Win95 Upgrades

New Patches for Windows 95

Hopefully by now you know about the Windows upgrade (Version 4.00.950a.). Microsoft never one to drag its heels has brought out some new patches.

Kernel32 Update (290K Zip file, published: Apr 11th, 1996)

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.

OLE32 Update (404K Zip file, published: Apr 24, 1996)

This fix is a later release to the OLE32 Update included in the Microsoft® Windows® 95 Service Pack 1. 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, Microsoft Excel, and Microsoft 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. 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.

Backup Update (439K Zip file, published: May 3, 1996)

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.