Jo22 wrote on 2025-06-03, 10:23:

Looking back, Windows 3.1 felt like a very different "era" compared to Windows 3.0. When Windows 3.1 was around, my friends and […]
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Looking back, Windows 3.1 felt like a very different "era" compared to Windows 3.0.
When Windows 3.1 was around, my friends and me had 16-Bit game consoles and Gameboys.

Everything was colourful, computing had just entered multimedia era.
The world wide web was going to be open to everyone. CD-ROMs were sold.
CompuServe had released WinCIM software for Windows (CIM also available on DOS, OS/2 Mac).

And screensavers! Flying Windows, Mystify, Starfield Simulation..
I saw them running on PC monitors in the showcase of computer shops! 😁
Thanks to Windows 3.1!

I saw After Dark on a Macintosh Classic at school, and then when our family got Windows 3.0, we bought After Dark for Windows (I probably begged for it). Maybe it wasn't great value for money, but then again, you didn't want your monitor to burn in! We had a colour monitor though, and I think burn-in might have been more of a monochrome thing, but I'm not sure that was well-known at the time.

But yes, all those other things were missing 😁

Here is someone from Microsoft demonstrating how easy it was to copy data from a spreadsheet into a document in Windows, which looks like it was actually version 1.x since it tiles the windows:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x4KRrZxwX78&t=651s

I just ran across this recently, and I think it's worth mentioning because it really was a benefit of Windows. Before Windows (I started with 3.0), I literally did this type of copy and paste with scissors and glue, although I suppose I could have gotten Lotus 1-2-3 to export to text and then imported that into WordPerfect (graphs would have been harder - what image format can 1-2-3 export as that WordPerfect can import?). DESQview could do copy-and-paste but it wasn't always quite so clean, and was no good if you had more than a screen's worth of data to copy if I recall correctly.

The description of Notepad as "a typical word processor" is funny though! I was happy enough with Write when it came along.

Zelya wrote on 2025-06-03, 19:27:

Prepared some environment for writing code for Windows 2 in a more suitable form.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_xYtwCnomw4

Nice!

I have a 20MB drive with Windows 3.0 with a bunch of files deleted from it, Borland C++ 2.0 with a bunch of files deleted from it and without any IDE, JOVE (a small Emacs-like editor), DESQview, and I can do some Windows 3 development on that, and enjoy it from a retro perspective but certainly understand why most people don't consider that "suitable", e.g. I miss having an undo feature 😁

doshea wrote on 2025-06-04, 11:35:

I saw After Dark on a Macintosh Classic at school, and then when our family got Windows 3.0, we bought After Dark for Windows (I probably begged for it). Maybe it wasn't great value for money, but then again, you didn't want your monitor to burn in! We had a colour monitor though, and I think burn-in might have been more of a monochrome thing, but I'm not sure that was well-known at the time.

Ah, right! After Dark, such a classic! ^^
It had a predecessor, I think, Magic ScreenSaver on Windows 2.x.
I've taken a video of it years ago: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gCV8OPVY-uE

I've also seen a DOS version of After Dark. That's so cool! Never knew it existed! :D
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HvouwI2PjEg

Jo22 wrote on 2025-06-04, 12:52:

It had a predecessor, I think, Magic ScreenSaver on Windows 2.x.
I've taken a video of it years ago: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gCV8OPVY-uE

I think it's too late, that monitor already looks burned in? 😁 That's a nice setup though!

I've also seen a DOS version of After Dark. That's so cool! Never knew it existed! 😁
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HvouwI2PjEg

Nice, I think at least one of the versions of After Dark for Windows included a DOS component, but I think it might have just been a simple blanker - I don't remember anything like that, which looks very similar to the Windows version! I wonder how compatible it was with DOS software or - worse - games?

Jo22 wrote on 2025-06-04, 12:52:

Ah, right! After Dark, such a classic! ^^ It had a predecessor, I think, Magic ScreenSaver on Windows 2.x. I've taken a video of […]
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doshea wrote on 2025-06-04, 11:35:

I saw After Dark on a Macintosh Classic at school, and then when our family got Windows 3.0, we bought After Dark for Windows (I probably begged for it). Maybe it wasn't great value for money, but then again, you didn't want your monitor to burn in! We had a colour monitor though, and I think burn-in might have been more of a monochrome thing, but I'm not sure that was well-known at the time.

Ah, right! After Dark, such a classic! ^^
It had a predecessor, I think, Magic ScreenSaver on Windows 2.x.
I've taken a video of it years ago: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gCV8OPVY-uE

I've also seen a DOS version of After Dark. That's so cool! Never knew it existed! 😁
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HvouwI2PjEg

I'm still stuck with my CGA T3100e on 2.11 (or 2.03)... and VC &NC or dosshell on PCDOS..
Top it all off the drive controller broke , so if Hdd will not see anything anymore than I need a plan for a reformat (oh well was not much there aniway).
It broke trying to install 3 or 3.1 .... no luck on any of them , keep running out of memory (nomatter what settings I use or mem gestionation apps).

ediflorianUS wrote on Yesterday, 19:34:

I'm still stuck with my CGA T3100e on 2.11 (or 2.03)... and VC &NC or dosshell on PCDOS..
Top it all off the drive controller broke , so if Hdd will not see anything anymore than I need a plan for a reformat (oh well was not much there aniway).
It broke trying to install 3 or 3.1 .... no luck on any of them , keep running out of memory (nomatter what settings I use or mem gestionation apps).

"gestionation" -> "optimisation"?

Windows 3.0 works fine for me on a T3100e with a total of 1MB of RAM (PCem, 86Box or real hardware), running on MS-DOS 3.3. If I recall correctly, real mode works fine no matter how the memory is set up, and standard mode works with 640KB base + 384KB XMS. I don't run anything particularly big in Windows though because there's certainly not a whole lot of memory free - I mostly stay in DOS, sometimes using DESQview (with the 384KB allocated to EMS in that case). In Windows, I've just run programs that came with Windows, and a LISP interpreter. I suppose that means that - on this thread's topic - Windows 3.0 isn't all that useful on this particular machine, compared to DESQview 😁

In terms of memory management/drivers, I think I used Windows 3.0's HIMEM.SYS, Toshiba's EMS driver, and Quarterdeck QRAM. I can check exact versions and provide boot configurations if you're interested; since MS-DOS 3.3 doesn't have a boot menu, I have a third-party utility which updates CONFIG.SYS and AUTOEXEC.BAT for me from a list of configurations.

Good luck with your drive controller!

For me, Windows 3.0a works perfectly under 86Box emulating the Gigabyte GA-486L mainboard maxed out at 16 MB of RAM with the Tseng ET4000 emulated graphics card...which is enough to run Windows 3.0a in 386 Enhanced Mode and a 16 MB temporary swap file. 😀

In the Windows Memory tab of the Norton System Information in early versions of Norton Desktop, there is a bug that the total, used and available do not properly displaying more than 32,767 KB of total RAM.

Norton Desktop is running as the shell under Windows 3.0a and MS-DOS 5.0, btw.

^It could be that Windows 3.0 needs the WINA20.386 file that's on the MS-DOS 5 diskette set.
To run in 386 Enhanced-Mode, I mean. It has to be in root directory: C:\WINA20.386
Interestingly, I once read, the file is being handled by MS-DOS itself after typing WIN.
Windows 3.1x nolonger needs the file, I think.

The Toshiba T3100e has a 286 CPU, so I don't think any file is going to make it run in 386 Enhanced mode, although I certainly would have tried it anyway when I was a kid 😁

doshea wrote on Today, 02:30:

"gestionation" -> "optimisation"? […]
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ediflorianUS wrote on Yesterday, 19:34:

I'm still stuck with my CGA T3100e on 2.11 (or 2.03)... and VC &NC or dosshell on PCDOS..
Top it all off the drive controller broke , so if Hdd will not see anything anymore than I need a plan for a reformat (oh well was not much there aniway).
It broke trying to install 3 or 3.1 .... no luck on any of them , keep running out of memory (nomatter what settings I use or mem gestionation apps).

"gestionation" -> "optimisation"?

Windows 3.0 works fine for me on a T3100e with a total of 1MB of RAM (PCem, 86Box or real hardware), running on MS-DOS 3.3. If I recall correctly, real mode works fine no matter how the memory is set up, and standard mode works with 640KB base + 384KB XMS. I don't run anything particularly big in Windows though because there's certainly not a whole lot of memory free - I mostly stay in DOS, sometimes using DESQview (with the 384KB allocated to EMS in that case). In Windows, I've just run programs that came with Windows, and a LISP interpreter. I suppose that means that - on this thread's topic - Windows 3.0 isn't all that useful on this particular machine, compared to DESQview 😁

In terms of memory management/drivers, I think I used Windows 3.0's HIMEM.SYS, Toshiba's EMS driver, and Quarterdeck QRAM. I can check exact versions and provide boot configurations if you're interested; since MS-DOS 3.3 doesn't have a boot menu, I have a third-party utility which updates CONFIG.SYS and AUTOEXEC.BAT for me from a list of configurations.

Good luck with your drive controller!

Thank'x for the Replay , "Gestionation = Ram Management"....
It always hung on 3.0 load screen , just locked up the 286.
What is Toshiba's EMS driver? I don't know what that is...
Aniway I am having now a broken HDD controller so till I fix that I can't really test anything....
I used QEMM or EMM286,etc , anyway no matter how I set up anything it never loads the GUI part of the install... or OS if I copy it. Keeps running out of memory (5 mb I have installed - 640+rest &CGA +4x1 Simms).
Never had issues under PC-DOS (7.0). - I tried bits and commands and all the mem settings I could play with in x amount of time (was absolutely in vain)
I am just headbanging to wall not knowing what's going on why most of dos stuff works , and win up to 2.11 works but nothing above that.
before the crash I tried reinstall of 3.1, anyways I had 3x1.5 gb partitions from main drive with Overlay app. (worked fine with dos and early windows 2).

If I pull the drive , and it still has a valid partition I will upload Autoexec.bat & Config.Sys - command lines. or the files if it's possible as a attachment.
All of this is Beyond my mental capacity to figure out (there is a problem I don't understand somewhere). I am thinking of trying GEOS , I wanted also to try the IBM variant of 3, OS/2 or / or something but I could never figure out how to launch the setup file after copying all the files to C drive.