Installing new software means ripping open the diskette envelope and plopping a diskette into the floppy drive and type a:setup. If that doesn't work you try a:install. If that doesn't work then you open the manual.
I'd like to suggest that this time you spend five minutes thinking about your Win95 installation before you start. The time will be really well spent. Before you start make sure that you have: a) a 486 or higher: b) 8MB of RAM or more: c) 40MB of available disk space. If you don't have all of the above, get ready for trouble. Set aside 40 minutes to an hour just to complete the installation: there are a lot of questions to answer and you'll want to take your time. It's quicker to do the installation once right than to try to redo it - especially when you've never done a Win95 installation before.
Now, Microsoft expects that most 16-bit device drivers will work with Win95. The key here is most. They also expect that most applications will run under Win95. If you have projects with tight timetables to, you should probably put off your installation until they're done. In any event, it's most definitely worth polling your application vendors to ascertain if all your mission-critical apps work under Win95.
You might want to consider purchasing two additional items. The first is the Microsoft Windows 95 Resource Kit. It contains quite a bit of useful information and a lot of propaganda, too. It's a comprehensive book-and-disk package that provides the most exhaustive source of technical information and tools about Windows 95 that you can buy, short of registering in Microsoft's Developer Program. It's useful whether you're a computer pro, advanced user or anyone who needs to become an expert on Windows 95. It costs about $50. I also recommend that you purchase MS Windows 95: Upgrade Step by Step, Microsoft Press, which is a great book to read before you install Win95 the first time. If you spend an hour or two reading this book before you start, you'll be very happy you did. It's a great book in that it will help you leverage your knowledge of Windows 3.1 to learn (and install) Windows 95. It costs about $25 and is available from any bookstore. (We carry the entire series of Step by Step books published by Microsoft Press in Software for Science because they are so helpful.)
The only way to really be sure if your apps work is to try running them. If you can install Win95 on a PC that isn't used often, you can test at your/their leisure. Chances are your network configuration will work fine with one important exception: If you use the Internet or TCP/IP, watch out. Win95 includes a new 32-bit protocol stack. Make sure it's compatible with your software. In our experience this can cause a lot of anguish if you don't make sure, first.
Win95 includes a neat uninstall feature that lets you change your mind and uninstall Win95 and go back to Win 3.1. If you have any doubts about whether or not your applications will work, select this feature during installation. It costs a little in disk space but it may save your "$".
© 1996 Scitech International, Inc. All rights reserved
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