Welcome to Netscape Communicator for Windows

These are the current release notes for Netscape Communicator for all Windows platforms. You can access these release notes from the Help menu in Communicator. Please ignore any release notes that might have been previously installed on your system.

Netscape recommends that users of Communicator Standard and Professional editions download Communicator 4.03. You can find out what version of Communicator you are running by choosing About Communicator from the Help menu.

If you are using Netscape Communicator Professional Edition (which includes Netscape Calendar, IBM Host On-Demand, and AutoAdmin) please read the information contained in these notes. In addition, you can click here to view the release notes specifically for Professional Edition.

These release notes include:

Unknown problems and bugs - please tell us about bugs you find.

Additional information is available:

From the Help menu, choose Help Contents
From the Help menu, choose International Users
Developer information
Documentation information
Technical notes

WHAT'S NEW

The Communicator 4.03 maintenance release also includes:

Generalized Performance Enhancements

Overall stability improvements
General start up time accelerated
Java loads faster
RMI works correctly
Kanji characters work appropriately
Saving new files in Composer is much faster
When viewing an image in the browser, its dimensions will appear in the title bar
HP 5L PCL printer driver interoperability
Improvements in utilization of User and GDI memory in 16-bit Windows
Telnet URL's work across all systems
Can now print from command line when Communicator is already running
Proxy entries locked with Mission Control are grayed out appropriately
Redirected animated GIFs run correctly

Improved Stability

Message Center handles new mailboxes seamlessly
Address book corruption fixed
In Windows 3.1 using Mission Control, default user preferences for mail server are now carried over to a new user profile
Clicking on "about:" link in a mail message works properly

Security enhancements

Users can now determine what level of encryption their browser supports by selecting Help|About Communicator and looking for the security information in the RSA section

KNOWN ISSUES

General

On some Windows 95 systems, installing Communicator causes the ODBC32 control panel to exit with an illegal operation. This may be related to an ODBC incompatibility with new system DLLs installed by Communicator. A workaround is to install a SmartUpdate package located at ftp://ftp.netscape.com/pub/communicator/smartupdate/msvc.jar.

Navigator

If you are running Netscape Communicator on Windows NT 3.51 using a Matrox Millennium graphics driver, an application error may occur when viewing HTML pages. Obtain an updated version of the driver (version 2.25 or later).
If a system halt related to the Kernel32.dll occurs, update the kernel. You can obtain the update from http://www.microsoft.com/kb/articles/q148/3/36.htm. This may correct the problem.
When browsing Web sites using Java content with your system's color depth set at 32-bit True Color, Navigator may stop responding. A simple workaround is to avoid using 32-bit color display.
If you experience trouble running Java, try deleting your certificate file, cert7.db. This file is located in your user directory, which is normally located at C:\Program Files\Netscape\Users\<username>. Note: You should export any certificates that you want to keep. After you have deleted your certificate file, you can re-import your certificates.
If you uninstalled beta versions of Communicator (Preview Release 5 or earlier) on Windows NT systems, you may experience trouble running .avi, .wav, .mid, or .rmi files.

Open the Control Panel and select one of the following:

For NT 3.51, select Drivers.
For NT 4.0, select Multimedia - Devices.

Add the following drivers if they are not already listed: (MCI) CD Audio, (MCI) Microsoft Video for Windows, (MCI) Midi Sequencer, and (MCI) Sound.
Run regedt32.exe and navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\MCI Extensions.
Select Add Value from the Edit menu; for Value Name enter avi, and for String enter avivideo.
Select Add Value and for Value Name enter wav, and for String enter waveaudio.
Select Add Value and for Value Name enter mid, and for String enter Sequencer.
Select Add Value and for Value Name enter rmi, and for String enter Sequencer. You don't need to modify the data type.

In a frame document, only the activated frame is printed, because only one frame can be printed at a time. To activate a frame, click on it.
Printing documents with applets, plugins, and webfonts on layer do not work properly.
The paddings property of Style Sheets is not supported. Use topPadding, rightPadding, bottomPadding, and leftPadding instead.
The margins property of Style Sheets is not supported. Use leftMargin, rightMargin, and bottomMargin instead.
Width, height, and border tags for images in Style Sheets are not enabled.
Under certain circumstances in a table cell, the EMBED tag parameter ALIGN=RIGHT causes the plugin not to be loaded or displayed. As a workaround, insert the ALIGN=RIGHT parameter in the table column and/or row descriptors.

Composer

Starting Composer from the command line with netscape -edit (or double clicking on the Composer icon) does not start a new window if any other Communicator window is already active.

Messenger

If you encounter a general protection fault in msvcrt.dll when sending a message, exit Communicator. This is caused by a .tmp file Windows limitation. See your system administrator or equivalent about removing these .tmp files from the Windows temp folder. Afterwards, you can send messages from Communicator.
If a system halt occurs when invoking the Compose window, rename the address book file (abook.nab) located in the Program Files\Netscape\Users\<username> directory.
A message saved as plain text (with a .txt extension) will be converted into plain text instead of in original MIME format. If you save the message to an existing file, the existing file will be replaced instead of having the message appended to it.
If you get an error regarding expired certificates when sending/receiving signed or encrypted mail, please go to http://www.verisign.com/update/faq/index.html to update your certificate.

Plug-ins

In 8-bit (256 color mode), you might experience color palette problems while loading some plug-ins in Communicator. As a workaround, try minimizing and then restoring the window or open a new Navigator window. Running in 16-bit (high color) mode will eliminate this problem.
Sound files greater than 6MB are not supported in the 16 bit version and may not play back properly.
Plug-ins installed in previous version of Navigator are not automatically transferred to Communicator. Re-install these plug-ins.

Netcaster

It is required that you use Communicator 4.03 or later with this version of Netcaster.
Java and JavaScript must be enabled to run Netcaster.
It is recommended that you select the Go Offline option from the File Menu before viewing sites offline.
The order of the channels in the selector may change after exiting Netcaster.
The Automatically Load Images preference (Preferences, Advanced from the Edit menu) should be checked.
A Netcaster icon in StartMenu/Programs/Netscape Communicator may remain from a previous installation. Please ignore or delete this icon.
If you specify an invalid URL when adding a channel, the channel is added under My Channels, but does not appear when you select it. A green light may also appear; ignore this light.
If you change a webtop to a channel in Channel Properties, the webtop remains on your screen. Close the webtop and when you select it again in My Channels, it appears as a channel in a Navigator window.
If you change your Communicator preferences, such as color or font, while Netcaster is open, a system halt may occur. Change your Communicator preferences before starting Netcaster.
The buttons in the Netcaster window may disappear depending on the font you select.
Select a channel before modifying any security information in the Options dialog.
Your channel settings may not be preserved if Communicator terminates abnormally.
If you change your screen's resolution while Netcaster is running, the Netcaster window may no longer be visible.
The display and cache size of the Castanet channels cannot be modified.
If you add a Castanet channel by specifying its IP address and then access the channel again by specifying its DNS name, Netcaster will attempt to resubscribe to the channel.
Before deleting an updating channel, click Stop Update.
When adding a channel, make sure to include a name and valid URL.
Unless you specifically use the Update Now command to update a channel, at most, two channels will update at the same time.
To remove files that were cached and reclaim the disk space they occupied, delete the channel. You can also use the Clear Cache command from the Properties dialog box.
Some of the channel preferences may not be visible until you restart Netcaster.
If you add two channels with the same name, an error may occur.
You cannot move a webtop, as indicated in the Netcaster NetHelp.

Other Sources of Information

The Netcaster Developer's Guide and other information about Netcaster is available at Netscape's DevEdge Online web site. Refer to the Netcaster Developer Central URL:

http://developer.netscape.com/one/netcaster/index.html

SmartUpdate

If a SmartUpdate download of an item occurs while the item to be updated is open or in use, restart your system for the update to take place.
On Windows 16-bit platforms, the install script cannot be larger than 32K. If it is larger, the script will abort after download.
On Windows 16-bit platforms, you should ensure that you are using Communicator 4.03 before using the SoftwareUpdate GetWinProfile() and GetWinRegistry() methods. If you are using a previous version, Communicator may halt.

Cosmo Player

On Windows 3.1, you may experience a system halt when exiting Cosmo Player.
During loading of Cosmo Player within Communicator 4.0, there is a direct draw initialization error with some older graphics display drivers on Windows NT 4.0. Click OK to continue.

KNOWN ISSUES IN 4.0