there's no concrete evidence to suggest that USB Supplement updates for Windows 95 were ever released as standalone downloads or on separate discs.

If you have access to a system with Windows 95 OSR 2.5 installed, you could potentially extract the USB Supplement files and transfer them to your target system. However, this requires technical expertise and carries risks.

There are claims that they were but I just found this and if accurate, then apparently USB support was officially only intended for OEM OSR2.1 and 2.5 releases.

https://web.archive.org/web/20041208102028/ht … b/253756/EN-US/

My research is mostly academic. I already got the files from an OSR2.5 iso. It's quite easy; the exe files are in the other\updates\usb path.

according to this, while microsoft never put the files up for download, some vendors did. the IBM files are mirrored here, and dell even still hosts its file to this day.

the catch with those files is, they all want an empty floppy to extract to, and i didn't bother with that. if anyone wants to try that, these should all in theory extract usbsupp.exe version 4.03.1214 (the supposedly bugfixed one compared to 1212 on some earlier OSR 2.1 CDs).

disregarding the crappy usb support in 95 (1, 2), if those files are what they are supposed to be, that means semi-official downloadable AGP support down to OSR2, along with the P6 fix in the form of vmm2xupd.exe that they must have had up for download at one point. only caveat is that said note 31 mentions some power management related issues that were only resolved with usbupd2.exe from the OSR2.5 CD.

auron wrote on 2025-01-27, 04:01:

according to this, while microsoft never put the files up for download, some vendors did. the IBM files are mirrored here, and dell even still hosts its file to this day.

I guess some OEMs decided to make the update file available for download instead of issuing new OSR2.1 install media, which makes sense, considering that basically the only thing needed to make 2 a 2.1 is the USB update 1.

auron wrote on 2025-01-27, 04:01:

the catch with those files is, they all want an empty floppy to extract to, and i didn't bother with that. if anyone wants to try that, these should all in theory extract usbsupp.exe version 4.03.1214 (the supposedly bugfixed one compared to 1212 on some earlier OSR 2.1 CDs).

I made floppy images with those files and the content is the same as the usbsupp.exe from OSR2.1.

The usbsupp.exe from the OSR2.5 image is also the same as the one from OSR2.1. AFAIK there is no updated variant. For the P6 problem, the fix for OSR2 and 2.1 is VMM2XUPD.EXE, as you pointed out.

eddman wrote on 2025-01-27, 18:11:

I guess some OEMs decided to make the update file available for download instead of issuing new OSR2.1 install media, which makes sense, considering that basically the only thing needed to make 2 a 2.1 is the USB update 1.

i have thought the same, but this may be not quite 100% the case, as for instance some non-english versions of OSR2 have a bugged io.sys where himem will eat up a lot of memory, and this has been fixed by default when installing from an OSR2.1 disc.

eddman wrote on 2025-01-27, 18:11:

The usbsupp.exe from the OSR2.5 image is also the same as the one from OSR2.1.

no, as note 31 on that site i linked says, early OSR 2.1 CDs should have an earlier revision of the usbsupp.exe file with a 1212 version number. i'm not clear as to when they started replacing that file or how to tell from the CD markings which ones have the older or newer file. both are said to be bugged, though this file represents the only official way to give windows 95 AGP support.

auron wrote on 2025-01-27, 19:20:

no, as note 31 on that site i linked says, early OSR 2.1 CDs should have an earlier revision of the usbsupp.exe file with a 1212 version number. i'm not clear as to when they started replacing that file or how to tell from the CD markings which ones have the older or newer file. both are said to be bugged, though this file represents the only official way to give windows 95 AGP support.

I don't rely on what a random page says. For example, it says update 2 makes 1 redundant, which is wrong, considering update 2 lacks quite a lot of files from update 1.

I compared the usbsupp.exe files from OSR2.1 and 2.5 myself and they are exactly the same.

eddman wrote on 2025-01-27, 19:38:

I don't rely on what a random page says. For example, it says update 2 makes 1 redundant, which is wrong, considering update 2 lacks quite a lot of files from update 1.

I compared the usbsupp.exe files from OSR2.1 and 2.5 myself and they are exactly the same.

if you are referring to note 43, that does indeed seem to go against what's usually suggested. for an official source on the 1212/1214 versions existing: https://web.archive.org/web/20110611042654/ht … t.com/kb/161020

if there was only one usbsupp.exe version, why would they list those two versions for OSR2.1? furthermore, it mentions file dates up to august 1997. OSR2.1 CDs are usually dated 0197 or 0397 on the CD itself.

auron wrote on 2025-01-27, 19:52:

for an official source on the 1212/1214 versions existing: https://web.archive.org/web/20110611042654/ht … t.com/kb/161020

if there was only one usbsupp.exe version, why would they list those two versions for OSR2.1?

That doesn't mean there are two different update files.

Extract a usbsupp.exe and check the versions of the DLL and SYS files.

MS says this about P6 on the OSR2.5 page:

1Updates:
2
3    One core file update for Intel Pentium II processors (CPUs)
4    International-specific updates
5
6For more information about the core file update, please see the following article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:
7
8    Q179897 Memory Management Problems on Computers with Pentium Processors

https://www.betaarchive.com/wiki/index.php?ti … _Archive/178972

It basically says the P6 fix for pre-2.5 is VMM2XUPD.EXE.

some of the files could stay at 1212, which doesn't refute the existence of two revisions. my usbsupp.exe is dated may 1997 and this is newer than the date on the CD itself, indicating that they quietly updated that file without changing the date printed on the CD.

the 1212 revision is mentioned here, download link not working.

and yes, as i stated earlier, the P6 fix was either vmm2xupd.exe for OSR2/2.1 (downloadable) or usbupd2.exe for 2.5 (officially only on that disc). i'm not sure what point you are making there.

auron wrote on 2025-01-27, 20:09:

my usbsupp.exe is dated may 1997 and this is newer than the date on the CD itself, indicating that they quietly updated that file without changing the date printed on the CD.

That date matches the CD date. What's the earliest date of an OSR2.1 CD? Do you have an older one?

auron wrote on 2025-01-27, 20:09:

the 1212 revision is mentioned here, download link not working.

It is working on archive.org. The date is 23-Oct-1996, but last I checked there is no 1996 OSR2.1. That forum post too says that all OSR2.1 seemingly come with the new usbsupp.exe.

I looked around a bit and found this: https://www.betaarchive.com/database//view_re … 88-918dc12da6f8

I don't have access to download. It seems the older usbsupp.exe was a test update and OSR2.1 got released with a newer one. I suppose you probably won't encounter the old one through official means unless you specifically use the test update. (EDIT: It seems the earlier update file was made available through OEMs to the users prior to release of OSR2.1)

auron wrote on 2025-01-27, 20:09:

and yes, as i stated earlier, the P6 fix was either vmm2xupd.exe for OSR2/2.1 (downloadable) or usbupd2.exe for 2.5 (officially only on that disc). i'm not sure what point you are making there.

That the P6 fix was never incorporated in usbsupp.exe. I suppose you had some other fix in mind then.

eddman wrote on 2025-01-27, 21:09:

That date matches the CD date. What's the earliest date of an OSR2.1 CD? Do you have an older one?

i've seen them with either 0197 or 0397. do you have a picture of one that has 0597 printed on it?

eddman wrote on 2025-01-27, 21:09:

It is working on archive.org. The date is 23-Oct-1996, but last I checked there is no 1996 OSR2.1. That forum post too says that all OSR2.1 seemingly come with the new usbsupp.exe.

archive.org is redirecting me to the main page of that usbman site which had the download link to that supposed 1212 version usbsupp.exe. i'm not sure if you got the correct download link, i wasn't able to link to the specific post i was talking about.

i suppose it's possible 1212 is a preview version and never came on any OSR 2.1 CD. it did seem to be more publicized at the time than one would think if that was the case, though.

auron wrote on 2025-01-27, 21:50:

i've seen them with either 0197 or 0397. do you have a picture of one that has 0597 printed on it?

Where did you see 0597? I know of the other two and they have the same file versions, dated May 1997.

By the way, by date I mean the file dates. The printed number on the CD shouldn't be relied on as the only reference. If you have a CD or image, check the files.

auron wrote on 2025-01-27, 21:50:

archive.org is redirecting me to the main page of that usbman site which had the download link to that supposed 1212 version usbsupp.exe.

You're clicking on newer archived links that were dead on that website by that point. Click on 2012 or earlier. If the date isn't blue, it usually means not working.

auron wrote on 2025-01-27, 21:50:

it did seem to be more publicized at the time than one would think if that was the case, though.

Maybe people were just passing around that early exe and hence why it became a big deal. Could be it was included on magazine CDs and whatnot.

Another possibility is it was included with device USB drivers, although these probably would've been unofficial ones, since it'd be odd if MS allowed test files to be used in official driver packages.

So I managed to get that USB test CD and the included update file is identical to the one from usbman.com. Reading the included document, it seems the file was supposed to be distributed by OEMs to the users who bought machines with OSR2.0. It might've also been pre-installed on some models.