More surprises, and disappointment, from Windows 95
By Zatni Arbi
JAKARTA (JP): Now that all the hoopla surrounding the spectacular launch of Win95 is dying down, it's time to see if the new 32-bit operating system really delivers the good things Microsoft has promised.
First things first, though. As I wrote two weeks ago, you will only be able to operate the new system if you have what it requires. This means that you need a fast machine with 8 MB of RAM just to play around with Win95 and Solitaire, and 16 MB of RAM to do more serious works with Office 95.
Fortunately, I have at my disposal such a machine: A clone with an IBM Cobalt motherboard, an IBM Blue Lightning clock- tripled 75 MHz CPU, and 16 MB of RAM. I can honestly tell you that I do enjoy working in the new environment. To begin with, the machine runs faster. This could be the result of my abandoning the motherboard's native IDE driver, which is incompatible with Windows 32-bit disk and file access features anyway.
Next, there are these cosmetic improvements that you've become tired of reading about. After a while, when the novelty wears out, everything becomes just as dull as in the DOS Zone.
There are a couple of surprises however, things that I didn't expect to get when upgrading to Win95. Here's what I've found out so far.
I bought my HP IIIP laser printer when it first came out in 1990. At that time, perhaps nobody would ever imagine that a printer would someday be able to talk back to the computer and say "Hey, I'm ready. Send me the print task now." Those of you who have been using HP 4L, on the other hand, must have found out that the printer can talk back and visually let you know what it is doing. It was not feasible in the era when the third generation of HP laser jet printers was born.
Talking back
Lo and behold. In Windows 95, my old HP IIIP seems to be talking back to the PC. The feedback may not be very fashionable, but it is far more fundamental and meaningful than just telling us what the printer is doing.
Here's what used to happen back in the recent pre-Win95 days, each time I issued the Print command and pressed the OK button while the printer had not been switched on, the PC would simply give me a warning sign and sit there idly. It would wait for me to click the Retry button. If I didn't click, it would just wait patiently. And you know a computer has an infinite amount of patience.
In Win95 it is a little bit different. I discovered this when my faithful printer ran out of paper when it still had several more pages to print. As expected, there was the warning sign on the screen. But, as soon as I pushed the refilled lower tray in and the Ready light on the printer panel lit up, the warning sign on the screen disappeared and the printer started printing. I hadn't clicked anything.
Although Win95 still gives us the Warning dialog box and makes the Retry button available to us, you actually don't have to do anything. If the problem is caused by power-off, for instance, you just turn it on. As soon as the printer passes all the self test and warming up procedures, Win95 will sense whenever it is ready to carry out its duty and automatically resend the print job. It's really neat, and, as I said, I never expected my five- year old laser printer could do that.
Smarter scanner
I have an HP ScanJet IIC as well. Just like the HP IIIP laser printer, I bought the scanner the moment it became available. Thus, it already has about four years behind it.
In DOS and Windows 3.11, the software driver for the scanner was loaded during boot up. A DEVICE= command in the CONFIG.SYS loaded it. If the scanner had not been powered on when the command was issued, the driver would not load. In order to load it, I would have to reboot the PC.
If I didn't reboot the machine but I did start DeskScan -- HP ScanJet IIC native scanning software -- I would get a warning that no scanner was attached and it just didn't work. In other words, the only way I could use the scanner was to reboot. Period.
Again, Win95 gave me a surprise. I've found out that even though the scanner is not powered up when the PC boots, I still can call DeskScan and it will work flawlessly. I like it.
In Windows 3.11, after a power failure or after I powered down the scanner during a Win95 session because I thought I would not need it anymore, DeskScan would often refuse to work properly even though I turned the scanner back on. In Windows 95, the problem is gone. I can turn the scanner on or off whenever I choose, and every time it is on I can work with DeskScan with no problem at all.
It's on display
The IBM Cobalt motherboard is really my favorite. So far I've used it in four of the PCs I've assembled and each time it worked without a glitch right from the start. It's so unfortunate that this product has been discontinued.
Because there are so many proprietary standards in the PC world, one could not expect that something will work harmoniously with everything. It happens even to this motherboard. Cobalt is incompatible with certain Windows Accelerator cards, including my ATI Graphics Ultra Pro. Therefore, if I use the native driver of Ultra Pro in Win95, I would get a reddish screen that looked garbled. When I installed Win95, I had to use the generic SuperVGA driver that came with the OS. It worked fine, except for one problem.
Furthermore, I really like the programmers' consideration for the disabled. The display settings can be altered so that the display contrast is optimized. People with limited vision will appreciate being able to see the screen more easily.
Drag 'n Drop
Here's probably the most shocking confession you hear from me. Despite all its touted Drag 'n Drop capabilities, I've always felt more comfortable working in the DOS Zone when creating subdirectories, copying and deleting files, or other directory maintenance chores. I just feel more secure in DOS.
Unfortunately, clicking on the MS DOS Prompt always takes me to the darkest computer display on earth, something that we commonly call a totally blank screen. I can just conjecture that this problem is caused by the incompatibility between the motherboard and the SuperVGA card. You shouldn't have this problem.
The interesting thing is, I can still access MS DOS prompt by shutting down and selecting the option "Restart the Computer in MS-DOS mode." So, even on this computer, the DOS Zone is still accessible.
Another problem affected my opportunity to enjoy CD-I movies on the PC. In the past, I had been informed that MPEG would be built into Windows 95, but after I upgraded to Win95 I found out I no longer could play CD-I movies. No matter what I did to the setting, RealMagic simply refused to work.
Fortunately, I've just received some good news from RealMagic dealer. They told me that the new software driver for RealMagic is now available. So, the problem should be solved in no time.
By the way, if you use WordPerfect 6.1, you should contact PT Asaba and ask for the patch for WordPerfect so that it can run perfectly in Win95. Or, you can wait for the Windows 95 version of WordPerfect that's due to arrive in a couple of months.
The extended waiting period for Win95 was worth it. Even if you abhor Bill Gates' attempt to rule the world, the programmers in Redmond should be given a round of applause for their success in catering to the needs of the majority of users.