Windows 95 Kernel 32 Update

This update resolves a memory leak which occurs when opening and closing a Socket using the Windows Sockets API.

Without this update, running a Windows Sockets application over a long period of time, especially one which opens and closes a large number of sockets, will result a significant resource drain. This can cause the Windows swapfile to grow very large, overall deterioration of performance, and over time, possible system instability. This update allows users to better run such applications for long periods of time without loss of system performance and stability, and without requiring users to reboot their computers periodically to free system resources.

Customers who need to run Windows Sockets applications continuously over long periods of time, especially applications which use a large number of sockets, will benefit from this update.

If Hit List is installed on a computer running version a of Windows 95, a patch is required to fix a bug in 95’s reverse DNS capabilities. This Kernel32 patch (from Microsoft) can be downloaded here.

Important: Do not install the Kernel Update on a machine with Windows 95 OEM Service Release 2 (OSR 2) installed. To determine if you are running OSR 2, go to the System applet of the Control Panel. If the version number reported is 4.00.950 B, do not install the Service Pack 1 Update. Your system already contains the appropriate fixes.