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