Microsoft WinNews Electronic Newsletter, Vol. 1, #2, September 8, 1994 **************************************** Today at 10 AM PDT, Microsoft announced the new name for Chicago. Chicago will be called Windows 95. The "Designed for Windows 95" logo program was also unveiled this morning. The press release for this announcement is at the end of this newsletter. This issue highlights corporate adoption of Windows 95. The recent set of technical bulletins from the Gartner Group highlighting corporate adoption strategies and costs associated with moving to Windows 95is a MUST READ if you are contemplating a large scale roll-out of Windows 95. We present highlights from those bulletins, as well as an overview of the Windows 95 Desktop Management Interfaces. What does it mean to be a "Designed for Windows 95" app? A short summary is included here, and more details are available on WinNews. It seems that there is no end to which people will go to proclaim their operating systems choice. If you are on our WinNews servers anytime in the near future, check out the file WINTAT.ZIP to see what one enthusiastic customer did. Look for a listing of other new files on WinNews later in this issue as well. Alec Saunders, Editor ************************************************************ GARTNER GROUP SAYS WINDOWS SHOPS SHOULD PLAN TO MIGRATE TO WINDOWS 95. Two new research reports from the Gartner Group highlight IS migration to Windows 95, and the real cost of ownership of Windows 95. In "GUI Operating System Migration: How Sticky Will It Be" the author presents a plan to minimize the cost of migration using Just-In-Time-Training (JITT) and automated installation and distribution. Gartner highlights that substantial cost reductions are possible with advanced planning and estimates that it is possible to reduce the cost of migration to just $205.99 per seat. In "Personal Computing Costs: A Chicago Model" Gartner estimates that a typical organization will pay back the cost of migrating to Windows 95 in three to six months. The author cites factors such as the Windows 95 Registry, Plug and Play, DMI and SNMP agents in estimating that Windows 95 asset management costs will be as much as 19% lower than Windows 3.x. Gartner also estimates technical support costs at 12% lower than Windows 3.x, and end user operations at 18% lower than Windows 3.x. To get copies of these reports, contact the Gartner Group at (203) 964-0096 (US) or 44 7 538 31122 (UK). ************************************************************ Windows 95 Desktop Management The largest cost associated with corporate PC ownership is not the cost of acquiring the hardware and software. Rather, it is the cost of ongoing maintenance, and management of these assets once they're in place. Windows 95 Desktop Management capabilities are an effective way to reduce that expense. The key to desktop management with Windows 95 is the registry. The desktop management components of the registry are two binary, hidden files, called SYSTEM.DAT and USER.DAT. As the names imply, these files separate the management of the PC into basically two areas: user-specific settings and system-specific settings. User Profiles allow roaming users to get their own PC system settings wherever they log in on the network. And multiple users who use the same machine get their own settings when they log on as well. Each user profile is stored in a hidden subdirectory on the PC, and maintained automatically by Windows 95. User profiles can also be stored on the network and automatically synched with the local profile at login time. System Policies, in contrast to user profiles, allow the system administrator to centrally mandate user and machine specific settings. For instance, particular users might be prevented from accessing the command line prompt, or the administrator might mandate that user level security be used on machines with sensitive data rather than share level security. Systems policies are editable using the Windows 95 System Policy Editor. Policies can be specified by user and/or machine, and default policies can be set so that the administrator need not supply policies explicitly for every user. Windows 95 also contains several admin tools which can be used by the system administrator either locally or remotely: * a systems performance monitor * a net-watcher applet to monitor peer sharing * a remote file system administration tool * an SNMP agent to allow SNMP consoles to monitor Chicago systems * a DMI (Desktop Management Interface) service layer More information on systems management using Windows 95 is available on WinNews in the Chi_MGMT.ZIP file. ************************************************************ So what is a "Designed for Windows 95" App? Microsoft has a Windows logo program that has evolved over time to keep in step with new technology. Applications meeting certain requirements can currently qualify to display the "Windows Compatible" mark on their product and in advertisements. The Windows Compatible logo is used to show not only a product's compatibility with Windows, but also to indicate that it has been developed specifically to take advantage of the Windows family of operating systems. When vendors use the Windows logo, they help make it easier for customers to spot and buy products developed and built for both the Windows and Windows NT operating systems. As you might expect, when a new version of Windows ships, a new logoing program is introduced. So what will qualify an application as "Designed for Windows 95"? To qualify for the new Windows logo an application must meet seven requirements. The first four requirements apply to all applications. 1. An application must be a Win32 executable. 2. An app needs UI/shell support, following the User Interface Design Guide. Among other things this means it must: * Use the Chicago "look," as described in the UI Design Guide 4.0. Using system-supplied common dialogs and controls is also highly recommended. * Use the right mouse button for context menus (and not use the right mouse button for anything else). This is recommended, but not required. * Follow Chicago application setup guidelines to make the app properly visible in the shell. At a minimum, this means that the application must use the registry, not add information to WIN.INI or SYSTEM.INI, and provide complete uninstall capability. 3. It must run successfully on Windows NT 3.5. If it uses Chicago-only application programming interfaces (APIs), the Chicago-only functionality must degrade gracefully on Windows NT 3.5. 4. It must use long filenames. The next three requirements apply to those applications that deal with files (those that provide Open and Close options on the File menu). For example, a multimedia title such as Microsoft Encarta or a game such as Microsoft Golf or Doom would not need to follow these three requirements. 5. It must support universal naming convention (UNC) path names. 6. It must have OLE 2.0 container and/or object support and OLE 2.0 drag-and-drop support. 7. It needs to support simple mail enabling. That is, it must include a Send or Send Mail command on the File menu. Additional files are available on this topic on WinNews. ************************************************************ WHATS NEW ON WINNEWS Microsoft maintains several archive sites in the online world with WINNEWS information. These sites have turned out to be one of our most popular resources, with over 200,000 files downloaded since we set them up earlier this year. The sites are: COMPUSERVE: GO WINNEWS AOL: keyword WINNEWS PRODIGY: jumpword WINNEWS GENIE: Windows RTC, WINNEWS file area FTP: ftp.microsoft.com/PerOpSys/WinNews New files on WINNEWS since the last newsletter: NewKeys.ZIP Documentation on the new Microsoft Natural Keyboard. This keyboard was specially designed to be used with Windows. CHLOGO.EXE Three self-extracting archive files giving CHTOWN.EXE lots of details on how to create apps which LOGO2.EXE meet the new Chicago logo requirements. WINTATT.ZIP Two photographs of an enthusiastic Windows customer. ************************************************************ For Release 10 a.m. PDT Sept. 8, 1994 Windows 95 Announced As Official Name For Microsoft Windows "Chicago" New Windows 95 Logo Program Represents Software, Peripherals and PCs Designed for Windows 95 REDMOND, Wash. -- Sept. 8, 1994 -- Microsoft Corporation today announced Windows(tm) 95 as the official name for the next major release of the Microsoft(r) Windows(tm) operating system, previously known by its code name, "Chicago." The name Windows 95 was chosen to make it easier for consumers to identify the most current version of Microsoft Windows. Windows 95 was designed for a wide range of users, from the novice to the expert, to help make everyday personal computing even easier than before. The name Windows 95 represents the broad scope of today's users of Windows and the new generation of software and hardware it enables. "We're seeing a new kind of consumer for personal computer products," said Doug Schutt, senior vice president at Price Costco. "No longer is it just the power user who shops for software, hardware or even multimedia CDs, but rather a variety of customers: families, kids, students and power users. Windows 95 will make it easier for our consumers to identify the most current version of Windows." "More than 60 million copies of Windows have been shipped to date," said Paul Maritz, senior vice president, systems and technology division at Microsoft. "From extensive research worldwide, we have found that most users find our existing version numbering confusing and can't identify the latest version of Windows. Our customers want products that simplify their everyday computing, and our goal is to have both the technology and the name meet that requirement." Windows 95, targeted for release in the first half of 1995, is designed to make PCs even easier to use while delivering more performance. Windows 95 is a fully integrated 32-bit operating system, replacing Windows 3.11, Windows(tm) for Workgroups 3.11 and the MS-DOS(r) operating system as the mainstream desktop operating system. Windows 95 supports features such as long file names and a revised user-interface design based on extensive customer usability studies. Windows 95 will run multiple applications faster, more effectively, and with greater safety than it can today. It is completely compatible with the products people use today and an even better platform for the next generation of applications, games, PCs and peripherals that Windows 95 enables. Windows 95 is targeted for users performing a variety of tasks, from customers who have home computers for running recreational and education applications to those who want to run business and productivity applications and those who want to work remotely from home. Windows 95 Logo Program Microsoft also officially announced today the Windows 95 logo program, including the new "Designed for Microsoft Windows 95" logo. The logo is intended to help users easily identify software, hardware and peripherals that exploit the rich capabilities of the new operating system. Examples of these new capabilities are Plug and Play and support for 32-bit applications. While the logo denotes products specifically designed for Windows 95, it is optional. Existing products for Windows or new products that are not designed specifically for Windows 95 can still be designated as "Windows compatible." "Much of the industry is working very hard and very creatively to develop products that are not just compatible with Windows but are designed for Windows 95," said Brad Chase, general manager of the personal systems division at Microsoft. "Our mission is to help users identify these great new products and understand these products will be a step beyond what they are familiar with today." "With the new Microsoft Windows 95 logo program, our customers will be able quickly and easily to identify hardware such as peripherals, and desktop PCs and mobile PCs that we've designed specifically for Windows 95," said Richard C. Watts, vice president and general manager of the personal information products group at Hewlett-Packard Company. "Our customers want products that are designed and tested for Windows 95." "The Windows 95 logo will signal to customers that our products take full advantage of Windows 95," said Bruce Brereton, vice president of development at the Novell applications group at WordPerfect Corporation. "We expect the logo to be an important way to emphasize our new products designed specifically for Windows 95." "We have been working with Microsoft throughout the design and development of our new series of ATAPI Interface CD-ROM drives that will display the Windows 95 logo," said Patty Kim, senior marketing manager of data storage products/CD-ROM at Sony. "Our goal is to drive cutting-edge technology through standards required to deliver Plug and Play solutions to the end-user market. Plug and Play ensures seamless integration of computer peripherals into AT(r) architectures, in addition to higher performance enabled by Windows 95." The new Windows 95 logo will represent a single, unified program that is intended to replace the current Windows logo programs. Licensing of the new logo is scheduled to begin at the end of 1994. Developers can obtain more information on the new logo program by contacting the Microsoft Developer Solutions phone and fax service at (206) 635-2222. Founded in 1975, Microsoft (NASDAQ "MSFT") is the worldwide leader in software for personal computers. The company offers a wide range of products and services for business and personal use, each designed with the mission of making it easier and more enjoyable for people to take advantage of the full power of personal computing every day. ######### Microsoft and MS-DOS are registered trademarks and Windows is a trademark of Microsoft Corporation. AT is a registered trademark of International Business Machines Corporation. ************************************************************ If you know someone who might be interested in WinNews, feel free to forward this document, provided you forward it in it's entirety, as per the copyright notice below. 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