MP>Can USB support be added to a machine running Windows 95b?

MP>My mother bought my father, for Father's Day, what appears to be a very
MP>nice digital camera.  She didn't ask me about it first, but after buying
MP>it, asked what I thought.  First thing I noticed about it was that it
MP>requires a USB port.  His machine does not have one, but I have a spare
MP>card that I can put in it to add 2 ports.  However, the card requires
MP>Windows 98SE or better because that was when USB support was introduced.
MP>The camera also requires SE, but I believe that is due to the USB
MP>connection requirement.

MP>His machine meets all the other requirements.  Is there any way (third
MP>party, maybe) to get USB drivers & support for Win95b, or will he need
MP>to upgrade?

First, from my experience using the camera's USB designed method of
transferring the pictures to you computer is unnecessarily complicated.
Since most, if not all, digital cameras use some type of removable
storage (Compact Flash (CF), Secure Digital (SD), Memory stick, etc. to
store the pictures, all one needs to do is put the memory device in a
USB memory card reader which then is in effect an added hard drive. One
can then transfer the images to the computer HD. These card readers are
not very expensive. However, nearly all I know of require a USB
interface with the computer.

If I were in that position I think I would do one of several things:

First would be to update to XP Home IF the computer could support that.

Second would be to update to 98SE IF the computer could support that.

And lastly, upgrade the computer to a current machine. which would
then have the capability to support USB built in.

I'd still get the memory card reader however.

Some of the Emachines at Sams, Comp USA. Best Buy and others are
available for very attractive prices and should be quite sufficient for
his purposes.

Jay

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