Microsoft unveils additions for its Windows 95 software

Journal Record, The (Oklahoma City), Jul 25, 1997 by Mylene Mangalindan Bloomberg News

SEATTLE -- Microsoft unveiled some of the changes slated for the update to its Windows 95 operating system, which brings some of the attributes of World Wide Web navigation to the computer desktop.

At a half-day briefing for analysts and the media, executives of the No. 1 personal computer software maker said the update will officially be named Windows 98 and will be shipped in the first quarter of 1998. The product had originally been scheduled for release late this summer, although analysts expected it to be delayed until the December or early 1998.

The new operating system, code-named Memphis, is designed to help computer users be more productive, by adding new features to make basic tasks easier and allowing them to integrate graphics, text and information from the Internet into their programs. "Software isn't always as resilient as we'd like," said Jim Allchin, senior vice president of the personal and business systems group at Microsoft. "We're going to continue to expand in terms of making the (Windows) system simpler, more information rich and more resilient." Microsoft outlined a Windows strategy called "continuous reinvention," which is designed to help meet businesses and individuals' changing needs by developing improvements and features that simplify basic tasks, allow workgroups to share documents more efficiently and integrate new features with existing applications. "We are confident Windows 98 will be a better experience than Windows 95," said Paul Maritz, group vice president of the platform and applications group. Microsoft is very bullish on the personal computer industry, he said. More than 100 million units of its 32-bit Windows operating system are currently in use. The company expects those numbers to increase as more businesses replace computer terminals and look to improve their "digital nervous system," or computer network systems. The Redmond, Wash.-based software company demonstrated how its browser, Internet Explorer, will be integrated into the operating system. Computer users can reach their favorite Web sites by clicking on icons or typing in the Web address on their toolbar. They will be able to pull information automatically from Web sites, or channels, that they specified. Integration of the browser with the operating system is targeted at gaining market share from Netscape Communications, the Internet software leader in the browser market with 65 percent to 70 percent market share, analysts have said. All the shortcuts to the Internet are designed to be routed through Microsoft's Internet Explorer, even if the user ordinarily uses Netscape products. The company also demonstrated improvements that allow users to monitor activities. When users click on an icon, another screen pops up to show them the contents of the folder so they can view Internet pages, documents and files at the same time. Windows 98 will include Direct X, multimedia improvements that give users more realistic graphics and sharper images when playing video games or running video clips. Microsoft's theme of simplicity extends to its Office product, which is a suite of word processing, spreadsheet and database applications. Users will be able to share comments on common documents that a workgroup is revising. They'll be able to include comments in the document itself or view them as a whole in a separate document. The company also offers ways to sort e-mail so that the most urgent letters or those from specified users rise to the top of the list. Maritz took swipes at competitors Sun Microsystems and Oracle, downplaying the importance of Sun's Java programming language and Oracle's network computer concept. He called Java "largely a joke," saying it doesn't work well on all platforms and isn't as significant a phenomenon as people would like it to be. He also said network computers, stripped-down terminals with no storage space, are unlikely to replace personal computers because they are either expensive terminals running Windows applications or incompatible with Windows. The company will hold its annual meeting with financial analysts tomorrow, offering its strategy and projections for growth over the next year.