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I am just now trying to install the new version on my home PC which, sadly, is still running Windows 95. When I started up the install program, Zone Alarm caught it trying to get out to the internet! When I denied access, it complained about not being able to download a file from Microsoft.

What's going on here?

Thanks,

Theron

It's almost definitely the Microsoft Installer (MSI) trying to update itself. I think the MSI system is a program that lives on your PC, and then the product you're installing in the file you've downloaded.

At a guess, the program on your PC has tried to install Textpad and found that it's not the same version as the version of MSI used in the downloaded file, and so has tried to connect to the Web to get the latest version of the installer.

I encountered this problem, and even though I got through ZoneAlarm OK, the Microsoft Installer download failed due to not having a recent version of Internet Explorer on my old Windows 95 machine, on which I generally use Netscape 4.5

I really think it was a retrograde step for TextPad 4.6 to depend on another application in order to be installed. I contacted TextPad Support on this matter. They replied to say that Windows 95 is not supported after TextPad 4.5.

However, I observe that this isn't made clear up front on their download page, and the TextPad home page still includes Windows 95 in the paragraph on Minimum Requirements. Not exactly plain for all to see that Win95 will be a problem.

Of course, we should all know that Microsoft stopped supporting Windows 95 over a year ago, but that doesn't mean that all software vendors should leave us blowing in the wind.

I did manage to get 4.6.2 running on Windows 95, so I guess I am on borrowed time. This is discouraging.