Several Win 95 Questions

[LoneCrusader]

That is a real breakthrough!  Congratulations!    I don't mess with any storage devices on this computer except the hard drive so I'll probably wait till I have to reload 95 sometime to put it in.  I don't want to risk opening that can of worms atm! I think I'll do the next best thing and stock up on some new ps2 mice (I hope they are still making them) cause this old dell mouse is pretty bad.   

I put a file with this in it on my Win7 desktop to remind me.  Thx LC!    Didn't MS add some kind of USB support to the later version of Win95?  What USB devices did that enable?

Microsoft issued basic USB Controller driver support for 95 OSR2. The package also included some files for using USB cameras, but no other USB devices were supported by Microsoft at that time. There were a handful of USB devices that did work with Windows 95, but each had to provide their own driver stack rather than having a generic stack built into the OS (such as USB storage, USB-HID, USB printers/scanners) as began with 2K/ME/XP. Specific USB devices that do work with 95 and had their own drivers are extremely scarce; most manufacturers couldn't be bothered to create WDM drivers for 95 since 98's WDM capability was so much more advanced. So, in all reality, unless you already had a specific USB device with a driver designed for use with 95 you gained nothing from the Microsoft USBSUPP package.

The XUSBSUPP package rloew and I put together combines the Microsoft USBSUPP update (and all of the later HotFixes that were issued to fix broken things in it) with a generic USB Storage driver stack, a safe unplug/eject utility, and a special driver to reset USB2 controllers into USB1 mode so they can be used under 95. This is virtually the extent of USB device capability under 95 without the specialized hybrid setups I mentioned before.

 

Well, MS Basic Mouse is robust and reliable, optical, has a scroll wheel and works both on USB and on the PS/2 port with a passive adapter (included), and is not EoL. Give its DataSheet a look. I have two of them working great for a long time already.

Side note - in order to be able to use a Scroll Wheel under 95 you must install IntelliPoint 3.1, 3.2, or 4.0, or a third-party mouse driver that supports the wheel. I recommend IntelliPoint 3.2 as 4.0 doesn't seem to add anything new for 95 and has silly requirements such as IE5 being installed, and, it calls home for updates without asking permission.

Edited December 11, 2014 by LoneCrusader

[Hoko]

Microsoft issued basic USB Controller driver support for 95 OSR2. The package also included some files for using USB cameras, but no other USB devices were supported by Microsoft at that time. There were a handful of USB devices that did work with Windows 95, but each had to provide their own driver stack rather than having a generic stack built into the OS (such as USB storage, USB-HID, USB printers/scanners) as began with 2K/ME/XP. Specific USB devices that do work with 95 and had their own drivers are extremely scarce; most manufacturers couldn't be bothered to create WDM drivers for 95 since 98's WDM capability was so much more advanced. So, in all reality, unless you already had a specific USB device with a driver designed for use with 95 you gained nothing from the Microsoft USBSUPP package.

The XUSBSUPP package rloew and I put together combines the Microsoft USBSUPP update (and all of the later HotFixes that were issued to fix broken things in it) with a generic USB Storage driver stack, a safe unplug/eject utility, and a special driver to reset USB2 controllers into USB1 mode so they can be used under 95. This is virtually the extent of USB device capability under 95 without the specialized hybrid setups I mentioned before.

 

Well, MS Basic Mouse is robust and reliable, optical, has a scroll wheel and works both on USB and on the PS/2 port with a passive adapter (included), and is not EoL. Give its DataSheet a look. I have two of them working great for a long time already.

Side note - in order to be able to use a Scroll Wheel under 95 you must install IntelliPoint 3.1, 3.2, or 4.0, or a third-party mouse driver that supports the wheel. I recommend IntelliPoint 3.2 as 4.0 doesn't seem to add anything new for 95 and has silly requirements such as IE5 being installed, and, it calls home for updates without asking permission.

 

Thx for that info LC