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Patches & Support files - June'97
This
month, as well as our comprehensive collection of patches
and support files we have included the Frequently Asked
Questions (FAQs) and other support documents forums from
a number of major Internet Web Sites.
Click
here to find
out more.
Word for Windows file converter
Word 97 uses an entirely new file format. Don't get stuck unable to share documents between versions. This program will convert WinWord 97 documents to Word 95 or Word 6.0 format.
Quicktime for Windows 3.1
URL: http://www.quicktime.apple.com
16-bit version of the Quicktime runtime files required for playing Quicktime for Windows .MOV video and audio files.
Extension to Windows, required for playing Video For Windows .AVI files under Windows 3.1.
These files are required by any program written in the Visual Basic programming language. Just install/copy them into your Windows directory.
The following updated files are on this month's CD.
Ab.dll
Ctl3dv2.dll
Rmm.d32 - View readme file for this
Serial.386 - View readme file for this
Vkda.386 - View readme file for this
Windows 95 System Check
URL: http://www.microsoft.com/windows/common/aa2728.htm
The Windows 95 System Check is a utility designed to ensure that your existing hardware meets the minimum requirements to run Microsoft Windows 95. System Check will check for processor type, hard-disk space, RAM, and certain applications that are known to cause problems during Setup, and it will run on Windows 3.1x.
Includes updates for emm386.exe v4.49 and msd.exe v3.11, for DOS 6.x.
GA0363
This is the Microsoft Diagnostic program MSD v2.11 and is suitable for any version of DOS.
Updated DirectX driver
There is a new video driver for the Trio64V+ that works with the DirectX 3.0 games from Microsoft. You'll find a copy of the driver at S3's FTP site (ftp://ftp.s3.com/pub/bbs/765drv/index.htm) or on the PC User Offline CD-ROM.
Updates and bug fixes for Windows 95
Windows 95 Service Pack 1
URL: www.microsoft.com/windows/windows95/info/system-updates.htm
Essentially a collection of bug fixes for Windows 95, The Service Pack comes in two versions -- everything on a small one for single users, which we've included here, and a larger one for network managers.
Much of the mass on the larger versions consists of information documents and tools to bulk install the Service Pack on networks in different specialised ways, depending on how Windows 95 is organised on the network -- plus such strictly professional tools as Server Manager, User Manager and Event Viewer for managing a Windows NT network from a Windows 95 workstation.
Installation of the small version is very simple: it's all in a single EXE file and everything is installed automatically. You may not really need it all, but they won't be in the way or take up any room.
OLE 32 bug fix. Corrects file management glitches in Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel and Microsoft PowerPoint for Windows 95 -- note, however, there has been a subsequent OLE 32 bug fix.
Windows 95 Shell update. This update to the Windows 95 shell32.dll file fixes a problem in which files copied onto themselves can be truncated to a zero-byte file size, and also makes it possible to browse NetWare Directory Service printers from the Add Printer wizard.
Windows 95 Common Dialogue update for Windows 3.1 Legacy Printer Drivers. When 32-bit applications print using Windows 3.1 monolithic drivers or the Windows 3.1 pscript.drv/unidrv.dll driver, the applications sometimes fail. This update fixes that bug.
Vserver update. Fixes a known share-level security problem with file and printer sharing for Microsoft Networks and Samba's SMBCLIENT (a UNIX shareware network client).
NWServer update. Fixes a problem with file and printer sharing for NetWare Networks, which might affect data security for corporate users.
Vredir update. Fixes a problem that affects only Windows 95 users who use Samba UNIX servers.
Windows 95 Password List update. Protects your password file against potential security violations. Warning: This update has a bug itself and there has since been another Password List Update.
Microsoft Plus! update. Obviously only applicable to those with MS Plus!, this provides an updated version of sage.dll to fix a minor problem with System Agent: when version 1.0 System Agent is running, programs that perform floating-point calculations might be slightly off in precision.
Printer Port (lpt.vxd) bug fix. Service Pack 1 will automatically install a version of the parallel port driver (lpt.vxd) that was available previously on the Windows 95 CD in the \DRIVERS\PRINTER\LPT folder. This driver corrects problems seen on some ECP (Extended Capabilities Port) equipped machines.
Update Information Tool. A special applet to determine which Windows 95 upgrades have been installed.
Windows 95 Kernel Update
URL: www.microsoft.com/windows/windows95/info/system-updates.htm
Anyone who runs Internet and network (or, more specifically `Windows Sockets') applications continuously over long periods of time (especially applications which use a large number of sockets) will benefit from this update.
This update resolves a memory leak which occurs when opening and closing a socket using the Windows Sockets API. Without this update, running a Windows Sockets application over a long period of time, especially one which opens and closes a large number of sockets, will result a significant resource drain.
This can cause the Windows swapfile to grow very large, overall deterioration of performance, and over time, possible system instability. This update allows users to better run such applications for long periods of time without loss of system performance and stability, and without requiring users to reboot their computers periodically to free system resources.
Windows 95 OLE32 Update
URL: www.microsoft.com/windows/windows95/info/system-updates.htm
Microsoft has provided a number of further bug fixes and updates since the release of the Windows 95 Service Pack 1, including this OLE 32 Update to the OLE32 update in the Service Pack. Users who run multiple 16-bit applications which use ODBC for data access should install this update, or have OLE-linked files on a networked drive, or who distribute electronic versions of their documents and are concerned with privacy.
This update resolves the following issues under Windows 95:
- When running multiple 16-bit ODBC applications concurrently, shutting down the applications in a certain order may cause Windows 95 to crash. This update resolves this issue, allowing successful concurrent operation of multiple 16-bit ODBC applications without crashing.
- If links are established between OLE objects within a given directory structure on a network drive, then moved to a different drive with the same directory structure, the links are not maintained. If this same operation is performed on a local drive, the links are maintained. This update resolves this issue, allowing links to be maintained between OLE objects that are moved between network drives with identical data structures.
- Certain OLE applications, such as Microsoft Word, Excel PowerPoint for Windows 95, version 7.0, store information in compound documents such that extraneous information left in unused areas of a hard disk may occasionally be found in unused regions of their document files. This information, while not accessible through normal means, may potentially compromise privacy. This update resolves this issue, preventing extraneous data left on the hard disk from deleted files from being stored in unused regions of OLE documents.
This update improves on the current OLE2 implementation on Windows 95 in the areas of document integrity and privacy, consistent behaviour with respect to local and network file systems, and system stability when using 16-bit applications using ODBC.
Power Toys
URL: www.microsoft.com/windows/common/contentW95UGB.htm
I believe one of the main factors in the success of Windows in all its incarnations is that it's fun to work with -- not just for us end-users, but for the programmers, too. That's clear when you look at Power Toys for Windows 95 -- created by Microsoft's own programmers in their own time, just for the fun of it. As such this is a real update, not just a bug fix.
As is inevitable with an unplanned collection like this, the Power Toys range from weird to wonderful or merely idiosyncratic -- which is fine if you happen to share the idiosyncrasy. For example, there's Round Clock -- a mere decorative matter running an analogue clock with a round face that doesn't sit in a rectangular window. Certainly not practical, since we already have digital time on the Taskbar.
Explore From Here is very practical for a large system or network, as it lets you open the Explorer with any root directory at any level, which can make file maintenance very simple indeed. The HTML Printer Driver allows you to print Web pages in all their graphical glory from many different applications (very practical) and CABView can be extremely useful if you need to find and extract files from CAB distribution archives, such as the ones on the Windows 95 distribution disks or CD. This one isn't a free-standing application, it just gives Explorer the ability to treat CAB files like folders. The latest enhancement to CABView lets you expand a file from a CAB folder by merely dragging it to another folder.
A related item is DOS Prompt Here, which lets you right-click to open a DOS prompt in any folder, saving you a lot of typing.
CD AutoPlay Extender lets you set up non-autoplay CDs to run when you slot them in (except audio CDs). There's also FlexiCD, which runs audio CDs from the Taskbar, and it has a useful control set including a track list.
QuickRes is a very meaty item; it sits as an icon on the Taskbar and lets you change video resolution and colour depth without rebooting -- handy when you want to run games or education programs that can't handle full resolution and colour! In the same heavyweight class we have TweakUI, which adds the ability to change a large number of user interface features to the Control Panel.
The Contents menu is perhaps a little more idiosyncratic; instead of double-clicking on a folder to open it and see what's inside, this utility lets you right-click the folder and select Contents from the pop-up menu. This opens a sub-menu that displays the folder contents and lets you start a program, etc.
Shortcut Target Menu lets you see the target of a shortcut by right-clicking the shortcut and selecting Target, Properties from the pop-up menu.
Telephony Location Selector sits in icon form on the Taskbar and is great for mobile modem users. Picking your location is a matter of two clicks if it's a site you visit regularly, otherwise you'll have to enter details each time.
Xmouse, finally, makes your mouse act like the mouse on an XWindows (Unix) machine. That is, any open window that the cursor enters is selected without clicking. If you spend your days working XWindows in the office it can be nice to have this at home, and you may find it suits you anyway.
By Jan Wikström
Windows 95 Support Assistant
URL: www.microsoft.com/windows/windows95/info/service-packs.htm
Developed by Microsoft's tech support service, this Help file contains valuable information to help you install and get up and running on Windows 95. It runs on Windows 3.1, Windows for Workgroups, and Windows 95.
The Support Assistant contains solutions to the most frequently asked support questions from the Windows 95 beta program; sections of the Windows 95 Resource Kit describing use of Windows 95 with NetWare and other third-party networks (especially important in this fee-based support environment); over 100 Knowledge Base articles written by Microsoft engineers covering procedures, productivity tips and tricks, and specific product issues associated with setup and networking with Windows 95; walk-through troubleshooters dealing with setup, networking, and hardware issues; A glossary of Windows 95 commonly used terms.
Windows 95 Backup Update
URL:www.microsoft.com/windows/windows95/info/system-updates.htm
This component gives slight performance improvements over the released version of the Windows 95 backup application. This update also guards against an user erasing media improperly by disabling the "Erase Tape" command when backing up to floppy disks or to another hard disk. This update also fixes an "out of memory" issue that may be encountered when restoring data. This update does not add any support for additional devices that were not supported in the original version of the Windows 95 Backup application.
Windows 95 Fax Update
URL: www.microsoft.com/windows/windows95/info/system-updates.htm
This update fixes a problem with Microsoft Fax for that may disable cover pages when sending a fax. When this occurs, there are no cover page files listed in the Compose New Fax Wizard, or in the Default Cover Page section of the properties for Microsoft Fax.
This problem can occur if the Archive attribute has been removed from the .cpe files in the Windows folder, or if you have created a cover page in an unrecognized format, even if the Archive attribute is set correctly. The Archive attribute is often removed by backup programs.
Internet Mail Service for Windows 95 Update
URL: www.microsoft.com/windows/windows95/info/system-updates.htm
With Internet Mail Service for Windows 95 you can use Microsoft Exchange to send and receive mail over the Internet. Internet Mail Service lets you receive mail from POP3 servers which send mail using SMTP. To establish a connection to the Internet from your own personal computer using the Internet Mail Service for Windows 95 your Internet provider must supply POP3 servers that use SMTP. The Internet Mail Service for Windows 95 will not allow you to send and receive mail with out a POP3 server.
Users of Windows 95 who would like to communicate with anyone on the Internet or any network with POP3 and SMTP services should use the Internet Mail Service for Windows 95.
This update resolves a number of issues under Windows 95 including:
- When running the Internet Mail service with the Exchange Server 4.0 Client, the Remote Mail viewer was not functional. This update resolves this issue.
- This update resolves several time-out and delivery problems with connect and re-connect when using Remote Mail.
- In certain situations, the Sent Date was not being set correctly. This has been corrected.
- Several MIME body part corruption problems related to attachments were fixed.
Disk Type Specific Driver Update for Windows 95
URL: www.microsoft.com/windows/windows95/info/system-updates.htm
This update resolves a problem in Windows 95 which may, in certain specific configurations, lead to corrupted data on extended partitions on large IDE drives.
This problem may arise if all of the below conditions are true:
- The hard disk is a large (more than 504 Mb) Enhanced IDE hard disk.
- The hard disk is accessed using Logical Block Addressing (LBA).
- The hard disk has been partitioned into multiple partitions with the Windows 95 version of FDISK, or another partitioning utility that creates MS-DOS extended partition types 0x0E and 0x0F.
- The system BIOS supports extended INT13 functions to access hard disk devices.
- You have exited to MS-DOS mode from Windows 95 without rebooting the computer.
- Under these conditions, the contents of logical drives in the extended partition may appear incorrect or corrupted. If these logical drives are written to under this condition, information may be written incorrectly to these drives, resulting in data corruption.
Windows 95 Password List Update
URL: www.microsoft.com/windows/windows95/info/system-updates.htm
Anyone who has installed or will install Windows 95 Service Pack 1 and uses an application which attempts to remove passwords from the password cache (such as Dial-Up Networking) should install this update after installing the Service Pack.
This update fixes a bug in the Service Pack 1 -- it does not exist in the shipping version of Windows 95. This bug occurs when an application attempts to remove a cached password. If an application attempts to remove a password from the cache, a section of the cache file (.PWL file) can become corrupted, causing any passwords cached in that section of the file to be lost, and making it impossible to cache further passwords in that section of the file.
The Password List Update also includes the enhanced protection for cached passwords. When you connect to a password-protected resource, such as a network drive, you can choose to save that password. Windows then stores the password in an encrypted file on your hard disk. An algorithm was posted on the Internet for decrypting this file. If someone has access to your password file and knows the decryption algorithm, they might be able to decrypt it and the passwords it contains-and then gain access to the password-protected resources. The Password List Update provides a vastly improved encryption algorithm that is significantly harder to decrypt than the previous encryption method.
Exchange Update for Windows 95
URL: www.microsoft.com/windows/windows95/info/system-updates.htm
The updated version of Microsoft Exchange provides fixes and enables users running Exchange with Windows 95 to access their Microsoft Mail shared folders. (The Microsoft Mail information service included with Windows 95 does not provide access to shared folders.)
URL: http://www.microsoft.com/
Microsoft's extensions for Windows 95. Required for many Win95 games.
URL: http://www.quicktime.apple.com
32 bit version of the Quicktime runtime files required for playing Quicktime for Windows .MOV video and audio files.
These files are required by any program written in the Visual Basic programming language. Just install/copy them into your Windows directory.
To save space on our CD these files are supplied in ZIP files. You will find them in the \Patches folder on the CD as vbr432.zip.
URL: http://www.jasc.com
Toolfix.reg and netpal, are mentioned in this month's bug watch column. Click on their names to copy these files to your hard disk. Click here to view the readme file for Netpal.
Also included is an update to version 4.12 for registered users of v 4.0 or v 4.1 of Paint Shop Pro. You will also find the complete shareware version of Paint Shop Pro version 4.12 in our Online tools section on the PC User Offline CD-ROM.
Windows NT 4.0 Service Pack 2
URL: http://www.microsoft.com/kb/softlib
The latest and complete
array of bug fixes and updates for Windows NT 4.0 users.
It is recommended you run the update with no other
programs running. You will find it on the CD at \patches\nt4sp2\update.exe
Patches and Support files - May '97
Patches and Support files - April '97
Patches and Support files - March '97
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