Win95 FAQ Part 1 of 14: Administrivia
gor...@intouch.bc.ca
Last-Modified: 1998/11/08
Posting-Frequency: Every two months
URL: http://www.orca.bc.ca/win95/faq1.htm
Subject: 1. Administrivia, copyrights, etc
* 1.1. What are FAQs?
* 1.2. What is Windows 95?
* 1.3. Why did you write this FAQ about Windows 95?
+ 1.3.1. Why did you cross-post this FAQ to all the .win95
newsgroups?
+ 1.3.2. Why do you have all the Win95 groups in the
Followup-to line?
* 1.4. Whose work did you include in this FAQ besides yours?
* 1.5. What other FAQs are out there?
* 1.6. What other resources are out there?
* 1.7. Whose trademarks did you use?
* 1.8. What restrictions do you put on usage of this FAQ?
+ 1.8.1. Disclaimers
------------------------------
Subject: 1.1. What are FAQs?
FAQs are Frequently Asked Questions. FAQs minimize traffic on Usenet
by providing answers to common questions, before users post those
questions on newsgroups. If people knew about FAQs and used them, we
wouldn't need ridiculous high speed links just to distribute Usenet
news. Read the FAQs when available. Save copies. Give copies to your
friends.
Read all about FAQs and get others from the FAQ archives at
rtfm.mit.edu and their mirror sites.
------------------------------
Subject: 1.2. What is Windows 95?
Microsoft's newest "low end" operating system for Intel based
computers. In my opinion, they designed it to wean DOS users off that
20 year old operating system and into some current stuff. It replaces
DOS and previous versions of Windows entirely.
In addition to completely re-working the user interface, Win95 brings
over large amounts of Windows NT technology, allowing app writers to
write for both operating systems. One of Microsoft's requirements for
Designed for Windows 95 products is that the product must also run
on Windows NT Workstation.
It also (supposedly) helps you manage your hardware, your software,
your time, etc better. It's also supposed to make you rich, good
looking, sexually irresistible, and permanently wonderful. heh heh...
------------------------------
Subject: 1.3. Why did you write this FAQ about Windows 95?
The traffic on comp.os.ms-windows.win95.misc is ridiculous. Other
Win95 FAQs I read were too sparse, too technical, too anti-Microsoft,
or otherwise too un-useful for the common folk. Also, Microsoft's FAQ,
which shipped with the CD-ROM version, was pathetic. But ultimately, I
wrote it for the experience, so I can say, "Hey, I made a Web page!" I
hope this page is useful to you out there.
This FAQ tries to get the big questions answered while going into some
technical detail for those who want to learn more. Where content goes
beyond the scope of this FAQ, I link you to appropriate sites.
* 1.3.1. Why did you cross-post this FAQ to all the .win95
newsgroups?
Because I was asked to. One of the initial letters I received in
response to the FAQ was to have me post it in the FAQ archives for
news.answers, so non-WWW people could use it. And not everyone has FTP
either; people using the Vancouver CommunityNet have no FTP access
at all! To get in the archives I had to actually post it to, not only
news.answers and comp.answers, but the groups directly concerned with
the questions in the FAQ. I wouldn't have received approval from
rtfm.mit.edu to cross-post if I wasn't supposed to.
Cross-posting also takes less disk space on news servers than
multi-posting. In a cross-posted article you have only one message ID
(and only one file). Cross-posting the FAQ to the groups in question,
as well to news.answers, takes the same bandwidth as a single posting
to news.answers would.
* 1.3.2. Why did you include all the .win95 groups in the
Followup-to header?
Originally, the .answers moderators' FAQ checker would reject the FAQ
if it didn't include a followup-to line containing all the groups in
question. I've started using only the .win95.misc group as it seems a
better place for folow-ups to the FAQ itself. Yes, I've started
reading .win95.misc to look for FAQ followups.
------------------------------
Subject: 1.4. Whose work did you include in this FAQ besides yours?
These people:
* Rich Graves: He runs the win95netbugs FAQ. He has excellent tech
information but is very anti-Microsoft. He heeds help; he can't
maintain the netbugs FAQ, so if you think you can do it, ask him.
* Jim Farewell: My ex-boss, who allowed me all the resource material
from Microsoft he had, and his computers. If it wasn't for this
guy's patience and resources, the FAQ wouldn't be so
comprehensive.
* Creative Element: They run the Win95 annoyances FAQ, and they have
plenty of brute-force methods for making Win95 work the way THEY
want it to work.
* Richard Evans: Who lent me his web server space to allow you all
to preview this FAQ.
* Glen Ninow: He runs The InterNet Store (With special emphasis
on the capital 'N' in 'InterNet') and graciously offered his web
server space to me for the permanent home of this FAQ, and his
computers for me to bash after Jim Farewell handed me my pink
slip. :p
* Ben Goetter: He is writing a book on writing MAPI applications for
MS Exchange, and has an excellent Exchange FAQ.
* Sue Mosher: Excellent work keeping us updated on the Windows
Messaging updates.
* William Hartley: He prepared a .HLP version of this FAQ
* Sean Erwin: He maintains the OSR2 FAQ.
And then there are those who gave suggestions since the first
release... sorry it took so long guys:
* Eric Gisin for many corrections and a hack to MS's TCP/IP
Properties sheet to let you make adjustments without Registry
hacking, and for the Emergency Recovery Disk suggestions. Visit
his new Registry site at
http://www.webhaven.com/ericg/Windows/Registry.html
* Ed Babin for some tape backup corrections
* Michael Thomas and too many others not listed here, for
encouragement
* Kurt C. Joseph for the advice in running Win 3.1 within Win95
* Jack H. Pincus for the good news regarding Corel's version of
WordPerfect for Win95
* William Hunt (E-MAIL address unknown) for the RNAAPP lockup fix
and Eric Mitchell for telling me that it DIDN'T work
* Eric again for the Documents Menu clean-up program, from MS Power
Toys
* Jeff Lawson for the Modem Break script to get SLiRP working with
Win95 dial-up networking
* Gordon McAndrew for the pioneering work into making TAPI work over
packet radio
* Anthony Humphreys for the nice package of MS Exchange add-ons, and
FAQ page 10 corrections
* Cassell for spelling corrections
* "S. Dawson" for pioneering work into Banyan's VINES client for
Win95
* Alan R. Miller for corrections in FAQ page 9
* Demetrio Lamzaki for encouragement in the face of OS/2 religious
fanatics
* Daniel Bourdon for the Rendering Subsystem/MS Fax clairification
* pe...@onyx.interactive.net for making a BOOTP client for Win95
* Many others for telling me about the WinWord 7.0a / MS Fax mail
merge bugfix
* S. T. Brown for nominating this FAQ answer as the funniest
quote in the FAQ. Go to the bottom of section 3.1 to find the
line.
* Several users: for SUBST.EXE clairification
* Mr. Harigan for telling me about IMAP4, MHS, and Newsgroup clients
for Exchange (Search for ExpressIT! 2000 on the WWW)
* Volker Hejny for adventures in DriveSpace 3 :-) and some
clairifications
* Dwight Jones for telling me about changing MAC addresses in the
dial-up adapter
* Breidavik Gistiheimili for VCPI information: Games that need VCPI
services won't run in a Win95 DOS session
* John English for publishing this and many many other FAQs on their
Student Info CD-ROM from the University of Brighton, in the UK
(And for giving me a copy)
* Vincent Hsieh for translating the FAQ to Chinese (I don't have the
URL; somebody PLEASE give it to me)
* Jeremy Parkinson for alerting me to the missing Alias Monitor file
from HP's web site (Another reason to keep HP on my Lamers page)
* Witalka, Jerome JRV for pointing out more errors in FAQ page 9
* COPStalk info; finally, a Designed for Win95 AppleTalk client
* Serg V. Shubenkov for mirroring my site in Moscow!
* Jon Jacobik for the ultimate Win95 FAQ question: "How do you get
Microsoft's attention to a problem like this?" (Answer: Return
your copy of Win95 and phone MS Tech support asking for your
registration card back!)
* Oliver Knorr for experience in making User Profiles work on a
non-centralized network
* Howard Harkness for more Corel WP 7.0 lameness reports... I
expected better from Corel.
* The brave souls who harassed anyone who gave me sh*t for
cross-posting the FAQ. I got a couple of nasty responses but I
never heard from then ever again... heh heh heh... Perfect example
of how The Net polices itself
------------------------------
Subject: 1.5. What other FAQs are out there?
Too many... use them.
Win95 Net Bugs:
<http://www-leland.stanford.edu/~llurch/win95netbugs/faq.html>
Win95 Annoyances <http://www.creativelement.com/win95ann/index.html>
The one on the Win95 CD-ROM even though it sucks now
Ben Goetter's Exchange FAQ:
<http://www.halcyon.com/goetter/exclifaq.htm>
Sue Mosher's Exchange/Windows Messaging FAQ:
<http://www.slipstick.com/exchange/>
There's an excellent Win95 Usage FAQ at
<http://www.wantree.com.au/~hansie/>
The OSR2 FAQ lives at <http://www.compuclinic.com/>
------------------------------
Subject: 1.6. What other resources are out there?
There's Microsoft's Windows 95 Resource Kit which makes a great start.
Definitely check out the Microsoft Knowledge Base,
(http://www.microsoft.com/kb/) which has a lot of stuff who you
might've thought only Technet users had access too. They recently
re-did their search engine, so you can search on phrases like
"Confirmed bugs" or "Bugs fixed", or "Files available for download".
This stuff is right to the point. If you don't use Internet Explorer,
visit http://www.microsoft.com/kb/softlib/ for a non-IE-viewable
page of software. MS's regular Win95 pages have a bunch of tags that
NCSA Mosaic barfs on.
www.windows95.com keeps a well updated library of software.
Search engine searches will give other sites of course.
I won't recommend any magazines as of yet, because they're all full of
MS ads and other un-productive junk.
------------------------------
Subject: 1.7. Whose trademarks did you use?
Windows, MS-DOS, MS Exchange, MS Plus, Internet Explorer, DriveSpace:
Microsoft Corp
NT: Northern Telecom (Go figure)
Norton Utilities, Norton Anti-Virus, Norton Navigator, etc: Symantec
Corp
Colorado Backup: Hewlett-Packard Corp
Macintosh, AppleTalk: Apple Computer Inc
Pentium, Pentium Pro: Intel Corp
Netscape Navigator and Communicator: Netscape Communications Inc
LANtastic: Artisoft Corp
Disk Manager: Ontrack Systems
DrivePro: Microhouse
Stacker: Stack Electronics
OS/2: IBM Corp
TCPMAN: Trumpet Communications
NetWare, MHS: Novell, Inc
CleanSweep 95, QEMM: Quarterdeck
SoftRAM: Synchronys Software (Evil, evil, evil, evil...)
Award BIOS: Award software
MR BIOS: Microid Research
Sound Blaster (whatever kind), AWE32: Creative Labs
Graphics Ultra/Pro/Expression: ATI
WinCIM: CompuServe Inc
WinFax: Delrina Communications/Symantec
------------------------------
Subject: 1.8. What restrictions do you put on the use of this FAQ?
Distribution and mirroring are encouraged so long as the source is
quoted, and it's distributed in full. (Unfortunately I can't control
broken news gateways that won't distribute the FAQ pages... sorry).
Translation to other languages and other formats is encouraged
provided the intended content remains the same.
People asked me about removing the "editorial comments" I scatter
through the FAQ. I prefer you don't, but I won't mind. If you do this,
please let me know so I can inspect it and make sure the answers are
still accurate.
* 1.8.1. Disclaimers:
As MS fixes the bugs and as vendors come up with new products, this
info may be in-accurate. Check with other sources (like the references
above) if you are in doubt of any info I have here. I would appreciate
updates and comments and you will receive recognition for your
work.
The opinions in this FAQ are mine, except where directly quoted and
linked from. They do not reflect the opinions of my employer or the
provider of this web space. Especially as I often argue with both of
them about these topics.
I can't be responsible for any damage this information causes you or
your equipment. Try to avoid using REGEDIT. RTFM. RTFFAQ. Ask
Questions. But don't come crying to me or sic your lawyers on me if
you broke your computer. I can't fix it.
--
==============================================================================
= I am Gordon of Winterpeg. Junk mail is futile. Post MakeMoneyFast =
= Find out why: http://spam.abuse.net/spam/ Or eat pink meat from a can =
= World's best computer: http://www.amiga.de/ they're both the same =
= Windows 95 FAQ: http://www.orca.bc.ca/win95/ http://ga.to/mmf/ =
==============================================================================