Microsoft Office 95

Microsoft Office 95 (version 7.0), also known as Microsoft Office for Windows 95, was a major release of Microsoft Office released on August 24, 1995,[5] along with Windows 95. It was the successor to Office 4.3 and was the first 32-bit version of Microsoft Office. While designed specifically for Windows 95, it was compatible with Windows NT 3.51, Windows NT 4.0, and Windows 98. As it was 32-bit, it did not run on Windows 3.x or earlier versions of Windows. It was also not officially supported on Windows NT 3.1 or Windows NT 3.5.[3] Office 95 was succeeded by Office 97 on November 19, 1996. Support for Microsoft Office 95 ended on December 31, 2001, the same day as Windows 95.[6]

Microsoft Office 95
Clockwise from top-left: Word, Excel, Access and PowerPoint 95 on Windows NT 4.0, with the Office Shortcut Bar
Developer(s)Microsoft
Initial releaseAugust 24, 1995 (1995-08-24)[1]
Final release
7.0b[2]
Operating systemWindows NT 3.51, Windows 95,[3] Windows NT 4.0, Windows 98
PlatformIA-32
PredecessorMicrosoft Office 4.2
SuccessorMicrosoft Office 97
Standard(s)OLE 2.0[4]
TypeOffice suite
LicenseProprietary commercial software
Websitetechnet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc760145.aspx 

Features

Microsoft Office 95 included six applications: Word (a word processor), Excel (a spreadsheet), PowerPoint (a presentation program), Access (a database management system), Schedule+ (a time management app) and Binder (a program for binding the work of the mentioned apps together). The CD-ROM version also included Microsoft Bookshelf.

True to its namesake, this suite was designed specifically for Windows 95. Previously, Microsoft had released Office 4.2 for Windows NT for several architectures,[7] which included 32‑bit Word 6.0 for Windows NT and Excel 5.0 for Windows NT,[8] but PowerPoint 4.0 was 16‑bit. With Office for Windows 95, all components in the suite were 32-bit. All the Office 95 programs were OLE 2-enabled, meaning that they allowed interoperability between themselves, as well as all other applications that support this data interchange protocol. Binder used this protocol to bind OLE objects together.[4]

Office for Windows 95 moved the version number of its applications to 7.0 to match Word's version number. Other components also bore the same version numbers to show that they were contemporaries, although their predecessors were not version 6.0. The previous versions of components were Word 6.0, Excel 5.0, PowerPoint 4.0, Schedule+ 1.0 and Access 2.0. Binder was a new app at the time with no predecessor.

The Office 95 programs utilized a two-tone gradient in the title bar at the top of the window, gradually turning from black at the left side to dark blue at the right. At the time, this was unique to Office 95, no other program running under Windows 95 or Windows NT utilized gradient title bars. This feature was eventually incorporated into the shell of Windows 98 and later, which would allow customizable gradient colors and extend the feature to include dialog boxes as well.

Microsoft Excel contained an easter egg, a hidden Doom–like game called Hall of Tortured Souls crediting the application's writers.

Contemporaneous components

Several additional programs were marketed as "compatible with Microsoft Office 95":

Other contemporaneous Microsoft products were:

Editions
Computer icons of the components Microsoft Office 95 Pro: From left to right, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Access, Schedule+ and Binder

Office 95 was available in two versions. They contained the following applications:[10]

Comparison of Office 95 editions
Application Standard Edition Professional Edition
Word[11] Yes Yes
Excel[12] Yes Yes
PowerPoint[13] Yes Yes
Schedule+[14] Yes Yes
Binder[15] Yes Yes
Access[16] No Yes
Bookshelf[17] No On CD-ROM version only

Updates

Two updated versions, 7.0a[18] and 7.0b[2] were released to fix bugs in the applications, including a fix for a screen redraw problem in PowerPoint. The updates could be ordered from Microsoft Support. A downloadable update was released in 1999 to address issues related to the Year 2000 problem.[19]

Issues

Versions 3.0 and 3.5 of the Microsoft Jet database engine, used by Access for Windows 95 (Access 7.0) and the later released Access 97 respectively, had a critical issue which made these versions of Access unusable on a computer with more than 1 GB of memory.[20] While this problem was fixed for Jet 3.5/Access 97, it was never fixed for Jet 3.0 or Access 95.

System requirements

Microsoft Office 95 requires a 386DX or higher CPU, and either Windows 95 or Windows NT 3.51. It also requires 8 MB of RAM for typical use. Regarding hard disk space, compact installations require 28 MB, "typical" installations require 55 MB, and full installations require 88 MB.[3]

References
  1. "Microsoft Office 95 And Windows 95 Scheduled To Be Available Simultaneously". PR Newswire. Cision. July 10, 1995. Archived from the original on December 6, 2015. Retrieved August 21, 2019 – via The Free Dictionary.
  2. "OFF95: Summary List of Fixed Bugs in Microsoft Office Version 7.0b (Revision 1.3)". Support. Microsoft. July 18, 2007. Retrieved May 2, 2013.
  3. "Microsoft Office 95 (v. 7.0) - box pack - 1 user". CNET. CBS Interactive. Retrieved June 14, 2017.
  4. Solomon, Christine (1996). Developing applications with Microsoft Office 95. Redmond, WA: Microsoft Press. ISBN 9781556158988.
  5. Zisman, Alan (October 1995). "This Suite smells of success: MS Office 95 review of new features". Zisman.ca. Retrieved May 2, 2013.
  6. "Microsoft Office Products Support Lifecycle FAQ". Support. Microsoft. April 1, 2013. Retrieved May 30, 2014.
  7. "Microsoft readies supporting versions of Microsoft Excel and Word for Windows NT The PowerPC". Thefreelibrary.com. Farlex. PR Newswire. June 12, 1995. Retrieved May 2, 2013.
  8. "Microsoft announced Word 6.0 and Excel 5.0 for Windows NT Workstation". Thefreelibrary.com. Farlex. PR Newswire. September 19, 1994. Retrieved May 2, 2013.
  9. "Microsoft Announces Small Business Financial Manager". Stories. February 6, 1996. Retrieved July 29, 2020.
  10. Microsoft Press, Issue #3 1997, sales catalogue Part No. 098-69985
  11. Microsoft Word for Windows 95 - Step by step. ISBN 1-55615-828-9.
  12. Microsoft Excel for Windows 95 - Step by step. ISBN 1-55615-825-4.
  13. Microsoft PowerPoint for Windows 95 - Step by step. ISBN 1-55615-829-7.
  14. "TOC - 10 Minute Guide to Schedule+ for Windows 95". ssuet.edu.pk. June 21, 2002. Archived from the original on June 21, 2002. Retrieved June 9, 2013.
  15. "Description of Office Binder support with Office 2003 and Office XP products". Support. Microsoft. February 5, 2007. Retrieved June 14, 2013.
  16. Running Microsoft Access for Windows 95. ISBN 1-55615-886-6.
  17. Microsoft Bookshelf for Windows 95. Microsoft Press. August 1995. ISBN 978-1-57231-159-6.
  18. "List of Fixed Bugs in Word 7.0a for Windows 95 (Revision 1.1)". Microsoft Support. Microsoft. August 31, 2005. Archived from the original on October 24, 2012. Retrieved May 2, 2013.
  19. Luening, Erich (March 17, 1997). "Microsoft offers Y2K patch for Office 95". CNET. CBS Interactive. Retrieved May 2, 2013.
  20. ""Out of memory" error starting Microsoft Access". Support (5.1 ed.). Microsoft. January 19, 2007. Archived from the original on August 25, 2014. Retrieved June 18, 2019.
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