WINDOWS 95 ¹Windows 95 features animation when you do tasks such as deleting files, copying files etc. Unfortunately, now operations which should take only a few seconds can take up to 1 minute or more. You can't even turn the animation off! Windows 95 supports Microsofts networking. Unfortunately it is not very straightforward. Depending on which features of the networking you want enabled you have to have ALL clients on the network setup the exactly the same directory structure. Not a very good restriction if you connect and disconnect from the network frequently with you 'personal' computer. It means you are forced to set it up how the network administrator would like it. Customisability and Configuration in Windows 95 are done mainly via the control panel component (similar to Windows 3.x) and properties pages attached to many Windows 95 components. Most items changed in the control panel are unfortunate and force you to shut down your computer when you change something. This makes multiprogramming a bit painful sometimes, having to stop everything you are doing just to change a particular setting. Windows 95 claims to be object orientated (or document centric) which means that most things you do should be centered around the documents instead of the applications. Unfortunately Windows 95 has very bad support for different types of documents (files) and really makes no effort to actually being document centric. It seems to use filename extensions to figure out what types of document instead of actually analysing the file to check what it could be. If you want to occasionally program your own application or are one to take an interest in programming and would like to tinker around with a programming language to see what it is all about, unfortunately with Windows 95 you don't get any free/bundled language to tinker with. This essential/customary component of an OS is an unfortunate ommision. Any version of the BASIC or even C language could have done nicely. Overall Windows 95 is an average product. Probably below average considering the time and money spent developing the product and how much it costs the end user to buy (over $100). If you can live with some of the painfully annoying problems mentioned above, it's worth a look. However, If you want a fast, powerful, responsive, configurable, multiprogramming OS, then you are best to give it a miss and look elsewhere (eg: check out Xenix, it's faster, more responsive, and FREE!!). ¶¾Main critisms: ²- ¹modal dialogs make multi- programming almost useless ²- ¹some OS components let you run more than a single copy at a time ²- ¹inconsistant usage of long filenames ²- ¹forced to use filename extensions if you want filetypes recognised (no file analyses done) ²- ¹not very configurable ²- ¹only single letter drive names ²- ¹no bundled programming language ²- ¹painful to install ²- ¹very slow. even slower than win 3.0 ²- ¹definitely hardgoing for firsttime computer users ²- ¹very expensive considering the fact that you need at least a Pentium 90 MHZ, 32 MB memory and 1 GB HD to get the basic job done. ¹Windows 95 Final Release by Microsoft ²- ¹A non-biased review of some of its ¹ups and downs. Machine used for testing: I486DX2/66, 16 MB RAM, Cirrus Logic 1MB Video Card, 2 x 200MB HDD, 1 x 3.5" FDD. The Windows 95 I received came on an ISO-9660 format (no long filenames) CD in an oversized box. The first thing that comes to mind when you try to install this package, is 'How do I install this?'. There are no boot discs so you will have to go and buy/install MSDOS to be able to install Windows 95. Even though the licence given with Windows 95 says it is an upgrade for Windows 3.x users, it is a shame that you have to spend so long installing, MSDOS, Windows 3.x and then Windows 95 just to get the thing to work!! Having reinstalled MSDOS and Windows 3.x (gee, thought I didn't need to ever do that again), I could go ahead with the installation procedure. Installation takes some 30 minutes (after MSDOS and Windows 3.x) on a 486DX-66. Throughout the installation process, you are given choices of hardware you have, Windows 95 components you wish to install, whether you want express or custom setup etc. Setup of Windows 95 is quite painfull with its silly messages like 'If it takes a long time, turn your computer off.'. I had to install it three times to get it not to lock up (I had identical setup and chose the same options each time). Windows 95 Up and Running! A mean feat!! OK, I finally got Windows 95 up and running after 1.5 hours. Windows 95 has quite a pleasing appearance until... you do something involving opening and closing windows. The problem is that sometimes windows are half drawn and stay visible for several seconds to even almost half a minute and look very unprofessional. Also the icons in Windows 95 are 3D-ish but out of proportion and distorted. Once Windows 95 is installed I thought I'd like to customise it how I would like it. Unfortunately there are not many options which are customisable. Only things like drive views (whether you like to see lists of text, small icons or large icons) and things such as screen resolution, colours, fonts etc. Unfortunately many of the settings you change force you to shutdown Windows 95 to take effect (a real pain if you are already running some applications). ²Please turn page... ¶¶¹Microsoft claims Windows 95 to have fast smooth multiprogramming. I found it to be very frustrating in the tests I ran. I firstly formatted my second hard drive and tried to scan it (as recommended by Windows 95) for possibility of unreliable data storage. This is a lengthy process, so I though why not scan my first hard drive at the same time. Unfortunately Windows 95 refused to open a second scandisk program which meant I had to wait twice. Also when accessing the floppy drives Windows 95 almost crawls to a halt. It doesn't actually stop, but becomes sluggish and almost non-responsive. Another annoyance with the multiprogramming is that some components of Windows 95 open Modal dialogs which prevent the user from doing anything else on the screen. If you click on another application the Windows 95 will just cause the computer to beep until it has finished with its Modal dialog (very irritating). Windows 95 tries to be compatible with Windows 3.x but has many unfortunate consequences. If you run a single Windows 3.x program, all multiprogramming in Windows 95 seems to stop. Windows 95 has a so-called modern filing system with several problems. Firstly it insists your drives being refered to with single-letter names such as A:, B:, C:, D: etc. This is just like the old CP/M days. No nice user-definable long drive names and limited device independance with drives. The filing system allows long filenames in some places but not in others. This makes it a bit confusing and most irritating when sing you don't get all that much ÿ