Windows Desktop Update was an optional feature by

Microsoft Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational technology corporation producing computer software, consumer electronics, personal computers, and related services headquartered at the Microsoft Redmond campus located in Redmond, Washi ...

that was included with

Internet Explorer 4 Microsoft Internet Explorer 4 (IE4) is a graphical web browser that Microsoft unveiled in Spring of 1997, and released in September 1997, primarily for Microsoft Windows, but also with versions available for the classic Mac OS, Solaris, and H ...

(IE4, released in September 1997), which introduced several updated shell features to the

Windows 95 Windows 95 is a consumer-oriented operating system developed by Microsoft as part of its Windows 9x family of operating systems. The first operating system in the 9x family, it is the successor to Windows 3.1x, and was released to manufacturi ...

and

Windows NT 4.0 Windows NT 4.0 is a major release of the Windows NT operating system developed by Microsoft and oriented towards businesses. It is the direct successor to Windows NT 3.51, which was released to manufacturing on July 31, 1996, and then to retail ...

operating system An operating system (OS) is system software that manages computer hardware, software resources, and provides common daemon (computing), services for computer programs. Time-sharing operating systems scheduler (computing), schedule tasks for ef ...

s. These features later became part of the standard installation in their successors, which were

Windows 98 Windows 98 is a consumer-oriented operating system developed by Microsoft as part of its Windows 9x family of Microsoft Windows operating systems. The second operating system in the 9x line, it is the successor to Windows 95, and was released to ...

and

Windows 2000 Windows 2000 is a major release of the Windows NT operating system developed by Microsoft and oriented towards businesses. It was the direct successor to Windows NT 4.0, and was released to manufacturing on December 15, 1999, and was offici ...

, respectively. The Windows Desktop Update included features such as

Active Desktop Active Desktop was a feature of Microsoft Internet Explorer 4.0's optional Windows Desktop Update that allowed users to add HTML content to the desktop, along with some other features. This function was intended to be installed on the then-c ...

and tight IE4 integration with the

Windows Explorer File Explorer, previously known as Windows Explorer, is a file manager application that is included with releases of the Microsoft Windows operating system from Windows 95 onwards. It provides a graphical user interface for accessing the file ...

. It was downloadable as part of IE4 for all versions of

except for Windows 95 OEM Service Release 2.5 (4.00.950C), which included a standalone version of IE 4.0 plus the Windows Desktop Update (but not slipstreamed) where it was automatically installed after the standard Windows 95 set-up. Similarly, the shell update was also made available as part of IE 4.0 for

(with Service Pack 3 or later). While the Windows Desktop Update was officially only an optional user component under Internet Explorer 4.0 releases, and was not formally included in later versions of Internet Explorer, users can extract the Windows Desktop Update installer from the IE4 setup files using standard .CAB extraction tools or use IEAK to generate a version of the IE 5.0x, 5.5 or 6.0 setup which included the update. Also command line parameters or edits to a temporary configuration file can be used to instruct installer of those versions of IE to install the Desktop Update. If the Windows Desktop Update was already installed, then the IE5 setup will install some new shell features, such as sorting by name in a context menu and drop down/overflow menu buttons whenever menus or toolbar buttons did not fit in the Explorer window on the screen.

Key features

- Enables the display of Internet Explorer-rendered web content (e.g. HTML, XML, CDF) and for the first time the displaying of non-BMP image content on the Windows Desktop * Channels - Push Technology with some similarities to RSS and IE 8's WebSlices. Channels are an XML scripted remote delivery service over http using the .cdf file format. Internet Explorer 4.0 installs of the Desktop Update included localised content and service providers for the main language regions. Installations against IE 5.0 and higher lacked any default subscription content. * Quick Launch - The Quick Launch bar first appeared in the Desktop Update, providing a horizontal alternative to Microsoft Office 95/97/2000's vertical launch bar * Web folders - A WebDAV client integrated into Explorer windows which could display web content and graphics, providing a richer Windows Explorer experience * Folder Customization - Individual folders and groups of folders could be customised in appearance using web like formatting constraints * Larger toolbar buttons with text labels in Windows Explorer * Improved Start menu, including a new 'Favorites' section, more options on the 'Find' menu and menu item drag and drop, edit and delete support * Support for displaying thumbnail image previews in Windows Explorer and infotips/tooltips for files and folders stored as comments in Desktop.ini.

Updates

Updates to the Windows Desktop Update were part of IE 4.0 hotfixes and service packs. Later, shell security updates for Windows 95 and Windows NT 4.0 included both the update to the Windows Desktop Update version and the original version. Sometimes the Windows Desktop Update version and the update to the original version were packaged separately. The Windows Desktop Update also added the ability to create desk-bands like the Quick Launch bar. It also introduced new extensibility APIs for the Windows file manager, Explorer.exe (also a shell).

External links

* http://wallabyweb.com/training/IE4/ Detailed technical documentation of IE4.0, including Windows Desktop Update * http://www.petri.co.il/install_active_desktop_on_nt_40.htm Detailed HowTo about the installation of the Windows Desktop Update with IE5 and IE6 {{Windows Components Internet Explorer Windows 95 Discontinued Windows components

Key features

Updates

See also

External links