Windows.

• Author: Prescott, C. Eugene
• Position: Use of the operating system in tax practices

This month's column was written by C. Eugene Prescott, CPA, Greenville, N.C. Mr. Prescott is the former chairman of the AICPA Tax Division's Task Force on Automation for the Tax Practice of the '90s.

Windows

When Microsoft announced its initial Windows product at COMDEX on Nov. 10, 1983, most CPAs were not paying attention; and when Windows was finally released two years later, on Nov. 20, 1985, not many CPAs bought it. Even as Windows was winning awards for Best Technical Achievement, Best User Interface and Best Software Product in 1986, most CPAs stayed with MS-DOS. Beginning with the Windows 3.0 release on May 22, 1991 (one year after it was announced as available for immediate release), some of the more technologically experienced CPA firms began serious experimentation with the concept, although the vast majority of CPAs stayed away. With the arrival of Windows 3.1 on Apr. 6, 1992, a slow but steady migration of CPAs to Windows began.

In retrospect, most CPAs were correct in avoiding Windows prior to the 3.1 release. The limitations and bugs of the prior releases were not suitable for the large variety of applications (mostly DOS) that CPAs were routinely using. In addition, the hardware demands that Windows required were considerably higher than most CPAs had available, and upgrading was relatively expensive. As PC computing power continued to double every 18 months and the cost decreased, the hardware limitations subsided even in firms continuing to run DOS over networks such as Novell or LANtastic. So by the time Windows for Workgroups 3.0 (numbered 3.0, although it was the first workgroup release) arrived on Oct. 1, 1992 (and was quickly updated to 3.1 on Oct. 27, 1992), there were considerably more CPAs who already had sufficient hardware to accommodate the platform. Windows for Workgroups (WFW) was a good fit for many small and large firms (even though they had to discover this for themselves). While in general the benefits of Windows had been consistently overstated, WFW had significant benefits that had been somewhat understated, such as an included scheduler and Microsoft Mail, in addition to networking capabilities. A few CPA firms figured out how to implement WFW (with peer-to-peer connections to workstations) on top of Novell servers. Productivity gains were achieved on a level that justified the accompanying headaches of managing the memory constraints inherent in MS-DOS (which had to be loaded prior to these versions of Windows). With the addition of 32-bit disk and file access included with WFW 3.11 (released on Nov. 1, 1993), it was clear that WFW 3.11 was a better Windows product than regular Windows 3.1. So even though Windows NT was announced on May 24, 1993, and shipped, many CPAs opted for WFW 3.11, particularly as clients to servers.

With Windows 95, the most hyped product ever, released on Aug. 24, 1995, all CPA firms are confronted with a dilemma. Those that are still DOS-based (which may be most) are wondering whether they should join the fray; those already at Windows 3.11 or WFW 3.11 are wondering whether they should upgrade. And what is Windows NT, anyway?

Regular Windows 3.1 or 3.11 (shipped Apr. 4, 1994) probably is on the largest number of machines, although WFW 3.11 began outselling regular Windows in April 1994. The user interface and most of the operational attributes of Windows 3.1 and WFW 3.11 are identical. The primary difference between these products is that Windows 3.1 depends on some other networking software for connectivity. Many sites are connected to Novell servers and some smaller sites are connected to LANtastic servers. With WFW, the networking connectivity is built in and relatively easy to implement (easier than most alternative networking concepts). While this peer-type 16-bit connectivity yields many productivity gains, heavy-duty file and application services typical of many CPA-specific software packages (such as individual tax packages) are better suited for 32-bit servers optimized for high-volume input and output requests. Consequently, the majority of networked systems running Windows or WFW are also connected to Novell servers. in addition to the included networking capability, the 32-bit disk and file access option in WFW allows for a significant increase in output for disk-intensive activity even on standalone systems. The gain from this capability is more significant for computers with integrated drive electronics (IDE) type controllers to the hard disk than those with small computer systems interface (SCSI) type...