Many thought that Bill Gates would use his keynote at the Windows Hardware Engineering Conference (WinHEC) in San Francisco yesterday to elaborate on the Windows Terminal network computer he talked about at last week’s Software Development show. But instead he merely announced a zero-administration kit (ZAK) for Windows 95, following up a similar announcement for Windows NT 4.0 earlier this year (CI No 3,079). In his speech last week, Gates showed a graph charting the various operating systems, starting with Windows CE for handheld computers, moving through the mysterious Windows Terminal, on to Windows 95 and NT. The specification for such machines is expected soon (CI No 3,135). All Redmond will say is that product will be delivered early next year, along with NT 5.0. The kit sits on the server and enables network administrators to restrict users from installing applications themselves and configure their desktops remotely from the server. The kit is tacit admission by Microsoft that personal computers cost too much to run. It will be available for free download within 90 days from https://www.microsoft.com/windows/zak. Gates also promised three new draft specification for IEEE 1394-compliant devices; that is consumer electronic devices that work with PCs, including cameras, video recorders and the like. The company will also release common Win32 devices drivers for Windows 95 and NT for cameras, audio and game devices and Digital Video Disk (DVD) players. He also said the rest of the spec for its OnNow PC power management, that will enable PCs to be turned on instantly (CI No 3,128). Separately, Microsoft and Dow Jones have agreed to combine each others technology to target the financial services industry’s intranets, as part of Dow Jones’ expansion of its Markets unit. The pair will combine Microsoft Back Office products and consulting services with Dow Jones’ transactional and risk-management services for the fixed income, equities, foreign exchange, commodities and energy segment markets. They say the aim is to build systems based on open internet standards.
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