Watching Windows: Accountants Are Watching for Windows 95 - but They Shouldn't Be Too Quick to Buy It

Should accountants jump to upgrade to the forthcoming Windows 95? The profession was slow to buy into the current version of Microsoft's Windows--Windows 3.1--because it felt the product was not stable enough for mission-critical tasks and too few applications had been developed for it. But the past two years have seen a significant sea change. Not only has Windows 3.1 been improved but most accounting software publishers also have upgraded their products to Windo,,vs or are about to introduce Windows versions. It's estimated that about 80% of CPAS are using Windows to some extent, along with DOS applications. Thus, one would assume that given accountants' growing facility with the program, they would be eager to upgrade to Windows 95 once it is introduced. It is being touted as far more powerful than Windows 3.1 and much more user-friendly. But most CPAs don't plan to make the switch any time soon. Technically savvy accountants undoubtedly will look at the product when it comes out, but they probably will hold off upgrading to it until they are convinced it's stable-that is, it won't crash during a closing or some other critical accounting process. JUMPING THE GUN Why are accountants as well as other professionals worried about stability@ Because Microsoft's history is to introduce programs before their time-before the bugs have been corrected. It was true of the first edition of Windows and every major program Microsoft has launched. In time, however, their applications became stars. Windows 95's development has been plagued with problems and delays. The program originally was code-named Chicago. When it was announced, it was labeled Windows 4.0. But last year, after many missed deadlines, Microsoft changed the name to Windows 95 and promised it would be ready by the first quarter of this year. That deadline came and went and now a mid-summer launch is promised. Will it meet the new deadline? Will it have all the promised functions when it is launched? There is reason to believe it won't. In March, Microsoft reluctantly conceded that the beta version it sent to some 50,000 testers-said to be the last planned test version before the official launch-lacked the one major function that distinguishes it from Windows 3. 1: robust multitasking that does not slow down the computer significantly. Multitasking is an important function. As the name implies, it's the ability to do more than one task at the same time. For example, how many times have you commanded a spreadsheet file to print its 56 pages and then twiddled your thumbs, unable to do anything else on the machine while waiting for the last page to come out of the printer? There are of course ways to get around this shortcoming. One is evoking Windows' print manager, which puts portions of the print order in a queue so that the printing commands are slipped into the computer processor whenever it has a spare millisecond, but this slows the computer significantly. Likewise, if you are conducting a database search that will take a few minutes, you can switch to your word processor and compose a memo while waiting. But, if you try to multitask with an application that absorbs much of the computer's resources, such as sending or receiving a fax and scanning the faxed words into a file, you would likely have trouble executing the tasks. Windows 95 will overcome this shortcoming with a Wprocess called threaded, preemptive multitasking architecture. Essentially, a is a path in the innards of the computer through which an application program can execute a process. So, for example, if you were running a spreadsheet, the print portion of the program would use one thread, the math portion would use a second thread, and so on. With this technique, the computer can handle each thread independently. The orders don't have to stand in a queue; instead, they are executed simultaneously. What makes Windows 95 outstanding is that it will keep the threads from colliding or crossingthat is, it will prevent any application from taking critical processing time away from another or mixing with the other's data flow. …