Hi, I'm Stuart Chafee, host of the PBS television series, Computer Chronicles.
On this video, I'm going to help you understand Windows 95.
You've certainly heard about it.
Maybe you're trying to decide whether or not to buy Windows 95, or perhaps you've already
bought it, and you want some help in figuring out how to use it.
Well, you've come to the right place.
With the help of two Windows 95 experts from Microsoft, we are going to give you a simple
and easy-to-understand overview of what you can do with Windows 95.
Of course, we can't cover everything.
There is a lot in the new Windows 95, but we'll give you a good, basic introduction
to its new features.
We'll compare doing similar jobs under Windows 3.1 and Windows 95, then we'll show you some
examples of new applications like graphics programs and even games running under Windows
95.
First of all, a few basics.
There are several key differences in Windows 95.
It is what is called a 32-bit operating system.
Windows 3.1, which we have up here right now, is a 16-bit operating system.
That means with Windows 95, your computer can process twice as much information in the
same amount of time, 32 bits instead of 16 bits.
Windows 95 also lets you do something called multi-threading.
That means the operating system is clever enough to use your CPU, like your 486 chip,
or your Pentium processor, to do two or more things at once.
You'll see some good examples of that later on in this tape.
Windows 95 also features something called Plug and Play.
That means you can just plug in a new sound card or a CD-ROM drive or other add-on, and
if it supports Plug and Play standards, Windows 95 will automatically set up the new device
to make all the necessary adjustments in your operating system and your startup files.
Another nice new feature of Windows 95 is that it no longer limits you to using only
eight letters to describe a file name.
So instead of calling a document you created Letter, you can now store it as My Letter
to Aunt Josie, which I wrote on September 23rd about the new pups.
Finally, Windows 95 has a much improved interface with simpler commands and an easier way to
launch programs, find files, and keep track of what is going on inside your computer.
So let's get going.
Through a special arrangement with Microsoft, we have invited two of the Windows 95 experts
from Redmond, Washington to join us for this Windows 95 video.
So let's take you now to Microsoft headquarters for the first part of this tape, which will
be a head-to-head comparison between the old version of Windows 3.1 and the new version,
Windows 95.
Hi, I'm Deborah Sellis.
And I'm Bob Taniguchi.
And we're product managers from Microsoft here today to show you Windows 95.
We're really excited about Windows 95, so we'd like to give you a flavor for the product
and show you how Windows 95 can help make computing easier, more powerful, and more
fun.
That's right, Deb.
We've got a lot of great stuff to show you today.
What we're going to do is start out with a Windows 3.1 and a Windows 95 comparison.
And then we're going to show you how Windows 95 can make you more productive at your office.
And then finally we're going to show you how you can have more fun with your computer using
Windows 95, playing games, great multimedia support, as well as great online service support.
But first, why don't we start with our comparison, our Windows 3.1 and Windows 95 comparison.
Sounds good.
Well, I hear I'm running a copy of Windows 4 Groups 3.11.
And my program manager looks pretty familiar to me.
And if I want to start a program, all I need to do is double-click on an icon.
So I will go ahead to Quicken for Windows and double-click on it.
And it will go ahead and launch for me a copy of Quicken, which is made by Intuit, and launch
a copy of my financial calendar.
So I guess you didn't get that at the company store, Deb.
No, I had to return it.
Thanks.
Well, you'll notice that before I begin my part of the demo, we're actually running on
identical 46 8-meg systems.
The only difference is my system has been upgraded to Windows 95.
You'll notice that my desktop is a lot clearer, more simple.
We've done an extensive usability study of the Windows 95 desktop and found that, in
fact, the Windows 3.1 desktop was confusing and even intimidating for some new users.
So what I'm going to do is the identical thing, but I'm going to use the Start button on the
system taskbar.
The Start button is kind of the anchor to the new user interface.
I'll go to Programs.
I'll go to Quicken.
And notice this is just a conversion of the old Windows 3.1 group files over to a simple
menu hierarchy, and I'll start up Quicken for Windows.
And everything I've done to this point is accomplished through a single mouse click.
No double-clicking involved at all.
And there you go.
I've got the very same version of Quicken for Windows running on my system that Deb
does on hers.
Okay.
Well, one of the things that I really like about Windows 3.1 is that I can still run
my older MS-DOS-based applications.
So I'm going to go ahead and Alt-Tab back to the Program Manager so that I can launch
another application.
In this case, I'm going to double-click on the icon reading WordPerfect.
This is a copy of WordPerfect for MS-DOS, and of course, I can run my MS-DOS-based applications
here because I'm actually running a copy of DOS underneath Windows.
Well, you know, Deb, in Windows 95, we've really worked on our 16-bit application compatibility.
And in particular, we run things like MS-DOS applications better in most cases than Windows
3.1.
So I've got the same version of WordPerfect installed on my system.
And again, I'm going to go to the Start button and select it.
And I, for convenience, have it installed right here off of my program's menu and start
up WordPerfect for DOS.
One thing that you're going to notice is that when this starts up, I'm actually running
WordPerfect in a window.
And you'll notice that my WordPerfect window even includes a toolbar that allows me to
do things like to change the font using our TrueType font.
So I can actually dynamically scale even my MS-DOS windows under Windows 95.
One last thing, Deb, that Alt-Tab stuff is not very intuitive.
You'll notice that the system taskbar has a button open for each application that I'm
running on my system.
So if I want to switch between WordPerfect for DOS and Quicken for Windows, I just point
and click, just like changing the channels on the television.
Very simple to use.
Okay.
Well, I guess I'm getting convinced that Windows 95's user interface is pretty easy to discover.
But what about those things that aren't so easy to discover?
When I run into trouble with Windows 3.1, I can always head to help in the program manager.
So for example, if I switch back to the program manager, let's say I wanted to do something
like change the clicking speed of my mouse.
All I need to do is pull down the help menu and type in what I'm looking for.
So in this case, I will type in the word mouse.
And I actually don't have a choice for that.
So let's try clicking instead and see if I, hmm, I don't have anything about mouse double
clicking.
But you know, you get the idea.
If I don't know how to do something in Windows 3.1, I can just look for help.
Well, you know, Deb, under Windows 3.1, help wasn't very helpful.
We've actually focused a great deal of time and energy making sure our help system is
much more usable.
So again, I'm going to go back to my start button.
And you'll notice that I have a help menu item right there.
And I'll pull up help for Windows 95.
And again, you notice that I have several tabs.
I'm going to go to the index.
And what were we looking for?
Mouse?
Mouse double click speed.
Okay, I'll type in mouse.
And you'll notice about the middle of the screen, I have double click speed adjusting.
So I'll click on that topic.
And you notice another immediate difference between Windows 95 help and Windows 3.1 help.
It's much more concise.
In fact, it's only two steps to change the double click speed.
So what I'm going to do is click here on this little button.
And it takes me directly to the control panel applet for the mouse.
So unlike Windows 3.1 where you had about 10 steps and you essentially couldn't print
it, you had to write it down on a yellow sticky pad.
This actually directs you to the actual thing that you're trying to do.
And I'm going to just change the slider on my double click speed.
And I have a handy little test area.
Double click on that and that looks good.
So in two steps, I've been able to accomplish what it is that actually isn't even documented
under Windows 3.1 help.
So Windows 95 help is a lot more task oriented.
It brings you right to the place that you want to go in terms of adjusting your system.
Well that's right Deb.
Bob, I noticed a few other things on the start menu as you were launching Quicken and Word
Perfect that I really don't have any comparison for in Windows 3.1.
Can you give us a little demo of what those things are?
That's right Deb.
In Windows 95, we've basically put all the functionality that you had in Windows 3.1
all in one place right off of the start button.
So let's take a look.
We've already looked at the programs menus.
Here in the document cache, we have immediate access to the spreadsheets, word processor
documents or even video clips that you've been working on recently.
Also under settings, this gives you direct access to the control panel as well as configuration
of your printers or even customizing your system task bar.
And finally, there's a find command that's been enhanced over Windows 3.1.
We can search for files and folders on your local computer.
We can search for items out on your corporate network or even out on the Microsoft network
MSN.
So let's take a look at this briefly.
You remember in the file manager under Windows 3.1, you could find things but only off of
the file name.
We've actually enhanced this capability in Windows 95 and let you search based off of
the contents of a document, not just the file name.
So I'm going to look for World Tour.
And this is a presentation that I've been working on.
And it's searching my hard disk right now and you notice that it found my document.
And that means that the words World Tour actually contained within this Word document that I've
been working on.
There's a couple of other things, Deb.
You notice that on my desktop I have two icons, my computer and the network neighborhood.
My computer is basically everything that's on my computer.
It has my floppy disk, my hard disk, as well as my CD-ROM drive, my control panel and access
to configuring my printers.
Let's take a look briefly at my hard disk.
And by double clicking now, I can browse my way through my hard disk.
And again, folders that you see here are nothing more than directories on your hard disk.
I'm going to look at my personal folder and we'll take a look briefly at a spreadsheet
that I've been working on, this morgval.xls.
What is that?
That's a pretty intuitive file name.
That's right.
Well, you know, back in the old days, I was limited to 8.3 file names and I actually created
this before I upgraded my system to Windows 95.
In Windows 95, we support long file names up to 250 characters in length.
So what I'm going to do is actually type in a more meaningful name.
So the real reason I go to work in the morning.
And you can give things much more expressive and much more direct file names, again, limited
to 255 characters, upper, lower cases and spaces.
So there's one example of an enhancement that's built into Windows 95 that makes using your
files a lot easier.
One other thing, Deb, that you'll notice is on the desktop is an icon called the network
neighborhood.
Let me double click on that and you'll notice that it brings up everything that's on our
little corporate network here or our demo network on stage.
You'll notice that all the icons look identical.
So this is a change from Windows 3.1 where every network server that you connected up
to the interface on Windows 3.1 was different.
So if I wanted to check out the NT server, all I would do now is point and click and
I would be able to browse the contents of the NT server.
But Bob, I'm actually pretty comfortable with file manager.
Has Windows 95 taken away my file manager?
Well there's actually some good news, Deb.
If you're really hooked on the Windows 3.1 file manager, we actually shipped that with
Windows 95.
However, we've got a version of the file manager that's been enhanced called the Windows Explorer.
Let me go to that quickly.
The Windows Explorer is actually an enhancement of the file manager in some meaningful ways.
First of all, you can see everything that's on your computer as well as stuff out on your
corporate network.
But what I'm going to do now is just quickly take a look and browse my hard disk.
So you notice it looks like an outline.
I can expand and get more and more context by browsing on the left pane which brings
up on the right pane the corresponding contents of that folder.
What I'm going to do now is drag and drop a folder to my desktop.
And you know, I really didn't mean to do that.
I actually have moved it from that location on my hard disk out to my desktop.
So what I'm going to do is take advantage of a new feature built into the Explorer that
allows me to undo.
In fact, we have undue capability of the last few file system commands that you've implemented.
What I actually meant to do was use the right mouse button and I'm going to drag and drop
to the desktop and a context menu pops up and I have the options to move it here, to
copy it here, or to create a shortcut here.
That's what I'm going to do is create a shortcut.
Now, Deb, a shortcut is really a pointer to a file, a reference to it, not an actual copy
of the file.
So any action that I would double click, for example, on the folder, I can just do the
shortcut and the same thing would happen.
So let's do that.
I'm going to double click on the folder and you'll notice that I have two video clips contained
within the folder.
What I'm going to do now is use the right mouse button again and we'll take a look at
the properties.
Now, the properties give me some more information about that particular file and in this case
you can see that the type is a video clip.
The name is bellwhistle.avi and I'm going to take a look at it in a little more detail
on this particular file.
We'll go to the subject matter and you'll notice that this actually, the clip originally
came from a CD-ROM called CyberVisions by Tri-Digital Software.
So one other thing I have is a preview tab.
This allows me to actually take a look at the video clip before I actually go into the
media player.
Let's quickly do that.
I'm going to double click on the folder and you'll notice that I have two video clips
in there.
So it looks like the right mouse button gives you a lot of access to system shortcuts.
What else can you do with it?
Well, Deb, basically every visual object in Windows 95 has right mouse button support.
Let me quickly go to my computer and you'll notice a different context menu pops up with
different options that are meaningful for my computer.
Let's go down quickly to the system taskbar status window and I'll click on the time.
You'll notice that this gives me direct access to adjust the date and time.
So for example, if I needed to change the date or modify the time, I could do it right
here or if I'm switching time zones, let's say this is my notebook computer, I could
just pick it and let's go to Hawaii and you'll notice that it will adjust the time zone automatically
based off of your input here.
So it's a pretty complete support in terms of right mouse button support on the entire
user interface.
Well, Bob, I'm pretty convinced that Windows 95 is a big improvement over Windows 3.1 in
terms of usability and really gives the user a lot of flexibility in the way that they
want to access data and programs on their machine, but there's still a lot that I'm
attached to in Windows 3.1.
And one of those things is its ability to run MS-DOS-based games.
For example, if I go over to my computer, what I have is a copy of TIE Fighter, which
is an MS-DOS-based game, and I have it set up so that I can run TIE Fighter from Windows.
Hmm.
You know what?
This probably is not the configuration that I have set up to be able to run this MS-DOS-based
game, so I guess I can't actually do that.
Can you run MS-DOS-based games, Bob?
In Windows 95, we focused a great deal of attention making MS-DOS, and it turns out
MS-DOS-based games, to run better on Windows 95 than Windows 3.1.
And it just so happens, Deb, that I have TIE Fighter installed as well, so we'll go back
to the Start button, go to Programs, and we'll start up TIE Fighter.
Now, MS-DOS games are among the most challenging MS-DOS applications to actually run.
We focused a lot of attention on this in Windows 95, and MS-DOS games generally run much better
on Windows 95 than they did on Windows 3.1.
So it looks like everything is running okay here, Deb.
The TIE Fighters are flying into the city.
Well, one of the other problems that I've always had with Windows 3.1 is the out-of-system
resources error.
What has Windows 95 done for me to help me with that problem?
Well, we focused a lot of attention under Windows 95 to improve system resources, not
just for the 32-bit applications, but for 16-bit applications as well.
Instead of just talking about it, why don't we show you?
So what I'm going to do is, let's pick an application.
Why don't I start up 16-bit Excel?
And Deb, I think for purposes of comparison, why don't you start up Excel on your system
as well?
Okay.
So I think what we're going to do here is run multiple copies of Excel and see, kind
of like a drag race, and see who wins in terms of system resources.
Okay.
Let's do a quick comparison then and see how many system resources each of us has with
one copy of Excel open.
Okay.
So how are you doing, Deb?
I have 57% free, which is okay.
I have a copy of Quicken for Windows, WordPerfect for MS-DOS, and Excel for Windows Open.
So I'm doing okay.
What do you have?
Well, Windows 95 includes a new utility called the Resource Meter, and the Resource Meter
gives me a pretty in-depth look at system resources.
I'll double-click it.
And I have between 83% and 91% free right now, Deb.
Wow.
Well, let's keep going.
Let's each launch another copy of Excel.
Okay.
So I have two copies going.
I'm going to start another.
All right.
I'm on number three as well.
Okay.
Start another.
There's four.
Okay.
I'm right there with you.
And I'm going to go to number five.
Oh.
I hit an error.
Insufficient memory to run this application.
Quit one or more Windows applications and try again.
That's a familiar error.
And Bob, what do you say we open another copy of Excel or two on your machine just for fun?
Okay.
Sounds good, Deb.
So I'll start up, I guess, copy number six of Excel.
No problem.
Number seven.
No problem.
And you know what?
Just for fun, I think I'll open up one more app.
I'll open up a copy of PowerPoint.
And again, the 16-bit version of PowerPoint from Microsoft Office.
And so I have in total seven copies of Excel running.
I'm opening a copy of PowerPoint.
I also have our two MS-DOS based applications.
And let's take a look at system resources.
And I have between 66% and 72% free.
So you can see the dramatic improvement that Windows 95 offers in the area of system resources.
So far we've gotten to see what Windows 95 can do better than Windows 3.1.
Next our Microsoft experts, Bob and Deborah, are going to show you how to use the plug
and play features of Windows 95.
And they'll show you how you can easily access the Internet or other online services directly
from Windows 95.
We'll also give you a brief look at the Windows 95 homepage on the World Wide Web.
That's a good source of help for working with Windows 95.
Next we'll run some new applications under Windows 95, programs written especially to
take advantage of the power of the new Windows.
Then we'll explain something called OLE.
That is an acronym, O-L-E, standing for Object Linking and Embedding.
It's a very powerful tool that lets different programs on your computer communicate with
each other and share information on the same documents.
Finally we're going to tell you about an add-on product from Microsoft called Microsoft Plus.
You probably see this in the store next to the Windows 95 display.
Microsoft Plus adds some additional features to Windows 95.
This will help you decide whether you want to spend the extra money for Microsoft Plus.
So let's go back to Bob and Deb for the second half of our video guide to Windows 95.
So we've seen now a good comparison of Windows 3.1 versus Windows 95.
We've seen how Windows 95's intuitive user interface makes it real easy to navigate throughout
the system in a variety of different ways.
In this segment we're going to show you how Windows 95 can make you much more productive
at work.
First we're going to show you how even configuring your PC is going to be simple using plug and
play, the framework built into Windows 95.
Next we're going to show you how you can be more productive at work using 32-bit applications.
You can do more things at once with Windows 95.
And then finally we're going to show you how to take advantage of the built-in messaging
features in Windows 95, namely Microsoft Exchange.
Deb?
Well, for starters, I've moved over to another machine now.
I'm on a 16-megabyte Pentium running Windows 95, and the first thing I'm going to do is
configure my system and set up a printer and a CD-ROM drive.
So I'm going to head down to my start menu and look at printer settings, and you'll be
able to see that I don't actually have a printer installed.
Notice this empty section here in the dialog box.
Bob has a printer shared out on his machine, so what I'm going to do is go over to the
network neighborhood, open that up, and as I click on the icon for Bob's machine, we
can see that he has an HP LaserJet 5 shared out.
Now due to the plug and play capabilities of this particular printer, I can drag the
icon from Bob's machine into my printer's folder, and it will automatically begin to
set up.
So what it's actually going to do is go out to Bob's machine and copy the correct drivers
onto my own machine, and the way it does that is through this add printer wizard.
All I need to do is answer the simple questions.
Yes, I want it as the default, and it will lead me through the correct installation of
the printer.
So you'll see now that it's going to print me a test page so we can watch what happens,
and in a few moments behind me, the page will print.
The next thing I'm going to do is install a CD-ROM drive.
I want to show you first that I do not have a CD-ROM drive installed.
I have one sitting here on my desktop, but it is actually not connected to my computer,
and the way you can tell that is in my computer, there is an empty space where in a few moments
we'll see the D drive.
So I will go ahead and shut down the machine so that I don't electrocute myself, and then
we'll go ahead and plug in the SCSI card and CD-ROM drive.
I'm going to go ahead and plug in this ADAPTEC SCSI card, and all I need to do is pop it
right into the slots, and then when we reboot, Windows 95 will automatically detect the addition
of this card and install the right drivers for it.
Now before I do boot, I'm going to go ahead and plug in the CD-ROM drive.
This is an NEC 3-spin drive, and I simply plug it into the card I have just inserted,
and then we'll throw the power switch and be all set.
So we'll turn the power on to the CD-ROM drive, and then power up the computer, and wait for
it to boot.
So now that I've powered up my machine, I'll go ahead and press OK to log in, and you'll
see here on the screen that Windows 95 has detected new hardware and is now installing
the proper support for it.
So it sees the ADAPTEC SCSI card, goes out and finds the right software, and loads it
so that I can have a hands-free installation.
Now you can see in my computer that where I used to have a blank spot, I now have a
D drive.
So now I can just double-click on my D drive, and you can see that I now have access to
the CD-ROM drive within, and we can even play a little video to show.
Yikes, well I can't bear to watch the train crash, so we'll have to stop it there.
OK, well we've now installed a printer and a CD-ROM drive using the plug-and-play capabilities
of Windows 95, and it was pretty painless.
The next thing I want to show you is the multitasking capabilities of Windows 95.
In order to do that, I'm going to do something that a lot of us do when we get to work in
the morning.
I'll open up the email, and this launches Microsoft Exchange, which is the email client
that ships right within Windows 95.
Using Microsoft Exchange, I can retrieve mail over the network by CompuServe, America Online,
or really from any third-party mail service who supplied a MAPI driver.
So I'll go ahead and tell it to deliver my mail, and now it's going to go out and check
for mail both over the network and, as I mentioned, dial in to CompuServe, and you can see at
the bottom of the screen where it is actually going through the dialing right now.
At the same time, I'm going to go ahead and print a document, because with Windows 95's
multitasking ability, I don't have to wait for my email to download before I can remain
productive with other tasks.
So I'll go ahead and drag Print Me over to this printer.
This is using the point-and-print functionality in plug-and-play printers, so it's very easy
for me to do multiple things at the same time.
The printer automatically launches a copy of Word, which is the application that created
the file.
And you can see that it was printing at the same time that my mail came to me from CompuServe.
So let's see.
What do I have here?
Oh, it looks like Bill Gates wants to know if I'm free for lunch Wednesday, but I have
some other work to do, so I'll get to that later.
What I'm actually going to do is prepare a document to fax to Becky back at my office.
Becky Hall does not have email, so instead, because I have Microsoft Exchange, which can
use a fax driver to send faxes in addition to sending email, I can choose to send mail,
or in this case, a fax, to Becky Hall.
And if I select Properties, you can see that this is, in fact, a fax address.
So I'll say OK.
So what I'm working on faxing to Becky is a proposal for the expansion of my company,
Blue Sky Airlines.
So I'm going to go ahead and start working on that proposal.
To do that, I'm going to first clear my desktop by going down to the System Taskbar.
I right-click and choose Minimize All.
Now I've already started the proposal, and the parts that I haven't worked on yet is
the insertion of the logo into my document.
So I'm going to go over to my Start menu and launch a copy of Picture Publisher, which
is an application developed by Micrographics.
This is their version specially designed for Windows 95.
And this actually is a multi-threaded application.
So you can see that as I open up several copies of different images, they'll all load at the
same time, and you can watch their progress here in the Task Manager.
What I'm going to be retrieving from Picture Publisher is a portion of an image that they've
given me, and it's actually this image right here, the blue sky.
So I'll go ahead and cut a piece of the sky out, and then I'll select it and drag that
scrap, as we call it, over to the desktop.
The reason I can do that is Picture Publisher supports Olay, as well as the desktop of Windows
95 also supports Olay.
So I can drag and drop objects between Picture Publisher and the Windows 95 desktop.
So now I have this little scrap, and I will name it something easier to remember.
And we're going to use that scrap in just a moment.
Let me close out of Picture Publisher.
I'm going to go back to the Start menu, where I have a shortcut to my work folder.
And this is where I've stored the document that I've been working on to fax to Becky.
So I'll double-click on my work in progress to open it up.
This is actually a copy of Microsoft Word for Windows 95, the new version that's specially
designed for Windows 95.
It's a 32-bit version.
And I'm going to scroll down to the place in my proposal where I've left a note to add
the logo, and I'll just type over that.
Here is the picture you wanted.
And you'll see that my typing is not the best, but with the Spell It feature of Word for
Windows, it automatically identifies my misspelled words as I type them, which is a great time-saving
feature.
And now when I right-click on them, it actually suggests the correct spelling of the word
so I can quickly correct my problems.
Now I'm going to go ahead and drag my scrap of sky right into the document.
And once again, you'll see that because Word supports Olay, I can easily drag and drop
objects right into it.
Now scrolling down a little farther, I see that I was also planning to put a copy of
some figures that I've worked out about our business.
So I'm going to go ahead and minimize Word while I look for my Excel spreadsheet.
This is something that I was recently working on, so it's right here in my Documents cache.
It's the numbers of flights we expect to provide.
So I'm going to add information about this flight projections to my proposal.
And as I look at that, I actually see that my chart is pretty ugly.
So for starters, I'm going to go ahead and use the Answer Wizard feature of Office for
Windows 95.
This is a great feature because I can actually ask questions in plain English and then get
a response.
So if I ask it, how do I make my table look good, it actually gives me a whole sort of
choices about what might be the right thing.
So I think I'll choose Apply in Auto Format to Arrange, and then I'll follow the directions.
So it tells me to select the range that I want to format.
On the Format menu, click Auto Format, and then I can just pick one that I like.
That one looks good.
So I'll say OK.
Ah, that looks a lot better.
So now I'm going to go ahead and copy a portion of that chart right into my Word document.
And again, we get to use Olay to easily interoperate between applications, and I can drop my chart
right into my Word document.
So because of Olay technology, I can easily create a document with text, graphics, and
charts so that I have the most effective document possible.
Now I'm going to go ahead and close my applications, and I will save here.
Now the point of this document was to send off the proposal to Becky by fax so that she
could hopefully invest some money for us.
So we'll head down to the Start menu, once again open up the Work folder, and here's
my completed document.
Now I'm going to drag and hover my mouse over my mail message, or in this case my fax message,
and that way it opens the message so I can drop the document right into the mail message.
And once again, because Exchange supports Olay, I can easily drag and drop objects into
a mail message.
So now when I press the Send button, Exchange will detect that what I'm actually trying
to do is send a fax and launch up Microsoft Fax Services.
So now we'll be dialing, it'll render the image to a fax format, and fax the document
off to Becky.
Now we'll be heading over to watch Bob get on the road and show us a little bit about
Windows 95's mobile computing features.
Well thanks Deb.
With more and more of us working on the road, we've designed in mobile computer features
in Windows 95, makes it a lot easier for you to use your PC while you're on the road.
And what I'm going to show you today is one of them that allows me to continue to collaborate
with Deb on a project that we were working on at work before we started the show.
So you notice that on my screen I have a shortcut to a Work folder, this is actually on Deb's
machine.
So I'm going to double click on that and what it actually does, it knows that I'm not connected
to my corporate network right now, and it invokes our dial-up networking that's built
into Windows 95.
So I'm going to connect up and hook up to our dial-up, oh I forgot to put the modem
in.
So what I'm going to do is actually take my PCMC modem card and insert it into my PC.
This is another example of the plug and play support that's built into Windows 95.
Now if all goes well we'll hear a little tone, and we did.
So I'm going to try this again.
Now I'm going to push connect, it's going to dial the modem, and we'll be hooking up
to our computer on the other end.
The next thing that you're going to see is that after dialing the computer we're going
to actually verify the connection and then log me into the corporate network.
It's verifying my username and password, and now it's going to log me into the network.
So I'm connected up.
Now the next thing that you're going to see is, remember I double-clicked on the shortcut
to the folder on Dev's machine, and now it pops up on the screen and I can actually get
at the pieces of information that I needed to get at from Dev's system.
And there are a number of other mobile computing features in Windows 95, including deferred
routing, hot docking support, and tying into advanced power management features to keep
your battery running longer in your laptop computer.
Well in this section we're actually going to do a little bit of role playing and act
like different members of the household so you can see some of the different functionality
that you can take advantage of in Windows 95 in the home.
So for starters I'm going to act like the adult in the family, and the first thing I'm
going to do is customize my computer.
I'm actually running a different computer this time that has a lot of our home features
set up on it.
It's also a 16 megabyte Pentium system.
So what I'm going to do is first customize my desktop to look like something that I prefer.
So I'm going to open up Desktop Themes.
Now Themes is a feature of Microsoft Plus, which is an add-on product to Windows 95 that
helps your computer look better and helps you get connected.
So as far as looking better, we can make the desktop have a certain look to it.
And in this case, as the parent of the household, I'm going to choose a fairly sophisticated
theme.
I like Leonardo da Vinci.
So Plus is going to expand the image from my desktop wallpaper and also give me a set
of screen savers, mouse pointers, sounds, icons, all that fit with the Leonardo da Vinci theme.
You can even see that my mouse pointer turns into a Mona Lisa when it's waiting.
So it's pretty nifty.
Now I'm going to get onto the Internet.
And while Bob was talking, I actually dialed in.
So I'm now heading out to a web page on the Internet.
This is actually Microsoft's web page.
And more specifically, I think I will choose to visit the Windows 95 home site.
So I'll type into the address, www.windows.microsoft.com, and there we see the Windows 95 home page.
And I can look at all sorts of product information.
And I think I might want to take a look at that product overview a little bit later.
One of the great things about the Internet Explorer, which ships as part of Microsoft
Plus, is that I can drag a shortcut from the Internet onto my desktop so that even when
the Internet Explorer is closed, I can go directly to any home page that I choose.
Well now that I've had my fun on the Internet, I'm going to go ahead and disconnect and let
Bob show us a little bit about Kids Multimedia for Windows 95.
Well thanks, Deb.
Well as the kid in the family, what I'm going to do first of all is change the desktop to
something more of my liking.
So we'll go right away to the desktop themes, and we'll change it, I really like animals,
so I know there's a dangerous creatures theme, and I'm going to change to that.
And again, this is going to change the background bitmap, the mouse pointer, and the sounds
to something more to my liking.
So you'll see Mona Lisa go away, and in a moment she'll turn into a jellyfish.
There you go.
So as a kid, I like to play a lot of the new multimedia titles, and one that's actually
my favorite is Sammy Science House from Edmark Software.
I happen to have a CD right here, and I'm going to insert this into my CD-ROM drive.
This is another feature of Windows 95 called AutoPlay.
So I simply go to my PC, I insert it into my CD-ROM drive, and in a moment it'll come
up and play all by itself.
AutoPlay is a feature that makes using CD-ROM titles as simple as game cartridges in your
game console.
You'll notice that this is from Edmark Software, and Sammy is actually a title that lets kids
exercise some higher level thinking.
You'll also notice we can have some fun with Sammy, but what we're going to do today is
build a movie, and this gives kids an exercise in sequencing.
So we'll take a look, and you'll notice that it looks like we have a bird nest, and I'm
going to drag each of these panels into the appropriate slots in the film and build a
little movie.
I'm going to click on the little mouse, and we'll watch the little masterpiece of film
that we just created, and our little film plays.
So that's an example of what AutoPlay and some of the newer multimedia titles for Windows
95 are actually a powerful combination to make it a lot easier for kids to use the system
all on their own.
But for a moment now, I'm going to actually age and turn into the teenager in the family.
So the first thing I want to do is once again change the desktop themes to something more
of my liking.
So I'm going to change from my current Windows settings to, how about the 60s?
And you'll notice that my background bitmap changes, my sounds change, as well as my cursor
to something more to my liking.
There you go, and I think I'll just accept that.
We hope you enjoyed today's overview of Windows 95.
You can visit your local computer reseller or software dealer for a hands-on demonstration
of Windows 95.
In addition, for more information, we hope that you look at the online sources for Windows
95, and in particular, our revised homepage on the World Wide Web.
So there you have it.
Windows 95 is pretty cool.
It does take up a lot of hard drive space.
It will want a lot of RAM in your computer, and you do need a fast 486 at least to get
the most out of it.
If you have the hardware to support it, I think you'll find that Windows 95 is a big
improvement over any PC operating system you've seen before.
I know we've covered a lot of ground.
You might want to rewind this tape and watch some of the sections again, or follow up by
reading a book on Windows 95, checking out the various online services for Win95 help,
or watching Computer Chronicles on your local PBS station.
Thanks for watching.
Good luck with Windows 95.