Since I wrote my last piece on the Control Panel all still seems to be well. Mind you I have not been sent another Beta (.463 is still current, as far as I'm aware). The many problems that .463 was meant to fix have not been achieved. I had two files that always failed to load in a file called Bootlog.Txt. Some of you may know that in Windows 3.1 you could force this to be made via DrWatson.Exe. When Windows 95 first installs, two hidden files are made called Bootlog.PRE and Bootlog.TXT. I am led to believe that Bootlog.PRE is a one off that happens while installation takes place.

You can force a new Bootlog.TXT to be made whenever you wish during - funnily enough - booting. I think that one of the files now loads, I say think because it tries on five occasions and loads on three. The other file tries twice and still fails. I can only run my CD-ROM via "MS-DOS Compatibility Mode" this is not as bad as it sounds as I would only be using Windows 95 for loading things from the CD-ROM at present. Later it could be a problem when trying to run video or graphics, so roll on the next Beta what am I'm saying. I have been told that documentation will be here any day now, - that was two weeks ago

I have been sent two books on Win 95. I shall no doubt be quoting from both at various times. "Introducing Microsoft Windows" was written by Brent Ethington and the Microsoft Windows 95 Team. It's published by Microsoft Press (ISBN 1-55615-860-2) at £11.95. It is 350 pages of what seems at first glance useful information, albeit from a very biased viewpoint. The other is a very different beast "Unauthorised Windows 95" by Andrew Schulman, this glories in the fact that Microsoft did not assist, and seems to criticise whenever possible - not necessarily a bad thing - as by seeing both sides of an argument can you only reach a judgement.

It is a far more technical publication aimed more at programmers. Published by IDG books at £28.99 (ISBN 1-56994-169-8) it is a far more weighty tome in more ways than one as it is over 600 pages long. Last time I dealt with the five icons in Control Panel that were more or less the same as those in Windows 3.1 (Fonts, Keyboard, Mouse, Printers, Regional Settings) not to outline the use of the other eleven.

"Add New Hardware" is very important for Plug And Play as you now can - in many cases - install the software before the hardware. If Windows 95 is struggling to identify the device you are able to give it a nudge or two from this point. "Install/Remove Programs" takes over from the Run Line as Windows 95 applications must be installed from here. As far as the remove part is concerned, I am led to believe that if you install a Windows 95 application then it can be uninstalled through here. I did install the Norton Utilities For 95 under build .437 and it was listed as uninstallable, however once I put build .463 on, it no longer lists Norton here so I have not been able to try this yet.

"Date-Time" is next, and even though there was a Date-Time icon in Windows 3.1 it consisted of only one small box to enable you to change them. Now it is vastly enlarged both in size and functionality. "Display" is a real biggie and for the first time, you can change the screen resolution and colour density from within Windows not having to reboot to see the results, "Settings" is one of the four sections; others are "appearance", "background" and "screen savers".

"Modems" makes theset-up and use far more friendly viaa "Wizard" than it was in 3.1. "Joystick" does the same via another "Wizard" as with Modems above.

"Network" I cannot comment on this as I am running stand alone but I have no doubt that the Wizard does his stuff.

"Passwords" Like Networks I cannot comment, but I'm sure the Wizard works his spells. "Sounds" This enables you to set up sounds for almost any event; this was available previously only via third party packages, along with animated icons that now appear.

"Multimedia" was an add-on to Windows 3.0 and included in Windows 3.1 but by no means a friendly part of the program - a bit like patting a Pit Bull Terrier - now you can setup different sound cards to do different things; a vastly improved section.

"System" this also has four Tabs and I have taken a couple of screen shots that should convey part of the work hidden beneath this icon. Lastly, for now some more quotes from the Windows 95 press conference that I mentioned last time. By the time you read this there will be 500,000 Beta copies of Windows 95 installed - that's more than most programs ever sell in their entire lifetime. Windows 95 is the new Games Platform! To explain that remark, Gillian Kent of Microsoft was saying that other non-PC platforms such as SEGA and Nintendo had been easier to write programs for than the PC.

Now with Windows 95's 32 bit architecture, even Microsoft will produce specific games for Windows 95 by Christmas this year, they still insist that 4 Megabytes will run Windows 95, and also that the August date stands - we shall see - at the time of writing this article, that date is only a matter of weeks away, and still things to be rectified.