by Ed Ellers
                                               Technical Editor

   Almost six months after Windows 95 hit the market, Microsoft released its Service Pack 1, a collection of fixes and new and updated components and drivers. It's available from the Windows area of Microsoft's web site as well as on America Online, CompuServe, GEnie, The Microsoft Network and Prodigy.
   While some of these patches and components have been available for some time, Service Pack 1 brings them all together.
   The core is the Service Pack 1 Update. This includes fixes for known issues involving 32-bit OLE support (for applications like those in Microsoft Office for Windows 95 -- Word 7.0, Excel 7.0 and PowerPoint 7.0), a shell problem that could cause files copied to themselves to be lost, a fix for Windows 3.1 printer drivers used with Windows 95, a few fixes related to networking, one for the System Agent component in Microsoft Plus!, and one for ECP (Extended Capabilities Port) printer interfaces that can speed up printing on some recent printers that use bi-directional communication.
   You can download the update by itself and install it on any Windows 95 system; once it's in place you'll have Version 4.00.950a.
   Since then, Microsoft has also released a new version of Windows 95, but it is not downloadable nor available to normal people from Microsoft. If you buy a new computer, however, not only should this version be available, you should demand you get it from your OEM. OEM's are the only entities to which Microsoft has made this version available.
   (Go ahead and install it even if you don't have Plus! or any of the Microsoft Office applications yet; if you add those later the patched files will already be in place and won't be overwritten.) The Service Pack 1 Update includes an Update Information Tool that shows you which updated components you have on your system.
   Service Pack 1 also includes a number of tools and new components, most of which had been available separately. The most notable of these for home PC-compatible users are:

• An updated version of the Windows 95 Support Assistant, a help file with lots of tips on installing and using Windows. The Microsoft Word Viewer, Version 7.1, which lets you read and print any Word 6.0 or Word for Windows 95 .DOC file. Version 7.1 can be used as a "helper" application with most World Wide Web browsers to read Word files posted on the Web.
   
•  The Microsoft Internet Explorer, which also has a setup program that makes it easy to install Dial-Up Networking to connect to your Internet service provider. It also sets up Microsoft Exchange to operate as your Internet e-mail "client" program.
   
• Imaging for Windows 95, a utility that helps you use image files in documents. (This one was developed by Wang Laboratories.)

     New drivers include Unimodem V, which adds support for several makes of voice/data/fax modems; the Windows 95 Infrared Driver, which supports "IrDA" infrared transceivers built into some new notebook PCs and printers; and a variety of new drivers for video boards, printers and other devices that weren't supported when Windows 95 went into production on July 11, 1995.
   If you're just getting the components and drivers for your own computer, you can download the ones you need from Microsoft's Web site individually. But if you have to play mother hen to a number of different systems where you work, you may want to download the whole 14-disk set instead. (The disk set doesn't include the new printer, video and other drivers.)
   You can also get Service Pack 1 (including the entire Windows 95 Driver Library) on CD-ROM from Microsoft. In the United States the price is    $14.95 plus shipping and handling; and the phone number to call is (800) 426-9400. In Canada the number is (800) 563-9048.
     (Companies that subscribe to the Microsoft Select volume licensing program, TechNet or Level II of the Microsoft Developer Network got the CD as part of their regular update.)