Ever use Windows 3.11 For Workgroups?

I guess Windows 3.11 was supposed to be it's own OS, but it really wasn't. It was just another program that ran on top of MS-DOS. So, in your autoexec.bat file, you could put in the line to boot into Windows 3.11. The problem was back then, DOS games wouldn't run inside of Windows 3.11, so it was better to just boot into DOS.

But then.... there were times when you used Windows 3.11 and you wanted to boot into Windows lol. Like, I don't ever remember there being a happy medium. I was able to install Windows 3.1 from the original 3.5" disks, but it didn't have File Manager, so I had to hunt that file down, and finally got it. What's strange now is that, I can run DOS games from within Windows 3.1 in DOSBOX, but I swear I couldn't do it back in the day.

Not sure if that was a Windows 3.11 limitation, or because I currently have Windows 3.1? I know back when I had Windows 2004 Server, it was an OS, but wasn't good for running games.

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YMITheWayIM · 46-50, M

DOS 6 and onward was great.

twiigss · M

@YMITheWayIM Yea, back in the 90's I had a 90mhz PC 486/DX2 processor, Sound Blaster Pro sound card, I think the GFX card was a 3DFX Voodoo. And it had DOS 6.22 and Windows 3.11 for workgroups installed on it. Pretty solid machine back then. It ran Mechwarrior 2 very well, even had the Thrustmaster joystick for it.

I'm afraid to touch my 66mhz PC as in, it's on DOS 6.2, I have the upgrade software to get it up to 6.22, I'm just afraid if something goes wrong, because I don't have any use-able DOS installation disks. I used to have DOS 5.0 on 5.25" floppy disks and then what I would do is, upgrade right to the 6.22 version from version 5. But have since either lost disks over time, or they've stopped working.

YMITheWayIM · 46-50, M

@twiigss I used to run DOS 6.2 on a 386 pc which was overclocked to 486/DX pro. A 40 MB hard disk with windows 3.1, it bailed quickly and I had to operate the computer without any hard disk on it. I would boot the system from high density floppy disks, would modify config.sys so as to enable the sound blaster.
Playing games was the tricky part as I would install a RAM Drive (on 4 MB RAM) modifying config.sys and autoexec.bat files, copy the game folders from 2 floppies to it, play the game and use a spare floppy for saving the games file.

Damn the feeling was pure happiness after playing Brain Lara Cricket and Civilization 1 😌

twiigss · M

@YMITheWayIM wow that's crazy you did it like that. I was always in my config.sys and autoexec.bat trying to squeeze just a little more memory so I could play games.

The problem I started having was with the Seagate 30 MB hard drive. I'd have to bang the side of the case to get it working. Not all the time but occasionally. I remember when I got MechWarrior 2, I had to remove almost every game I had on my hard drive just to make room so I could play it. I miss the good old days.

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