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Posted Date: May 12, 1995
Note The tasks and features discussed in the following paper are based on a beta release of the Windows 95 operating system. Any and all information in this article is subject to change in the released version of the product.
Quite frankly, all this Windows 95 talk had me a little on edge when I installed the January 1995 beta release of Windows 95 on my Gateway 486/66 last week. Raised on a Macintosh Classic in college, then moved onto a PC Windows platform here at Microsoft, I thought my upgrade from Windows for Workgroups 3.11 (WFW) to Windows NT 3.5 would be my last operating system change for awhile. Sure, I knew Windows 95 had some fundamental improvements incorporated in it: a new user interface (UI), some nifty new configuration wizards, and vastly increased performance. I simply was not looking forward to relearning the basic day-to-day tasks I was used to performing in Windows, at least until Windows 95 shipped. My solution? I set up my machine to multi-boot to either Windows NT Workstation 3.5 or Windows 95 and test-drove Windows 95, a couple of hours here, a couple of hours there. I explored a number of tasks and features I would typically incorporate in my daily regimen. Here's what I found.
The first UI feature to catch my eye in Windows 95 was an immediately updated icon bar called the Taskbar (Figure 1). With this UI enhancement, I needed only a single mouse click to start and access an array of programs including our editorial team's editing/proofing Excel 'status sheet,' my feature article for next month's CD in WinWord, a HyperTerminal connection to my senior editor's computer, a World Wide Web connection, and a host of other folders. The Taskbar's placement is completely dockable in that I could move it to any side of the screen, hide it, or keep it always on top.
Windows 95's Taskbar is completely unlike Microsoft Office Manager (the iconbar in Office), which displays only the applications you've loaded. The Taskbar is not static; rather, it evolves with each task you start or conclude, thereby enabling you to click and access a variety of different applications with each session you begin.
Figure 1 The Taskbar
When you start a task, Windows 95 creates a button for it on the Taskbar that you can click on to return to it from other applications or tools, without having to use ALT+TAB, or to search for minimized icons or windows that have disappeared. Like most users, I move between files and applications a lot, so I especially liked Windows 95's heightened right-mouse button functionality: a single right-click on any of the Taskbar buttons expands a menu that enables you to end a task.
Launching Mosaic (selecting Programs) to peruse the Web, opening a specification I had been reviewing a couple of hours earlier (selecting Documents) and changing my printer settings (selecting Settings) are quick and easy when you use the Start button, an ultra-handy all purpose launcher built into the Taskbar (Figure 2). The Documents item on the Start menu is a real treat if you work with a collection of documents from a number of different applications at the same time. Selecting the item opens a menu that lists and allows single-click access to the last 15 or so documents you've worked with, whether they're Excel financial reports, Access database queries, or WinWord Knowledge Base articles. And because the Programs, Documents, and Settings items are all customizable, it was easy for me to add TechNet, Microsoft Office, and HTML Assistant to my Programs item for quick, one-step launching.
Figure 2 Start Button
Interestingly, to maintain backwards compatibility, the Windows 95 gurus retained the familiar ALT+TAB functionality. After all, how could they expect us not to return automatically to that old reliable two-key combo? 'Alt tabbing,' however, like most everything in Windows 95, is greatly improved. Instead of having to cycle through everything you have running, you now bring up a window with icons of every instance started in your current session, which eliminates the sometimes tiresome ALT+TAB loop.
Windows 95 provides an intuitive, easy-to-use feature called the Briefcase that makes mobile computing and file synchronization easy and foolproof. Recently, when I was working on some graphics for a newsletter, the briefcase allowed me to drag all the article's .BMP and .DOC files into one central repository, called, oddly enough, the Briefcase (Figure 3).
Figure 3 The Briefcase
After dragging the Briefcase icon onto my floppy disk I was good to go-home. There, I popped the floppy into my portable, opened the Briefcase and worked on the files I needed to modify. When I came back to the office, I dragged the Briefcase back onto my main computer's desktop. Updating my resident files was simply a matter of dropping down the Briefcase menu and selecting Update All: no manual copying or deleting, and no chance that I was working on files that weren't the most up-to-date. The Windows 95 shell compares the Briefcase file versions with the corresponding versions on the desktop and recommends appropriate actions based on the last dates of modification. This is definitely one of my favorite features.
To see the Briefcase on your desktop, however, you have to choose the Portable option when you set up Windows 95. I forgot the first time, and had to install it by double-clicking the Add/Remove Programs icon in Control Panel, and performing a number of steps that are avoidable if you set up with portability in mind.
Because I was working along on my own, I discovered Windows 95's support of long filenames (Figure 4) more or less by accident. Clicking on my article title, I typed what I thought was the usual '8-character naming convention' title taskwn95.doc. But when I pressed Enter I saw I had typed task wn 95.doc and that Windows 95 had accepted my ten-character title. File naming becomes a lot more intuitive when you waive the naming convention and add in the ability to cut, copy, and paste commands.
Figure 4 Window Illustrating Long Filename Support
Unfortunately, as Adrian King says in Inside Windows 95, Microsoft can't 'flip a switch' and magically force all previously developed applications to support the new long filename convention. So although Windows 95 recognizes the long filename Task and features in Win95, Microsoft Word truncates the title to TASKSA~1.DOC. In other words, you can't assign a long filename while you're in Word (Note: Microsoft Word and Microsoft Excel for Windows NT, both 32-bit applications, support long filenames. I was running 16-bit Word and Excel during my test-drive of Windows 95). This is a minor inconvenience, and one I'm willing to deal with.
I'm sure many of you have taken a look at TechNet's homepage on the World Wide Web. To keep abreast of other companies merging on Interstate-Web I frequently check out other WWW homepages and locations from home. Last week I wanted to investigate HotWired's, the Whitehouse's, and NASA's sites because I had heard they do some innovative stuff with graphics and animation. Unfortunately, this meant configuring a modem to dial out to a public Internet service-to many, a daunting task.
But what I envisioned to be an exercise in frustration ended up being a simple 45-second detail. Windows 95 caters to the 'hardware challenged' by providing step-by-step instructions on how to set up all sorts of hardware. The Add New Hardware Wizard (Figure 5) let me dial out in minutes.
Figure 5 Add New Hardware Wizard
Windows 95's Plug and Play support also simplifies life for users like me-I have so many cables and SCSI connections on the rear of my computer at work that I often inadvertently disconnect my mouse, forcing me to restart my computer. Under Windows 95, all I have to do (after I say "Uh oh") is simply plug my mouse back into its serial port and I'm in business again.
Likewise, setting up an external quad-speed drive and a sound card to view some archived video clips for an article was simply a matter of plugging in the hardware and running through the same wizard. No sweat.
With Windows 95 installed on my Compaq 486/33, speeding off to an editorial meeting with my laptop in hand was a no-brainer. I popped the laptop out of the docking station and Windows 95 immediately recognized that I no longer had my 540 MB hard drive or my network card available; I didn't have to leave Windows or even power down. My apps all continued to function perfectly and I didn't lose any data, although doing this for the first time was a real leap of faith.
As far as I am concerned, the direct, explicit, context-sensitive Help that accompanies Windows 95 is an important, easy-to-use substitute for any hardcopy documentation. The Help item on the Start menu (Figure 2) is always available, so you have a consistent and reliable entry point. This was an important confidence booster, especially over the first couple of hours I was working with Windows 95.
In trying to install the TCP/IP protocol, which allows Internet access, I noticed that Help was no longer the WFW instructions. Instead, it was task-oriented, simple, and direct. (Figure 6) Clicking the 'shortcut' button (an arrow) in the Windows 95 Help window took me directly to the Windows 95 Network dialog box, where I could install the protocol.
Figure 6 Windows 95 Help
Locating hidden Help windows was no longer a scavenger hunt either. The Windows 95 Help window remained to the side of the Network window, so I could continue to follow the Help instructions as I installed TCP/IP without clicking back and forth between obscured windows.
Windows 95's jewel list goes on and on. However, in this piece I just wanted to concentrate on a few basic tasks I found to be the most changed in Microsoft's newest operating system. In the coming months TechNet will explore Windows 95 in greater detail.
But all that comes later. For now, I am removing Windows NT Workstation from my BOOT.INI so I can launch straight into Windows 95.
No fear.
Michael Meulemans
Associate Editor
Microsoft TechNet
March 1995
Volume 3, Issue 3
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