System Changes in Macintosh System 7.5 Update 2.0, Part 1

ID: q152025

The information in this article applies to:

Apple Macintosh System Software 7.5.3

SUMMARY

This article discusses the components included as part of the System 7.5 Update, 2.0. This information comes directly from the "New in this Update - 1" file included with the update:

NOTE: The System 7.5 Update 2.0 includes all of the changes that were included with the System 7.5 Update 1.0. These changes are listed separately in the following article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

Changes with the Macintosh System 7.5 Update 1.0

MORE INFORMATION

General Information About the Update

System 7.5 Update 2.0 provides the enhancements introduced in System 7.5 Update 1.0, plus many more.

This update installs the latest versions of all components (including any components that were disabled using the Extensions Manager) it finds on the disk it is updating. After running the Installer, the updated components will be in the same folders as they were before installing the update. For example, new versions of disabled extensions will be in the "Extensions (Disabled)" folder, and new versions of disabled control panels will be in the "Control Panels (Disabled)" folder.

The file called "System 7.5 Update" replaces the enabler on all computers capable of running system software versions 7.5 and/or 7.5.1. Computers that did not previously need an enabler to work with system software versions 7.5 and 7.5.1 still need the System 7.5 Update file, since it contains most of the fixes delivered in this update.

The file called "System 7.5.2 Update" replaces the enabler file on all computers capable of running system software version 7.5.2.

This update includes all of the fixes included with the previously released 7.5.2 Printing Update, the PowerBook 5300 System Software Update, and the PowerBook 2300c Update. These updates are not needed if System 7.5 Update 2.0 is installed. If any of these have been installed, System 7.5 Update 2.0 should still be installed, since it contains additional fixes.

After installing the update, the About This Macintosh window says "System Software 7.5.3." The window also says "System 7.5Update 2.0," to indicate the source of the system software.

Changes to the Finder

This update includes a new version of the Finder with the following changes:

When rebuiliding the desktop, comments typed in a file's Get Info window are no longer deleted. (Of course, if you delete the desktop database for example, by making it visible using a utility and then moving it to the Trash, the comments will be lost because the Finder will have to build a new desktop at startup.)

The Name field (used in Finder windows set to one of the list views) is wider, allowing more characters to be seen in the filenames.

On PowerPC-based computers, icons are translucent when dragged (rather than simply appearing as outlines). When dragging several icons at once, only the icon under the mouse will be translucent,the others will still be outlines.

Copying large numbers of small files is faster. (Previous versions of the Finder updated the bar in the copy progress dialog box approximately thirty times per second; the new version updates the copy progress bar far less frequently.)

The Finder Update file (once named PowerPC Finder Update) is now part of the Finder. This update deletes all old versions of this file.

When the Clipboard is active, the Clean Up Window command is dimmed. This eliminates a crashing bug in the Finder.

The Finder flushes the processor's cache more intelligently, improving the Finder speed on all 68040- and PowerPC-based computers.

Fixes a problem that caused an out-of-memory error when emptying the Trash if QuickDraw GX was installed.

Fixes a problem that caused seemingly false out-of-memory messages when trying to open or close Finder windows. This problem sometimes occurred when the desktop had very few icons on it, a window with the Kind column was visible, and a large number of different kinds of documents had been displayed since the last restart.

Fixes a problem introduced by the Finder that shipped with System 7.5 Update 1.0. The Find window of Find File will now be made active if Find File is already open and the Find option is chosen from File menu (or Find File from the Apple menu).

If you are trying to connect to your computer and your server password has expired or needs to be changed when you try to use an alias to connect to the server, you'll see a message that the password needs to be changed. (Prior versions told the user that the server couldn't be found.)

File copies are now done asynchronously, which makes the CPU more available to other applications during copying. If another application is made active during a file copy, the computer does not slow down as much. This effect is most noticeable when using Apple Remote Access.

Finder window titles are now erased before they are overwritten. (Previous versions rendered window titles unreadable in some circumstances.)

Changes to Find File

The following are the changes in Find File 1.1.2:

Includes a list of Shortcuts, available from the Guide menu (with the question-mark icon) when Find File is active.

Includes a new preference used in sorting by Kind, "Use full descriptions for found items," which gives more specific Kind descriptions. Using this checkbox results in slower sorts; not using it results in faster sorts but with less specific Kind descriptions.

Fixes a crashing bug that occurred if the same item was dragged to the same location before the Finder finished the earlier move.

Fixes a bug that allowed non-numeric data to be input into the Size search field.

Fixes a bug that allowed a pasted item to exceed the length of several search fields.

Fixes a bug that allowed too many digits to be entered in the Size search field.

Allows you to drag a volume icon onto the Location pop-up menu.

Fixes the zoom box on 68K systems.

Changes the alert message to be more informative when a server being searched is disconnected.

Changes the way the Found Items list displays items that are in the Trash after the Trash has been emptied.

Fixes a searching bug that occurred when the Kind requested was "font."

Fixes a crash that sometimes occurred when clicking the Stop button in the sorting dialog box. This dialog box now displays a spinner during a sort.

Fixes a memory bug that sometimes occurred after several consecutive searches.

Fixes a display bug with Found Items that occurred when using large font sizes.

Fixes the CD-ROM icon in the Drives pop-up menu.

Enables Find File to find invisible files, some of which you can move (such as the Desktop, Desktop DB, and the Desktop DF files).

The Clear menu item now deletes only the selected text. (The Clear key no longer deletes anything.)

Fixes a bug that occurred when dragging a file onto the Kind search field. Fonts and applications now show up as such, not as documents.

Fixes a crash that sometimes occurred when dragging an item from the Found Items window to the desktop.

Changes the prompt message when search fields are empty.

Cleans up Balloon Help.

Includes a new preference to specify transliteration.

Speeds up searches in 2-byte languages if no transliteration is necessary to perform the search.

Fixes a bug where the filename input for 2-byte languages could exceed maximum length.

Changes to Standard File

Fixes an occasional crash in Standard File that occurred when the data cache was not flushed before being disabled.

Fixes a memory leak with some of the dialog boxes used for opening and saving documents in Standard File.

Fixes a problem in the dialog box used for opening files that could allow the pop-up menu to be dimmed in Standard File.

Changes to Control Panels

PowerPC-based computers with PCI slots now use the Monitors & Sound control panel, instead of the Sound & Displays control panel, to control monitor and sound settings. (System Update 2.0 removes Sound & Displays.) You can do a custom installation to install the Sound control panel if you need it for older applications. (The Monitors & Sound control panel works only on PCI-based computers.)

The Memory control panel now displays "Will be off after restart" if Virtual Memory is turned off, as a reminder that just turning Virtual Memory off does not fully deactivate it.

The Memory control panel now uses a larger default setting for the Disk Cache. After you install this update, the new setting will be used only if the Use Defaults button in the Memory control panel is clicked. The new default is 32K for each megabyte of physical RAM installed, up to a maximum of 4096K. (Virtual RAM is ignored for this calculation.) Thus, a computer with 16MB of physical RAM would use 512K for its default disk cache size, resulting in better performance for disk-intensive tasks than the original default of 96K.

Fixes a bug in resizing a RAM disk in the Memory control panel while File Sharing is on.

Fixes a problem in General Controls panel that caused problems with Retrospect Remote if either application or System Folder protection was turned on.

Includes a new option in the General Controls panel: "Folder that is set by the application." Clicking this option sets the default folder to the folder containing the document being opened. Thus, when you open a document by double-clicking its icon, the default folder will be set to the folder containing the document (instead of to the Documents folder or to the folder containing the application that opened that document).

Fixes a problem in General Controls panel that could hang the computer if Applications folder protection was turned on and there was a document or alias named "Applications" at the root level of the startup disk.

Fixes a problem in the General Controls panel's folder- protection code that could cause folders to become invisible if Stuffit Spacesaver was installed.

CloseView no longer uses key combinations that were already used by the Finder. The new key combinations for CloseView are:

Command-Option-K: turns CloseView on or off

Command-Option-+ (the plus sign): increases magnification

Command-Option-- (the minus sign): decreases magnification

If CloseView is active, it remains active after you change your monitor's bit depth.

CloseView no longer hangs the system if Balloon Help is on and an audio CD is inserted.

Includes the following new international keyboard layouts:

French Canadian

ISO Canadian

Spanish

Installs the updated versions of the following international keyboard layouts if older versions are already installed:

Dutch

Flemish

German

Changes to Apple Guide

This update includes Macintosh Guide 1.3 (and several new Guide Additions files), which provides updated onscreen help for system software.

This update includes Apple Guide version 2.0.2, which includes the following improvements:

Fixes problems with displaying coach marks in modal dialog boxes.

Fixes a serious memory leak that occurred every time a Guide file was opened.

Fixes a problem that caused every twenty-first index item to disappear when multiple additions were in use.

Fixes a problem that occurred when Apple Guide encountered additions files that did not apply to the current configuration of hardware and system software (for example, if the QuickTime Guide were installed, but QuickTime was not installed or had been turned off with Extensions Manager).

Defaults to US ASCII sorting only if the current script is Roman and the current language is English. (Apple Guide 1.2.5 defaulted to US ASCII on any Roman script system.)

Fixes problems with coach marks on 68K machines. (Coach marks were sometimes drawn on the wrong menus.)

Fixes a Look For problem in Japanese systems by first trying to use the script code from the current database.

Fixes a bug in <Delete Index> that affected Japanese systems.

Fixes problems with mixed-mode handling of installed coach and context handlers.

Fixes a problem that sometimes caused Apple Guide to shut down completely on PowerPC-based computers. For example, if a PowerBook additions file was present on a PowerPC- based desktop computer, Apple Guide 1.2.5 would completely shut down because the additions file couldn[ASCII 213]t be used. Now, Apple Guide ignores the PowerBook addition and continues running.

Fixes a problem that prevented Apple Guide 1.2.5 from starting up if QuickTime wasn't installed on the machine. This problem occurred only on PowerPC-based computers.

Includes localizable error strings for use in various abort messages.

Changes to Apple Menu Options

Includes Apple Menu Options v.1.1.2, which introduces the following changes:

Has been largely rewritted for better performance and improved stability.

Fixes a problem that could hang the computer when the Apple Menu Options preference file was dragged to the Trash.

Fixes a problem that could hang the computer if there was a locked alias in the Recent Documents, Recent Applications, or Recent Servers folders. The new version ignores locked aliases.

Moved a large 68K patch that caused a general slowdown on PowerPC based computers. This patch is now active only while the mouse button is held down on the menu bar or in a menu.

Increases the height of the editing field used for entering the number of documents, applications, and servers.

Fixes a problem that could prevent the Recent Documents, Recent Applications, and Recent Servers folders from being deleted when tracking of those items is turned off.

Fixes a problem that could cause Apple Menu Options to hang if its settings were changed and the System Folder was on a locked volume (such as a startup CD or locked floppy disk). The hang would occur when Apple Menu Options tried to write the new settings into the locked preferences file. The new version does not try to record new settings on a locked volume.

Fixes a problem with sorting order; Apple Menu Options no longer uses the U.S. standard for modified Roman and Scandinavian alphabets.

Prevents Apple Menu Options from deleting original files[ASCII 209] it can now only delete aliases. (This change solves a problem that occurred when users saved documents directly into the Recent Documents folder. Once the document was saved, Apple Menu Options replaced the file with an alias to that file.)

Fixes a problem that sometimes caused the contents of the Apple menu to show up in place of the proper contents for submenus.

The third-party product discussed here is manufactured by a vendor independent of Microsoft; we make no warranty, implied or otherwise, regarding this product's performance or reliability.

Additional query words: mac m_works powermac 7.5 7.5.1 power ppc kbreadme

Keywords :
Version : MACINTOSH:7.5.3
Platform : MACINTOSH
Issue type :