[REQUEST] Microsoft Office 95 Updates 7.0a and 7.0b

[assenort]

Hi guys,

I have a problem finding these two updates for the ancient Microsoft Office 95 (English version):

- Update 7.0a
- Update 7.0b

From Wikipedia: "There were no downloadable service packs or service releases for Office for Windows 95. Instead, two updated versions, 7.0a and 7.0b were released to fix bugs in the application (the only difference between 7.0a and 7.0b was 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 minor year 2000 problems."

Please help me out, will surely appreciate it. Thanks in advance.

Greets

[German]

Office 7.00a (aka Office 95a) full version available on BA FTP (build 2411, Pro and Standard releaaes).
Office 7.00c (aka Office 95c) – is a Y2K update exist (build 2701, EXE-package).

I dont know 95b. Me interest this version.

[DOS]

(the only difference between 7.0a and 7.0b was a fix for a screen redraw problem in PowerPoint).

That sounds like this, from the ftp.microsoft.com MSLFILES directory:

06/10/1996 ppredraw.exe PowerPoint 7.0a Screen Redraw Solution

I think you'll find that file in both of these:
https://www.betaarchive.com/database/vi ... a40acf32c9
https://archive.org/details/ftp.microsoft.com
and probably in various other sites too.

[assenort]

GERMAN and DOS, thank you guys for your responses.

This whole update thing is very confusing to say the least. I myself have in my collection a few versions of MS Office 95 (3 Pro and 1 Standard versions to be precise). The most recent one (which I have installed on my Win 95 machine) has the following info for the main applications' EXEs:

- Excel.exe: Product version 7.0a
- Msaccess.exe: Product version 7.00
- Powerpnt.exe: Product version 7.0
- Winword.exe: Product version 7.0a

Funny thing is that the file OFREADME.TXT, which provides general information about the MS Office 95, has the following line in it:

"All of the applications in Microsoft Office for Windows 95 Standard and Microsoft Office for Windows 95 Professional are version 7.0."

Go figure.

I do believe that the PPREDRAW.EXE file which DOS suggested is indeed the update 7.0b. However, the README.TXT file in it has this warning concerning the Product version of PowerPoint:

"If Version 7.0a appears below the product name, you should install the patch for this problem. If it simply reads Version 7.0, you do not need this patch."

Since "my" installed version of PowerPoint is 7.0, it seems I do not have to apply the update in question.

Hope this info will help some other person who dabbles with MS Office 95 installation and updating. Retro software and games can be fun most of the time, but every now and then they can bring real headache trying to figure things out.

Best to all, stay away from Covid

[DOS]

I found some relevant KB articles:

Q149662 "OFF95: Summary List of Fixed Bugs in MS Office Version 7.0b" which confirms that 7.0b just fixed the PowerPoint screen redraw issue, as was already quoted from Wikipedia.

The specific PowerPoint fix which I linked above is covered by Q136603 "Patch to Correct PowerPoint 7.0a Screen Redraw Problem".

From a quick read of Q153328 "OFF95: How to Upgrade Office 7.0x to 7.0b", it sounds like 7.0b was distributed as a full install on floppy and CD. Unfortunately: Q151579 "OFF95: Office Professional 7.0b CD Label Says Version 7.0A". That article explains how to check what version you actually have and also explains how to tell what version of Access you have since they didn't label that properly either.

As for 7.0a, I found Q147890 "OFF95: Summary List of Fixed Bugs in MS Office Version 7.0a". I didn't see any reference in there to where you could find 7.0a on the FTP site, unfortunately, so I guess it wasn't a downloadable update.

[DOS]

Oops, didn't notice someone had already replied before I posted more info!

The most recent one (which I have installed on my Win 95 machine) has the following info for the main applications' EXEs:

- Excel.exe: Product version 7.0a
- Msaccess.exe: Product version 7.00
- Powerpnt.exe: Product version 7.0
- Winword.exe: Product version 7.0a

Is this the version information you can see in the file properties (I don't know if this existed back then?), or what you can see from the "About" dialog? Q151579 talks about the About dialogs. If they failed to update Access's About dialog version number they might have forgotten to update the VERSIONINFO for PowerPoint too!

[assenort]

The Product versions that I listed are from file properties.

[DOS]

The Product versions that I listed are from file properties.

I don't think you should trust that, it seems like they weren't very good about version numbers back then

[assenort]

That's probably right.

[DOS]

I'd be interested to hear then if the "About" dialog does show 7.0a and if the patch applies for you.

[assenort]

OK, time to put some closure on this issue.

It seems that I have installed the latest version of MS Office 95 on my Windows 95 machine. Here is baseline info on Product versions:

https://www.betaarchive.com/wiki/index. ... ive/151579

And here is what the window "About" gives me:



So I believe I do not have to apply the 7.0b update (A.K.A. ppredraw.exe), since PowerPoint is already version 7.0b.

Hope this info will help another person who plays with retro versions of MS Office. Big thanks to everyone who responded to my request.

Stay well

[DOS]

Nice, thanks!