What is the 'Designed for Windows 95' Logo?
|
| The Designed for Windows 95 Logo is the sign that products will work well with Windows 95 and that they take advantage of Windows 95 features. Customers should look for this Logo when purchasing new software or hardware for use with Windows 95.
|
Why should customers look for the Logo?
|
| Products which have received the Logo have gone through a rigorous series of tests to determine whether or not they meet logo criteria. The criteria for passing the tests and becoming eligible for the Logo license were derived from user studies. In these studies, we determined what users wanted to be able to expect in their hardware and software. The resulting criteria for hardware and software are listed below:
|
Hardware Products
|
- For hardware products, including PC systems and subsystems, the baseline criteria include supporting Plug and Play in Windows 95 and having 32-bit device drivers. Additionally, for each functional area within hardware products, there are additional Logo criteria. Historically, installing new hardware devices has required substantial technical expertise to configure and load hardware and software. Plug and Play in Windows 95 provides a mechanism for all this configuration to happen automatically. Computers, add-on boards and peripheral devices supporting Plug and Play bring true ease of use to customers of Windows 95. The Logo is an easy-to-remember way to identify products which incorporate the Plug and Play benefits of the Windows 95 operating system.
|
Software Products.
|
- Software products must be 32-bit Windows-based applications, providing better multitasking and application robustness. Applications with the Windows 95 Logo will also feature the enhanced user interface of Windows 95, test on Windows NT, provide support for long filenames, automated installation, and uninstall capability. Many applications, especially typical productivity applications, will also support OLE component technology, providing better cross-application interoperability and efficiency through features such as OLE Drag and Drop.
|
What's the difference between products which have the 'Designed for Windows 95' Logo and products with the 'Windows Compatible' Logo?
|
| The Windows Compatible Logo was used for those 16-bit products which ran on Windows 3.1. The Designed for Windows 95 Logo is used for products which take advantages of the Windows 95 features listed in the previous questions and have passed our Windows 95 Logo testing. Application vendors can not "roll over" their existing compatible Logo to the Designed for Windows 95 Logo. They must pass the Logo tests just like everyone else.
|
But what about people referring to products as "compatible" with Windows 95? What does that mean compared with 'Designed for Windows 95'?
|
| We're aware that most customers have Win 3.1 and MS-DOS applications and/or existing non-Plug and Play pieces of hardware which do not have the Designed for Windows 95 Logo. Therefore, we tested thousands of existing products on Windows 95 that were not Designed for Windows 95. The list of products we've tested for compatibility with Windows 95 is up on the Windows 95 web page - www.microsoft.com/windows/thirdparty.htm. Not all of these products have the old "Windows Compatible" Logo for Win 3.1. However, they have all been tested and work with Windows 95.
|
What about this term "Runs Best on Windows 95" for products that also run on Windows 3.1?
|
- Some products are able to have a certain amount of functionality on Windows 3.1 but have a majority of 32-bit code and contain incremental functionality when run on Windows 95. Other products have both a 16-bit and a 32-bit engine to run the application and automatically detect which one you need during installation.
|
- Some of these products have the Logo - in which case they've passed the testing requirements for the Designed for Windows 95 Logo, and some don't. We only guarantee the 32-bit functionality and other Logo features for those products with the Designed for Windows 95 Logo.
|
What about those products which say they are 32-bit and are compatible with Windows 95 or that they run on Windows 95 but don't have the 'Designed for Windows 95' Logo?
|
| These vendors may have products which take advantage of the features within Windows 95 32-bit architecture, however, they do not have the Logo and have not been tested to make sure they comply with the Logo requirements.
|
Who has the Logo?
|
| As of Nov. 29, over 750 products (software and hardware) have passed Logo testing and received the Designed for Windows 95 Logo. For the list of these vendors, please check our web site: www.microsoft.com/windows/thirdparty.htm. Since new products are continually passing testing, we continually update the list of Logo'd vendors there.
|
What about NT? Do products that are 'Designed for Windows 95' run on NT?
|
| Part of the Logo requirements are that a product be tested on Windows NT. However, a handful of APIs are supported on one platform that are not available in the other. An example of products and APIS are: games using DirectX and utilities using TAPI. The bottom line is that the product must run successfully on both Windows 95 and Windows NT unless architectural differences between the 2 operating systems prevents it. If this is the case, the vendor must clearly state, during the installation process, that their product should not be installed on Windows NT or, if the product contains functionality specific to Windows 95 but the rest of it works fine on Windows NT, the product needs to degrade gracefully. Additionally, while products may pass testing on Windows NT, it is up to the vendors themselves whether they will support their product(s) on Windows NT. In any case, if a customer's requirements for a product include NT support, he/she should check on the box or with the vendors themselves.
|
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/thirdparty/logoinfo.htm (PC Press Internet CD, 03/1996)