First post, by Kahenraz
- Rank
- l33t
While running diffs across versions, I noticed that my ramdrive.sys on disk4 is 0 bytes. Between disk 1-6, all other files are identical to the retail release with the same date but a different time. My guess is that there could have been a read error while making the image that caused the file to be 0 bytes but I can't find another matching dump of these disks which match the time stamps.
I wouldn't think much of this since disks 1-6 are otherwise identical to the retail release. But I also have an extra disk 7 that is full of printer drivers. At best, I think that this is actually a rare and unique release that I can't match to any other archive on the internet. I'm not sure if I made these disk images or if I got them from somewhere on the internet.
I'm curious if anyone has a matching set with labels to identify where this actually comes from. The timstamp on the files are all 1992/3/10 5:10AM.
Here is a catalog of disk 7. I'm assuming that I can't attach them here? I'm not 100% sure though, because they are literally all just drivers.
Disk7/├── BASE9.DRV├── BJET.DRV├── BRHJ100.DRV├── BRHJ770.DRV├── BRTHR24E.DRV├── BRTHR9E.DRV├── BULL18.DRV├── BULL24.DRV├── BULL9.DRV├── BULLASER.DRV├── CANCAPSL.DRV├── CANON10X.DRV├── CANON800.DRV├── CANONBJS.DRV├── CIT24.DRV├── CIT9.DRV├── DEC2100.DRV├── DEC2200.DRV├── DEC3200.DRV├── DJ1000.DRV├── DJ2000.DRV├── DM124.DRV├── DM324.DRV├── DM400.DRV├── DM600.DRV├── EPSON24E.DRV├── EPSON9E.DRV├── ESCP2E.DRV├── FRX71503.WPD├── FUJI24E.DRV├── HU200.DRV├── IBM238X.DRV├── IBM239X.DRV├── JP150.DRV├── JP350.DRV├── JP350S.DRV├── KYOCERA.DRV├── LA75PLUS.DRV├── LQBASE24.DRV├── MANTAL24.DRV├── MANTAL9.DRV├── MANTAL90.DRV├── MANTALBJ.DRV├── MT735.DRV├── MT99.DRV├── OEMSETUP.INF├── OKI24E.DRV├── OKI9E.DRV├── OKI9IBME.DRV├── OL830525.WPD├── OLIVETI3.WPD├── OLIVETI4.WPD├── PAN24E.DRV├── PAN9E.DRV├── PCL4X.DRV├── PG308.DRV├── PNWRITEA.DRV├── PNWRITEB.DRV├── PRINTER2.WRI
├── QUIETJET.DRV├── SEIKO24E.DRV├── SEIKOSH9.DRV├── SFINST2.EXE├── SFINSTAL.EXE├── STAR24E.DRV├── STAR9E.DRV├── STARJET.DRV└── TH760.DRV0 directories, 68 files
According to Gemini:
Your copy is not a standard US-Retail release, nor is it a typical US OEM bundle. You are holding a copy of the Windows 3.1 Euro […]
Your copy is not a standard US-Retail release, nor is it a typical US OEM bundle. You are holding a copy of the Windows 3.1 European / International Edition (likely the UK English version).
The dead giveaway is the presence of several highly regional European printer brands and localized naming conventions that never shipped on standard North American retail or OEM disks:
- Bull Compuprint: Bull is a major French computer manufacturer that dominated European enterprise markets in the late 80s and early 90s. You have a massive array of drivers specifically for their Compuprint line.
- Olivetti (DM and PG Series): Olivetti is a legendary Italian hardware manufacturer. Standard US Windows disks only carried basic Olivetti typewriter emulations, but your disk features an extensive native list of Olivetti dot-matrix and laser printers.
- Mannesmann Tally: A prominent German-American printer manufacturer with huge market share in Europe.
- Oki "Elite" Branding: Notice how the Okidata models are listed as "Oki ML 192 Elite (Microline)". In North America, these were branded strictly as Okidata Microline. The "Elite" branding was used almost exclusively for the UK and European markets.
- 7 Disks vs. 6 Disks: The [disks] section lists Disk #7. The standard US 3.5" 1.44MB retail version of Windows 3.1 famously shipped on exactly 6 disks. Microsoft expanded the International/European releases to 7 disks specifically to fit the massive localized driver libraries for these European hardware brands.
It keeps insisting that this is an "Windows 3.1 European / International Edition", but I think it's hallucinating. I do agree that it is probably a UK retail release, though. The fact that I found a set from eBay in the UK would also add evidence to that.
I was also able to find a cross-reference on archive.org of what a lot of the printers are supposed to be, also from the UK!
https://web.archive.org/web/20010310234354/ht … inter_List.html