a single button, Start, guides you
through your session, eliminating the desktop clutter of
program groups and items.

DOS Is Dead, Long Live DOS

Windows 95 is also the first version of Windows to shield you
from DOS. It bypasses the command line, booting right into a
graphical environment. By largely avoiding DOS's real-mode
restrictions and by using new 32-bit protected-mode drivers
(VxDs), Windows 95 solves many performance and compatibility
problems. True, Windows has sported 32-bit protected-mode
drivers since Version 3.0, but Microsoft has enhanced the
drivers in Windows 95. For example, Windows 95 loads and
unloads drivers dynamically, whereas 3.1 could load VxDs only
when the system initialized. Windows 95 also enhances the DOS
file system. The new VFAT (virtual file allocation table)
driver lets you create filenames and directory (folder, in Win
95 parlance) names of up to 255 characters, but it still
supports traditional 8.3-style filenames.

You won't have to replace all your old software, though. In
fact, in our tests, DOS applications ran better than they do in
Windows 3.1. Windows 95 frees conventional memory by
implementing many features, such as network and CD-ROM drivers,
as virtual device drivers rather than as TSRs or real-mode DOS
drivers.

For an early look at the coming class of Win 95-based
applications, try out the Accessories included with Windows 95.
Only with new applications will you be able to use the new
common dialog boxes. Unlike those in 3.1, the new common
dialogs let you perform more tasks. For example, you can create
and rename directories and files inside each dialog. There's an
icon beside each file and folder, so you know the source
application at a glance. And the new common dialogs support
Windows 95's new long filenames. Of course, only applications
written to support Windows 95 applications can take advantage
of these features. Although they'll run under Windows 95, your
3.1 applications will still look like, well, 3.1 applications.




Interface-lift

Dell OptiPlex 4100/Mxe, 
desktop system, $2,520. 
Dell USA L.P., 
9505 Arboretum Blvd., 
Austin, TX 78759; 
Phone: 800-592-3355; 
fax, 800-727-8320. 

Windows 95 (Beta 2 M7 build 224). 
Microsoft Corp., 
One Microsoft Way, 
Redmond, WA 98052-6399; 
Phone: 800-426-9400; 
fax, 206-883-8101.

Simple UI masks the power within Program Manager, with its sea 
of icons, does nothing to help you navigate. It's easy to lose 
minimized windows. And organizing the desktop is a challenge. 

So when Microsoft set out to redesign the Windows interface, 
its mantra was, Simplify, simplify. When we loaded Windows 95, 
we knew Microsoft had largely succeeded. Tools are packed in 
two strips along the bottom of the screen, and the simplest 
device of all--the Start button--lies between them.

Windows 95 also helps you navigate with Shortcuts, which link 
documents to applications, and with Wizards, which walk you 
through such key setup operations as installing hardware. 

One-Click Tasks 

The Start menu is the cornerstone of the Taskbar, which is Win 95's 
launcher. When you load Windows 95, the Taskbar shows only the 
Start menu. When you run programs, Windows 95 adds buttons to 
the Taskbar to represent each active program. When programs are 
inactive, they sit on the Start menu. (During installation, 
Windows 95 adds to the Start menu any applications it detects 
on your hard disk.) To switch applications, click a 
button--once. With Windows 95, you can launch programs on the 
Start menu with a single mouse click. 

While the Taskbar speeds up task-switching, the Start menu is 
an organizational tool. The Start menu lists only a few basic 
commands--Help, Find, Run, and Shutdown. Its layout encourages 
you to organize programs into logical groups and to use 
documents as the main organizing device. For example, the 
Documents section of the Start menu lists the last 15 files 
opened, so you can get most work done without opening a program 
menu. 

To run applications, you select Programs--by default, the first 
item on the Start menu--which opens a secondary menu listing 
Windows program groups, including Accessories and Explorer. 
This is the same type of group/icon structure as in 3.1 but 
with different icons in different groups. (To run the Program 
Manager shell instead of Explorer, edit the shell=explorer.exe 
statement in SYSTEM.INI to read shell=progman.exe.) 

More Mousetraps 

Clicking on the right mouse button almost anywhere--even over 
the blank desktop--opens a pop-up menu with context-sensitive 
options. Passing the cursor over many objects opens a tips box 
that describes the object's function. Even running the cursor 
to the screen's edge has a purpose: restoring a hidden Taskbar. 

However, the mouse has become more powerful at the expense of 
keyboard shortcuts. Even use of the familiar term keyboard 
shortcut is a problem in Windows 95. Shortcuts now refers to 
icons that open documents associated with specific 
applications. In fact, Shortcuts can point to most anything on 
the network, including OLE links. 

Fortunately, most of 3.1's keyboard combos still work: Ctrl-Esc 
opens the Taskbar, Ctrl-Alt-Del restarts your system, and 
Alt-Tab opens the task-switching menu. Many key functions, such 
as returning to the desktop, require mouse input. 

Cruisin' the Desktop 

Windows 95 provides several ways to navigate programs and 
documents on your desktop or on the network. You can press the 
Start button to display a menu of programs and documents. Or 
you can use a browsing program, the Explorer, to manage both 
the file system and Windows program groups. (Confusingly, the 
Windows shell is also called Explorer.) Lastly, you can delve 
into the icons that appear on the opening desktop, My Computer 
and Network Neighborhood. These icons retain the feel of 
Program Manager but add power. For example, both files and 
programs appear as icons, and you can click on any file linked 
to an application to start it. So you can use this view instead 
of the Start menu to run programs. 

With Win 95's browser, the Explorer, you can drill through 
folders (the new name for directories) to run documents and 
perform housekeeping. You can delete and undelete files, change 
attributes, and print files or copy them to another disk. You 
can even highlight multiple files and send them all to the 
printer at once, which you couldn't do in 3.1. Right-clicking 
on any icon opens a context menu tailored to the icon's 
properties. For example, a document's context menu lets you 
print or view the document. However, if an application isn't 
written to the Win32 API, it won't display such properties and 
instead will show only the program version. 

Speaking of Dialogs 

Windows 95 also overhauls common dialogs, bringing important 
functions to the fore; all Windows 95 native apps reflect this. 
For example, File Open and File Save As dialogs let you create 
new folders, as well as open and save files. Print dialogs let 
you specify only the number of copies and print range options, 
relegating such options as paper tray to secondary dialogs. 
Also new: the Recycling Bin. It saves deleted files, displaying 
the file's original location and the date and the time you 
deleted it. You can even set the size of the Bin to control the 
number of files it can store. 

The Name of the Game 

One big change in Win 95 is its support of 255-character 
filenames. To create a FAT-based system for long filenames 
that's compatible with older applications, Windows 95 pulls 
some impressive tricks. It hides long filenames in additional 
FAT directory entries with attributes, such as volume labels, 
that only Windows 95 applications can read. And because the OS 
stores long filenames in the entries immediately following 
standard 8.3-style filenames, the long name is likely to be in 
the disk buffer and retrieved quickly. 

One flaw: Root directories have a fixed number of entries, and 
long filenames tend to take up several entries. Therefore, you 
risk running out of root directory space. So run Windows' 
Scandisk frequently to reclaim orphaned long-filename entries.

Keyboard users, prepare to go cold turkey

If you haven't yet shaken your dependence on the keyboard, be 
prepared to go cold turkey. With Windows 95, keyboard habits 
will only hold you back. The key to learning Windows 95 is to 
let the mouse run rampant. Run it over every button and object 
in sight. Click with the left and then the right. Help windows 
pop up everywhere. And context menus immediately display 
options that Windows 3.1 buried under layers of menus. Windows 
95 will run your current Windows 3.1 applications, but don't 
expect to make the switch without a snag. You'll spend hours 
relearning how to handle basic tasks, such as switching among 
programs and arranging your setup options. Those first few 
hours are like finding your way in a dark room; but before 
long, you'll find the new digs are a lot like the old place: 
Windows 95 rearranges icons and tools but doesn't sacrifice 
anything valuable. 

Mighty Mouse Rules 

The first order of business is to come to terms with the Start 
menu, which appears when you press the Start button. You can 
live without this menu if you want to run everything from 
desktop icons, as you did with Program Manager. But the Start 
menu is an improvement over Program Manager, and as soon as 
you're comfortable with the way it works (remember: mouse 
only), you'll be rearranging the menus. 

To change your Start menu options, choose Settings in the Start 
menu. Click on and drag program icons from one folder to 
another to rearrange this menu. However, it's all too easy to 
take Microsoft's clean initial organization and create a mess, 
so exercise caution. Your Start menu can be merely a long list 
of all your applications or an intricate tree of carefully 
pruned menus. 

Once you have a feel for the Start menu and have run a few 
applications, you'll want to customize the Taskbar along the 
bottom of the screen, where push buttons represent active 
applications. The Settings menu for the Taskbar provides an 
Auto hide mode, which presents you with one of your first setup 
decisions: Do you want a clean screen or one on which the 
Taskbar is always in view? Try the Auto hide option, for no 
other reason than to explore Windows 95's greater mouse 
sensitivity. You'll also want to experiment with the option to 
auto-close viewer panes when you open a new one; your desktop 
can get messy fast if you don't select auto-close. Of course, 
you will often want multiple panes open for dragging and 
dropping document launches and file operations.

When the Taskbar is in view, simply move the mouse away from it 
to make the Taskbar disappear. To make it reappear, bring the 
mouse back to the extreme edge of the screen. The effect 
disconcerted us at first, because you end up calling the 
Taskbar when you're reaching for a scrollbar. But in time, we 
found that the Windows 95 UI requires more careful mouse 
control, and quick access to the Taskbar is just one of the 
rewards for developing that control.

You'll want to extend the Taskbar's real estate before you 
launch more than three applications; otherwise, the Taskbar 
squeezes the buttons, making it impossible to read the name 
attached to each. To master Taskbar control, you'll need to 
glide your mouse very slowly along the Taskbar's borders until 
the sizing arrows appear. (We say "slowly" because the mouse must 
rest on the button if it is to open.) No borders guide you 
through this; you have to find the hot spot yourself. 

What's in a Filename? 

You also have to work harder to master the relationship between 
files. Several changes make it easier to work with files, 
though. Filenames can be as long as 255 characters. While you 
still can't use some punctuation marks in a filename, you can 
use blank spaces and mixed case. Of course, if an application 
wasn't written to support long filenames, none of these new 
naming conventions apply. Instead, Windows 95 will truncate the 
filename, giving it a unique name that uses the standard DOS 
8.3-style format. 

File extensions are essential to Windows 95 links between 
documents and applications, and they remain unchanged when you 
view them in a DOS directory. However, you'll see a lot less of 
them: The default browsing option hides extensions, identifying 
documents with a combination of icons and the first part of the 
file name. File dialog boxes separate filenames from extensions 
to discourage you from changing extensions. 

In theory, you'll rarely need to know an extension, because 
Windows 95 automatically detects the source application, though 
you'll still have to create associations for nonstandard 
extensions. In addition, you can use Shortcuts, which are like 
the Mac's aliases or OS/2's shadows. You could, for example, 
create shortcuts to key network subdirectories and collect them 
in a single folder on your local drive, which you couldn't do 
under 3.1.

A document icon and its Shortcut look identical--except the 
Shortcut icon contains a small arrow. The problem? Even with 
the telltale arrow, it's easy to copy a Shortcut when you 
really want to copy a file. You can't use a Shortcut unless the 
actual file is available. 

Win 3.1 Rears Its Interface 

After you've gotten your sea legs with the Taskbar and Start 
menu, you'll want to rearrange the items on the Start menu. 
Select Start Menu from the Settings menu and you return to 
familiar ground. The browsing view reveals the Windows origins 
behind the new interface: This view organizes the Start menu 
like Program Manager. You can drag items from Programs groups 
to the main menu or create new folders for the Start menu. 

At first, working with the Start menu in this view is 
disconcerting because the toolbar seems like a file-management 
program, but you're working only with icons. Get used to it. 
Windows 95 uses this type of browsing window repeatedly. The 
main menu bar items won't change from one type of object to 
another, but menu choices will change. 

In the Settings menu, you can stick with just one browser whose 
contents Win 95 updates every time you select a new folder. Or 
you can open a new browser for each new folder. The default 
setting in our prerelease version resulted in new browsers 
proliferating like bunnies. While it's easy enough to restrict 
the display to a single browser window from the Settings option 
on the Start menu, you can't drag icons from one folder to 
another unless both are open. 

Even a cursory exploration of a hard disk can quickly lead to a 
mess, with more than dozens of browser windows open. To clean 
it up, you must minimize all windows from the Taskbar's context 
menu, then reopen the windows you still want to view. So if you 
thought that Windows 95 would eliminate the need for desktop 
shells or utilities, think again. 

Exploring Options 

An expanded version of the browser, Explorer, replaces File 
Manager (which is still available). Explorer has a cleaner 
design than File Manager, but it's far from a complete 
file-management solution. You view all disks in the left pane 
and folders or files in the right. Copying a file to a disk or 
folder that isn't in view forces you to open a second Explorer 
and then align the two windows so both are in view. 

The main menu is so clean you won't even find a command for 
copying files. To copy a file when the target folder isn't in 
view, you can right-click on a file to open a context menu and 
copy the file to the clipboard. When you've opened the target 
folder, paste the file. In time, it's something we may get used 
to, but for now, shelling out to DOS will remain a popular 
option for file maintenance. Renaming is easy in Win 95, but 
viewing a directory using wildcards, formatting a disk, and 
copying files are easier in DOS. 

Incredibly, only two commands rest on the Explorer's Tools 
menu. Instead, you find file-management tools by clicking on 
the object that needs work and then right-clicking to open a 
context menu. For example, the Explorer in our beta-version 
menus amazingly lacked disk format commands; to format a floppy 
disk, you must open a DOS session and type the format command. 

In time, we'll probably be working faster as a result of this 
shift to stronger object orientation. But it will take time to 
make the adjustment.

New desktop digs take getting used to

Even in its beta form, the Windows 95 user interface is a clear 
overall improvement over that of Windows 3.1. Still, it takes 
time to adjust to your new digs. The new user interface is 
particularly well suited for Windows novices, who'll find it 
easy to navigate and customize once they learn the ropes. 
However, power Windows users will come smack against its 
limitations earlier in the game. For example, if you've got 
half a dozen or so applications running, the Taskbar truncates 
the names. Power users may also tire of the forest of menus 
that cascade off the Start button. 

The best way to master the new interface is to learn the 
properties of each icon and to practice manipulating each icon 
with the mouse. You can move these objects to action by using 
context menus that open when you right-click on an icon. And 
you can accomplish many more tasks by dragging icons than you 
could in Windows 3.1. For example, you can now print a document 
by dragging a file to a printer icon. 

However, probably the most controversial aspect of the new 
interface is the change in the upper-right corner of a standard 
window pane. Windows 95 replaces the minimize and maximize 
arrows with a straight line and a box, respectively, and you 
now click on X to close the window. However, it's much too easy 
to mistakenly close a window when you want to maximize it. 

The Explorer replaces File Manager. You run the Explorer by 
selecting an option on the Start menu or by clicking on the My 
Computer icon that appears separate from the Start menu. Each 
Explorer window provides only a single look at a disk, so you 
will often run multiple Explorer windows to perform basic disk 
housecleaning. Microsoft made some file operations unreasonably 
difficult, so plan on a strong market for replacement shell 
programs. Symantec expects to ship its new version of The 
Norton Desktop about 90 days after the release of Windows 95.

Related article: Jargon

context menu: A pop-up menu that opens when you right-click on 
an object. It lets you set properties or perform tasks unique 
to an object. 

Explorer: The browser that replaces File Manager. It lets you 
view files as icons, not just as text labels. 

Start menu: The new home for program icons, replacing Program 
Manager. The Start menu pops up when you click the Start 
button. 

Shortcut: A Shortcut is a reference, or link, to a Windows 95 
object, such as a file, program, or device. Windows 95 tracks 
the object, so if you move it, the Shortcut will still work. 
For example, you might create a Shortcut to a network printer 
and drag a file to the Shortcut to print the file. 

Taskbar: The Taskbar along the bottom of the screen replaces 
the Task List in Windows 3.1. It has a button for each active 
program, and you click the button to switch to the program you 
want.

Related article: File functions

File                  WIN 3.1 file            WIN 95  
Function              manager                 Explorer

Accessing             Most commands are       Most commands are on
commands              located on pull-down    context menus that
                      menus at the top of     you access with a
                      window                  right-click of the
                                              mouse.

Viewing directories   You can view multiple   You can view only 
(foldders, in Win 95  directories, each in    one folder at a time.
parlance)             its own window, using   To view serveral, you
                      Windows' Multiple       must open additional          
                      Document Interface      Explorer sessions.
                      (MDI)                   Explorer doesn't
                                              support MDI.

Viewing file          You view the contents   You can view file       
contents              of a file only by       contents by
                      running the associated  selecting one of 
                      application.            the view options  
                                              on the file icon's
                                              context menu.  



Stay or Go?

Jacquelyn Gavron

The Clear View

Upgrade Quandary 

Despite beta pains, the verdict remains: Windows 95 outshines 
3.1. 

The big question on everyone's mind is whether to upgrade to 
Windows 95. The next big question, of course, is when will 
Windows 95 ship--particularly in light of Microsoft's corporate 
confession that it now will not hit the street until August. No 
surprise there. While the performance and feature set of the 
beta version (Beta 2, M7 build 224) we tested were stable, Win 
95 still has its share of bugs. We had trouble installing Win 
95 on some test systems. It lacked drivers for various 
adapters. And Plug and Play worked--only erratically. 

Thumbs Up 

But that doesn't change our overall impression about the value 
of upgrading. Yes, it'll take time to get used to your new 
desktop digs. But with Win 95's totally revamped user 
interface, you're no longer adrift in a sea of icons. It's 
clean, streamlined, and more mouse-centric than its 
predecessor. (Relax: Alt-Tab, Ctrl-Esc, and Ctrl-Alt-Del still 
work.) And most of your current software--even device 
drivers--will run as well under Windows 95 as it does under 
3.x, if not better. 

In addition, Win 95 provides nearly unlimited system resources. 
The new communications subsystem supports higher 
data-transmission rates. And Windows 95 is the best 
out-of-the-box network client around, with its support for such 
protocols as NetWare, NT, PPP, SLIP, and TCP/IP for Internet 
access. (TCP/IP-stack vendors might complain, but users won't.) 

Win 95 will also create opportunities for third-party vendors. 
For example, there'll be a clear need for utilities that 
"humanize" the system Registry, which is the central database of 
configuration information. The Registry replaces WIN.INI and 
SYSTEM.INI, among other setup files. If you thought the .INIs 
were tough to negotiate, the Registry is positively 
impenetrable, though a wealth of system information resides 
there. You can configure some of it, such as display fonts, 
with the Control Panel, but not all.

The Taskbar has its limitations, too. For example, when you 
have more than six or seven applications running, the Taskbar 
truncates the buttons so you can't read their labels. Another 
third-party opportunity. 

Among the stream of utilities, you can also expect to see some 
that will let you view multiple folders (called directories in 
Win 3.1); out of the box, Explorer displays only one at a time.



Make Old Desktops New

Brian Livingston

The Critical Distinctions

Undocumented Tip

If your desktop is perfectly tuned, you don't have to change it 
for Win 95. 

When you install Windows 95 over a working copy of Windows 3.1, 
the setup routine adopts any special settings you had in your 
WIN.INI and SYSTEM.INI files. This should preserve the colors 
and other settings you customized for your system. 

One thing that doesn't look the same, however, is the Program 
Manager group you've painstakingly arranged. Because Microsoft 
has developed a new user interface for Windows 95--based on a 
new shell called Explorer--the old Program Manager does not 
show up automatically. 

Your program groups still exist, but they are buried deep down 
in the new Start button menu. However, you can use the 
following method to place your old group windows right on the 
Windows 95 Desktop--an undocumented procedure you won't find in 
the Windows manual. 

Step 1: Click on the Start button. Then on Programs, then 
Explorer. 

Step 2: When the Explorer window opens, expand the C:\WINDOWS 
folder by clicking on the plus sign until you see the Programs 
folder under the Start Menu folder. This is where Windows 95 
stores your old Program Manager groups. (If your copy of 
Windows 95 is in a directory other than C:\WINDOWS, substitute 
the correct name for your system.) 

Step 3: Click on the plus sign beside the Programs folder. This 
should reveal folders for your former groups, such as 
Accessories and Startup. 

Step 4: Using the right mouse button, drag each folder you want 
onto the Desktop. When you release the mouse button, you see a 
pop-up menu. Do not select the Move Here option! (That would 
move the folder to a different location on your disk.) Instead, 
click on Create Shortcut Here. This creates an icon (or 
Shortcut) for that group on your Desktop. 

Step 5: Repeat Step 4 for all the program groups you want to 
carry over to your Windows 95 Desktop. When you're done, click 
the right mouse button over any blank spot on the Desktop. On 
the pop-up menu that appears, click on Line Up Icons to make 
your new icons fit into a compact grid pattern. 

Now you can double-click on any Program Manager Group and use 
all your icons with even greater ease than you could in Win 3.1.


Virtually Stable

Dell OptiPlex XMT 590, mini-tower, $3,489; 
Dell OptiPlex 466/MXV, 8MB RAM, 528MB hard disk, 
2X CD-ROM drive, 15-inch monitor, 14.4 modem, $2,379. 
Dell Computer Corp., 
9505 Arboretum Blvd., 
Austin, TX 78759-7299; 
Phone: 800-613-3355; 
fax, 512-338-8700. 

Hayes Optima 144 + FAX144 for PCMCIA, $269. 
Hayes Microcomputer Products, Inc., 
5835 Peachtree Corners E., 
Norcross, GA 30092; 
Phone: 800-96-HAYES; 
fax, 404-441-1213. 

IBM ThinkPad 755C, DX4/75, 8MB RAM, 
340MB hard disk, $5,714. 
IBM PC Direct, 
3039 Cornwallis Rd., Bldg. 203, 
Research Triangle Park, NC 27709; 
Phone: 800-426-7938.

MGA Impression Plus, $449. 
Matrox Electronic Systems, Ltd., 
1055 St. Regis Blvd., 
Dorval, QC, Canada H9P 2T4; 
Phone: 800-361-1408; 
fax, 514-685-2853. 

Microsoft Excel 5.0 for NT, $339. 
Microsoft Corp., 
One Microsoft Way, 
Redmond, WA 98052; 
Phone: 800-426-9400; 
fax, 206-883-8101.
 
Microsoft Word 6.0 for NT, $339. 
Microsoft Corp., 
One Microsoft Way, 
Redmond, WA 98052; 
Phone: 800-426-9400; 
fax, 206-883-8101.  

Mosaic for Windows, freeware. 
NCSA (National Center for 
Supercomputing Applications). 
Last know whereabouts: 
ftp.NCSA.uiuc.edu in /PC/Mosaic. 

Picture Publisher for NT (beta). 
Micrografx, Inc., 
1303 Arapaho Rd., 
Richardson, TX 78081; 
Phone: 800-733-3729; 
fax, 214-234-2410. 

PowerStation P90PCI, 16MB RAM, 
527MB hard disk, 15-inch monitor, 
2X CD-ROM, 14.4 modem, $2718. 
Micron Computer, Inc., 
900 E. Karcher Rd., 
Nampa, ID 83687-3045; 
Phone: 800-438-3343; 
fax, 208-463-3424. 

T3600CT Portege notebook, 16MB RAM, 
250MB hard disk, $4,838. 
Toshiba America Information Systems, Inc., 
9740 Irvine Blvd., 
PO Box 19724, 
Irvine, CA 92718; 
Phone: 800-334-3445; 
fax, 714-583-3645.

Visual SlickEdit 1.7 for Windows NT, $295. 
MicroEdge, Inc., 
P.O. Box 18038, 
Raleigh, NC 27619; 
Phone: 800-934-3348; 
fax, 919-831-0101. 

Visio32 (beta of Windows 95 version). 
ShapeWare, Inc., 
520 Pike St., #1800, 
Seattle, WA 98101; 
Phone: 800-446-3335; 
fax, 206-521-4501. 

Xircom CreditCard Ethernet+Modem II (10BaseT), $649. 
Xircom, Inc., 
2300 Corporate Center Dr., 
Thousand Oaks, CA 91320; 
Phone: 800-874-7875; 
fax, 805-376-9311.

Put your compatibility concerns aside

Windows 95's preemptive multitasking, while welcome, is no big 
surprise: Windows for Workgroups 3.11 is also a preemptive 
multitasking operating system. However, Windows 95 adds such 
new features as the ability to dynamically load and unload 
virtual device drivers (VxDs) and has a full Win32 subsystem. 

Windows 95 can also run several different types of programs. On 
the application front, this includes DOS, Win16, and Win32 
programs. Each Win32 program runs in its own individual address 
space, while all Win16 programs run collectively in one address 
range. As a result, one bad Win16 application could corrupt and 
crash other 3.1 programs. 

Windows 95 supports DOS drivers, Windows VxDs, Windows 3.x 
device drivers, and miniport drivers, which are a new type of 
device driver. A miniport driver is a generic driver developers 
customize to support a specific device, such as a SCSI, 
network, or graphics card. As you can imagine, miniports make 
developing drivers easier. A virtual device driver is a module 
of 32-bit code that runs in protected mode. Some VxDs deal 
specifically with hardware, but they can also supply operating 
system functions, and this is how we use the term in this 
section. 

Windows 95's preemptive multitasking support protects 
applications and drivers alike. Device drivers are trickier, 
though: Because they deal with the hardware directly, a bad one 
can bring down your system. 

Separate but Equal 

Under Windows 95, each DOS application runs in a separate 
virtual DOS machine (VDM) with its own protected memory range, 
which gives each VDM the illusion it has sole command of the 
PC. This feature has been in Windows Enhanced mode since 
Version 3.0. It works like this. 

Windows uses the processor to trap those program operations 
that could compromise system integrity. When Windows 95 
encounters such operations--like the direct manipulation of 
hardware--it either closes the virtual machine causing the 
problem (usually without affecting other running programs) or 
virtualizes the operation. For example, when several DOS 
machines are writing to screen, each thinks it has the screen 
to itself. But in fact, Windows grabs each DOS machine's screen 
writes and translates them into GDI (Graphics Device Interface) 
calls. This allows Windows to change fonts for text mode 
applications. 

The Service Entrance 

Both Win16 and DOS programs rely on many basic system services, 
including file I/O and memory management. As with Windows for 
Workgroups 3.11, VxDs provide most of these services. 

Win32 operations, too, rely on these VxDs. However, Windows 
applications also rely on three sets of Windows 
services--KERNEL, GDI, and USER. These services and all Win16 
and Win32 programs run in the System VM. The System VM is the 
virtual machine environment in which programs and subsystems 
execute. The System VM always runs in protected mode, although 
it makes calls to v86 mode sessions. 

KERNEL also routes some of these calls through to real mode DOS 
code running in a protected-mode v86 session. KERNEL is the 
Win32 DLL that manages basic, low-level system services for 
applications, such as allocating memory dynamically and 
handling processes. USER is the DLL that manages windows, 
performing such functions as creating and moving windows, 
executing dialogs, and so on. GDI, the Windows graphics engine, 
performs all graphical functions, including drawing lines, 
scaling fonts, managing colors, and printing documents. 

KERNEL, USER, and GDI all have 32-bit and 16-bit components. 
Most KERNEL services are 32-bit. GDI and, especially, USER rely 
more on 16-bit services, which ensures compatibility with 
Windows 3.1 applications because Windows 3.1's 16-bit subsystem 
is not reentrant. Simply put, the Win16 subsystem executes only 
one task at a time. (The Win32 subsystem can execute multiple 
threads simultaneously.) In addition, some Win16 applications 
expect Win16 system services to behave in certain ways, 
delivering messages in a particular order, for instance. 

Aside from compatibility, another reason Windows 95 retains 
some 16-bit services is memory conservation: 16-bit code is 
smaller than 32-bit code. If Microsoft had made the transition 
to 32-bit code entirely, Windows 95 would not be able to run in 
4MB of memory. Because Microsoft clamored about its small 
footprint even before Windows 95 had a code name, the company 
chose an architecture that delivers on its promise. 

32-Bit: Boon or Bust? 

Windows 95 introduces support for Win32 programs, which have 
several advantages over Win16 programs. Win32 applications can 
address up to 4GB of memory, as opposed to Win16's 16MB. And 
Win32 programs are made up of threads that an application can 
spin off to perform asynchronous tasks such as saving a file 
and searching for a network resource. The application launching 
one thread is then free to undertake another task. 

However, Win16 applications can rock the boat, especially those 
that aren't cooperative and don't regularly yield CPU resources 
to other programs. Win32 apps are susceptible to such 
interference because they share with Win16 common system 
services in the KERNEL, GDI, and USER. 

Windows Entry 

Microsoft uses a single semaphore, Win16Mutex (formerly 
Win16Lock), to block multiple threads from entering the Win16 
subsystem at once. A semaphore is a programming flag, or 
handle, an application must grab to enter the Win16 subsystem. 
Because Win16 does not support reentrance, Windows 95 makes 
sure only one application obtains the handle at a time. 

Windows 95 sets the semaphore whenever an application enters 
the Win16 subsystem and clears the semaphore when the 
application exits the subsystem. Because Win32 programs rely on 
Win16 system services, the semaphore blocks them too if they 
try to use Win16 services when the subsystem is already in use. 

Win16Mutex doesn't affect Win32 programs that are not trying to 
execute system services. Ditto for file, communications, and 
network I/O. Still, Win16Mutex doesn't block DOS programs 
either. Theoretically, though, protection problems can arise 
because Win32 programs rely on a potentially unstable Win16 
subsystem. If you're worried about this, which you shouldn't be 
(see The Players, where we put Win 95 to the test), then use 
Windows NT 3.5 instead. 

Windows 95 employs one last device for backward compatibility: 
Single Application Mode. This mode lets you fall back on DOS if 
you have a Windows application that won't run under Windows 95. 
To invoke it, check a box on the application's Properties 
sheet. Executing a program in Single Application Mode restarts 
the system in real mode. However, it doesn't load the 
protected-mode drivers, so you lose support for CD-ROMs, 
networks, and long filenames.

Beta pains now, compatibility tomorrow

If you're concerned about whether Windows 95 will be compatible 
with your Windows 3.1 applications, don't be. Initially, we 
thought Win16Mutex would interfere with Win32 programs. And it 
did slightly--but only with some doing on our part. We wrote an 
Excel for Windows NT macro that opened and closed windows and 
moved them around continually, causing the Win32 program to 
behave erratically. But overall the benefit of Win16Mutex, 
including its compatibility even with unstable Windows 3.1 
applications, was worth it. 

Window Pain 

During a solid month of testing, we found it difficult to tell 
whether a Win16 or Win32 program was running. Few 32-bit 
programs--the NT versions of Microsoft Word and Excel, 
Shapeware's Visio32, NCSA Mosaic, and SlickEdit-- showed 
visible effects of multithreading. The fact is multithreading 
takes place behind the scenes, and you won't see the advantages 
with many applications. But the effects of multithreading are 
evident with some applications, such as the NT version of 
Picture Publisher, which let us edit one complex image while 
the program was rendering another. 

Win16 programs brought down the entire system more often than 
Win32 applications did. For example, while the Windows 95 
Explorer, a Win32 application, crashed several times, it rarely 
crashed the entire system; the system displayed a dialog citing 
Explorer as the culprit, then simply closed the Explorer. 

There were also instances in which the system crashed while 
performing a native device operation. For example, when our 
Toshiba Portege exited suspend mode, device drivers crashed and 
the system became unstable. We had the same experience when we 
inserted a PCMCIA card--the Xircom Ethernet + Modem--into an 
IBM ThinkPad 750C. 

Party on the Hardware 

Windows 95 runs DOS and Windows 3.x device drivers. However, 
running DOS device drivers imposes a performance penalty, 
because Windows 95 must switch to v86 mode and map virtual 
addresses. It also must trust DOS device drivers to party on 
the hardware without crashing the system. (Devices that party 
on the hardware, like device drivers, program hardware directly 
instead of using an operating system service to do so.) To 
mitigate problems with DOS device drivers, Windows 95 uses VxDs 
to service devices, such as CD-ROM drivers and the Microsoft 
NetWare and IPX/SPX drivers, that ran under 3.x in real mode. 

VxDs have other benefits as well. Windows 95 can dynamically 
swap VxDs to disk when physical memory is full, which makes 
memory management more flexible than it is using DOS drivers. 
Windows 3.1 couldn't do this. Another benefit of VxDs: They 
aren't segmented into 64K blocks. Programs must organize 16-bit 
code in 64K blocks, or segments. But 32-bit VxDs can manage 
code and data in blocks of unlimited size and don't need to 
organize code in segments at all, though they can when handling 
16-bit components. For example, the VFAT VxD handles many file 
I/O calls from DOS sessions and returns 16-bit segmented 
pointers to the I/O calls.

Finally, because VxDs run in protected mode, a driver that 
crashes won't necesssarily bring down the entire system--in 
theory, at least. In practice, many Windows 95 VxDs perform 
such critical functions that when they crash, the system goes 
down as well. For example, when VMM (the Virtual Machine 
Manager, which Win 95 implements as a VxD) crashed during our 
tests, Windows 95 tried to continue running the system, to no 
avail. We had to press the reset button on our test system. 
Windows 95 had a bit more luck keeping the rest of the system 
up when the networking drivers crashed, which was rare. 
Athough, we worked with Windows 95 Beta 2 (M7 build 224), it's 
still hard to imagine that your system will be able to fully 
recover from VMM crashes. 

Dirty Software, Beware 

Windows 95's increased reliance on VxDs affects DOS and Windows 
programs in other ways, too. Utilities, diagnostic tools in 
particular, that rely on long-established techniques like 
looking at specific real-mode addresses to detect system 
configuration information may not work anymore. 

Why? Because Windows virtualizes so much of the real-mode 
environment that the information it provides these applications 
is not accurate. For instance, an interrupt vector (the 
real-mode address of an interrupt request) in a DOS window may 
not be where Win 95 actually handles the interrup. In fact, all 
hardware interrupt vectors in a real-mode session are false. 
The VMM handles them by dispatching interrupt vectors to an 
interrupt handler, which usually runs in protected mode. This 
won't be a problem with most productivity and development 
software, but it may be a problem for some utilities. 

If you use a device that only real-mode drivers support, you 
can't use Windows 95's VxDs. 

Sullied Setup 

The driver for a Matrox MGA adapter that came with Windows 95 
crashed a test system, the Micron PowerStation P90PCI. This 
wasn't the biggest problem we faced. We had more trouble 
installing Windows 95 on some systems, such as our Dell 466/MX 
with a SoundBlaster, than on others. The Dell system wouldn't 
boot after we installed Windows 95, citing a failure to load 
network-related VxDs. As it turned out, the problem was with 
the sound card, not the system. We commented out the real-mode 
SoundBlaster drivers from AUTOEXEC.BAT, and the system was 
stable. In addition, some drivers, including those for the 
Xircom PCMCIA Ethernet cards and the Hayes Optima PCMCIA modem, 
were missing from the beta we tested. Microsoft says Windows 95 
will include them when it ships. 

Is DOS Dead?

One of the biggest myths about Windows 95 is that it eliminates 
DOS and the 640K memory ceiling DOS imposes. In his much 
publicized book, Unauthorized Windows 95, Andrew Schulman 
disputes whether Windows 95 abandons DOS and demonstrates that 
it does indeed use real-mode DOS code (running in a 
protected-mode v86 session) to provide some OS services. 

This was startling, as Adrian King's book, Inside Windows 95, 
published by Microsoft Press, said Windows 95 eliminated DOS. 
When we questioned Microsoft, it agreed with Schulman that 
Windows 95 would enter v86 mode to provide some OS services. 

That Windows relies on real-mode code running in a v86 session 
isn't necessarily bad. If it ain't broke, don't fix it. Windows 
95, despite its architectural similarities to Windows for 
Workgroups 3.11, offers many system-level improvements. Long 
filenames are one, system resources another. 

When many applications are active, Windows 3.x can run out of 
resources, such as device contexts (DCs), because it stores 
them all in one 64K heap. A device context is a system resource 
that Windows applications use to perform display operations. 
Resources include regions, which are data structures that draw 
graphics on-screen, and font structures, which are data 
structures that supply information on fonts. 

Windows 95 maintains this 64K heap, but doesn't use it nearly 
as often as Windows 3.x did. Instead, Windows 95 allocates as 
many resources as it can on 32-bit heaps, which address up to 
4GB; so you're not going to run out of address space, which was 
easy to do using 16-bit 64K heaps. For example, instead of 
having roughly 200 device contexts systemwide, Windows 95 
offers 16,000. Instead of about 200 menu and window handles 
(combined), Windows 95 can handle about 16K of each. 

Legacy support belies big changes

Many people have jumped on the real-mode bandwagon, beating to 
death the significance of the legacy architecture in Windows 
95. But after pounding a beta version of Win 95 regularly for a 
solid month, we found that Win 95 multitasking and protection 
are indeed a big improvement over those in Windows for 
Workgroups 3.11. The biggest difference is that Windows 95 uses 
virtual device drivers (VxDs) to perform such key functions as 
controlling the network, CD-ROM, or SCSI bus. VxDs also improve 
both multitasking and the general integrity of the operating 
system. For example, Win32 applications can preemptively 
multitask, and there's little chance that bugs in these Win32 
apps will crash other applications because each application has 
its own protected memory address. Finally, 32-bit versions of 
some system services, such as the TrueType Rasterizer, boost 
their performance as well. 

So if you're disappointed because Windows 95 doesn't completely 
can the old Windows architecture, don't be. And cynics take 
note: Devices, such as Win16Mutex, that Windows 95 uses to 
ensure that it's compatible with your current applications work 
in your best interest, not against it.   

Related article: Jargon

reentrant: Reentrant code executes simultaneously in 
more than one task without causing errors. 

VxD:  A virtual device driver is 32-bit, protected-mode 
software that can manage a single resource, such as a serial 
port or display. VxDs provide these services globally to all 
programs running under Windows 95. Win 95 VxDs load and unload 
dynamically; Win 3.1 VxDs, on the other hand, load only during 
system initialization and stay in memory even if you no longer 
need their services. 

VMM: The Virtual Memory Manager is the Win 95 VxD that controls 
such key system services as allocating memory and routing calls 
from Win 95 subsystems to the VxD service an application has 
requested.

Related article: Stability of Win 95

If you do this...             ...you get this

Crash a Win32 application     Win 95 closes the faulty Win32
                              application without affecting
                              any other programs you're
                              running.

Crash a Win16 application     Win95 closes the Win16 application.
                              However, other Win16 apps and Win16  
                              subsystems may become unstable,
                              because they run in the same address 
                              range as the problem applications.

Crash a DOS application       Win16 and Win32 applications won't
                              have any problems. However, if the
                              faulty application directly 
                              programs hardware (as a driver does),
                              your system could crash.


Win 95 Cuts RAM Cram

Larry Seltzer

The Critical Distinctions

Memory Managers  

Windows 95 won't kill memory managers, but they must learn new 
tricks. 

Reports that Windows 95 marks the end of memory managers are 
exaggerated. Memory management software from such vendors as 
Helix Software, Qualitas, and Quarterdeck Office Systems 
certainly won't be the critical tools they once were for many 
of us, but they can still play a role in some cases. 

Virtual Memory Reigns 

Windows 95 doesn't always need DOS memory managers thanks to 
its heavy use of VxDs. The VxDs Windows 95 uses to control such 
devices as CD-ROMs, networks, and sound cards don't occupy 
conventional memory the way real-mode drivers do in Windows 
3.x. With fewer real-mode drivers vying for space in the 640K 
region, there's less need to use memory managers to free up 
space. 

Here's the catch. Windows 95 will still support TSRs and 
DOS device drivers, and at some point you might have to use 
them. Windows 95 might lack a native driver for a particular 
device (like a tape backup unit), or a real-mode driver might 
consume more conventional memory than you can spare. After all, 
when you load a TSR in AUTOEXEC.BAT or a DOS device driver in 
CONFIG.SYS, a copy of each program loads into conventional 
memory--and stays there. 

For ultimate backward compatibility, Windows 95 can run in 
Single Application Mode, which reboots the system into real 
mode and runs a version of DOS. Because Single Application Mode 
does not load Windows 95 VxDs, which support devices like 
networking, CD-ROM, or sound, any applications that require 
them must instead use DOS device drivers or TSRs. They just 
might need memory-management software too. 

Win 95 Retains MEMMAKER 

Perhaps this is why Microsoft has decided to include MEMMAKER 
in Windows 95. MEMMAKER, developed with Helix Software, can be 
quite useful but doesn't recover as much memory as third-party 
memory managers. For example, we tested Version 3.04 of Helix 
Software's Netroom with our beta of Windows 95, and it 
recovered noticeably more memory on a system that already had 
600K of conventional memory free. While this shows that memory 
managers can still have an impact, it also shows the 
diminishing magnitude of the problem they solve. Don't be 
surprised to see memory management vendors moving into other 
areas, with Quarterdeck leading the way with its forthcoming 
Web server.


Plugged in

Adaptec ReadySCSI AHA-1530P, $179. 
Adaptec AHA-1540CP, $339; 
AdaptecAHA-2940, $399; 
Adaptec SlimSCSI APA-1460, $299. 
Adaptec, Inc., 
691 S. Milpitas Blvd., 
Milpitas, CA 95035; 
Phone: 800-442-SCSI; 
fax, 408-262-2533. 

Crystalizer PnP sound card, $249.95. 
Crystal Computer Corp., 
2157L O'Toole Ave., 
San Jose, CA 95131-1332; 
Phone: 408-383-2100; 
fax, 408-383-2100.
 
Dell OptiPlex XMT 590, mini-tower, 
16MB RAM, 1GB hard disk, 2X CD-ROM, 
15-inch monitor, 14.4 modem, $3,489. 
Dell Computer Corp.,
9505 Arboretum Blvd., 
Austin, TX 78759-7299; 
Phone: 800-613-3355; 
fax, 512-338-8700.

Future Domain PnP-1630, $125.
Future Domain Corp., 
2801 McGaw Ave.; 
Irvine, CA 92714;
Phone: 800-879-7599; 
fax, 714-253-0913. 

Intel TokenExpress Pro, $295. 
Intel Corp., 
5200 NE Elam Young Pkwy.,
Hillsboro, OR 97124; 
Phone: 800-538-3373; 
fax, 503-629-7580. 

Multimedia 14CDT mini-tower, 
486DX2/50 processor,8MB RAM, 
730MB hard disk, 
15-inch multimedia monitor, $2,100.
Packard Bell, Inc., 
31717 La Tienda Dr., 
Westlake Village, CA 91362;
Phone: 800-733-5858; 
fax, 818-865-0176. 

NEC MultiSync 15XE, $575. 
NEC Technologies, Inc., 
1255 Michael Dr., 
Wood Dale, IL 60191; 
Phone: 800-NEC-INFO; 
fax, 508-264-8673. 

.INI is out, the system Registry is in

The familiar story goes like this: You pop in a hot new add-in 
card, power on your system, and moments later your PC bombards 
you with a series of crippling failures and resource conflicts. 
Windows has never managed hardware well. Instead, it's relied 
almost exclusively on information you had to enter to configure 
peripherals. Win 95's Plug and Play changes all that. 

Plug and Play is a set of specifications that let you add 
peripherals to your system without your intervention (without 
much, anyway). It does this in several ways. First, Win 95 
detects the devices installed on your system, including the 
resources they need. Second, it configures devices dynamically. 
For example, if one device is using another's resources (or if 
Win 95 has reallocated them), Windows assigns new resources to 
the second device. Finally, PnP will still work with legacy 
peripherals that predate Plug and Play. The catch? Win 95 will 
not detect such devices automatically, so you'll have to 
configure them manually. 

Peacekeeping Plugs 

Win 95 contains a number of software components that play a 
crucial role in PnP. These include the configuration manager, 
the resource arbitrator, the hardware tree, enumerators, and 
device drivers. 

Win 95's configuration manager is the heart of PnP. It builds a 
database of information about your system's configuration and 
tells the various device drivers what resources (I/O address, 
IRQ, DMA) it has assigned them. The resource arbitrator tracks 
all free resources in your system and allocates them to 
specific devices. When two or more devices request the same 
IRQ, for example, the resource arbitrator tries to identify 
free IRQs. If Windows can't locate additional resources, when 
you boot your system the Add New Hardware Wizard opens 
automatically. 

An enumerator is a new type of driver. Enumerators exist for 
any device in your system to which you can attach another 
device. This includes any type of expansion bus, like ISA, PCI, 
or PCMCIA, but also encompasses things like the keyboard 
controller on your motherboard. Enumerators traverse their 
respective buses, identifying and initializing each attached 
device during the boot process. The root enumerator performs 
this function for nonPlug and Play devices. A PnP-compatible 
BIOS serves as the enumerator for motherboard devices. 

Of course, device drivers are nothing new. DOS and Windows 3.x 
have been using them for years. But most vendors will need to 
rewrite their device drivers for Win 95 to accommodate its new 
architecture. Gone are static, real mode device drivers (like 
the kind you load in CONFIG.SYS or AUTOEXEC.BAT). Drivers that 
support Win 95 load and unload dynamically, and run in 
protected mode. Their ability to unload means that these VxDs 
also release resources at the CPU's requests. When the 
configuration manager offers resources to Win 95 drivers, they 
configure the device accordingly, even if the resource they're 
assigned contradicts a device's default settings. (To support 
PnP, a device must allow Win 95 to override its default 
resource requirements. In the past, if you did this, a device 
typically wouldn't work.) 

.INI Bites the Dust 

Remember WIN.INI, SYSTEM .INI and application specific .INI 
files? Well, forget them. Hardware and software configuration 
information now resides in the Win 95 Registry. Win 95 retains 
old-style configuration files in the Windows directory to 
ensure compatibility with older hardware and software. 
Applications written for Win 95, however, must store 
configuration data in the Win 95 Registry, not in separate .INI 
files. 

One of the more important parts of the Registry is the hardware 
tree. It is similar to a directory tree on your hard disk, but 
here the directories are buses and the files are devices. Win 
95 constructs the hardware tree during the boot process. The 
hardware tree resides on your hard disk and in memory, so Win 
95 can update it dynamically when you add, remove, or change 
devices. 

Boot, Baby, Boot 

A number of things happen when you boot a machine running Win 
95. The machine starts up in real mode, the Intel 
8086-compatible mode that does not allow access to virtual 
memory. First, the BIOS obtains information about motherboard 
devices from nonvolatile memory, usually CMOS RAM, just as it 
does today under Windows 3.x. It then configures each device 
accordingly. If it doesn't find configuration information for a 
particular device, it disables that device. Then the various 
enumerators begin their work. 

The root enumerator reads the hardware tree from the Registry 
to determine the system configuration, identifying non-PnP 
devices and adding them to the hardware tree in memory. At this 
point, the OS processes the SYSTEM.INI file, which contains 
instructions to load static VxDs (old-style Windows virtual 
device drivers). Most non-PnP devices require real-mode drivers 
to operate. 

Now, the bus enumerators spring into action. Each bus in the 
system has an enumerator associated with it. The enumerators 
examine the bus for devices or descendant, or child, buses (for 
example, VL-Bus is a child bus of ISA). When it finds a device, 
the enumerator loads a static VxD for it, if necessary. When 
the enumerator finds a descendant bus, it launches yet another 
enumerator for that bus. (By now, Win 95 has loaded all 
real-mode drivers and static VxDs in memory, so the system 
switches to protected mode.) 

On Planet Windows 

Now, Win 95's configuration manager steps in. Although the 
enumerators have identified all devices on the system, they 
have only initialized those requiring real-mode drivers or 
static VxDs (most notably non-PnP expansion cards). All other 
devices are still dormant. The configuration manager loads any 
remaining enumerators. The enumerators then inventory all other 
devices and add them to the hardware tree. 

Finally, the system loads protected-mode dynamic drivers for 
the PnP devices requiring them. If any conflicts arise between 
devices, the resource arbitrator tries to find substitute 
resources. If it can't find resources for any non-PnP devices, 
Win 95 starts the Add New Hardware Wizard when you reboot, 
prompting you for information about the peripheral. 

That's the way things work in a perfect world, in which you 
have a PnP-compatible system and nothing but PnP peripherals. 
But here on planet Windows, there is a tremendous installed 
base of older legacy peripherals, and most systems don't 
currently have a PnP BIOS. In the next section, we examine some 
of the real-world issues that arise when you have to deal with 
both PnP and non-PnP devices in the same PC. 

With Win 95, it's all work and some Plug and Play

To evaluate the promise of Plug and Play in Win 95 on the 
desktop, we enlisted the service of two machines, a Dell 
OptiPlex XMT 590 and a Packard Bell Legend 14CDT, both running 
Beta 2 (M7 build 224) of Windows 95. While almost every major 
vendor is working on PnP products, at this stage PnP-enabled 
devices are in limited supply. 

We started with some of the most glaring examples of the need 
for PnP: SCSI host adapters and sound cards. We installed two 
SCSI cards, Adaptec's AHA-1530P and Future Domain's PNP-1630 
into our test systems. Win 95 recognized the cards in both 
cases, loading the correct drivers. 

Win 95 will ship with device drivers for all kinds of devices. 
If Win 95 lacks the driver for the exact device you're using, 
it asks if you want to use a compatible driver (which might not 
support all the features). If it doesn't have a compatible 
driver, you click the Have Disk option on the Installation 
Wizard, then insert the disk that came with your device. Win 95 
provided drivers for our test equipment, except the Crystalizer 
and the Intel TokenExpress. 

No Separation Anxiety 

Then we got a taste of the true beauty of Plug and Play. When 
we removed these two SCSI adapters and restarted Win 95, we did 
not get an error message. A quick glance at the Device Manager 
confirmed that the cards and their drivers were no longer 
present in the system. We pulled one other trick that would be 
exceedingly difficult (not to mention replete with error 
messages) under Windows 3.x: We installed both SCSI adapters in 
the same system with absolutely no effort. 

With other cards, things didn't work out so smoothly. For 
example, the Dell system recognized our Intel TokenExpress Pro 
network card, but Win 95 lacked a protected-mode driver for it. 
However, this card didn't work under Win 95 even when we 
executed the conventional, real-mode driver that came with the 
device. Intel said it expects that the final shipping version 
of Win 95 will include a driver for the TokenExpress Pro. 

We also tried another Adaptec SCSI adapter, the AHA-1540CP. Win 
95 detected this adapter twice, once by the SCSI enumerator and 
once by the PCI enumerator. As a result, the Win 95 hardware 
tree had two entries for it. This indicates that while Win 95's 
detection mechanisms are robust, they aren't infallible. 

Next, we tested the only PnP sound card available at press 
time, the Crystalizer PnP sound card, from Crystal Computer. 
Win 95 identified and recognized the card, but lacked a 
protected-mode driver for it. So we booted the machine to the 
command line and installed the card as we would under Windows 
3.1: by running an installation program with DOS-based TSR 
drivers or static VxDs. When we restarted the machine, the card 
worked fine. 

Intel built Plug and Play into the PCI specification from the 
get-go, so it was no surprise that all the PCI adapters we 
tested worked smoothly. 

For example, the Adaptec AHA-2940 PCI SCSI host adapter behaved 
as smoothly as its ISA counterpart. Then we pushed the 
envelope. We replaced the Dell's PCI graphics card, based on 
the Cirrus Logic 5434, with an STB PowerGraph Pro 64, a PCI 
card based on the S3 864 chip set. Instead of greeting us with 
garbled pixels or a black screen when we entered Windows, the 
system identified the card and started with a generic VGA 
driver. Then, thanks to the PnP features of PCI, which informs 
Windows 95 of the type of graphics chip set in use, Win 95 
loaded a custom driver for the PowerGraph Pro. We had to reboot 
the system to initialize the driver. (Try doing this with 
Windows 3.1.) 

This Old Hardware 

This is where the picnic ends. While PnP is compatible with 
legacy cards in the sense that they can coexist in a PnP 
system, the PnP subsystem does not automatically configure 
legacy cards. That's where the Add New Hardware Wizard (a 
better name would be Add Old Hardware) comes in. 

This Wizard lets you specify the hardware you want to install 
by selecting products from a list, organized by product 
category. It also offers to auto-detect hardware for you, but 
the process is long and imprecise. Win 95 consults an 
information file to determine which resources your hardware can 
use, compares this to the system's available resources, and 
then tells you how to configure the device to avoid conflicts. 
Win 95 contains information on hundreds of hardware products, 
but if you have an old or obscure device it doesn't support, 
you must figure out how to configure the card on your own. 

Externally Yours 

You also use Wizards to install such external hardware devices 
as modems, monitors, and printers. Plug and Play works with 
external devices designed to provide information to Win 95 when 
queried. Although vendors have announced a number of such 
devices, few were available at press time. We did obtain a 
PnP-compliant monitor, the NEC XE 15. 

Using VESA's DDC (Device Data Channel) specification, a 
graphics card should be able to determine a monitor's display 
capabilities and adjust its output to the monitor accordingly. 
DDC provides one-way communication from the monitor to the 
graphics card. On the display side, vendors can implement DDC 
directly in the monitor, as NEC does, or through the use of an 
adapter that plugs into the monitor cable. The graphics card 
must be DDC-compliant as well. Unfortunately, our test systems' 
on-board graphics did not support DDC, so we had to select the 
monitor settings manually. 

Plug and Play also provides two significant features for 
portable machines: hot docking and the ability to switch 
resolutions on the fly. 

Let's say you use your notebook with a docking station. The 
docking station may have built-in peripherals, such as a CD-ROM 
or network interface. Under Windows 3.1, if you undock the 
notebook and reattach it, you have to reboot the system to 
reinitialize the devices. With Win 95, upon reattaching the 
notebook to the docking station, the OS recognizes the devices, 
loads the drivers, and makes the devices immediately available 
for use. 

We tested hot docking using a Texas Instruments 4000M notebook 
with a portable CD-ROM docking station, with mixed results. 
When we detached the notebook from its docking station, Win 95 
removed the CD-ROM drive from the hardware tree. It also 
switched to power-saving mode as it sensed the absence of AC 
power. When we docked the notebook though, the CD-ROM remained 
unavailable until we rebooted the machine. 

Many of us use notebooks connected to external monitors and 
manually switch back and forth between screen resolutions 
appropriate to the internal LCD or external monitor. Win 95 
should save us this effort by supporting automatic resolution 
switching, but we were unable to get it to work in our tests. 

PCMCIA devices (PC Cards) also support Plug and Play and 
function in the same way as expansion cards on a desktop. Win 
95 loads appropriate drivers when you insert a PC Card and 
unloads them when you remove the PC Card. This is a significant 
improvement from Win 3.1, where to have this ability, you have 
to load every type of driver in the CONFIG.SYS file, using a 
ton of low memory in the process. 

Applications Play a Role 

For the full PnP experience, your applications must be PnP 
aware. They must dynamically adapt when you add or remove 
devices. For example, if you were using a communications 
program and inserted a PC Card modem, the Plug and Play manager 
would inform the application that a new communications device 
was available. The application could then attempt to use it. 

As powerful as Plug and Play is, it still can't do everything, at 
least not in the beta of Win 95 we tested. You still have to 
restart your system when you change a graphics card's pixel 
depth. PnP doesn't work on PS/2-style mouse ports. While Win 95 
can still use real-mode device drivers and static VxDs, devices 
that use such drivers will not be fully PnP-compliant. Although 
serial and parallel devices support PnP, you must refresh the 
Device Manager's hardware tree after connecting devices to 
those ports to initialize them. Finally, Win 95 will not ship 
with an enumerator for the Micro Channel bus. IBM has said it 
would write the Micro Channel enumerator, but as even this 
company loses interest in this uncommon bus, it remains to be 
seen whether IBM will actually bother. 

Plug and Play's promise is still in the future

While Plug and Play promises to put an end to the nightmare, 
the reality doesn't yet match the promise. Although PnP has the 
potential to revolutionize the way we use PCs, it will be a 
while before you fully realize all its benefits. The obstacle 
at this point is few people have Plug and Play systems and 
peripherals. Also, Plug and Play components and Win 95 
applications (which will bear a logo to indicate they support 
Windows 95) will take time to proliferate. Until they do, 
expect some confusion, as well as resource conflicts, because 
you will still have to deal with legacy devices. 

Learn to Let Go 

While Win 95 makes installing and configuring legacy 
peripherals a bit easier, when compared with their PnP progeny, 
non-PnP devices are still rather inflexible. Case in point: 
You'll still have to manipulate tiny jumpers and switches to 
set resource usage. Win 95 and Plug and Play can't magically 
make those cards configure themselves, but will reserve 
resources for them, making conflicts much less likely. 

Needless to say, when considering the purchase of a new 
peripheral, always get the PnP version; you'll thank yourself 
for it later. The same goes for systems. Don't buy a system 
that doesn't have a PnP BIOS. If you're not ready to buy a new 
system just yet, look into the possibility of upgrading your 
BIOS to support PnP (see the Critical Distinctions to the 
right, "PnP Upgrades"). 

So as you plan your PC and peripheral purchases for the coming 
year, make sure they include PnP products. They won't cost much 
more than conventional devices, and they'll make installation a 
great deal simpler. 

Related article: Jargon

Enumerator: A driver that detects the devices and buses present 
at system start-up. It sends this information to the 
configuration manager, which assigns resources to them.

Legacy cards: Expansion cards that do not support the Plug and 
Play specification. In a PnP system, Win 95 assigns resources 
to legacy cards first.

Registry: The central database for Windows 95. It contains data 
on software and hardware configuration. The Registry replaces 
CONFIG.SYS, AUTOEXEC.BAT, and .INI files, but Win 95 keeps 
these files for compatibility with 3.1 applications.

Related article: Differences between Win 3.1 and Win 95

Technology           Win 3.1                  Win 95

Device drivers       You have to restart      Win 95 dynamically
                     your system after        loads and unloads
                     adding or removing       VxDs, so the system
                     devices.                 adjusts to changes
                                              without a reboot.

Hardware Resources   Win 3.1 can't always     The Properties for 
                     tell you which resources Computer dialog  
                     hardware devices are     lists all resources
                     using.                   in use including
                                              DMA channels,IRQs, 
                                              I/O addresses, and 
                                              more.
                                 
Peripherals          You configure periph-    Win 95 stores the
                     erals manually. If       resource require-
                     there's a conflict,      ments for PnP devices
                     Win 3.1 may return       in a central data-
                     an error message or      base. If conflicts
                     simply not work.         arise, the resource
                                              arbitrator substi-
                                              tutes resources.


PnP Upgrades

Joseph Moran

The Critical Distinctions

Pump That BIOS 

Buy software upgrades and pop-in chips to get Plug and Play 
support. 

To fully enjoy the benefits of Plug and Play, three pieces must 
be in place: Windows 95, a PnP BIOS, and expansion cards that 
support PnP. The first and last will be easy to acquire. The 
sticky part concerns the system BIOS. If your machine is less 
than six months old, you may already have a PnP BIOS. If your 
BIOS is PnP, this information appears on screen when you boot 
your machine. If not, you still might be able to retrofit your 
system to support Plug and Play. 

Better Your BIOS 

Most PCs shipped over the last few years have a Flash BIOS, so 
you can reprogram the BIOS EPROM chip without opening the case. 
In the past, there were rarely compelling reasons to upgrade 
your BIOS, except for the occasional bug fix. PnP marks the 
first time that Flash BIOS has value on a wide scale. Your 
system's documentation should indicate if you have a Flash 
BIOS. If it doesn't say, look at the chip: The word Flash will 
be printed on it. Then contact your system's vendor to find out 
if it's offering BIOS updates to support PnP. 

That's what we did with a few vendors, with mixed results. 
Micron Computer offers PnP BIOS upgrades free for its 486- and 
Pentium-based systems; you can download them from Micron's BBS. 
Compaq says you'll be able to upgrade its recent Presario, 
ProLinea, and DeskPro models. But neither Gateway 2000 nor Dell 
had formalized plans at press time. 

Less Flash, More Work 

If your system lacks a Flash BIOS, or the vendor isn't offering 
upgrades, there's another option. Communica will offer upgrade 
BIOS chips for popular systems, though the list of systems 
wasn't final at press time. The company claims these chips will 
bestow PnP capabilities on older systems. For $79, you get a 
new EPROM chip customized for your machine, an extraction tool, 
and illustrated instructions. It's not as simple as a Flash 
upgrade, but if you're willing to roll up your sleeves, it's an 
easy and inexpensive way to add PnP support to your system. 
(Communica also offers a software fix for the Pentium bug, 
called RePent.) 

If neither solution pans out for you, there's still hope. 
PnP-compliant cards will take time to proliferate, and by the 
time they do, you may be ready to get a brand new system anyway.


For LAN's Sake

Dell Dimension XPS P60, 8MB RAM, 
528MB hard disk, 2X CD-ROM, 
15-inch monitor, 14.4 modem, $2,169. 
Dell Computer Corp., 
9505 Arboretum Blvd., 
Austin TX 78759; 
Phone: 800-592-3355; 
fax, 800-727-8320. 

IBM ThinkPad 755CD, 8MB RAM, 
540MB hard disk, 2X CD-ROM drive 
and 3.5-inch drive, $7,599. 
IBM PC Direct, 
3039 Cornwallis Rd., 
Bldg. 203, 
Research Triangle Park, NC 27709; 
Phone: 800-426-7938. 

Xircom CreditCard Ethernet Adapter IIPS, $269. 
Xircom, Inc., 
2300 Corporate Center Dr., 
Thousand Oaks, CA 91320; 
Phone: 800-874-7875; 
fax, 805-376-9311. 

Win 95's IPX drivers speed NetWare connections

Windows for Workgroups 3.11 laid the groundwork for most 
network services in Windows 95. But in its pursuit of a 
universal client--Win 95 runs on almost any network--Microsoft 
has changed fundamentals of the OS, such as the way it detects 
and connects to remote resources. For example, Win 95 
implements so many network resources as VxDs that it presents a 
common user interface no matter what the underlying network. 
Aside from performance, this is the most important benefit of 
Win 95's network architecture. Applications developers will use 
the virtual resources of Win 95 to write to common APIs that 
will work no matter what NOS you install. 

Applications that rely on the new common dialog for file 
operations can take advantage of these new services instantly. 

Layers of the Land 

Win 95 implements networking services in layers of interfaces. 
These interfaces virtualize underlying services, such as 
picking data off the network card or reassembling a data stream 
from a series of Ethernet packets. Typically, there are a 
number of layers: API, MPR, SPI, IFS, the transport layer, the 
network interface card (NIC) driver. Which layers you use 
depend on such factors as whether or not your NIC driver is a 
VxD. For example, if it is a real-mode driver, the OS loads a 
Helper module, an additional layer. 

The first layer is the API. Applications, such as the Windows 
shell (Explorer), rely on APIs to identify and request network 
resources. Win 95 passes API calls through the Multiple 
Provider Router (MPR), which routes requests for service to the 
appropriate service provider. Service providers are low-level 
interfaces to specific services, such as a messaging system 
like MAPI. Service providers take generically formatted API 
calls from applications or the OS, change the semantics to suit 
your implementation, and dispatch the request to the NIC 
driver. 

Loaded LANs 

Unlike WFW 3.11, which could load only two network drivers, Win 
95 lets you log on to limitless networks at once. This is 
particularly useful for users who travel the Internet or for 
NetWare users who want to interact with other clients. If it's 
a WFW 3.11 client, simply select NetBEUI from the protocol list 
in Win 95's Network Control Panel. WFW 3.11 veterans might say 
they have been doing this all along, but their applications 
were not integrated in the OS as VxDs but rather were real-mode 
drivers that wasted hundreds of kilobytes of conventional 
memory. 

To access files over the network, another layer comes into 
play, the Installable File System (IFS) Manager. Network 
service providers call the Installable File System Manager for 
basic file I/O, and IFS routes an application's request to the 
specific file system. Network service providers also talk 
directly to the network's file system driver (FSD). The network 
transport layer gets FSD requests on to the network. 

The Transporter 

Out of the box, Win 95 supports three key network transports: 
IPX/SPX, NetBEUI, and TCP/IP (all are VxDs). You can continue 
using real-mode drivers like IPXODI.COM, but they tend to be 
slower than their protected-mode counterparts. 

The network transport layer, which interfaces with your NIC, 
must use NDIS 3.0compliant drivers, which run in protected 
mode. If your network card supports only NDIS 2.0 or ODI 
real-mode drivers, you'll still need WFW's helper modules 
(NDISHLP.SYS or ODIHLP.SYS). These small drivers map network 
requests between protected-mode and real-mode drivers. Mixing 
real-mode drivers and multiple transports can be a headache, 
but you may have no choice if there's no VxD for your NIC. In 
most cases, the out-of-the-box, protected-mode IPX support 
should make installing on a network easier and faster. 

Navigating the C:S 

To integrate network services into the Win 95 shell, Microsoft 
created an enumeration API that queries network domains on 
available resources, such as servers, disks, and printers. A 
network provider can also provide details on the type of 
directory, implement its own view of the network for browsing, 
or notify the Explorer of such changes as moving or deleting a 
network directory. 

Win 95 introduces Universal Naming Convention (UNC) pathnames, 
which identify a resource by its network location (such as 
\\MyServer\LaserJet) rather than by the local resource name to 
which it is mapped (LPT2, for example). UNCs continue working 
even when these mappings change. 

UNC pathnames are also more intuitive than the drive letter 
convention. Although Win 95 includes the APIs you need to map, 
or redirect, local device names to network resources, Microsoft 
is encouraging developers to rely on UNC pathnames. 

In addition to the basic network log-on and -off procedures, 
the Authentication API can return your user's home directory, 
change passwords, and cache an encrypted copy of the your 
password. (You can disable this last feature.) 

Among Peers 

Like WFW and Windows NT, Win 95 supports peer-to-peer 
networking. But Win 95 bridges the disparity between the two, 
which are at opposite ends of the security spectrum, by adding 
such features as user-level security to the basic share-level 
security in WFW. With share-level security, the administrator 
grants certain rights to all users who share that resource. 
Such users receive default access rights--read only, for 
example. With user-level security, you can specify which 
individuals (or groups) are permitted to access shared 
resources. 

The security provider first authenticates your password, then 
passes the request to the Access Control List (ACL). In the 
ACL, you specify which users (or groups of users) have a given 
level of access. If the person requesting access has permission 
to use that resource, Win 95 passes the request to VSERVER, 
which then allows the request to pass to the IFS manager or the 
print spooler. Windows 95 doesn't pretend to offer the 
sophisticated security found in Windows NT, but it does take a 
step in the right direction. 

Win 95 steps up security and network controls

The testament to Microsoft's success at integrating network 
services into Win 95 is the lack of network utilities you have 
to master. The main network tool you'll use is the Network 
Neighborhood, a desktop icon Win 95 installs if it detects a 
network connection upon start-up. 

From the Network Neighborhood window, you browse network 
resources the same way you navigate local resources from the My 
Computer window. For example, the top-level view presents the 
resources you're currently connected to--such as a NetWare 
server, other Win 95 clients, or a network printer. 

The Network Neighborhood also shows a container for the entire 
network. A container is an icon that represents logical groups 
of resources. For example, you might have a container that 
includes printers, peer-to-peer clients, and file servers. In 
either view--the Network Neighborhood or the Entire Network 
Container--you can attach to a resource by clicking on its 
icon. The network provider layer then displays the log-on 
dialog. Both views also let you inspect folders, printers, and 
other shared resources. 

Dialogs Do Networks

Win 95's common dialogs for file and print operations include a 
mini-Explorer for browsing the network. When you open a file 
dialog to save or retrieve a file, the default view shows the 
current folder (typically on C:) and also lets you scroll up 
the resource tree or repeatedly click on the up-one-level 
button until, at the highest level, you see one container for 
My Computer and another for the Network Neighborhood. Drilling 
down into the network, you'll see the same views and automatic 
log-on dialogs that you'll find in the Network Neighborhood 
window. 

This mini-Explorer frees you from reliance on the clunky 
drive-mapping mechanism the pre-UNC interfaces use. Drive 
letters fail to help you remember where a drive letter maps. 
Worse yet, if your applications refer only to a specific drive, 
you may have a hard time finding your files when drive mappings 
change. The new interface eliminates that problem. 

Relying on UNCs ensures that you save a complete description of 
a file's location; it only changes if your network manager 
renames a server. However, until applications universally 
employ common dialogs--or we see third-party dialogs that 
exploit the new APIs--you'll still need to map drives.

No Local Talent 

The Win 95 shell also lets you share local resources. 
You can do this from most any view, including a common dialog, 
a desktop container, and the Explorer. Just open a resource's 
properties with a right-click, choose Sharing, then define a 
share name and access privileges for the given resource. But 
you still have to trek to the Network Control Panel to do the 
real work: to enable file and print sharing or user-level 
security or to allow other users to share files on your local 
drive or permit them password entry. 

The Network Control Panel isn't well organized. It lumps 
protocols, NIC drivers, client software, and network services 
in one long intimidating list alphabetically by type. Microsoft 
should have broken out each of these four types of settings. In 
particular, network services don't belong in the same windows 
with hardware drivers. Worse, most network changes you make 
from this Control Panel (including, ludicrously, logging on or 
off!) force you to restart Win 95. For a Plug and Play 
operating system this is very disappointing. 

Remote Possibilities 

Remote access is seamless in Windows 95. For example, we 
created a Shortcut to a network file while connected to our 
docking station. On the road, double-click the Shortcut (which 
you create by inspecting file properties) and Win 95 
automatically dials the remote-access service and retrieves the 
file. Otherwise, you have to manually initiate remote 
connections to browse network resources. Mercifully, Microsoft 
makes it easier to abort large file copies. An animated dialog 
estimates the time remaining. On a few occasions, we started a 
file copy from a dial-in server but decided the 7-minute wait 
wasn't worth the bother. 

Not only can you interact with the network throughout the 
shell, but Win 95 lets several users share one system and loads 
their preferred settings when they log on. Similarly, you can 
log on from another workstation and Win 95 will find you and 
load your preferences there, too. 

Peer Glints 

Win 95 does a good job integrating file and print sharing, so 
rivals such as LANtastic will have to up the peer-to-peer ante. 
However, larger networks will still want to rely on their 
existing network resources. Fundamental features such as 
user-level security require a more powerful NOS like NetWare or 
NT. For example, Win 95 clients don't maintain a list of all 
network users, so the OS must fetch such information as 
user-level security from a server. 

Managing network nodes has never been easy, partly because no 
matter what NOS you use--Netware, LANtastic, WFW--network 
software has a hard time tracking the myriad hardware and 
software settings on DOS- and Windows-based systems. The 
extremely powerful Win 95 Policy Editor is a huge step in the 
right direction. The Policy Editor lets you define profiles for 
systems, users, and groups, setting rights to most any service 
in the Win 95 Registry. For example, you can define whether 
users can shutdown the system, run programs, use the default 
wallpaper, disable remote access, and share files. You can also 
determine if passwords must be a minimum length and if a domain 
server must validate passwords. 

Be Big Brother 

If you enable remote Registry editing, you can open and edit 
other systems' Registries from a distant machine. As with the 
Policy Editor, we had the unnerving sensation we had become Big 
Brother, despite user-empowering, euphemistic help topics such 
as "Enabling administrators to edit the registry on your 
computer."

If you administer a large, complex network site, you'll find 
Win 95's simple tools too cumbersome. To help, Win 95 includes 
an SNMP agent that will let third-party developers (and 
Microsoft) hook sophisticated management tools to the Registry. 
Microsoft's offering, Server Management System, is a SQL 
Serverbased distributed management tool. Other options include 
HP's Open View, IBM's NetView, and UniCenter, from Computer 
Associates. 

Boosting performance among peers

Win 95 is an impressive and well-behaved network citizen. We 
had few problems attaching to existing networks (save one 
frustrating afternoon when we had to unload the NetBEUI network 
support to attach to a NetWare server). Overall, though, Win 95 
provides a reasonably easy-to-navigate network browser. 

Microsoft also dispensed with some of the limitations of 
Windows for Workgroups 3.11. For example, unlike WFW, Win 95 
supports multiple, simultaneous network connections, not just 
two. It also adds user-level security. Finally, Microsoft's 
NetWare support really shines: Its IPX drivers, which are VxDs, 
are easy to install and indeed offer transparent support for 
non-Microsoft networks. 

Networking under Win 95 gets a real boost from more than just 
its improved network architecture. Plug and Play makes remote 
connections as simple as opening a remote resource--unless, of 
course, you didn't boot the network when you started the 
system. So much for 100% Plug and Play support. 

Related article: Jargon

ACL: The Access Control List defines which users or groups can 
access shared resources.

NDIS: The Network Driver Interface Specification defines how 
network services interact with network card drivers. Windows 95 
supports NDIS 3.1, which builds on NDIS 3.0 by adding Plug and 
Play extensions.

UNC: The Universal Naming Convention is a standard for naming 
files on a network. Instead of using drive letters (D: or K:, 
for example), UNC pathnames reflect the exact location of a 
resource on the network, such as \\MyServer\3rd FloorLaserJet.

Related article: Network performance

If You Do This ...           ...You Get This

Share your workstation       Each person's preferences loaded 
with other users.            automatically at log-on. 

Use the policy editor        Easy-to-apply defaults that
to create configuration      automate installing new work-
profiles for different       stations and creating users
types of users.              and groups.                            

Install the remote           Client configurations that Windows 95
registry network service.    network administrators can open and 
                             edit remotely.

Rely on a NetWare or NT      User-level security on Windows 95
server on your network.      clients, because clients rely on 
                             the network server for user and
                             group account information.

User real-mode network       Windows 95 helper software for 
drivers.                     mapping requests from the Network  
                             Provider or IFS manager to your old
                             network drivers.


Solve a Multitude of Ins

Larry Seltzer

The Critical Distinctions

Microsoft Exchange Client/Server

The universal in-box is in Windows 95, and the server half is 
on the way. 

Most e-mail veterans own more than one mail box and squander 
hours moving from box to box in search of messages. Windows 95 
delivers Microsoft Exchange Client, a so-called universal 
in-box that should help deal with this problem. The new client 
lets you exchange mail with Microsoft Mail and other MAPI mail 
systems, CompuServe mail, and the Microsoft Network. And 
sometime in 1995, Redmond plans to ship the other half of the 
equation, the Microsoft Exchange Server (MES), a new messaging 
engine. 

Post Office Problems 

The move to a client/server architecture is long overdue. Both 
of today's LAN e-mail giants, Microsoft Mail and Lotus cc:Mail, 
run on vulnerable and antiquated architectures. When the client 
software posts a message, it writes a record in a large, shared 
database all users can write to. Consequently, any badly 
behaved mail client can corrupt the mail database. 

Client/server is an infinitely better architecture for 
messaging systems than the shared database model. Here, the 
client and the server use a protocol to send and receive 
messages, so the client doesn't write to the database directly. 
Instead, the server performs all operations on the message 
store, or mail database. A client/server architecture also lets 
you beef up your messaging system by throwing more 
horsepower--in the form of additional memory or CPUs--at the 
server. As you might expect, the server platform for MES is 
Windows NT. 

Bend the Rules 

Run all essential messaging functions on the server and you 
free clients from tasks for which they're not really suited, 
and at the same time, you can reduce network traffic. Case in 
point: The server, rather than the client, should really 
implement messaging rules, which can filter or forward urgent 
messages. Today, clients handle this task. 

Aside from adopting a client/server messaging architecture, 
Microsoft appears to be loading MES with such features as 
replication, a la Lotus Notes, support for X.400 and X.500 
standards, a programming facility based on Visual Basic, 
rudimentary work-flow capabilities, an integrated group 
scheduling system, and tools to help you migrate from just 
about every other mail system known to IS. Get the message?


On the Move

Dell Latitude XP 4100CX, notebook, $6,198; 
Dell 14.4 fax/data PCMCIA modem, $199; 
XMT 590 mini-tower computer, $2,874. 
Dell USA L.P., 9505 Arboretum Blvd. 
Austin, TX 78759; 
Phone: 800-592-3355; 
fax, 800-727-8320. 

Intel SatisFAXtion/400e, $349.
Intel Corp., 5200 NE Elam Young Pkwy., 
Hillsboro, OR 97124-6497;
Phone: 800-538-3373; 
fax, 503-629-7580.  

KeepInTouch 14.4Kbps PCMCIA Cellular Fax Modem, $349. 
AT&T Paradyne Corp., 
8545 126th Ave. N, P.O. Box 2826, 
Largo, FL 34649-2826; 
Phone: 800-482-3333; 
fax, 813-530-2103. 

Shiva LanRover/E PLUS 3.0, $6,499. 
Shiva Corp., 63 Third Ave., Northwest Park, 
Burlington, MA 01803; 
Phone: 800-458-3550; 
fax, 617-270-8852. 

Revamped communications driver won't choke

If you're industrious, you've probably written a batch file to 
update the files on your desktop system with those on a floppy 
disk. Windows 95 refines this process with the Briefcase, a 
data-synchronization tool. 

Once you've created a Briefcase, you drag files to the Briefcase 
icon, then drop the icon into a floppy disk. When you return, drag 
the Briefcase back to your hard disk and choose Update. You can 
also move and update your Briefcase using a direct cable or a 
network connection. 

To resolve differences between the Briefcase and desktop versions 
of files, Windows 95 searches the Briefcase Database, a hidden 
system file containing modification data. If both files have 
changed, Windows 95 will call a reconciliation handler to 
determine how to merge the files. However, Windows 95 won't come 
with handlers for specific applications--or with any 
reconciliation handlers, period. It will determine if a file has 
changed based on the file's date and time and ask if you want to 
overwrite the older file. It will then use handlers the 
application provides. 

Reconciliation handlers for specific applications could, for 
example, determine whether a graphic appears in a document, which 
page it's on, and whether it's changed. Applications will have to 
register their reconciliation handlers in the Briefcase Database. 

32-bit Comes to Comm 

In Windows 3.1, transferring data at high rates was unreliable. 
That's because the communications driver in 3.1 (COMM.DRV) used 
only 2 bytes of the 16-byte buffers in the 16550A UART chip. (The 
UART converts incoming serial data into the parallel format that 
the PC's I/O and memory buses use.) If you tried performing other 
tasks while transferring files, the buffer overran with data, and 
your comm program requested a retransmission. 

The revamped communications subsystem in Windows 95 eliminates 
this and other bottlenecks. The heart of this new subsystem is 
VCOMM. While the old real-mode COMM.DRV could drive only a 
standard serial port, VCOMM incorporates drivers for the serial 
and parallel ports. Third parties will also provide drivers for 
wireless and infrared ports. Another difference: VCOMM is modular. 
Unlike COMM.DRV, which performed such varied functions as managing 
AT commands from the comm program and controlling the UART, VCOMM 
controls only the serial port. 

Windows 95 also eliminates the CPU comm overhead that hindered 
Windows 3.1. Under Windows 3.x, the communications driver let the 
application think it was reading incoming characters, one byte at 
a time, directly from the serial port. This caused tremendous 
system overhead. In contrast, Win32 applications deal directly 
with VCOMM, which can pass blocks of characters to applications. 

You set up a modem under Windows 95 in much the same way you would 
a printer under Windows 3.1: Both have a universal driver that 
supports many models. Even if you don't have a Plug and Play 
modem, Windows 95's universal driver, Unimodem, tries to identify 
your modem. Or skip automatic detection and choose your modem from 
a list. If you let Windows 95 detect your modem, it enables 
default settings for such parameters as speed, speaker volume, and 
flow control, though you can override these settings. In either 
case, you configure your modem only once--no need to set it for 
each communications program. 

Applications can use TAPI to access and share modems and other 
telephony devices. TAPI-aware applications need only issue basic 
commands, such as "dial this number," and TAPI supplies the commands 
the modem requires. TAPI also supports connections in which an 
adapter in the PC emulates a telephone handset. 

TAPI also resolves device contention. For instance, if you need to 
use the terminal program HyperTerminal, and Micro-soft At Work Fax 
is running in the background, TAPI relinquishes control of the 
modem to HyperTerminal, then returns control to Microsoft At Work 
Fax once the terminal session ends. 

1-800-NETWORK 

The Dial-Up Networking Wizard lets you specify the modem, the 
phone number, and the host server for a particular connection 
object. After you've configured the Dial-In Adapter (a.k.a. your 
modem) on the Network Control Panel, you set up the actual 
connections, which appear as desktop objects in the Dial-Up 
Networking folder. For instance, you'd have an icon titled "PPP 
Dial-in to Big_Old_Server." 

The modem uses the PPP protocol for communications sessions over 
phone lines and also supports TCP/IP, IPX/SPX, and NetBEUI. 
Windows 95 supports many host server types: another Win 95 
machine, an Internet host via PPP or SLIP, a Windows NT machine, 
Shiva NetModem/LanRover, or a NetWare Connect server. Remote 
access is part of the dynamic 32-bit protected-mode network 
architecture; you don't have to reboot or reconfigure your 
computer when you connect and disconnect with a remote host.

Win 95 totes empty briefcase, opening door to add-ons

To be honest, it was a chore getting this beta version of Windows 
95 up and running on our test notebook: a Dell Latitude XP 4100CX 
equipped at different times with the AT&T Paradyne and Dell 14.4 
PCMCIA modems. On our desktop system, a Dell OptiPlex XMT 590, we 
used an Intel SatisFAXtion 400e. 

The Latitude refused to load Windows 95, citing a Protection 
Error. We wiped the Latitude's disk clean, reinstalled DOS 6.2 and 
Windows for Workgroups 3.11, then installed Windows 95. This time 
it loaded. We suspect a leftover real-mode driver from the 
software installed by Dell caused the initial conflict. 

Briefcase O'Blues 

The Briefcase shows lots of promise, but the bata version we 
tested delivered little of that promise. The first time you create 
a Briefcase, a help window walks you through the process. 
Unfortunately, you can still wind up creating Briefcases on both 
of your computers instead of a single Briefcase on your notebook, 
or you might find yourself taking the files with you and 
accidentally leaving the Briefcase behind. Additionally, the 
Briefcase prompts you to copy the modified version of the files 
over the original. If you fail to update in this manner, the 
system makes a sometimes unwarranted assumption: "Skip, (both 
changed)." 

Because Windows 95 doesn't currently include reconciliation 
handlers, it can't do tasks as basic as merging two text files. 
The Briefcase is supposed to check more than just file date and 
size; but currently, it's not doing anything DOS batch files can't 
do. Microsoft says future applications, such as Microsoft Office, 
will support the Briefcase Reconciliation API. 

Third Party Hardy, In Time 

Until your motherboard, BIOS, and peripherals all support Plug and 
Play, you must deal with Control Panel settings. Nowhere is this 
more true than with modems. In the meantime, Windows 95 users must 
live with Microsoft's COM port and modem detection code, which 
still have a few problems.

Initially, our PCMCIA modems wouldn't work. We checked resource 
allocation--COM ports, interrupts--and nothing looked odd. Windows 
95 detected the modem correctly, but the HyperTerminal and Dialer 
applications failed to connect. The diagnostics supplied with the 
Modem Control Panel, which normally give port information such as 
interrupt, address, modem identifier, and UART type, also failed. 
The problem? Windows 95 Beta 2 (M7 build 224) did not contain the 
diagnostic code for PCMCIA modems, which will be in the final 
version. 

On the desktop system, Windows 95 worked like a charm. Windows 95 
detected an external modem on either COM1 or COM2, identifying the 
modem's brand, model, and the port it was using. We set the BIOS 
on our Dell notebook to use the external serial port as COM2 
(instead of COM4). The external modems, an Intel SatisFAXtion 400e 
and a Hayes Smartmodem 9600 worked on these ports as well. 
Miraculously, this BIOS change also got the PCMCIA modems working. 
Although Windows 95 couldn't detect it, there had obviously been a 
resource conflict. Microsoft says it will add more and better COM 
port and modem detection before the final version of Windows 95 
ships. 

Once Is Enough 

Once your modem's working, all TAPI-aware applications know it 
exists. You won't have to configure the modem separately for 
faxing, online communications, or dial-in networking. If you do 
need to change a configuration setting in an application, the 
application can store that configuration setting. For instance, if 
you have a dial-in router that can only handle speeds up to 9,600 
bps, the modem isn't stuck at that rate when you start up a 
terminal program that wants to communicate at higher speeds. 

We still had problems setting modem speeds. There's a tempting 
selection--Highest Possible--on the Modem Control Panel that 
wreaked havoc with both plain text and compressed file transfers. 
Characters per second bottomed out to 300, and there were numerous 
bad data and CRC errors. But when we tuned the maximum speed 
setting to a more reasonable value (38.4 Kbps for the Dell 14.4 
fax modem), performance went from pathetic to amazing. 
HyperTerminal transferred a 180K text file at twice the speeds we 
were used to (3,600 characters per second, compared with 1,800 cps 
with the same SatisFAXtion modem under Windows 3.1), and we were 
able to copy files and perform other tasks simultaneously with no 
data errors. 

Full Compatibility We tried logging on to a NetWare server via 
Shiva's LanRover and to an Internet host via PPP and had some 
trouble. First, you need to set up the Network Control Panel. You 
must set up the Microsoft Dial-Up Adapter with the protocols you 
want to use (in this case, an IPX/SPX-compatible protocol and 
Microsoft TCP/IP), then run the Make New Connection Wizard in the 
Dial-Up Networking folder, where you specify the phone number, 
which modem to use, and the type of server you're dialing into. 
Ideally, at this point you'd be done, and you could double-click 
on the connection object to dial in. 

However, to log on to our local Internet service provider, we had 
to bring up the Properties box on our connection object, 
"Configure..." the modem, then choose the Options tab on that 
Properties box to find the check box that specifies "Bring up 
terminal window after dialing." (Windows 95 doesn't automatically 
handle the login: and password: prompts on Internet Unix hosts.) 
Our beta copy of Windows 95 only included Internet utilities for 
Telnet and command-line FTP, so we had to provide our own Gopher 
client, newsreader, and Web browser. 

We had less luck with the Shiva LanRover. After many futile 
attempts, we discovered that with our setup (which required 
supervisor-level access on our test server) we'd have to dial in 
with a Windows 3.1 app, not with the built-in networking in 
Windows 95.

Win 95 promises revolutionary change

Mobile computer users will find a lot to like in Windows 95, but 
pieces are still missing. Until all leading applications support 
reconciliation, the Briefcase isn't much of an improvement over a 
batch file. And despite claims about full compatibility with 
remote hosts, there are a lot of hosts, each with its unique 
log-on method. Microsoft might see the future filled with 
peer-to-peer networks of Windows 95 and Cairo machines; the 
reality is that most of us will still be dialing into our NetWare 
servers for a good long time. 

The good news is that with the new communications subsystem, the 
days of slow, unreliable data transfer are over. The 
protected-mode, 32-bit code path means that only your hardware 
limits your maximum speed. Because the VCOMM driver is modular, 
newer and faster hardware will be easy to integrate in your 
system. 

The universal modem driver supports a broad range of modems and 
puts in place a foundation for future device support. Happily, the 
days of configuring your modem separately for each individual 
application are vanishing. 

Plug and Play on the Way 

The most important missing piece of the puzzle for 
mobile computing is Plug and Play. Testing with several machines 
and modems showed that the road from the present to Plug and Play 
won't be without potholes; you'll still spend time puzzling over 
resource conflicts and botched configurations. Even when PnP 
devices are in wide use, some problems will remain. 

For some folks, the problem is not simply figuring out which 
resources are free; the problem is that their resources are all 
used up. We still have to live with the interrupt controller 
structure we've been stuck with since IBM released the AT. 

Until the missing pieces arrive, the improvements to Windows 95 
are evolutionary: It's faster, more robust, easier to use, and it 
replaces disparate third-party software with broad, integrated 
support. Once support arrives for all the new APIs and true Plug 
and Play systems are in place, Windows 95 will be revolutionary.

Related article: Jargon

Reconciliation Handler: A utility Win 95 calls when it needs to 
determine how to merge two versions of the same file. 

Unimodem: The universal modem driver in Win 95. 

TAPI: Telephone Application Programming Interface is a high-level 
programming interface that lets different applications share a 
single telephony device, such as a modem or PBX. 

VCOMM The new communications driver in Windows 95. VCOMM, a VxD, 
incorporates drivers for the serial and parallel ports. Third 
parties can provide extentions for wireless and infrared ports.

Related article: Comm Technology

Comm Technology        Win 3.1                  Win 95

Comm drivers           Its comm drivers         Instead of 
                       virtualize ports         virtualizing ports, 
                       to make applications     Win 95's 
                       think they're grabbing   communications 
                       bits directly off the    drivers pass 
                       hardware, slowing        incoming bits 
                       performance.             directly to
                                                communications 
                                                applications.

Modem                  You must configure       You configure the             
configuration          the modem for each       modem once, with  
                       communications           the modem control 
                       application.             panel.

UART Support           It uses only 2 bytes     VCOMM uses the  
                       of the 16-byte           entire 16-byte 
                       buffer on the            buffer. 
                       16550A UART.


Microsoft Joins the Act

Gus Venditto
 
Win 95's online client could have a larger audience than all its 
rivals combined. 

Microsoft is doing more than overhauling the Windows interface and 
architecture: It also plans to include client software for its new 
online service, Microsoft Network (formerly Marvel). 

The online network is tightly integrated with Windows 95. Once 
your desktop links up to the Microsoft Network, all online services 
appear as icons and folders. You use familiar browser 
windows--just like the ones on your desktop --to explore services. 
Right-click on any icon and you'll open a context menu that 
describes the contents in that area, its address on the network, 
and usage fees. (At press time, Microsoft had not set fees or 
identified any third-party content providers.) 

More Offline than On 

We looked at a prerelease version of Microsoft Network. The 
skeleton was in place, but the most interesting sections were 
roughed in, including the most ambitious parts: interactive kiosks 
with full-color graphics. Microsoft also plans to offer a modified 
version of its Bookshelf CD-ROM, as well as standard 
bulletin-board discussions on topics ranging from desktop 
publishing to parenting in the '90s. However, discussions are sure 
to be more lively thanks to the easy access to graphics: You can 
embed files in messages. You can also embed Shortcuts that will 
make it easy for other users to locate files on the system. 
Drawbacks? Possibly performance. Microsoft Network will use 
complex graphics likely to slow things down.


32-Bit Applets

Anemic Windows Terminal gets hyper

At one time or another, we've all lambasted various Windows 
Accessories as underpowered and a waste of disk space. Still, we 
use them. With Windows 95, the Accessories are especially worth 
exploring, because until you've upgraded, the Accessories are the 
only Win32 applications on your system. 

The communications program has improved the most. Renamed 
HyperTerminal, it replaces Windows Terminal--and not just in name. 
In Windows 95, all TAPI applications use the modem settings you 
define in the Control Panel. Because HyperTerminal supports TAPI, 
it has instant access to these settings. The foundation of the new 
communciations architecture is VCOMM, a virtual communications 
manager. 

VCOMM is more efficient than the one in Windows 3.1 because it 
eliminates system overhead. To support Windows 3.x communication 
programs, Windows virtualized all comm functions: applications 
believed they were reading data directly from the serial port, 
when in fact the communications driver was feeding them one byte 
at a time from a software buffer. If the CPU couldn't service the 
communications subsystem fast enough, it dropped characters. VCOMM 
reduces this overhead because it feeds data coming from the serial 
port to applications in large blocks, not one byte at a time. 

The Phone Dialer utitlity, new in Windows 95, is TAPI-enabled, so 
you can use call-processing applications to run the next 
generation of modems, which will offer voice services and use 
digital signal processors (DSPs). Call-processing apps manipulate 
phone calls, usurping some of the functions a PBX server performed 
traditionally. 

Done with DOS

The Win95 Accessories group branches into Multimedia Tools and 
System Tools. Multimedia Tools fill the same role they did in 
Windows 3.1, providing access to CD players, sound files and video 
clips. System Tools is a brand new group that takes advantage of 
DOS functions Windows 95 incorporates. 

Because Windows 95, like Windows for Workgroups 3.11 with 32-bit 
file access turned on, has complete control of the disk and file 
system, you can safely run disk-maintenance programs within 
Windows. Rather than making calls to the Int21 DOS interrupt, 
 Windows 95 applications call one of three VxDs: VFAT, for 
accessing hard and floppy disks; VCDFS, for reading CD-ROMs; or a 
32-bit network redirector for using disks across a network. 

Other accessories include WordPad, the successor to Windows Write; 
Paint, the renamed version of Paintbrush; and WinPad, an organizer 
that incorporates a calendar, to-do list, and address organizer. 
Microsoft wrote both WordPad and Paint using the Microsoft 
Foundation Class Library. (WordPad announces this in its banner 
screen, and Paint has all the same features.) This gives both 
programs access to such capabilities as Print Preview and the 
abilility to list the most recently opened files. In addition, 
both are OLE clients and servers, supporting in-place activation 
(formerly referred to as in-place editing).

Added accessories but fewer file formats

Windows Accessories fill a vital role: If you're ever stranded on 
a desert island with Windows, you can use the Accessories until 
you return to the real world and real applications. This is as 
true with Windows 95 as it is with Windows 3.1. This time, though, 
the Accessories are designed to guarantee that when you return to 
the real world, you're ready to work only in Microsoft 
applications. 

Cut-and-Paste Dialing 

Windows 95 is worth the price just to get your hands on 
HyperTerminal, the first communications package to take advantage 
of the changes in the Windows communications architecture. To see 
tangible evidence of Windows 95 improvements, use HyperTerm to 
download a file. During the process, HyperTerm's dialog box 
reports the time remaining and the time elapsed; the time display 
pauses as other tasks take place. When other activity stops, the 
clock jumps ahead, showing that the activity had interrupted only 
the clock display, and the download continues at the same pace as 
before. 

The Windows 95 Phone Dialer lets you place a call by cutting a 
number from an application and pasting it into the Phone Dialer 
window. Phone Dialer also has a call log (for recording details on 
calls) and a speed dialer. 

The familiar accessories Calendar and Cardfile merge in Windows 
95, becoming WinPad, a basic PIM. WinPad fits right in with the 
Accessory philosophy: It does less than virtually every other 
product in the field. It is little more than a combination 
address-book/calendar program, with the addition of a to-do list. 
WinPad can import data from the Microsoft applications Windows 
Cardfile and Microsoft Calendar only; there is no export function. 
WordPad, the Windows 95 word processing accessory, retains the 
basic capabilities of Windows Write. It borrows a handful of 
devices from Word 6.0 for Windows, including buttons for opening, 
saving, and printing files. 

WordPad also shares at least one performance characteristic with 
Word: It is exceptionally slow loading. WordPad reads text and 
Write's .WRI format but WordPad's default format is Word 6.0's 
.DOC format. Files saved in Word 6.0 .DOC format are about twice 
the size of text files and can only be read by the latest versions 
of Microsoft Word. 

Notepad returns with all of its flaws. Even though Notepad now is 
Win32, it retains a limit on file size: We were unable to load 
text files larger than 57K, an oddity because Windows 95 is freed 
from the 64K-segmented-memory structure that hampered Windows 3.1. 
In our tests, we discovered that the Windows NT Notepad does not 
have this limitation, but incredibly they put the older version of 
Notepad in Windows 95. 

Paintbrush Abandons .PCX 

Windows 95 renames Paintbrush Paint and gives it a minor 
face-lift. But Paint is essentially the same limited paint program 
with another big limitation: It no longer reads or writes .PCX 
files. The Windows .BMP format is the only format you can use with 
Paint.

System Tools, a group of utilities with DOS roots, joins the 
Accessories category. The System Tools menu includes Windows 
replacements for Backup, Scandisk, Disk Defragmenter, and 
DriveSpace. Each provides only the most basic functions in the 
category.

Scandisk searches for disk errors and fixes cross-linked files. 
It's a straightforward port of the DOS-based Scandisk utility, 
with the addition of Windows 95specific help. For example, 
Scandisk identifies directory names that are legal in Windows 95 
but are too long for DOS to recognize. 

Disk Defragmenter is a simple disk clean-up tool. It gives you the 
impression that you can perform other tasks while defragging, but 
any writes to disk cause the defragging to restart from the 
beginning. Backup, an archiving tool written by Colorado Memory 
Systems, provides on-the-fly compression, differential backups, 
and file filtering. 

Rumors, Anyone? 

Finally, Windows 95 features new games, including a network chat 
line called Rumors. The most popular entertainment choice, 
however, may be the revamped CD Player. You can randomize an audio 
CD's play order, skim through a CD by playing only the first few 
seconds of each track, and create your own play sequence for CDs 
and then store it in a text file, CDPLAYER.INI.

More accessories, fewer options

The best current example of Windows 95's power is in HyperTerm: 
File downloads run at full speed, even while you work on other 
tasks. The improvements stem from a combination of Win 95's 
preemptive multitasking communications architecture and the new 
protected mode file system, so other communications programs will 
run just as well--once they ship. The best surprise in Accessories 
is the CD Player, which lets you create playlists for audio CDs. 
CD Player saves the playlist and automatically associates it the 
next time you play the disk--something your home stereo can't do.
 
The worst surprises are the changes Microsoft made to the range of 
available file formats in some of the Accessories. WordPad, the 
successor to Write, has adopted the Word 6.0 .DOC file format as 
its default: a shameless plug for Microsoft's own product line. If 
you already use Word 6.0, it's a welcome convenience. If you 
don't, it's a hassle. Those of us who use Paintbrush to 
occassionally view or edit a .PCX file will have to change our 
ways. Paint introduces very few changes, but Microsoft decided to 
snub the .PCX format completely. And WinPad, the new but 
underpowered PIM, imports only Microsoft Cardfile and Calendar 
data formats, and can export none.

Related article: Jargon

HyperTerminal: The communications program that replaces Windows 
Terminal, HyperTerminal inherits modem settings from the Windows 
95 Registry. 

Paint: Windows 95's replacement for Paintbrush no longer reads or 
writes .PCX files; it supports only the .BMP format. 

WinPad: The PIM that replaces Cardfile and Calendar. 

WordPad: The word processor Windows 95 includes. It builds on 
Write by adding a ruler and better font support (Write, for 
example, lets you use only three fonts at a time). By default, 
WordPad saves files in the Word 6.0 .DOC format.

Related article: System Tools

System Tools         Pros                     Cons

Backup               Works with tape          Won't let you                     
                     drives. Runs in          schedule backups
                     the background.          in advance.

Disk                 Executes in              In background mode, 
Defragmenter         Windows. Runs in         you can't use apps
                     the background.          that write to disk.
                                              It does not store the
                                              most frequently used
                                              files or directories
                                              first. 

Scandisk             Fixes cross-linked       Identifies filenames
                     files. Identifies        that will cause 
                     disk errors within       trouble for DOS apps
                     Windows.                 but lacks a tool to 
                                              fix the problem.


And They're Off 

Gus Venditto

Expect a wave of utilities that fill in the gaps in the Windows 95 
shell. 

If you had any doubt that software developers would deliver 
applications for the 32-bit Windows 95 environment, rest assured, 
at least some applications are on the way. Microsoft has even 
distributed a CD-ROM with early versions of pioneering programs, 
including Macromedia Director 4.0 for Windows 95, Micrografx 
Picture Publisher for Windows 95, Visio32, and StarWriter, an 
object-oriented word processor from Star Division. 

We explored several of these 32-bit applications. The programs 
were in an early state, so we couldn't get a true feel for how 
fast they'll run. But we did get a taste of how applications will 
change to reflect the new Win 95 interface. 

Taking a Tab on Tomorrow's Apps 

Norton Utilities' SysInfo, for example, will be organized 
completely as a series of tabbed dialogs. You select a tab to view 
a report on system components, memory, display, and other aspects 
of performance. The program shows capacities and other percentage 
data as pie charts. If you select a detail and right-click, 
SysInfo opens a context menu, so you can probe for an explanation 
of the term. 

QuickView, from Systems Compatibility Corp. (which makes OutSide 
In), is one of the first programs to bolster Windows Explorer. 
QuickView will enhance the context menu that opens in Windows 
Explorer when you right-click on a filename. Without QuickView, 
you can view only a small selection of file types; QuickView, in 
contrast, displays 170 more file types, including .TIF, AmiPro, 
and dBASE files. We tested Excel files with QuickView and viewed a 
spreadsheet display, although we couldn't view the underlying 
formulas. The QuickView beta did allow us to change the display 
font, and the final version will provide a landscape view to make 
it easier to view large spreadsheets. 

While most software developers are still trying to catch up with 
the Win32 spec, Microsoft seems to be ahead. (Why aren't we 
surprised?) We tested a fully functional version of Microsoft 
Excel 5.0 for NT on Windows 95 and Word 6.0, and they ran 
flawlessly, except they didn't use the common dialog. Nonetheless, 
this offers hope that the vision of interoperability between 
Windows 95 and NT applications can come true--at least from 
Microsoft.

