Please avoid putting non-free OS disk-images up here on VOGONS, there are pretty stringent rules.

Discussion of the OS, pictures of the OS, and the like are all highly encouraged, but distribution of non-free software is a no no.

That said-- The recently released/FOSS'd DR-DOS can run WFW, with some prodding.

I was shocked that FreeDOS does not support WFW

The problem is support for Windows Enhanced-Mode.
Normal Windows 3.1x and WfW 3.10 could be run in Windows Standard-Mode, still.

There used to be a special, experimental build of FreeDOS kernal that supports 386 Enhanced-Mode.
Since 2021 a patch seems to be included but works for normal Windows only (non-WfW 3.11)?

Also, the FreeDOS memory managers don't seem to support GEMMIS so far, the Windows Global EMM Import Specification.
So the himem.sys/emm386.exe supplied with WfW are a better choice.

Btw, there's a setting that might be needed for some versions of FreeDOS.
InDOSPollingMode=True (in system.ini)

More information can be found here:
https://danielectra.github.io/blog/windows-31-on-freedos
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EMM386#Overview

I used Rufus to install FreeDos then put a USB mouse driver into there (Not CuteMouse *i can't figure out why it does not work* but i used a wired mouse.com thingy but i can't seem to find anywhere after i downloaded it, and i have no idea how to upload it without spending money. If anyone can help with that please tell me) ran setup.exe, Then went though the setup process and It worked! I mean, if you ask me, That's a bit to easy.

Please stay on topic, this is strictly Windows for Workgroups discussion. 😁

For those who don't know how many version of this crap was out there: https://casadevall.pro/articles/2020/05/explo … 90s-networking/

• Windows 3.1
  Windows for Workgroups 3.1
  Windows 3.11
  Windows for Workgroups 3.11

The others keep it to yourself, imo this was the best from the 3.x series due to the stability patches built in networking and if you read the article he will say that this thing is closer to Win95 in codebase than other 3.x es.

Freedos still DON'T support WFW 🙁

1For now, FreeDOS 1.4 can't run Windows for Workgroups in enhanced mode, but can run Windows 3.1 in standard mode.

https://www.freedos.org/download/announce.html

Anyway MSDOS 6.22 ain't that bad. Next thing I need is to find a nice PCI card for this.

Yes. Freedos does not.

Again, DrDOS was recently open sourced (as SvarDos http://svardos.org/), *AND DOES*.

Gopher666 wrote on 2025-05-18, 21:25:

In case of a physical machine with PCI ports only, what sound card would you recommend? I assume most which has a DOS driver will work in WFW as well

Was there RDP/VNC or any other remote desktop solution for this Windows?

Is this thing supports Extended partitions? It should, when I partition a 4GB CF card with 2GB and 1.7GB FAT16s and the second is Extended logical it does not see it, if both is primary FAT16 all good 😒

Your assumption is pretty much correct. If it supports dos good chance it supports Win3x as well but worth double checking you can find drivers first. Yamaha is probably the default option.

I'm assuming you want to access the Win3x box remotely. Back in the day this was done with paid software like PC Anyware, There is a VNC for dos but remote access seems more trouble then its worth.
http://arcady.chem.anrb.ru/vncdos

Pre WinXP RDP was known as Terminal Server Client, which did have a version for Win3x which can be found on the Win2k Server CD which will allow you to remote ONTO a remote computer but I think doesn't work on anything newer then Vista/2008

Windows relies on dos for HDD layout. can dos see the extended partition? That said I've only used MS Dos and that combinations definitely supports an extended partition with multiple logical drives set up.

On plain Windows 3.1x, running share.exe is being recommend if multiple files are being opened/closed simultanously.
Windows for Workgroups 3.1x has vshare.386, I think.

Gopher666 wrote on 2025-05-19, 20:39:

Please stay on topic, this is strictly Windows for Workgroups discussion. 😁

Are you talking about me? If i did, i'm so sorry!

wierd_w wrote on 2025-05-19, 21:09:

Yes. Freedos does not.

Again, DrDOS was recently open sourced (as SvarDos http://svardos.org/), *AND DOES*.

This new DOS variant is definitely something worth exploring!

Here are my experiences: yes it does run, but only with it's own HIMEM.SYS coming with WFW311 not with the SVARDOS one.

If you use the original one on some machines you run into this issue: https://freedos-user.narkive.com/T0OG1zj9/imp … in-enhaced-mode

Your system.ini file should get a line (below the [386Enh] heading) like:
PageOverCommit=1

For me it says reduce the number under 4 ... tried 1/2/3/4 none works. With it's original himem it works.

The other question was about the sound card: I want to make this box a midi playing station with AudioRack and other goodies, which PCI card had the best Win 3.x support (both driver and provided software wise)?

Technically speaking, it's also possible to have Windows 3.1x (incl. WfW 3.11) running on Unix/Linux.
Here, the 386 Enhanced-Mode kernal -and only it- runs on the OS kernal, via WABI. No need for DOS, at all.
That way, Program Manager, File Manager and many Windows 3.x applications can be run.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wabi_(software)
http://vscojot.free.fr/linux_desktops.html

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lnHVYx6Nq6k
https://www.youtube.com/@dreambyte7926/search?query=wabi

Wine already has very good support for Win16 applications. WABI with WfW 3.11 installed might have marginally better compatibility, but I doubt you would encounter such apps very often IRL. Besides, WABI is still completely proprietary. Caldera only licensed it from Sun and the latter has never open sourced it. Since development was terminated nearly 30 years ago, Oracle might not even have the sources any more...

Majorianus wrote on 2025-09-03, 06:14:

Wine already has very good support for Win16 applications. WABI with WfW 3.11 installed might have marginally better compatibility, but I doubt you would encounter such apps very often IRL. Besides, WABI is still completely proprietary. Caldera only licensed it from Sun and the latter has never open sourced it. Since development was terminated nearly 30 years ago, Oracle might not even have the sources any more...

+1

Absolutely, your analysis is spot on. 🙂👍

WABI just came to my mind because it did run original Windows 3.1x, along with Program Manager and so on.

WINE or ReactOS are implementations of Windows/Windows API that are much more modern and more capable.

WABI by contrast was from the "old days", just like Merge or once-famous DOSemu.

Way back in the 90s, DOSemu provided DOS compatibility through virtualization of an MS-DOS computer (with Trident VGA card).

It ran a real copy of DOS (FreeDOS etc), but normal Windows 3.x didn't run flawlessly yet.
By using the patched Win-OS/2 from OS/2 it was possible to get Windows going, though.

On Unix workstations, commercial users rather used SoftWindows/SoftWindows 95 maybe. Or WABI, since it was included so often.

Nowadays, DOSBox has replaced DOSemu just like WINE has replaced WABI.
(There's DOSemu2, but I have no experience of it yet.)

What's cool about DOSBox, though, is is ability to boot an actual operating system (like DOSemu formerly).
So it's possible to boot into, say, DOS 2.x or MS-DOS 6.2. Or Windows 9x. 🙂

One unusual, interesting and perhaps even marginally useful way to run some Win16 or Win32 apps in actual MS-DOS or compatible DOS running on plain metal is the HX DOS extender. It has an extension that emulates the most important Windows libraries and APIs (GDI & DirectDraw) so that it can run single window Windows apps. They have to be just single window though, since it doesn't emulate window management in any way. It was written by Japheth of the Jemm etc. enhanced DOS memory manager fame.

I actually haven't tried it yet and I don't have a "real" use case, but interesting it is that someone has managed to code something like that. It is still maintained, although I don't think new features are coming any time soon. Extending it to full Windows emulation would be too much work and not really useful, since like you wrote, ReactOS or Linux + WINE already provide that pretty well for "old" Windows versions. Besides, you can't run DOS on plain metal on the latest systems anyway, because many of them no longer have CSM. As far as I know there is no way to boot DOS without legacy BIOS.

^Hi, yes, a few applications do run on HX: Re: DirectDraw or DirectX porting to Windows 3.1+Win32s possible ?