Microsoft Corporation Tel 425 882 8080
One Redmond Way Telex 160520
Redmond, WA 98052-6399 Fax 425 936 7329
Re: Recent Court Ruling
Dear Microsoft OEM Customer:
On December 11, 1997 Microsoft received a preliminary order from the United States District Court for the District of Columbia concerning our licensing of Windows 95 to computer manufacturers.
We wish to assure you that you may continue to preinstall Windows 95 as you have been planning. The order is directed at Microsoft, not at you, and therefore it need not affect your product plans.
The court's order states that Microsoft may not license Windows 95 "on the condition, express or implied, that the licensee also license and preinstall any Microsoft Internet browser software (including Internet Explorer 3.0 [or] 4.0.)" Therefore, you may preinstall Windows 95 with or without the Internet Explorer portion of the operating system.
As you may know, in September 1997 we provided you with the latest updates to Windows 95, including Internet Explorer 4.0, in the form of the "Updated Windows Features" Supplement. In accordance with the court's order, you are not required to use this Supplement in any way (but you are free to do so if you would like). Next week we will send you two new updates: the December 1997 Supplement (which will include Internet Explorer 4.01 and other Windows 95 updates), and OSR 2.5 (which contains all of Windows 95, including Internet Explorer 4.01 and other updates). Again, under the court's order, you are free to use or not use these updates, as you wish.
The court's order also affects OEM Service Release 2.0, the version of Windows 95 that Microsoft made available to you in August 1996. OSR 2.0 includes Internet Explorer 3.0. In accordance with the court's order, you are no longer required to install the Internet Explorer 3.0 portion of the operating system when preinstalling OSR 2.0. The court has defined Internet Explorer 3.0 to consist of "the software code that Microsoft itself now separately distributes at retail as 'Internet Explorer 3.0.'" Therefore, if you wish to use OSR 2.0 without Internet Explorer 3.0 in your customer systems, you may delete the set of OSR 2.0 files that make up Internet Explorer 3.0 in the retail channel. Attachment A to this letter contains a list of these Internet Explorer 3.0 files. (Under the court's order, the options available to you are to preinstall OSR 2.0 in its entirety or to install all of OSR 2.0 except for Internet Explorer 3.0 as defined by the court. You may not elect to install only selected portions of Internet Explorer 3.0.)
Our tests indicate that if you elect to preinstall OSR 2.0 without Internet Explorer 3.0 the resulting program will not boot and the program will be deficient in other ways (because OSR 2.0 was designed and developed on the assumption that Internet Explorer 3.0 is an integral part of the operating system).
Although not required to do so by the court's order, we would also like to provide you with a version of Windows 95 from which Internet Explorer can be removed with less damage to the operating system. Therefore, we will waive the usual contractual requirement that you preinstall the latest version of Windows 95. If you would like, you may use the original version of Windows 95 (Build 950.6) from the summer of 1995, which is less reliant upon Internet Explorer than is OSR 2.0. Build 950.6 is the version of Windows 95 that is currently available in the retail channel, with the addition of the requisite OEM installation files and Internet Explorer 1.0. If you wish to preinstall this version of Windows 95 without Internet Explorer 1.0, you may delete the set of Build 950.6 files that make up Internet Explorer 1.0. Attachment B to this letter contains a list of these Internet Explorer 1.0 files. (Again, you may not elect to install only selected portions of Internet Explorer 1.0.)
Our preliminary tests indicate that Build 950.6 will boot absent the Internet Explorer 1.0 files, but the access software for MSN will not function and there may be other deficiencies in the resulting program. As you may know, Build 950.6 does not include various new features of OSR 2.0 that support the latest hardware advances, including large hard drives, USB support, Intel MMX capabilities, and so forth.
No warranties, express or implied, will apply to the resulting software program if you elect to delete Internet Explorer from OSR 2.0 or Build 950.6.
The consent decree that is the subject of the court's order states that it does not apply to Windows NT Workstation, and therefore we do not believe that the order should apply to that operating system. Nevertheless, if you would like to license and preinstall Windows NT Workstation without Internet Explorer, we will make that option available to you. The current version of this operating system, Windows NT Workstation 4.0, includes Internet Explorer 2.0 as an integrated feature of the product. Internet Explorer 2.0 for Windows NT Workstation has never been available separately at retail or in any other channel. Therefore, the court's test for defining the Internet Explorer feature of an operating system - looking to the files that make up a retail distribution of Internet Explorer - cannot be applied to Windows NT Workstation 4.0. If you would like, we will make Windows NT Workstation 3.51 available to you (contact your account manager for a license to this operating system). Windows NT Workstation 3.51 does not include Internet Explorer.
We are providing you with this letter concerning Windows 95 and Windows NT Workstation in compliance with the court's preliminary order, which is now in effect. We plan to appeal the order, which we believe is incorrect. Further proceedings may result in the preliminary injunction being lifted or in clarifications or amendments to the order. We will advise you promptly of any change to your installation options.
I apologize if any of this causes any distraction to your business. Please contact your account manager if you need any help or have any questions.
ATTACHMENT A
To remove Internet Explorer 3.0 software from Windows 95 OSR 2.0, delete all of the following files:
Container Contents Subcontainers Subcontents
MSIE3.0.EXE activex.inf
addons.inf
iedkcs32.dll
iexplore.inf
infinst.exe
inst16.dll
inst32.dll
install.exe
install.ins
amovie.exe á expanded below
ieakicw.exe á expanded below
ieakjava.exe á expanded below
Iexplore.cab á expanded below
mailnews.exe á expanded below
setupsIt.exe á expanded below
swinst4.EXE á expanded below
AMOVIE.EXE ActMovie.exe
amovie.cnt
amovie.hIp
AMovie.ocx
amremove.exe
amsetup.dll
eula.txt
mciqtz.drv
mciqtz32.dll
msg711.acm
Quartz.dll
quartz.vxd
rundll32.exe
setupam.exe
IEAKICW.EXE ADVPACK.DLL
ICWSCRPT.EXE
IEAKICW.INF
W95INF16.DLL
W95INF32.DLL
IEAKJAVA.EXE ADVPACK.DLL
CLASSR.EXE
JAUTOEXP.DAT
JAVADBG.TXT
JAVAEE.DLL
JAVAPRXY.DLL
JAVART.DLL
JAVASNTX.DLL
JAVASUP.VXD
Container Contents Subcontainers Subcontents
JDBGMGR.EXE
JIT.DLL
JVIEW.EXE
MFC40.DLL
MSAWT.DLL
MSJAVA.DLL
MSJAVA.INF
MSVCRT40.DLL
REGSVR32.EXE
SETDEBUG.EXE
VMHELPER.DLL
W95INF16.DLL
W95INF32.DLL
SWINST4.EXE ADVPACK.DLL
ASIFONT.MAP
ASIPORT.RSR
IE32DSW.OCX
IE32DSW.TXT
INTRO.DCR
M5DRVR32.EXE
M5DRVR32.RSR
M5IF32.DLL
REGSVR32.EXE
SW.INF
SWADCMPR.X32
SWASTRM.X32
W95INF16.DLL
W95INF32.DLL
XOBGLU16.DLL
XOBGLU32.DLL
MAILNEWS.EXE _isetup.exe
advpack.dll
Cp_20866.nls
Cp_28592.nls
Cp_28593.nls
Cp_28594.nls
Cp_28597.nls
gapia32.dll
Htmledit.dll
Imnimp.dll
License.txt
mail.txt
mailnews.cnt
Mailnews.dll
Mailnews.hlp
Mailnews.inf
Mailnews.txt
news.txt
w95inf16.dll
Container Contents Subcontainers Subcontents
w95inf32.dll
Wab.cnt
wab.exe
Wab.hlp
Wab32.dll
wabfind.dll
wabimp.dll
wabmig.exe
wldap32.dll
SETUPSLT.EXE ADVPACK.DLL
asycpict.dll
fm20.dll
fm20enu.dll
ISCtrls.ocx
MSNAudio.acm
P2D.dll
pedcab2.inf
Regsvr32.exe
riched20.dll
W95INF16.DLL
W95INF32.DLL
IEXPLORE.CAB ACCESSIB.CNT
ACCESSIB.HLP
ACTXPRXY.DLL
ADVAPI32.DLL
ADVPACK.DLL
ARIBLK.TTF
BLANK.HTM
CACHEVU.DLL
COMCAT.DLL
COMCTL32.DLL
COMIC.TTF
COMICBD.TTF
CONNECT.CNT
CONNECT.HLP
CP_20866.NLS
CP_28592.NLS
CRYPT32.DLL
DIALMON.EXE
DIGSIG.DLL
HLINK.DLL
HLINKPRX.DLL
ICHRCNV.DLL
ICWCONN1.EXE
ICWCONN2.EXE
ICWDIAL.DLL
ICWDL.DLL
ICWIP.DUN
ICWPHBK.DLL
Container Contents Subcontainers Subcontents
ICWSCRPT.EXE
ICWX25A.DUN
ICWX25B.DUN
ICWX25C.DUN
IEDKCS32.DLL
IERMV2.INF
IEXPLORE.CNT
IEXPLORE.EXE
IEXPLORE.HLP
IMAGEHLP.DLL
IMPACT.TTF
INET16.DLL
INETAB32.DLL
INETCFG.DLL
INETCPL.CPL
INETMAIL.INF
INETWIZ.EXE
INLOADER.DLL
INTERNET.TXT
INTERWIZ.HLP
INT-MAIL.CNT
INT-MAIL.HLP
INTRINSC.OCX
ISIGN32.DLL
ISIGNUP.EXE
ISO88591.TRN
JGDWMIE.DLL
JSCRIPT.DLL
JSPROXY.DLL
LICMGR10.DLL
MARQUEE.OCX
MINET32.DLL
MSHTML.DLL
MSICW.ISP
MSN.ISP
MSNAUTH.CNT
MSNAUTH.HLP
MSNSSPC.DLL
MSOSS.DLL
MSRATING.DLL
NORWEG.TRN
NPRA32.DLL
OLEAUT32.DLL
OLEPRO32.DLL
PHONE.ICW
PINGNAME.BAT
PINGNUM.BAT
PLUGIN.OCX
PSSPOS.CNT
PSSPOS.HLP
RA32.DLL
Container Contents Subcontainers Subcontents
RA3214_4.DLL
RA3228_8.DLL
RAGUI32.DLL
RALICENS.TXT
RAOCX32.DLL
RAPLAYER.EXE
RAPLAYER.HLP
RAREADME.TXT
RATINGS.HLP
REGEXP.EXE
REGSVR32.EXE
RNAPH.DLL
RSABASE.DLL
RSACI.RAT
SCHANNEL.DLL
SENDMAIL.DLL
SHDOCVW.DLL
SHLWAPI.DLL
SIGRES.EXE
SOFTPUB.DLL
STATE.ICW
STDOLE2.TLB
SUPPORT.TXT
SWEDISH.TRN
URL.DLL
URLMON.DLL
USASCII.TRN
VBSCRIPT.DLL
VERDANA.TTF
VERDANAB.TTF
VERDANAI.TTF
VERDANAZ.TTF
VSREVOKE.DLL
W95INF16.DLL
W95INF32.DLL
WININET.DLL
WINSSPI.DLL
WINTRUST.DLL
WSOCK32N.DLL
ATTACHMENT B
To remove Internet Explorer 1.0 software from the OEM version of Windows 95 Build 950.6, delete all of the following files:
IEXPLORE.EXE
URL.DLL
Comic.ttf
IEXPLORE.HLP
IEXPLORE.CNT
SECBASIC.DLL
RA.DLL
RAPLAYER.HLP
PNCLIENT.EXE
PNFRONT.EXE
INTERNET.TXT
INETCPL.CPL
DIALMON.EXE
INTERWIZ.HLP
INETWIZ.EXE
INET16.DLL
INETCFG.DLL |
