Sidebar to 1 March MM

The history log of that excursion to the MS website was messy, to say the least. And in fact, it comprises two parts:

I had to switch to IE when Opera started showing blank frames -- not surprising when the pages used ActiveX for navigation controls. Anyway, most of this was a frustrating waste of time, clearly because MS does not trust users to themselves decide what it is they want to update on their system.

> Return to Daynotes Wednesday 1 March.

The Opera history, commented:

17:32:31
Directory Listing Denied
This was the original URL to the DCOM file supplied by the perl installer, minus the filename that generated the first 404 (not listed in history for some reason).
17:32:40
http://www.microsoft.com/com/dcom/default.asp
Another, index file alternative.
17:32:44
http://www.microsoft.com/com/404.htm?
404;http://www.microsoft.com/com/dcom/default.asp
MS error URL to trigger on-the-fly page.
17:32:45
Microsoft COM File Not Found
Actual error page generated by the asp.
17:33:41
Microsoft DCOM95 for Windows 95, version 1.3 - Release Notes, EULA, and Download
Reached from MS root and link. Root page and Download Center entries further down because they were revisited a few times.
17:34:07
Microsoft DCOM95 for Windows 95, version 1.3 Download
Now we're getting somewhere...
17:34:34
http://download.microsoft.com/msdownload/
dcom/95/x86/en/dcom95.exe
This link was supposed to start the download. But it is in the US version directory. Oh well, how language-specific can DCOM components be? I should be able to run this even in Swedish Win95.
17:34:37
Microsoft DCOM95 for Windows 95, version 1.3 Download
Hmm, back to previous page. What's up? Luckily Opera has a transfer window, and this shows that something is coming down the pipe. Meanwhile, I decided to continue looking for a Swedish version, just in case.
17:35:01
ActiveX Controls - Microsoft Papers, Presentations, Web Sites, and Books, for ActiveX Controls
Checking up info -- seeing as I'm here anyways.
17:35:41
Microsoft COM Downloads and CD-ROMs
Yeah, well, I guess I have to try an alternative route...
17:36:38
Welcome to Microsoft's Homepage
...so back to top.
17:37:03
Microsoft Download Center
17:39:34
Microsoft Download Center
The framed site was showing me different listings. Here I found a link to International and ultimately the Swedish versions.
17:39:48
Plats för hämtning
Supposedly, this was a page that linked to the download list for updates to Swedish Win95.
17:41:17
Microsoft Windows Update
Here I had to start using IE in order to navigate the site, because this page showed as empty frames. See separate history below.
...
17:52:20
Plats för hämtning
Now I was chasing any update/SR files to my release OSR2 - 001 (the original OEM install had been subversion 003). Basically, if I could find something like an NT SP that would bring up my current Win95 to what I had bought with the machine.
17:53:50
Microsoft Download Center
17:54:06
Plats för hämtning
Looking...
17:54:18
Plats för hämtning
17:54:33
Plats för hämtning
Why are only NT4 updates shown?
17:55:09
Plats för hämtning
Swedish page, but it's showing me US-version NT4 update selections. WTF?
17:55:27
Plats för hämtning
At this point I concluded that the MS site really badly wanted to filter all my requests to only show me product updates for the system I was running at the moment, NT4-US, and generic or Office app updates. It didn't care in the least about what I wanted.
17:55:51
FAST Search: All the Web, All the Time
And now for something completely different.
17:56:07
FAST Search: All the Web, All the Time
Well, this got me a few specific (and as it turned out still working) links to Win95 update files, which did not go via the automatic filters and ActiveX pages.
17:56:43
http://www.microsoft.com/windows95/
downloads/contents/wurecommended/
s_wufeatured/win95y2k/y2k_intl.asp
Not interesting, really.
18:00:14
Windows 95: Download-Windows Update : [Windows 95, updates, updating, downloads, service packs, communications, networking, power toys, kernel toys, previews, administrative tools, deployment tools, management tools, networking tools]
This looked promising... the first real list I had found -- Please note, this is the actual page title, I kid you not.
18:02:45
Windows 95 OEM SR2 Update for Proper Plug and Play Operation with Multifunction CardBus Cards : [Windows 95 OEM SR2]
I may have to try this one eventually, but unfortunately, it is not what I was looking for just now. Here they speak of revisions A B C. This is for B only. My original OEM was B (003) but so is the current one (001). I think this is a valid update, but it seems very limited in the fixes it does.
18:05:46
Windows 95 Service Pack 1 : [Microsoft, Windows 95, downloads, download, updates, update, Service Pack 1, system administration tools, Windows 95 drivers]
This was not what I needed, since it updates only the A version, not the OSR one.
18:07:18
Windows 95 Backup Update : [Microsoft, Windows 95, downloads, download, updates, update, backup]
Feh! Meanwhile, the download of DCOM (IE) proceeded with fits and bits to final successful conclusion.

The IE history, commented:

17:41
Microsoft Windows Update
This was the same blank page URL I took from Opera. In IE a lot of things suddenly happen automagically, without any update to the IE window. After some significant harddisk activity, I get a scary alert telling me that I should allow the update to proceed. At this point I get real worried that the damn site is going to try and update my NT4 system, which was not the object of this exercise. Some significant trundling and delays later, while I watch the Bytes In and Out stats like a hawk, I see that a list is being generated for the IE window. Most of the following history entries have to do with this list and the ActiveX controls for navigating.
17:41
http://windowsupdate.microsoft.com/blank.htm
17:42
http://windowsupdate.microsoft.com/
R368a/V31Site/x86/nt4/en/Ie5/Control.htm?reason=
17:42
http://windowsupdate.microsoft.com/
R368a/V31Site/x86/nt4/en/Ie5/HNav.htm?
Control.htm?reason=&FrmContent&&
17:42
http://windowsupdate.microsoft.com/
R368a/V31Site/x86/nt4/en/Ie5/Navigator.htm
17:42
http://windowsupdate.microsoft.com/
R368a/V31Site/x86/nt4/en/Ie5/HNav.htm?S000
17:42
http://windowsupdate.microsoft.com/
R368a/V31Site/x86/nt4/en/Ie5/Home.htm
17:42
http://windowsupdate.microsoft.com/
R368a/V31Site/x86/nt4/en/Ie5/Toolbar.htm
17:44
http://windowsupdate.microsoft.com/
R368a/V31Site/x86/nt4/en/Ie5/engine.htm
17:44
http://windowsupdate.microsoft.com/
R368a/V31Site/x86/nt4/en/Ie5/HNav.htm?S001U000
17:44
Checking Available Updates
How about that, it only took 3 minutes! Now the update engine is actually updating the entries in that list. And wouldn't you know it, the content is determined by the system the browser is running on -- i.e. NT4 US files and generic updates only. No matter that I came here originally via the International>Swedish version links.
17:44
http://windowsupdate.microsoft.com/
R368a/V31Site/x86/nt4/en/Ie5/catalogTop.htm
17:44
http://windowsupdate.microsoft.com/
R368a/V31Site/x86/nt4/en/Ie5/pumain.htm
17:45
http://windowsupdate.microsoft.com/
R368a/V31Site/x86/nt4/en/Ie5/catalog.htm
17:51
http://windowsupdate.microsoft.com/
R368a/V31Site/x86/nt4/en/Ie5/basket.htm
17:51
http://windowsupdate.microsoft.com/
R368a/V31Site/x86/nt4/en/Ie5/HNav.htm?
basket.htm&FrmContent&GblConfirmSync&PuConfirm
That was 10 minutes totally wasted. All the stupid site wants to do is show me NT4 updates, US version, and the selection in IE was even less flexible than previous pages in Opera.
After this it was back to Opera at 17:52.

> Return to Daynotes Wednesday 1 March.