Windows 3.1 in Virtual PC 2007

drumthrasher

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Well I wanted to play around with Windows 3.1 so I downloaded it from here: http://www.vetusware.com/download/Windows 3.1/?id=3391.

Anyway I opened up VP2k7, installed DOS 7.11 first, then I took the 7 floppy things and put all the files into 1 ISO file, then I typed D:\ to change it to the disc drive then I typed setup to start the setup. It went all the way through. Once it gets to where it asks for your full name it freezes. Not the whole computer just the Windows Setup area.
 
For one thing you started off with the wrong version of MSDos! Dos 5.0 - 6.0 not anything newer will see 3.1 go. Unlike NTFS 5.0 that sees 2000, XP, and Vista run on that the old Fat based partition saw limits where the newer could run on the older at times like 98 on 6.0-6.22 but not older on newer.

3.1 requires separate floppies since each set of files for each floppy will search for the next totally separate floppy of the set. You have two things right away working against you.
 
For one thing you started off with the wrong version of MSDos! Dos 5.0 - 6.0 not anything newer will see 3.1 go. Unlike NTFS 5.0 that sees 2000, XP, and Vista run on that the old Fat based partition saw limits where the newer could run on the older at times like 98 on 6.0-6.22 but not older on newer.

3.1 requires separate floppies since each set of files for each floppy will search for the next totally separate floppy of the set. You have two things right away working against you.

Cool a reply!

Anyway, I couldn't find a lower version of DOS anywhere on the web...even though I saw YouTube videos where they did have it.

Although it attempted to install it from the ISO file with all the Windows 3.1 files put together, it did copy them all without asking for another disk.
 
It's the way that older version was installed since no one had optical drives on their systems back in 1990. They were the lastest for audio devices following dvd players at the time 3.1 was first seen.

For old 8bit and 16bit dos games and apps that don't even need a dos partition to run off of one free DOSBox program does well there. How about seeing an old 1990 dos game run on Vista?



All the files are right there on an NTFS primary. The utility creates a virtual dos environment where you mount a virtual drive in order to see the old game there as well as other things run independent of any newer OS.

Windows 3.1 like any other old dos program seeing more then one disk was written to look for the next one. I once attempted to simply burn all files from the floppies onto a cd to see if that would work without an iso file and the installer would lock or might not even start.

The fast way to see 3.1 go on is to take a spare drive without anything on it and create a small 1gb Fat16 primary at the front end with a dos startup disk using fdisk there. That will mean unplugging any other hard drives to force fdisk to see that only.

The free Linux drive tool GParted can also be used to see the partition created and later formatted when booting with a dos floppy using the format.com seen there and the format C: /s command for both the format and transfer of the basic dos files. Once you have that done run the set of floppies to see the progressive floppy swapping installation proceed.

Don't you love those old fat based installers?! :p
 
You'll go through all this trouble to install windows 3.1 then you'll play around with it for 10 mins and then get bored with it.
 
Gee? That sounds a bit like on older build here when wondering what to put on a second drive? Let's see now...

Try Dos 6.22, 3.1, 95, 98SE, and Fedora Core 4 all on one drive while seeing XP on the first! Talk about a mish mash of OSs! :p I ran the older versions for a little practice of multiple OSing as well as seeing some old stuff running again after a good number of years. The usual complaint about upgrading to the next version of Windows is quite often the need to replace all softwares with newer versions or other programs.
 
LOL, I know, but it just sounds like a lot of trouble for something that will get boring quick.

It may seem "boring ...ring ...ing ...ing" to some while for others it can be a learning experience on how to do things like dual or multi booting different OSs as well as some basic drive partitioning experience over simply using the Windows installer to do the work for you all the time.

Starting off in the "point + click" generation will leave you kind of pc illiterate when it comes time to use a command line or other manual methods for seeing problems corrected as well as making a few custom changes on a system. Plus you get to see how outdated an older version is when having the opportunity for a first hand comparison and saying: "they actually ran Windows and did things that way??? :confused: ". :p
 
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