Windows 97 alpha released: no Active Themes

According to InfoWorld, an alpha version of Windows 97 has been releasedto developers, although "Active Themes" is not yet available. Formerly called Active Desktop, Active Themes is the component of Windows 97 that includes Internet Explorer 4.0 and it is expected to be seamlesslyintegrated with the operating system shell.Some people now doubt that Microsoft will be able to keep on track witha fall release of Windows 97 because the Active Themes component willrequire a lengthy beta test to ensure stability and compatibility.Also of interest to InfoWorld, for some reason, is the inclusion ofFAT32 in the new operating system. Given that FAT32 is part of Windows95 OSR-2, this is not really surprising news, but was rather expected. Microsoft may include a utility that converts disk volumes back and forth between VFAT/FAT and FAT32. At least one company, PowerQuest, already offers such a utility with the award-winning Partition Magic 3.0