Last November the good people at Microsoft Corp were confidently predicting that some 70% of all Windows shipments would be Windows for Workgroups. A year later and they admit that in the UK at least, retail shipments are running at around 30% and that the proportion in OEM sales is much much lower than that. With the launch of Windows for Workgroups 3.11 they are confidently predicting, that this will all change. This time they have got a point. For a start there is the centralised administration facility that enables corporates to turn off the peer-to-peer networking that many of them loathe so much. Second there is the fact that there will be no stand-alone Windows 3.11 – Workgroups is the only way forward. Users, be they networked or stand-alone will want to move from 3.1 to 3.11 for one reason if for no other – disk access (and network access) is claimed to be up to 50% to 150% faster, and today Windows users spend a lot of their lives waiting for the disk LED to go out. The stand-alone users will also find that Microsoft has included a simple way of turning the network support off – saving all the tedious fiddling that currently occurs when the software realises the personal computer lacks a network adaptor board. Unlike the previous version of Workgroups, then, it looks like a pretty good stand-alone product. For the network-connected there is the inclusion of Microsoft at Work facsimile software; proper support for Novell ODI drivers and improved support for TCP/IP, NetBEUI and DLC protocols. There is also Remote Access Services so that laptop users can dial into Windows NT or LAN Manager Servers, and, coming soon, an extra kit that will enable one Workgroups user to connect directly to another over a modem link – it was not finished in time for the release of the product proper. There is no support for modem sharing over the network, which was a persistent request and rumour during beta-testing. Starting with the improved disk access; Microsoft has built new 32-bit VFAT disk and file system drivers, and a new cache Vcache that replaces Smartdrive for hard disk buffering.
MS-DOS can be completely bypassed
VFAT means that MS-DOS can now be completely bypassed and disk access occurs entirely in protected mode. Network drivers are also implemented in high memory so they now take less than 5Kb of MS-DOS memory. Benchtests are dubious things, but in a demonstration, the time taken to launch the Excel spreadsheet was cut from 16 seconds to 10 seconds when the new drivers were turned on. This doesn’t match Microsoft’s published claim that loading applications is twice as fast, but is not to be sneezed at. Other claims are that read-write times are 50 to 150% faster than Windows 3.1; searching for files is up to four times faster and network access is 110% faster than Windows for Workgroups 3.1. One fly in the ointment is that the VFAT will not work with MS-DOS 6.0’s version of DoubleSpace disk compression – MS-DOS 6.2 is required, due for launch around the same time. The all important central administration comes in the separate resource pack and will enable supervisors to disable file and print sharing as well as configuring password controls on the remote machines. It is also possible to force a log-in to a Windows NT server, taking advantage of NT’s security software. The biggest functional change however is the inclusion of the facsimile software. Users with fax modems will be able send and receive faxes by using MAPI or XAPIA-compliant electronic mail packages. The real power of the system comes into play when there is another Microsoft at Work device at the other end of the line in this case editable files are sent alongside the fax image and, says Microsoft future Microsoft at Work fax machines will incorporate floppy disk drives to enable this functionality to be used between a PC and a fax machine, which sounds a little out of place in the networked office-of-the-future. Security is ensured by incorporating RSA public-key encryption into the faxed messages and attached files. Pricing has been simplified so
mewhat: the full package will cost $250 – $220 for 90 days. The street price in the UK is expected to be around UKP100. An upgrade from Windows 3.1 will cost $70 for the first 90 days and $100 thereafter. The expected introductory street price of this package is about $50 (UKP50). The products are scheduled to ship at the beginning of November. The final product to be announced in the UK is the Microsoft Workgroup add-on for straight MS-DOS. This turns an MS-DOS machine into a non-dedicated print or file server – it is expected to cost UKP50 and be available here shortly after the other products.
