Brace yourself for Windows 95: It's getting real

By Zatni Arbi

JAKARTA (JP): First called Windows 4.0, and then Chicago, and finally Windows 95, the new 32-bit operating system from Microsoft is perhaps one of the most often ridiculed product in the software history. Statements and counter-statements, corrections and reactions abound, not to mention skeptic predictions from industry analysts. But, after I test-drove the June Test Release, Build 490, dated June 7, 1995, I have to confess that Windows 95 is real. It's finally emerging in bits and bytes, and it will soon flood the workplace and homes throughout the world, where Byte Magazine says about 60 million Windows users exist. And for good reasons, too.

One of the reasons Microsoft most regularly used in its attempt to justify the extra-long overdue of Windows 95's release was that it was trying hard to ensure compatibility with as many computer configuration as possible. That was indeed extremely ambitious, given the fact that there are perhaps millions of unique configurations in the entire world today -- different combination of SuperVGA adaptors, SCSI interface boards and application software programs. But, as you'll see when you install your own Windows 95 on your PC, Win 95 does deliver a good part of this promise.

Courtesy of Tech Pacific, Microsoft current sole distributor in Jakarta (until Microsoft opens its own office here around the end of the year), I was able to test drive an Interim Build version of Windows 95. This preview version came on a CD ROM, and a code was required to start the installation procedure. It just so happened that I had just finished a project of putting together a 486DLC machine with 4 MB RAM and a 90 MHz Pentium with 40 MB RAM, so I thought why not try Windows 95 out with these two vastly different PCs.

The 486DLC had a Trident VGA card with 512 K DRAM and a 14" GTC monitor. On both machines, however, I installed Windows 3.11 and all the necessary software drivers first before I installed Win 95. These included the software driver for the VGA card and the mouse.

Installation

It took almost one hour for Win 95 to install on this 486DLC machine. But, once installed, it didn't take very long to for this OS to load, although during the entire process the hard disk got extremely busy. Microsoft claims that Win 95 will run as well as Windows 3.1 on minimally configured machines, even on a 386SX with 4 MB RAM. My experience with this machine supported this claim, although I wouldn't really work on it simply because it was too slow.

The installation procedure was straightforward, and there was also the Wizard that did not actually do much in us in the process. The setup background contains pictures of, well, what else? Microsoft Natural Keyboard and Microsoft Mouse.

Then I installed Microsoft Office 4.2 to find out how much I could stretch the performance of this machine. Sure enough, I had to wait almost two minutes before I could use Word for Windows. Once the hard disk was no longer busy, however, performance became fairly acceptable.

On the Pentium machine, I didn't have much difficulty either. As before, I first installed Windows 3.11 and the software driver for my aging Orchid Fahrenheit 1280. It turned out that this was unnecessary, as Win 95 had an even newer driver for Fahrenheit 1280. This is definitely one of the positive outcomes of the numerous beta tests that have been conducted around the world.

In subsequent tests, major application suites, namely Perfect Office, Microsoft Office and SmartSuite had no problem running in Windows 95.

Needless to say, Win 95 is different from Windows 3.1 or 3.11. First, it is now easier to start a program. No longer does a novice have to grapple with groups in Program Manager, as there's no longer such a thing as Program Manager. The Start button, which you'll find on the bottom left corner of the screen, will give you a list of program groups. Click on one of these groups, and you'll get a list of software programs that you can launch just by clicking once. The cursor is now sticky, the highlighter follows it up and down as you move your cursor. In addition, we no longer have to doubleclick.

Of course, you can still open groups from within which you can launch your application programs. But the Start button is undoubtedly a good place to start for newcomers and power users alike.

Once a program is launched, its icon will appear He taskbar that stretches along the bottom of the screen. Well, like most all other bars in Windows, you can place the taskbar anywhere on the screen: Left, right, top or bottom. You can switch from one program to another by clicking on their respective button on the taskbar. If you choose, though, you still can cycle around the opened applications by pressing Alt-Tab, the way you do it in Windows 3.1 or 3.11.

File Manager is replaced by Windows Explorer. What's new in Explorer is that you'll see all the drives connected to your system in the All Folders window. It's now easier for me to have a bird eye view of the contents of my 340 MB IDE hard disk, 2 G SCSI hard disk, CD ROM and 105 MB SyQuest removable hard disk.

Definitely, yes. It's not because Win 95 looks prettier or because it is easier to use. You'll have to upgrade because you won't have much choice. Soon new programs will be written as 32- bit applications in order to take advantage of this OS, as well as Windows T (and, of course, OS/2).

The question is when you should upgrade. At the moment, there's hardly any performance advantage in upgrading to Win 95, as most application programs are still 16-bit. Early versions of 32-bit applications may still have to be optimized to really take advantage of Win 95. You won't have to wait very long, though, as Microsoft is probably going to launch 32-bit Office 95 at about the same time as Win 95 -- which is now slated to take place in late August.

Corel has reportedly prepared the 32-bit version of CorelDRAW!, and the company was one of those who suffered from the repeated delay of Win 95 shipment. In my test, CorelPHOTO- PAINT! simply refused to load, and CorelDRAW! 5.0 had problem importing files. Therefore, if you use CorelDRAW! in your job, you'll have to wait for CorelDRAW! 6.0 before moving to Win 95.

Another reason why you should upgrade is that Win 95 is far more stable than Windows 3.1 or 3.11. I managed twice to freeze the entire system while tinkering around with some of the options, but the system went back to normal without having me reinstall Win 95.

Resources problems have been addressed as well. In Win 95, you'll be able to run many more applications than in Windows 3.1 and 3.11. Better still, unlike in Windows 3.1 and 3.11, all resources will be freed after a program is shut down.

There are a lot more new and nice features of Windows 95, and as we get closer to the launch date, I'll share with you more information on it. For now, start saving some money for more RAM, as you'll probably need 16 MB of it to run programs smoothly in Win 95.