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95 Is Alive

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Windows 95 B
The orphaned OS

Also known as OSR2, Windows 95 B was never offered for retail sale but was provided to computer manufacturers for "OEM" installation in new computers.  It was never fully "supported" by MSFT, although there are references to it in the knowledge base and a set of Power Toys are on the download site that work in "OSR2" and Windows 98 only,  some of which are mentioned below.  Considered by some to be a pre-release of 98,  who knows how many computers are out there that never had this version of windows "fully" installed.  95B or OSR2 supports the FAT32 file format, Universal Serial Bus or USB and hard drive Direct Memory Access or DMA.   FAT32 when installed and DMA when enabled give a 95B machine a considerable performance boost.  95B will show as 4.00.950 B when you right click My Computer and click properties, or as 4.00.1111 if you go to a DOS window and type ver and hit enter.



Young folks, don't try anything on your Parents' computer without permission.

USB viewer Icon
Go get it
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View the USB devices on your computer with USB Device viewer
A nifty little tool from Microsoft. I also found this one at AXCEL216's web site.

USB Ready icon
Go get it
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Use USB Ready from Intel to check your USB status
Need to check your computer to see if USB is available and working.  USB Ready from Intel will do the job for you.  I found it the other day at AXCEL216's Web Site while "surfing" the net.

Deskmenu icon that shows in the System Tray
Go get it

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Desktop from the System Tray
If you had Quick Launch and had to reinstall windows and then installed a version of IE newer than 4.0, you've noticed that Quick Launch is no longer there.  This little utility is called Deskmenu and is part of the Power Toys package.  The Icon lives in the system tray and one click opens a list of desktop files and shortcuts, and one more click launches or opens them.  I like it better than Quick Launch.

QuickRes Icon that shows in the Sytem Tray
Go get it

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Verify monitor settings and open desktop properties from Systray
Another Power Toy goodie. Quickres places an icon in the system tray that allows you to click and verify your monitor settings and then click again and open desktop properties.  If you don't already have an upscale graphics adapter with this ability, this is a handy little tool.

FexiCd icon that will show in the System tray
Go get it

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FlexiCD
Part of the Power toys package, it places an icon in the system tray that when clicked on brings up a list of CD player options without having the CD Player panel open.  If the cat ever figures out how to use the mouse I'm toast.  But then if he knew it was called a mouse he'd probably try to kill it instead of the CD itself.

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Visit

FAT32 and FAT conversion
To tell if FAT32 is installed on your computer, double click my computer, right click the C: drive, click properties and it will tell you right under the drive label.  If FAT32 does not show then it's still in FAT16 format.  The tool to convert it is called cvt.exe and it has to be run in DOS from the C: drive.  You can find instructions and the necessary file by clicking Visit on the left. I have converted both of my 95B machines with no problems.

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Direct Memory Access or DMA
Enabling DMA for the hard drive allows some applications to exchange data between the memory and the hard drive without utilizing the CPU, leaving it free to run more CPU intensive applications.  It is enabled by right clicking My Computer, clicking Properties, Device Manager, clicking the plus sign by Disk Drives, clicking once on the hard drive listing, clicking properties, clicking the Settings tab on the panel that opens and checking the DMA box. Click OK to close, close device manger and the next time you start the computer it will be enabled.

Go get it

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Universal Serial Bus or USB
USB should show in Device Manager if  installed, or in Add/Remove programs.  If you have 95B and unused USB ports on your machine, the install files are on the CD in a folder named usb, inside a directory named other or click Go Get it  The setup/install file is named usbsupp.exe.  Don't let hardware manufacturers tell you that you need Windows 98 for USB because it's not always true.  You're looking at Windows 95B with USB right here.

The first person who can e-mail admin@95isalive.com with the names of the MediaPlayer Music Video demos on the Windows 95B companion disk will get their name or nickname placed here for as long as I own the site and/or it is up and running.
Jason got half of it right. He got "The Weezers" on Happy Days.
Emil Santos got them both right. The second one is "Good Times" by Edie Brickell and the New Bohemians

To be continued.....
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This page was last updated on January 02, 2018.