Digital Research GEM, but good luck finding a copy.

Some versions of DR-DOS came bundled with ViewMAX which was just GEM with a new name and full color windows.

Video demonstration

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=468azf9epaI

Scored an actual copy of Geoworks Ensemble so we will see how that goes. May try to combine it with DR DOS.

Windows is definately not for 286. It will not perform well even if will run (someone's here on Vogons even run XP on 2Mhz CPU, but this is not PC for everyday usage).
Soon I'm going to restore one of my 286 boards I have. I can see visible leakage from battery and this mobo haven't been in use from long ago. Hope I will force life into it. Personally I will choose between MS-DOS 3.3 and 6.22 for optimal speed.

Godlike wrote:

Windows is definately not for 286. It will not perform well even if will run (someone's here on Vogons even run XP on 2Mhz CPU, but this is not PC for everyday usage).
Soon I'm going to restore one of my 286 boards I have. I can see visible leakage from battery and this mobo haven't been in use from long ago. Hope I will force life into it. Personally I will choose between MS-DOS 3.3 and 6.22 for optimal speed.

Totally possible and I actually did run Windows 3.1 in a 286 harris CPU @ 20Mhz for several years, 3 things I remember from that era in that PC: Cakewalk 3.01 , Word 6.0 and X-Wing though this one in DOS. It was perfectly playable.

20 MHz 286 is not your typical 286 though.

This is the mobo I will deal with soon:

This is common motherboard, it has AMD 16Mhz CPU. It could be a very minimal system spec to run Win 3.11 eventually as minimum system requirements. For optimal performance should be MS-DOS installed. First windows is designed for 486/Pentium era. What's the reason will be on installing Win 3x on 286? This is still MS-DOS just shell covered nothing ealse. The huge step ahead was done with Win95, the real OS, but that's Pentium era. I'm going definately with MS-DOS 😀

You can't install Windows 3.11 on a 286. You can however install ver. 3.1
Windows exists prior 3.xx in fact google "Windows 286" and "Windows 386" , Windows 2.0 , 1.03 etc.. though I got your point for certain DOS task a 286 will be enough.

Windows 95 still has DOS underneath, it just uses the CPU protected mode to execute more than one thread at a time and supports virtual machines. Windows NT on the other hand is a completely new OS.

Nice motherboard, it's good to have 30 pin simms instead of Sipp or DIP chips memory.

Of course is good to have 30pin simms, but now I have only empty sockets and need to buy some memory for this build. I have many 72pin simms, but this won't fit anyway. I can't find manual for this motherboard. I hope I can go with 4 x 1MB modules. I also find some graphics for sale, 3usd each. Cirrus Logic 512kb looks ok.

Have to remind myself dos commands, too much of windows nowadays 😵

I run Windows 3.1 on 286-16 with 1MB back in time 😁 But this really isn't recommended. With upgraded ram to 2MB it was way better. With 4MB and CF card for HDD I guess a little 286 would run Windows 3.1 nicely 😁 I'm still waiting to buy a good 286 motherboard for my 286 build.

Godlike wrote:

Of course is good to have 30pin simms, but now I have only empty sockets and need to buy some memory for this build. I have many 72pin simms, but this won't fit anyway. I can't find manual for this motherboard. I hope I can go with 4 x 1MB modules. I also find some graphics for sale, 3usd each. Cirrus Logic 512kb looks ok.

Have to remind myself dos commands, too much of windows nowadays 😵

Yes, the Cirrus Logic, not sure which chipset you'll have to investigate a little have some rudimentary 2D acceleration which is good, Also with proper drivers you get 256 colors at 800x600.
1mb 30 pin simm are easy to find let me know if you need them I have tons of it.
I suggest you use a scsi adapter and hard drive, it will off load the I/O tasks from the CPU and will improve the performance.

Lastly in windows environment, moving and resizing the program windows is much faster if you have one of these:

Next to it it's my 20Mhz Harris, the first ever CPU I had. The mobo is gone though 🙁 the battery corroded the traces.

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PeterLI wrote:

I should try Windows 3.1 on my 80286 with 80287. It will be an interesting experience.

Installing it whilst doing a defensive driver course at the same time. The slides time out so it is really boring. You need it in NY to get a 10% insurance discount.

Just installed it. Runs relatively smooth on my 80286 12.5MZH with 8MB RAM, 80287 10MHZ and 256KB Cirrus Logic VGA>

We want pictures ! 😎
how do you have 8mb ?

I remember installing Windows 3.1 on a 286 with 1MB - it was a demo machine that had been brought in, and they wanted to see it running windows, which would have been in "real mode" as it was set as shadow.
I quickly dived into BIOS, and reallocated from shadow to extended, and had it running in standard mode - to the surprise of some who'd never heard of that trick.

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vmunix wrote:

Yes, the Cirrus Logic, not sure which chipset you'll have to investigate a little have some rudimentary 2D acceleration which is […]
Show full quote

Godlike wrote:

Of course is good to have 30pin simms, but now I have only empty sockets and need to buy some memory for this build. I have many 72pin simms, but this won't fit anyway. I can't find manual for this motherboard. I hope I can go with 4 x 1MB modules. I also find some graphics for sale, 3usd each. Cirrus Logic 512kb looks ok.

Have to remind myself dos commands, too much of windows nowadays 😵

Yes, the Cirrus Logic, not sure which chipset you'll have to investigate a little have some rudimentary 2D acceleration which is good, Also with proper drivers you get 256 colors at 800x600.
1mb 30 pin simm are easy to find let me know if you need them I have tons of it.
I suggest you use a scsi adapter and hard drive, it will off load the I/O tasks from the CPU and will improve the performance.

Lastly in windows environment, moving and resizing the program windows is much faster if you have one of these:

Next to it it's my 20Mhz Harris, the first ever CPU I had. The mobo is gone though 🙁 the battery corroded the traces.

This is baby-AT moterboard layout, Headland HT12A chipset
I will consider 16bit 1Mb Cirrus Logic GD5428 VGA card.
I have as well (untested yet) FDD/HDD 16 bit DTK controller card.
If you have 4x 1Mb SIMM's then please PM 😀
10Mhz Math CPU will definately speed up, unfortunately I haven't any of these.

vmunix wrote:

PeterLI wrote:

I should try Windows 3.1 on my 80286 with 80287. It will be an interesting experience.

Installing it whilst doing a defensive driver course at the same time. The slides time out so it is really boring. You need it in NY to get a 10% insurance discount.

Just installed it. Runs relatively smooth on my 80286 12.5MZH with 8MB RAM, 80287 10MHZ and 256KB Cirrus Logic VGA>

We want pictures ! 😎
how do you have 8mb ?

There are some late 286 motherboards with 30-pin SIMM or SIPP sockets.

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This is my 286/25Mhz motherboard it's really tiny in size, notice they dropped the 8bit isa slots and the DIP memory chips. In the back of it says: 07/17/1992
The 287 math copro socket is empty becasue it's really really hard to get a 16Mhz piece, in fact, I've never seen one.

The 10Mhz iit was in the 20Mhz I actually used, this one came much later and I have never actually use it in a working PC.
The 40Mhz Am386 next to it was the "upgrade" of my 20Mhz 286 it was given to me by a friend who upgraded his.

vmunix wrote:

This is my 286/25Mhz motherboard it's really tiny in size, notice they dropped the 8bit isa slots and the DIP memory chips. In t […]
Show full quote

This is my 286/25Mhz motherboard it's really tiny in size, notice they dropped the 8bit isa slots and the DIP memory chips. In the back of it says: 07/17/1992
The 287 math copro socket is empty becasue it's really really hard to get a 16Mhz piece, in fact, I've never seen one.

The nice thing about the 286 motherboards is that the co-pro has it's own clock crystal so it can be run asynchronously relative to the speed of the CPU. You can put a slower co-pro in it just by swapping the clock crystal, the CPU will just have to wait a little bit longer for the results to come back.

Indeed, now find me a 20.000Mhz crystal with that shape I bet it's harder than the 16Mhz 287 🤣 nah jk, it's a good point and I even thought about it, I'm not sure if I dare to fiddle with this motherboard since I won't be able to find another one in this life.