Microsoft
Windows 95 - Preinstall
Manual w/COA OEM
Microsoft Windows 95 - Preinstall Manual w/COA OEM
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Windows
95 was a big success for Microsoft, and I would say this
was for good reason: while certainly sharing many of the
flaws associated with other Microsoft operating systems,
Windows 95 was a significant improvement over Windows
3.x in virtually every way. However, Microsoft developed
a problem with the operating system as time went on,
specifically related to the file systems it supported.
As hard disks grew in size, they began to approach the maximum
size allowed by a FAT16 partition. This meant that
PC makers were forced to divide the drives in their new
systems into multiple partitions, which was extra work
and which some customers didn't like. People buying new
hard disks also had a similar problem. Since hard disks
were only going to keep getting bigger, Microsoft had to
do "something".
That "something" came in the
form of the FAT32
file system, which allows for much larger single
partitions than the older 16-bit version of FAT. FAT32
support was included in an updated version of Windows 95
that Microsoft released in 1996, along with some other
new features. In a move that was controversial at the
time, Microsoft decided to make these new operating
systems available only to OEMs (original equipment
manufacturers, in this case PC and PC component
makers)--no retail version was ever created. The new
version of Windows 95 was called "Windows 95 OEM
Service Release 2", which is usually abbreviated to
"Windows 95 OEM SR2" or "Windows 95
OSR2". It is also sometimes called "Windows
95B".
OSR2 was never sold to the public at
retail, so if you wanted to use the newer version with
FAT32 support you had to either buy a new PC,
motherboard or hard disk, or buy a "gray
market" copy from a retailer willing to break
Microsoft's rules (and doing this was quite popular in
1996 and 1997). Microsoft never really explained why
they refused to make FAT32 available to the unwashed
masses, but speculation is that they didn't want to
expend the energy involved in doing a full quality
assurance cycle to ensure that it would work with all
the hardware in use at the time. By restricting it to
OEMs and new systems, they didn't have to worry as much
about whether OSR2 would work with all older hardware
and software, and could even push some of the validation
effort onto the OEMs themselves.
Between 1996 and 1997, Microsoft
actually released three slightly different variants of
Windows 95 OSR2:
OEM SR2.0: This is
the first OSR2 version, also called "Windows
95B".
OEM SR2.1: This is
OSR2.0 with the addition of a patch to allow
(rudimentary) USB support within Windows 95. Also
called "Windows 95B".
OEM SR2.5: This
was produced at around the time that Microsoft
became obsessed with tying browsers into their
operating system. :^) It includes everything from
OSR2.1 and also Internet Explorer 4. This variant is
often called "Windows 95C".
*Note: All of these are identical,
except as noted, and they all support the FAT12,
FAT16, VFAT and FAT32 file systems.
Features/Specifications
Full OEM Version - Manual with
Integrated COA - No CD Included!!
Includes Product Key number
(blacked out in photo)
The Manual contains a licence for
Windows 95 but is not specific to a version
You may use this licence to cover
any installation from the original version to
OSR2.5
OEM: End-User must purchase with
qualifying hardware to have a valid licence with
this product!!
FAT32: As the name implies,
expands the limit to over four million clusters --
the limit that can be represented by a 32-bit
number. With this setup you can have a
partition as large as eight gigabytes and still have
clusters of only 4K. The partition size limit
is now two terabytes -- 2048 gigabytes!
Bus Mastering: OSR2.1 builds on
this by adding support for "bus mastering"
or "direct memory access," a technique
that newer IDE drives can use to transfer data while
placing a much lower burden on the processor.
Improved Virtual Memory: : OSR2.1
has improved handling of virtual memory, and also
fixes a bug that Windows 95 had which caused the
name and path caches to have the wrong sizes.
Display and Multimedia: OSR2.1 has
a wider variety of video card drivers, and a new
feature to let you set the refresh rate of your
video card if it allows Windows to control it;
something possible before only with some cards'
third-party drivers. This can be accessed from
the Display Properties screen by selecting Settings
and clicking the Advanced Properties button.
Normally you'll want to leave this in the
"Optimal" setting, but if you run
Windows-based games or view motion video files
changing it to "60 Hz" may improve
graphics performance. Support is also provided
for the OpenGL graphics enhancements, and a set of
3D screen savers is included to show off OpenGL's
capabilities.
Internet and Online Services:
Microsoft has been pushing its Internet Explorer
ever since Windows 95 first came out, so it's no
surprise that IE 3.0 is included as part of OSR2.
IE 3 has become a very close competitor to
Netscape's Navigator 3.0 as an all-round Internet
access program, and has some nice features that
Navigator doesn't have (such as the capability, with
an add-on you can download, to display foreign
character sets even on a U.S. version of Windows
95).
Windows Messaging: This is a
slightly refined version of the Microsoft Exchange
client, renamed to avoid confusion with the Exchange
Server program. It's been reworked to run
faster on systems with less memory, and includes an
Imaging application from Wang that works with
Windows Messaging's fax feature.
Product
Requirements
OEM: End-User must purchase with
qualifying hardware to have a valid licence with
this product!!
The Manual contains a licence for
Windows 95 but is not specific to a version
You may use this licence to cover
any installation from the original version to
OSR2.5
Some new compatibility issues
introduced with FAT32, if you were dual-booting NT,
DOS, or using pre-FAT32 low-level file system
utilities such as Norton DiskEdit etc. (FAT32
doesn't have to be used; it's an option)