 Microsoft® Windows 95® - OEM Service Release 2
Microsoft Windows 95 OEM Service
Release 2 (OSR 2) is an update to the Microsoft Windows
95 operating system intended to add support for new and
emerging hardware, and to include various updates to
Windows 95 which were formerly available separately.
Because most of the new functionality
in OSR 2 is applicable only to new hardware devices, OSR
2 is only be available on new PCs. However, many
components of OSR 2 are already, or soon will be
available for download from the Internet.
The purpose of this document is to
outline the features of Windows 95 OEM Service Release 2
and to identify which components are available to
existing Windows 95 customers.
The following features will be covered in this
document:
Features and Delivery Vehicles
Hardware
Support
|
Feature |
Description |
New
PC |
Download |
FAT32 |
Enhancements to
the Windows 95 FAT file system designed to
efficiently support large hard disks, up to 2
Terabytes in size. Includes updates to FDISK,
Format, Scandisk, and Defrag disk utilities to
support FAT32 partitions. |
Yes |
No |
DriveSpace Update |
Windows 95
DriveSpace compression utility now supports
compressed volumes up to 2 GB in size. Note:
DriveSpace compression is not supported on FAT32
volumes. |
Yes |
No |
Power Management
Improvements |
Support for
Advanced Power Management (APM) 1.2 BIOS,
wake-on-ring for modems, multi-battery PC's,
drive spin down, and powering down of inactive
PCMCIA modems. |
Yes |
No |
Storage
Enhancements |
Support for IDE
Bus Mastering, 120M Floptical disk drives,
removable IDE media, Zip drives, and CD Changers.
Also adds the SMART predictive disk failure
API's. |
Yes |
No |
PCMCIA
Enhancements |
Adds support for
new PC Card 32 (Cardbus) bridges, PCMCIA cards
that operate at 3.3 volts rather than 5 volts,
multifunction PCMCIA network/modem cards, and
PCMCIA Global Positioning Satellite (GPS)
devices. |
Yes |
No |
CDFS Enhancements |
Support for ISO
9660 disks up to 4 GB in size, and CD-I format
CD-ROMs |
Yes |
No |
PCI
Bridging/Docking |
Support for PCI
devices for use in PCI docking stations |
Yes |
No |
IRQ Routing |
Support for new
PCI interrupt routers. |
Yes |
No |
Internet
and Multimedia
|
Feature |
Description |
New
PC |
Download |
Internet Explorer
3.0 |
Microsoft's hot
new Internet browser. Get the most from the
Internet with support for ActiveX, HTML style
sheets, frames, Java and more. |
Yes |
Yes (IE
3.02) |
Internet
Connection Wizard |
A simple, easy to
configure connection to worldwide Internet
Service Providers through a centralized service,
as well as assistance in the sign-up process. |
Yes |
Built
into IE 3.02 |
Internet Mail and
News |
Send and receive
email quickly with our new SMTP and POP3 mail
client, and subscribe to your favorite newsgroups
with our flexible newsreader. |
Yes |
Built
into IE 3.02 |
NetMeeting |
Make telephone calls over the
Internet, including data calls with several
people. You can remotely view and control any
program, share a whiteboard, chat, and transfer
files. |
Yes |
Built
into IE 3.02 |
Personal Web Server |
Allows publishing and hosting
of HTML pages over the Internet/intranet. |
Yes |
Yes |
DirectX 2.0 (including Direct
3D) |
High-performance 2D and 3D
graphics, sound, input, and communications for
great games on virtually any PC. Will also ship
with games that require it. Includes some sound
and display driver updates. |
Yes |
Yes
(DirectX 3.0a) |
ActiveMovie |
Next generation video
architecture for Microsoft Windows. Delivers high
quality and performance playback of video,
including QuickTime and MPEG-1 formats. |
Yes |
Built
into IE 3.02 |
OpenGL |
Support libraries for OpenGL
graphics standard, plus some cool screen savers. |
Yes |
Available
Soon |
Intel MMX Support |
Support for third parties to
build software that exploits the Intel Pentium
Multimedia Extensions (MMX) for fast audio and
video support on the next generation of Intel
Pentium processor. |
Yes |
No |
Networking
and Communications
|
Feature |
Description |
New
PC |
Download |
Dial-Up Networking
Improvements |
User interface
enhancements, support for scripting, and
hands-free dial-up. Note: To get Dial-Up
Networking Improvements download ISDN Accelerator
Pack 1.1. |
Yes |
Yes |
Voice Modem
Support |
Support for
VoiceView and AT+V modems to allow switched voice
and data transmission to occur, and to allow the
modem to answer voice calls. |
Yes |
Yes |
Service for
NetWare Directory Services |
Full client
support for Novell NetWare 4.x, including NetWare
Directory Services. |
Yes |
Yes
(installation instructions for \patches\osr2\msnds\) |
32-bit DLC |
32 bit support for
the Data Link Control protocol for SNA host
connectivity. |
Yes |
Yes |
Infrared Support |
Support for
Infrared Data Association (IrDA) 2.0 compliant
devices - includes Infrared LAN connectivity. |
Yes |
Yes |
Desktop Management |
Support for
Desktop Management Interface (DMI) 1.1 - allows a
desktop management application to monitor devices
on the PC. |
Yes |
Available
Soon |
NDIS 4.0 |
Adds support for
new NDIS 4.0 network interface card drivers. |
Yes |
No |
Additional
Features
|
Feature |
Description |
New
PC |
Download |
Display
enhancements |
Support for
dynamically changing screen resolution and color
depth. Adapter refresh rate can also be set with
most newer display driver chipsets. |
Yes |
Available
Soon |
Wang Imaging for
Windows 95 |
View image data
from a variety of different file formats,
including JPG, XIF, TIFF, BMP and FAX. Scan and
annotate images with built-in TWAIN scanner
support and Imaging applet. |
Yes |
Yes |
Fonts |
Support for HP
LaserJet 4 grayscale fonts. |
Yes |
Available
Soon |
MSN 1.3 |
The latest version
of the MSN client, which features performance
improvements. |
Yes |
Yes.
Available from The Microsoft Network. |
Fixes/updates |
Various Windows 95
updates including: updated OLE components,
enhanced Windows Messaging client with improved
performance, and fixes to Microsoft Fax. |
Yes |
Yes |
Automatic Scandisk
on boot |
In situations
where the PC was not shut down normally, Scandisk
will automatically run at the next reboot in
order to check for damaged files. |
Yes |
No |
Online Services Folder |
Client software for America
Online 3.0, CompuServe 3.0, CompuServe WOW!, and
AT&T Worldnet. |
Yes |
No |
© 1996 Microsoft Corporation
Microsoft, MS-DOS, Windows, Windows NT and Win32 are
registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation.
Other product and company names mentioned herin may be
the trademarks of their respective owners.
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