Microsoft at Work
Encyclopedia
Microsoft at Work was a short-lived effort promoted by Microsoft
to tie together common business machinery, like fax
machines and photocopier
s, with a common communications protocol allowing control and status information to be shared with computers running Microsoft Windows
. Similar efforts for other markets included Microsoft at Home and Cablesoft
. By any measure these efforts were a dismal failure; it appears only a small number of devices using Microsoft at Work were ever released before disappearing without a trace. Microsoft has since re-used the "at Work" term for a section of their web site describing various tips and tricks for using Windows in a business environment.
Microsoft first presented the at Work concept at a release party on 9 June, 1993. They described five classes of devices as being targets for the at Work system; fax machines, photocopiers, telephones, printers, and, oddly, hand-held PDAs (personal digital assistants). The idea of at Work was to design a standard set of communications protocols, status codes and commands to allow the devices to be remotely operated in the same fashion network printers were under PostScript
.
The system consisted of five primary components;
Microsoft claimed that supporting at Work would add only a few dollars to a device supporting it, making it attractive for office equipment which would normally cost several hundreds of dollars. They also claimed to have signed up fifty partners who were developing at Work devices for release starting at the end of 1993. Ricoh
demonstrated a fax machine with at Work at the release.
It was not until May 1994 that the first at Work device actually shipped, a Lexmark
printer, the WinWriter 600. By 1995 few, if any, additional devices had been added to the list, and the entire concept had essentially disappeared from view. Byte Magazine awarded it a "Whatever Happened To..." in July, noting that "few" products had come to market supporting the standard, and that the original at Work group had been broken up and sent to different divisions within the company. Microsoft continued to claim that it was still being developed, but it seems that by 1995 the effort was dead.
One of the few pieces of software to support at Work was a Microsoft Outlook
fax engine, Microsoft Fax (or Microsoft At Work Fax), which shipped with Windows 95
but stopped working under more recent versions of the OS.
Although at Work eventually failed, its announcement caused other companies to offer competing systems of their own. Perhaps the best known was Novell
's Novell Embedded Systems Technology
, or NEST, which was released in 1994. Like at Work, NEST eventually disappeared, but was somewhat more successful and lived on as NDPS.
Microsoft
Microsoft Corporation is an American public multinational corporation headquartered in Redmond, Washington, USA that develops, manufactures, licenses, and supports a wide range of products and services predominantly related to computing through its various product divisions...
to tie together common business machinery, like fax
Fax
Fax , sometimes called telecopying, is the telephonic transmission of scanned printed material , normally to a telephone number connected to a printer or other output device...
machines and photocopier
Photocopier
A photocopier is a machine that makes paper copies of documents and other visual images quickly and cheaply. Most current photocopiers use a technology called xerography, a dry process using heat...
s, with a common communications protocol allowing control and status information to be shared with computers running Microsoft Windows
Microsoft Windows
Microsoft Windows is a series of operating systems produced by Microsoft.Microsoft introduced an operating environment named Windows on November 20, 1985 as an add-on to MS-DOS in response to the growing interest in graphical user interfaces . Microsoft Windows came to dominate the world's personal...
. Similar efforts for other markets included Microsoft at Home and Cablesoft
Cablesoft
Cablesoft was an early attempt to define an interactive television standard. The partners in the new company were Microsoft, Tele-Communications and Time Warner. In fact, much of the effort appeared to be on Microsoft's part, and the two cable companies were essentially launch partners...
. By any measure these efforts were a dismal failure; it appears only a small number of devices using Microsoft at Work were ever released before disappearing without a trace. Microsoft has since re-used the "at Work" term for a section of their web site describing various tips and tricks for using Windows in a business environment.
Microsoft first presented the at Work concept at a release party on 9 June, 1993. They described five classes of devices as being targets for the at Work system; fax machines, photocopiers, telephones, printers, and, oddly, hand-held PDAs (personal digital assistants). The idea of at Work was to design a standard set of communications protocols, status codes and commands to allow the devices to be remotely operated in the same fashion network printers were under PostScript
PostScript
PostScript is a dynamically typed concatenative programming language created by John Warnock and Charles Geschke in 1982. It is best known for its use as a page description language in the electronic and desktop publishing areas. Adobe PostScript 3 is also the worldwide printing and imaging...
.
The system consisted of five primary components;
- Microsoft At Work Operating System, a small RTOS to be embedded in devices
- Microsoft At Work Communications, a communications protocolCommunications protocolA communications protocol is a system of digital message formats and rules for exchanging those messages in or between computing systems and in telecommunications...
for sending documents between at Work devices - Microsoft at Work Rendering, a unified high-quality rendering system, similar in concept to PDFPortable Document FormatPortable Document Format is an open standard for document exchange. This file format, created by Adobe Systems in 1993, is used for representing documents in a manner independent of application software, hardware, and operating systems....
- Microsoft At Work GUI, a simple UI driver that could be used on the devices to present a common interface
- Applications, which were expected to allow users to direct documents to at Work machines
Microsoft claimed that supporting at Work would add only a few dollars to a device supporting it, making it attractive for office equipment which would normally cost several hundreds of dollars. They also claimed to have signed up fifty partners who were developing at Work devices for release starting at the end of 1993. Ricoh
Ricoh
or Ricoh, is a Japanese company that was established in 1936 on February 6th, as , a company in the RIKEN zaibatsu. Its headquarters is located in Ricoh Building in Chūō, Tokyo....
demonstrated a fax machine with at Work at the release.
It was not until May 1994 that the first at Work device actually shipped, a Lexmark
Lexmark
Lexmark International, Inc. is an American corporation which develops and manufactures printing and imaging products, including laser and inkjet printers, multifunction products, printing supplies, and services for business and individual consumers...
printer, the WinWriter 600. By 1995 few, if any, additional devices had been added to the list, and the entire concept had essentially disappeared from view. Byte Magazine awarded it a "Whatever Happened To..." in July, noting that "few" products had come to market supporting the standard, and that the original at Work group had been broken up and sent to different divisions within the company. Microsoft continued to claim that it was still being developed, but it seems that by 1995 the effort was dead.
One of the few pieces of software to support at Work was a Microsoft Outlook
Microsoft Outlook
Microsoft Outlook is a personal information manager from Microsoft, available both as a separate application as well as a part of the Microsoft Office suite...
fax engine, Microsoft Fax (or Microsoft At Work Fax), which shipped with Windows 95
Windows 95
Windows 95 is a consumer-oriented graphical user interface-based operating system. It was released on August 24, 1995 by Microsoft, and was a significant progression from the company's previous Windows products...
but stopped working under more recent versions of the OS.
Although at Work eventually failed, its announcement caused other companies to offer competing systems of their own. Perhaps the best known was Novell
Novell
Novell, Inc. is a multinational software and services company. It is a wholly owned subsidiary of The Attachmate Group. It specializes in network operating systems, such as Novell NetWare; systems management solutions, such as Novell ZENworks; and collaboration solutions, such as Novell Groupwise...
's Novell Embedded Systems Technology
Novell Embedded Systems Technology
Novell Embedded Systems Technology, or NEST, was a series of APIs, data formats and network protocol stacks written in a highly portable fashion intended to be used in embedded systems. The idea was to allow various small devices to access Novell NetWare services, provide such services, or use...
, or NEST, which was released in 1994. Like at Work, NEST eventually disappeared, but was somewhat more successful and lived on as NDPS.