I simply CANNOT thank you enough for this video. I can't imagine how much pain you would have gone through to put together this video. I am a computer professional myself from the good ol'DOS days, and have attempted to do this/similar things so many times. Only to fail due to lack of resources and/or knowledge. I want to reward you for this. And the highest reward I can offer you is to say - "Thank you. A heart felt, thank you. From the deepest layers of my heart. This video has touched deepest of nerves in my heart, to the extent of making me somewhat emotional. Thank you, once again!!!"
Today's Pointless Trivia (TM): The guy who programmed Solitaire for Windows 3 is married to Isabella Rosselini and is Elettra Rosselini's father. He made Solitaire because he wanted a program to run that would test Win3's ability to select and move graphics (like icons) without the whole screen flickering. Since Win3, unlike Windows and Windows 2, supported many resolutions and color modes, they needed to test each of them quickly. It was more fun to play Solitaire each time than it was to go through a list of clicking, double-clicking, click-dragging, etc. each time. Minesweeper was the same deal, IIRC to test right-click, shift-click, etc.
Where did you hear this from? According to Microsoft, Minesweeper and Solitaire were both intended to help those new to computers learn how to use, and become more comfortable with, the mouse as an interface device. From the Wiki, (which includes multiple sources): "Microsoft has included the game as part its Windows product line since Windows 3.0, starting from 1990.[1] The game was developed in 1989 by then intern Wes Cherry.[2][3][4] The card deck itself was designed by Macintosh pioneer Susan Kare.[5] Microsoft intended Solitaire "to soothe people intimidated by the operating system," and at a time where many users were still unfamiliar with graphical user interfaces, it proved useful in familiarizing them with the use of a mouse, such as the drag-and-drop technique required for moving cards.[1]"
I remember 3.1. Brings back a lot of memories. I'm so old... I remember installing DOS from I think 6 floppy discs and then installing windows 3.1 from 7 discs. It took about an hour to do both.
But I bet you don't remember CP/M, Apple II, ABC 80, etc. etc. because you are so young... IBM PC and DOS is still the _new_ thing to me, that wiped the old world out...
***** I heard of the TRS-80 but I don't think I have ever used one or actually seen one other than in pictures. I remember installing windows 95 as well and being so excited. I was fortunate enough to have it on CD ROM. But I did have the Hawaiian Tropic Bikini Girls on floppy. LOL
Brings back some memories. A friend, who has since passed away, and myself had a part time business distributing shareware on floppies. We used Windows for Workgroups, my first experience with networking other than sneaker net, to connect our machines together with coax cable peer to peer being much cheaper
You sir are the master. I have an undergrad in comp sci and a Masters in IT, and I am very very impressed with you knowledge and content. It's alot of fun to walk down memory lane.
How could anyone ever give this a thumbs down?! From someone who not only sat and stuffed win 311 floppies but also win95, doom, hexen, heretic... Thanks!
probably because given the title, people are expecting dos and windows to run natively on the raspberry, not through an emulator such as dosbox (what is unfortunately not doable considering the arm architecture). i can picture a bit of disappointment there.
+Raspberry pi n3rd I would imagine yes. It seems Dosbox is running in its own X window, which of course means that all the rest of X is available. Just make Windows run in a window and it should be there.
Wow Christopher! I always seem to get nostalgic about my younger years growing up with the likes of Win95 and 98, but it really put a smile on my face to hear you reminiscing over Win3.1! Good video, keep them coming!
i remember how excited we all used to get when it was time for computer lessons. because we were going to play solitaire. and anyone who won the game before the class was over got extremely ecstatic about it and called everyone to come and see the winning animation. it wasn't windows 3.2 though, it was windows 98. there was another game, i think it was free cell, that no one new how to play and no one ever won except one Asian kid(back then there was no Asian people are genius stereo type). never felt so connected with my peers.
The versatility and adaptability of the Pi ( particularly the new Pi 3) never ceases to amaze me. This is truly a genius of a product ! Thank you very much for your excellent review. /G
I was excited and it is my first glimpse of windows3.1 !!!! I grew up using a 8088 computer for games and strait to windows 95 etc!! (I am 27 years old)
This is just awesome, thank you so much for bringing my old memories back, the first PC I got had win 3.1 and its great to see it running on Pi, thank you!
This brought back forgotten and surprisingly fond memories of running Win31, Turbo C++, and Turbo Vision on my 386 when I was just starting my programming career. Thanks CB!
Worked perfectly first try! Much easier to run Windows 3.1 than it is to run Windows 9X (like I was trying to do for days prior... just one error after the next). Earned another subscriber.
@@ExplainingComputers I so want to run Windows 98 on my Raspberry Pi3b. I just wish I could find someone like you that's good at explaining things to walk me through it. I love your videos. If you ever make a video on this I will be forever grateful. To be honest... I'm already grateful for all your other how to and SBC videos. Keep up the great work and Win9x on Pi3b Please!
Excellent... Back when I finally discarded my DOS PC, I saved all the directories to CD ROM. The advantage was that when I discovered DOSBOX, all I had to do was copy the directories to the directory I mounted as my C drive. Windows ran just fine, without having to do any reconfiguration. As an added bonus, I had also saved an installation of Windows 3.0.
Very exciting! I could hardly contain myself. The dazzling speed! I got to get an Amiga running on a Pi just to demonstrate once and for all that there has been very little advance on PC's since 1985.
Your content is great. You know your stuff, but smile once in a while. Relax and smile once in a while. You remind me of an English teacher we had at school. He always looked so stern and fierce that he was goaded into resignation by us.
I remember windows 3.11 for work groups and I love it. my copy came bundled with ms-dos 6.22. windows was just a shell that ran around dos. if I wanted to mess with windows, all I needed to do was make a backup directory of the windows directory and if I did something that couldn't be fixed I simply deleted the primary windows directory and renamed the backup. you can actually tell dos what version to report to programs. this helped because the mediavision sound cards would only install under a specific version of dos because it was hard coded.
Correction, Windows 3.1.1 (Windows with network) was the last version to be able to be launched manually from DOS. Windows ME was the last version to run on DOS. Windows 95, 98 and ME all ran on DOS as they were all 16 bit versions of Windows like Windows 3.1 and used the same code base, they just changed the interface and automatically launched Windows at startup. Windows NT 3.5.1 was the first 32 bit Windows and was also the first pure Windows that didn't run on top of DOS instead it had its roots in UNIX. My first computer came with DOS 3.2 and Windows 1.0 back in the mid 1980's an IBM AT clone running at a blistering 12 MHz.
Certainly I accept your point that Windows 3.1(1) was the last version to be launched manually from DOS as a technology. But is was also (and consequently) the last version of Windows to be a separate product from DOS. Yes, later versions integrated the DOS kernel into another product. So while in underlying technology terms you are correct, in product offering terms -- the things users buy and install and run -- you are not. It was not possible to install DOS and then install Windows after 3.1(1) (if you tried, Windows wiped DOS first) and that is my whole point here where I am using the DOSBox emulator as an environment in which to run Windows.
That wordperfect demonstration was very interesting, as a guy who grew up in the 90's (my first word processor was word 97), worperfect looks complicated but very nice from that time.
WordPerfect used to be supplied with a plastic template to attach to the top of your keyboard. This listed all of the keystrokes, and was a common sight in many offices!
Now that took me back. Although 3.1 was the last Windows OS to need DOS (6.22) you could still load it first up to & including 98se (The best OS of all time), which I always did, you could cure so much more from DOS 6.22. Thanks for the nostalgia trip.
Yep, you had to say that nasty 98SE word, didn't you? King Originator of the BSOD (blue screen of death). I'd rather have ran UNIX than look at 98SE! I think that was the only OS ever released that could go from just sitting there, to crashing with BSOD when the screensaver kicked in! What trash!
Wow! You made me all nostalgic for old Windows 3.1! I forgot about having to run Setup just to change screen resolutions. That was terrible! I really want a Raspberry Pi because it's so like the old garage computing we did back in the early 1990s. Good show!
An excellent presentation. I've just started using the Raspberry Pi. Yes I have got Windows on Floppy Disk, so I will attempt what you say.....time permitting...and digging out an old PC.. :)
Man I remember those days. Workers comp sent me to college over 93-95, and I took all the computer courses I could. Needless to say, we had Win 3'1 when I began, and had just 3 computers set up with 95 when I was in my last year. We also had two computers running OS2Warp, and during our intro to UNIX we all were able to SH into a UNIX system to play around. Overall it was a very nice intro to what was to come. I still have a copy of OS2Warp 4 somewhere, and a demo of the last iteration of OS2 on a live CD in a case also somewhere in my house of computers. Really OS2 was a very good OS, if only it had caught on, I think it could have gone far. Linux is still my overall favorite OS, last winter while we were living in our motor home down in Arizona, a couple thousand miles from our house in South Dakota, my laptops hard drive gave up the ghost. I had an extra along for just that purpose, but forgot my windows 7 disk. I had Windows 8 but MS had, in their paranoia blacklisted my number, so I simply installed the Linux disk I had along for a backup, and went all winter with no MS. Really it was a joy to leave MS behind, yet for some stupid reason when we returned to SD, the first thing I did was install another HD and install Windows 7. I have been regretting doing that ever since, and I am about ready to go back to my favorite Linux Mint.
My first computer was Win 3.1 it was old, bulky, creamish and was slow as hell with a very heavy CRT monitor and a mechanical keyboard and stiff mouse and made such a racket when typing and using anything that involved a CD. This brings back lots of memories :)
Awesome idea! This shows again the versatility of the Raspberry Pi. As a suggestion, you can use the '-y' apt-get option in order to confirm the queries at the time you enter the comand and not prompt it after :)
I remember it all! Man was I good with these dos commands! Fast as lightning! Forgot most of it by now though! Thanks for the trip down memory lane. My first PC which ran Windows 3.1 was somewhat larger than a Raspberry PI. Cost a little more too!
I agree. I miss the old GWBASIC, as well as LAN HEARTS (used to play that at work for 3.1)...even up until Win2k, the mfg plant I worked at had most of our CNC machines still running old G-Code, and our server had to come off the company LAN because it was a Win3.1 computer (old ways weren't as inter-compatible as they are now).
GWBASIC and QBASIC were great. If you're interested, you might want to check out FreeBASIC. It's really brought the old BASIC syntax from those environments into the future.
Brilliant! I ran DOSbox only the other day on my PC in order to play Descent. Didn't think about running it on a Pi nor to install Windows 3. Now I have some more things to go do. BTW, just to be very pedantic, Windows 3.11 (Windows for Workgroups) was the last version of Windows that ran on DOS. :-) Thanks for the video and do keep on doing what you're doing.
Memories oh the memories of sitting up late and learning all this stuff and the dos shell i am smiling from the nostalga. I remember running CIV for the first time and remember the mem maker for optimising ya memory So good and thanks i could go on about 286's and running dos 3 if i remember so many memeories
+jaykay18 DOSBox doesn't have parallel port emulation so far. If it had, it could be possible to use an USB parallel port converter connected to a dot matrix printer.
Mieszko Guliński That's really too bad. DOSBox is great for a lot of things, and sure got a lot of stuff right, but it's got a ways to go. I guess the closest you'd ever have is the actual hardware, which defeats the purpose.
They have serial port emulation. They didn't add parallel port emulation, probably because DOSBox is intended primarily for old games, and games don't need parallel port.
Mieszko Guliński I think there were sold old 486-era games that let you link not only by modem or direct serial, but also parallel. They of course are few and far between. I've found serial emulation only works some of the time, a lot of times those USB to serial converters don't work, and to get down to business you need a _real_ serial port. For the casual use, such as direct link for games, I'm sure the emulation in DOSBox works great.
That takes me back. When you consider Windows 3.1 originally ran in less than 640K of memory, it was quite an achievement. I expect you remember the DOS setup tricks, to get drivers to run in so called upper memory, above the normal 640K DOS limit, to get more memory for Windows to run in. Many an hour spent trying to get a few kilobytes more there.
Cool! I remember when Windows 3.1 was the queen of the ball, when 95 came out, we thought we had a wonderful old OS! I may try and set this up on my Beaglebone Black if I can find c copy of 3.1. I know I have several copies back at home but they do me little good here in the middle of the Mohave desert in Arizona.
I thought the most exciting thing about Win 3.1 was the easter eggs... Example: 1. Hold Ctrl-Alt-Shift. Don't let up on any of these keys throughout the whole procedure. 2. Go to the Help menu of Program Manager and select About Program Manager. 3. There should be a nice colorful Microsoft Windows logo in the upper right hand corner of the window. Double Click on one of the four colors in the logo. Then hit OK. 4. Repeat steps 2 and 3 and click on a different color of the logo. The bottom of the window should change to display an animated waving window and some different text. 5. Repeat steps 2 and 3 once more and click on a different color of the logo. The bottom of the window will change once more to display a person and a chalkboard with the programmers' names scrolling on it. 6. Repeat the whole procedure several times more, using different color combinations. You should get different people in the final picture, and even a bear (or some sort of furry animal) if you're lucky. Katalyzt
The DOS layer continued to exist through Win98. It was possible to configure 9x to boot into DOS mode and save a bunch of space and ram, and to run older DOS apps, especially for POS terminals and ATMs...
I am on them since '95... still installed win31 and ms-dos up to 6.22 I think it was of the floppies... i remember always having to hit repair to recover the damaged sectors on them so I can achieve the long process of installing 3.1... brilliant stuff to remember... Norton Commander file manager... Duke Nukem, Heretic and all that fun... will try them on the RPi on DOSBox in my spare time :)
ZipplyZane, I sometimes forget trying the obvious but you just made me a very happy guy right now. I like this better than the new version someone put out. Now if I can just get the old windows pinball games to work.
Windows 9x actually ran on top of DOS. It loaded its own 32 bit extensions on top of DOS, but you could stop it from booting into the GUI automatically and use it as a standard DOS PC and run your DOS games.
+cjmillsnun Yes, Win 9x had parts of DOS integrated -- but this is not the point here. Windows 3.1(1) was the last version of Windows that had to be installed as a DOS program (ie it was an entirely separate product to DOS). Given what I am doing in this video, this is also critical, as here I am installing Windows on within a DOS emulator. Please also see the extensive and far more detailed discussion below.
It's true you can't use the included DOS for Windows 95, but you can actually get Windows 95 running in DOSBox. You just have to use the built in ability to use bootdisks (as was required for some older software). Well, that and a hard drive disk image, which DOSBox supports.
The only old OS I have (That I properly and fully own) is Windows 98SE (The disc is the one for PCs without windows)! EDIT: I just remembered. I own a copy of Windows XP but I don't have a disc... just the OS on a laptop.
This cool. My son has some really old pc games that should run on win 95 or win 3.1. Rather than build a big computer for a couple games, this might be a great alternative.
Thank you for this video! I think it's amazing you had a clean copy of Windows 3.1 lying around. I hope someone creates a free archive of these older OS for people to access. I still have a lot of play on a Windows 95 machine I use at Uni in my physics research lab. Great stuff back then.
ExplainingComputers I used have a Windows 3.1 VM and thought it was cool, but what's the point, I can't do anything I can't already do. I gave up trying to get programs running on Windows 98 that wouldn't run XP coz it was faster, but now all my computer support Windows 7 or Linux.
> _"It would be nice if Microsoft put older versions of Windows into the public domain now."_ @@ExplainingComputers i doubt they should, 'cz the newer windows are just hacks and hacks built on top of older ones (just based on my observations, no rigorous source). so, no, they cant lol. just yesterday my browser (latest vivaldi - based on chromium) showed window 7 styled buttons for a moment while the OS is win 10 20H2. so ha, windows OS is just a hack
I have quite a bit of retro pc kit. If you find you are short, please do ask me, and I will be happy to post them for you to keep foc. Nice video, once again!
Kevin Hannan Hi Kevin. Many thanks for your kind offer. This retro video has gathered more interest than I imagined, so I may well do some more videos about older PC stuff, and if so I will be in touch. :)
Win 3.1 worked quite well here , perhaps as good as a 486 machine... Sometimes you just have to know if you can do something and enjoy a bit of nostalgia
Benedikt Müssig I said that Win 3.1 was the last to run 'over DOS' and this is true. You are right that the DOS kernel was integrated in 95, 98, etc. But 3.1 was the last Windows where you had to install DOS and **then** install Windows, and that is what is critical in a setup as here based on DOSBox. After 3.1(1) Windows did not run over another OS.
Wow, this is great! Now I can run my favourite dos util/tool XTGold and Reflex database and more. And of course Win 3.11. This brings good times back. Thinking about a 2nd Pi 2.. Thanks 4 sharing
PMR1WRT I Tested it on a Banana Pi, and it works great. Windows 3.11, Reflex, XTree Gold and some old MS-Dos Ham Radio Stuff. Had problems with install Windows 1.xx and 2.xx. I must do this over some time.
Very Impressive. I love how these tiny computers are re-creating our heritage. We may be all for multicore and gigabytes.. But they must all have come from somewhere - and that knowledge is all the more impressive. Recently I relearned the steps of my youth by making a PiDP8/i This will be my next one :) :)
thank you much . loved the details . i have wanted to build a super computer of sorts since child hood and a big part of that was a way to run multiple os s from a single machine . i think makeing my own custom case on a new motherboard with 2 or 3 raspberry pis incorperated into the build is the cheapest solution. great video.
Slight Correction: Windows ME was actually the last version of Windows which was a DOS shell. Windows 2000 was the first mainstream version based on the NT kernel. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Microsoft_Windows#Windows_ME
Gregory Casamento I keep answering the same question here! :) Yes, the DOS kernel was used after Windows 3.1. But 3.1 was the last version of Windows to install "over DOS" (which is what I actually say in the video) -- ie you installed DOS, and then Windows -- which is the critical point when using DOSBox as I am here. PS: I would advise against using Wikipedia as a source of technical information! :)
I think Win95 was the last version of windows that _did_ require DOS to be installed first. Starting with Win98 you could install without having DOS around but needed to install it if you wanted some of the "legacy" parts of DOS - anyway I'll have to give DOSBOX a try on my Pi - great video!
+Scott Warmbier I am not getting into this debate again (see below). I am very certain that Windows 95 onwards were sold as an alternative to DOS, and would wipe DOS if you had it installed on the same partition (though you could, as you note, put things back if you wanted). :)
+ExplainingComputers Yep - I see that now that I went and looked it up that Win95 didn't require DOS at all - I do seem to remember though that there were some short comings around the shell that often required one to add DOS back in and when Win98 shipped that problem was resolved. Again great series - really takes me back!
FUN FACT: Gaming Consoles, Smartphones, Tables, Raspberry Pi's and any device with an ARM/ASIC-based processor are not, I repeat, not, real computers and will never replace computers. They were designed for either single tasked or basic computing tasks with minimum amount of computing power, and are designed to be terminals connecting to servers. The x86/x64 based processor will only be the real computer which every professional still uses. Long live the PC!
@@ExplainingComputers In my opinion, Apple should include an x64 coprocessor for their legacy applications, until their processors are capable of virtualizing them. Their decision of switching is a really bad decision.
I just came to watch this after you linked it in the comments from your video today... First thing I noticed, the intro music is different than I'd ever heard before...... Second thing I saw, is the video is 7 years old.... Third thing I noticed..... You have not aged a day in those 7 years..... Like, what is your secret??????
Ah, you came over! Yes, the music changed (same MIDI file, different instruments) in December 2015 when I took the channel weekly. I have aged internally a great deal . . .
@@ExplainingComputers Ah awesome! tbh, I'm tempted to make an up beat version of that little tune! I have a Yamaha Tyros 2, and been playing since I was around 9. In fact, playing my Tyros 2 are the very first videos on my UA-cam channel. Shameless plug, feel free to have a look if you like that kinda stuff ;) I'm glad you're keeping well! We shook hands at TCT I think it was 2017!
I remember win3.1 my grandma had it, it was so much better than the Apple II we used in school. Paint and Minesweeper were amazing when I was a kid. The salesman told my grandma's she would never need a more powerful p.c than that
***** I always (try to) do more of the content that gets the most views! So we shall see. So far, in the first few hours, this video is proving popular . . .
I simply CANNOT thank you enough for this video.
I can't imagine how much pain you would have gone through to put together this video. I am a computer professional myself from the good ol'DOS days, and have attempted to do this/similar things so many times. Only to fail due to lack of resources and/or knowledge.
I want to reward you for this. And the highest reward I can offer you is to say - "Thank you. A heart felt, thank you. From the deepest layers of my heart. This video has touched deepest of nerves in my heart, to the extent of making me somewhat emotional. Thank you, once again!!!"
Thanks for this. It sounds like you will enjoy running Windows 3.1 on a Pi. :)
Today's Pointless Trivia (TM):
The guy who programmed Solitaire for Windows 3 is married to Isabella Rosselini and is Elettra Rosselini's father.
He made Solitaire because he wanted a program to run that would test Win3's ability to select and move graphics (like icons) without the whole screen flickering. Since Win3, unlike Windows and Windows 2, supported many resolutions and color modes, they needed to test each of them quickly. It was more fun to play Solitaire each time than it was to go through a list of clicking, double-clicking, click-dragging, etc. each time.
Minesweeper was the same deal, IIRC to test right-click, shift-click, etc.
+Alp Tigin Now this is a cool post! :) Very interesting.
+Alp Tigin he is also the one responsible for countless billions of dollars in wasted productivity ;-)
Where did you hear this from?
According to Microsoft, Minesweeper and Solitaire were both intended to help those new to computers learn how to use, and become more comfortable with, the mouse as an interface device.
From the Wiki, (which includes multiple sources):
"Microsoft has included the game as part its Windows product line since Windows 3.0, starting from 1990.[1] The game was developed in 1989 by then intern Wes Cherry.[2][3][4] The card deck itself was designed by Macintosh pioneer Susan Kare.[5]
Microsoft intended Solitaire "to soothe people intimidated by the operating system," and at a time where many users were still unfamiliar with graphical user interfaces, it proved useful in familiarizing them with the use of a mouse, such as the drag-and-drop technique required for moving cards.[1]"
Hi, can Raspberry Pi or any of these board run OS/2? With Lan and serial port?
I don't know but maybe this will help, and you can always run it under emulation elsewhere. www.os2world.com/wiki/index.php/Main_Page
I remember 3.1. Brings back a lot of memories. I'm so old... I remember installing DOS from I think 6 floppy discs and then installing windows 3.1 from 7 discs. It took about an hour to do both.
But I bet you don't remember CP/M, Apple II, ABC 80, etc. etc. because you are so young... IBM PC and DOS is still the _new_ thing to me, that wiped the old world out...
Sven Ekeberg I do remember the Apple II and the Commodore 64. But I didn't really get into computers until the early 1990s.
***** I heard of the TRS-80 but I don't think I have ever used one or actually seen one other than in pictures.
I remember installing windows 95 as well and being so excited. I was fortunate enough to have it on CD ROM. But I did have the Hawaiian Tropic Bikini Girls on floppy. LOL
Lothar Scholz I don't remember that. The first Windows I messed with was 3.1
Lol, and here I still have Secret of Monkey Island on 11 Disks!
Brings back some memories. A friend, who has since passed away, and myself had a part time business distributing shareware on floppies. We used Windows for Workgroups, my first experience with networking other than sneaker net, to connect our machines together with coax cable peer to peer being much cheaper
You sir are the master. I have an undergrad in comp sci and a Masters in IT, and I am very very impressed with you knowledge and content. It's alot of fun to walk down memory lane.
I've never seen Win 3.1 running this fast! :D :D
How could anyone ever give this a thumbs down?!
From someone who not only sat and stuffed win 311 floppies but also win95, doom, hexen, heretic...
Thanks!
+Ken Heitmueller Thank you. :) All of my videos seem to divide opinion . . .
probably because given the title, people are expecting dos and windows to run natively on the raspberry, not through an emulator such as dosbox (what is unfortunately not doable considering the arm architecture). i can picture a bit of disappointment there.
ExplainingComputers can i still use linux?
Ken Heitmueller omg heretic
+Raspberry pi n3rd
I would imagine yes. It seems Dosbox is running in its own X window, which of course means that all the rest of X is available. Just make Windows run in a window and it should be there.
Wow Christopher!
I always seem to get nostalgic about my younger years growing up with the likes of Win95 and 98, but it really put a smile on my face to hear you reminiscing over Win3.1!
Good video, keep them coming!
+Daniel Fake I still have a copy of Windows 3.1 & Dos 6.22 LOL. Great times HAHA!!!.
i remember how excited we all used to get when it was time for computer lessons. because we were going to play solitaire. and anyone who won the game before the class was over got extremely ecstatic about it and called everyone to come and see the winning animation. it wasn't windows 3.2 though, it was windows 98. there was another game, i think it was free cell, that no one new how to play and no one ever won except one Asian kid(back then there was no Asian people are genius stereo type). never felt so connected with my peers.
The versatility and adaptability of the Pi ( particularly the new Pi 3) never ceases to amaze me. This is truly a genius of a product ! Thank you very much for your excellent review. /G
Ahhh, gutted, I thought someone had re-compiled Windows 3.1 for the Raspbery Pi Arm. Still, good work all the same.
I was excited and it is my first glimpse of windows3.1 !!!! I grew up using a 8088 computer for games and strait to windows 95 etc!! (I am 27 years old)
This is just awesome, thank you so much for bringing my old memories back, the first PC I got had win 3.1 and its great to see it running on Pi, thank you!
This brought back forgotten and surprisingly fond memories of running Win31, Turbo C++, and Turbo Vision on my 386 when I was just starting my programming career. Thanks CB!
It is amazing the stuff we keep locked away in our heads!
Nostalgia! Felt like I was back in my school days. Thanks for the trip down memory lane.
Loved your video, and it made me nostalgic!
Have couple of laptopts(!!!) running win3.11, maybe it's time for them to see some sunlight again :)
Worked perfectly first try! Much easier to run Windows 3.1 than it is to run Windows 9X (like I was trying to do for days prior... just one error after the next). Earned another subscriber.
Excellent, congratulations! :)
@@ExplainingComputers I so want to run Windows 98 on my Raspberry Pi3b. I just wish I could find someone like you that's good at explaining things to walk me through it. I love your videos. If you ever make a video on this I will be forever grateful. To be honest... I'm already grateful for all your other how to and SBC videos. Keep up the great work and Win9x on Pi3b Please!
Excellent... Back when I finally discarded my DOS PC, I saved all the directories to CD ROM. The advantage was that when I discovered DOSBOX, all I had to do was copy the directories to the directory I mounted as my C drive. Windows ran just fine, without having to do any reconfiguration. As an added bonus, I had also saved an installation of Windows 3.0.
Very exciting! I could hardly contain myself. The dazzling speed!
I got to get an Amiga running on a Pi just to demonstrate once and for all that there has been very little advance on PC's since 1985.
maxpolaris99 I have very fond memories of the Amiga -- a 500, then a 1200. So far ahead of PCs at the time. :)
I have to say I had more fun on The Amiga than any other PC I've owned.
maxpolaris99 I agree!
Very nostalgic. Brought me back to computing one had to know to make a computer work. Nice job and keep it up.
Enjoyed the nostalgia of win 3.1 . Thank you very much.
Your content is great. You know your stuff, but smile once in a while. Relax and smile once in a while. You remind me of an English teacher we had at school. He always looked so stern and fierce that he was goaded into resignation by us.
:) :) :)
Brings back some good memories
I remember windows 3.11 for work groups and I love it. my copy came bundled with ms-dos 6.22. windows was just a shell that ran around dos. if I wanted to mess with windows, all I needed to do was make a backup directory of the windows directory and if I did something that couldn't be fixed I simply deleted the primary windows directory and renamed the backup. you can actually tell dos what version to report to programs. this helped because the mediavision sound cards would only install under a specific version of dos because it was hard coded.
Correction, Windows 3.1.1 (Windows with network) was the last version to be able to be launched manually from DOS. Windows ME was the last version to run on DOS. Windows 95, 98 and ME all ran on DOS as they were all 16 bit versions of Windows like Windows 3.1 and used the same code base, they just changed the interface and automatically launched Windows at startup.
Windows NT 3.5.1 was the first 32 bit Windows and was also the first pure Windows that didn't run on top of DOS instead it had its roots in UNIX.
My first computer came with DOS 3.2 and Windows 1.0 back in the mid 1980's an IBM AT clone running at a blistering 12 MHz.
Certainly I accept your point that Windows 3.1(1) was the last version to be launched manually from DOS as a technology. But is was also (and consequently) the last version of Windows to be a separate product from DOS. Yes, later versions integrated the DOS kernel into another product. So while in underlying technology terms you are correct, in product offering terms -- the things users buy and install and run -- you are not. It was not possible to install DOS and then install Windows after 3.1(1) (if you tried, Windows wiped DOS first) and that is my whole point here where I am using the DOSBox emulator as an environment in which to run Windows.
That wordperfect demonstration was very interesting, as a guy who grew up in the 90's (my first word processor was word 97), worperfect looks complicated but very nice from that time.
WordPerfect used to be supplied with a plastic template to attach to the top of your keyboard. This listed all of the keystrokes, and was a common sight in many offices!
This hits the nostalgia factor SO HARD
Now that took me back. Although 3.1 was the last Windows OS to need DOS (6.22) you could still load it first up to & including 98se (The best OS of all time), which I always did, you could cure so much more from DOS 6.22. Thanks for the nostalgia trip.
Thanks. And in this Sunday's video I'm going to do this on an Android tablet! :)
Cool!
Yep, you had to say that nasty 98SE word, didn't you? King Originator of the BSOD (blue screen of death). I'd rather have ran UNIX than look at 98SE! I think that was the only OS ever released that could go from just sitting there, to crashing with BSOD when the screensaver kicked in! What trash!
I can't remember the last time I had such intense goosebumps as when Win 3.1 booted up. Thank you.
Wow! You made me all nostalgic for old Windows 3.1! I forgot about having to run Setup just to change screen resolutions. That was terrible! I really want a Raspberry Pi because it's so like the old garage computing we did back in the early 1990s. Good show!
Thanks for this tutorial! I installed Windows 3.1 on the Raspberry Pi, I was feeling so nostalgic. :D You are awesome! :) I like your channel so much.
+Ádám Mokánszki Excellent! :)
An excellent presentation. I've just started using the Raspberry Pi. Yes I have got Windows on Floppy Disk, so I will attempt what you say.....time permitting...and digging out an old PC.. :)
What I find amazing is the dates on some of the install files, March 1992!
This video is the definition of modern nostalgia.
Brings back fond memories, including that solitaire bit.
Man I remember those days. Workers comp sent me to college over 93-95, and I took all the computer courses I could. Needless to say, we had Win 3'1 when I began, and had just 3 computers set up with 95 when I was in my last year. We also had two computers running OS2Warp, and during our intro to UNIX we all were able to SH into a UNIX system to play around. Overall it was a very nice intro to what was to come. I still have a copy of OS2Warp 4 somewhere, and a demo of the last iteration of OS2 on a live CD in a case also somewhere in my house of computers. Really OS2 was a very good OS, if only it had caught on, I think it could have gone far. Linux is still my overall favorite OS, last winter while we were living in our motor home down in Arizona, a couple thousand miles from our house in South Dakota, my laptops hard drive gave up the ghost. I had an extra along for just that purpose, but forgot my windows 7 disk. I had Windows 8 but MS had, in their paranoia blacklisted my number, so I simply installed the Linux disk I had along for a backup, and went all winter with no MS. Really it was a joy to leave MS behind, yet for some stupid reason when we returned to SD, the first thing I did was install another HD and install Windows 7. I have been regretting doing that ever since, and I am about ready to go back to my favorite Linux Mint.
My first computer was Win 3.1 it was old, bulky, creamish and was slow as hell with a very heavy CRT monitor and a mechanical keyboard and stiff mouse and made such a racket when typing and using anything that involved a CD. This brings back lots of memories :)
I so remember computers like that! :)
It's true, the cards bouncing down was so exciting way back then!
That intro music is da bomb.
Chromeo, the music duo use Windows 3.1 to write all their songs. I think it's cakewalk.
Cool, never seen windows 3.1 before. This channel better than watching tv in nowadays.
Wow, I can't believe you still have all that old hardware hanging about still. Love your work!!
watching this in 2021 just makes it seem even more old fashioned.
I like these videos.. They remind me of 90's and early 2000's shows/magazines about computers..
How nice is this!
I felt a bit old, but sooo happy, thanks Chris form bringing memories, wow!
This is what UA-cam is for. :)
Hit me right in the nostalgia. Good stuff.
That was really fun to watch. Thank you.
:)
I'm 20 but still old enough to appreciate the cards bouncing :D good ol' 98 did it too!
+Qwerty Charlie XP did it ;)
now ... trumpet winsock, mirc, netscape, and you are ready to go.
+Ray N just use altavista search engine.
+Ray N but you have panda antivirus.. be aware of check your io.sys and ms.dos infected. just the usual. maybe the autoexec config, win.exe..
+CapApollo Netscape Navigator !!! XD
Unfortunately, networking with dosbox is not easy.
Ah - the good ol' days . . .
I had no idea DOSBox could run Win 3.1! I may need to set this up on my Pi and dig up my copy of Outpost.
This takes me back lol yeah setting up the video card and sound cards with no plug and play was all part of the fun
Awesome idea! This shows again the versatility of the Raspberry Pi. As a suggestion, you can use the '-y' apt-get option in order
to confirm the queries at the time you enter the comand and not prompt it after :)
I remember it all! Man was I good with these dos commands! Fast as lightning! Forgot most of it by now though! Thanks for the trip down memory lane. My first PC which ran Windows 3.1 was somewhat larger than a Raspberry PI. Cost a little more too!
That was the most amazing version of space invaders I have never seen :.) - great video and lots of nostalgia.
Talking about DOSBOX was wonderful. I still have some old DOS programs that I would love to run again and I miss GWBASIC. Great video and helpful too.
I agree. I miss the old GWBASIC, as well as LAN HEARTS (used to play that at work for 3.1)...even up until Win2k, the mfg plant I worked at had most of our CNC machines still running old G-Code, and our server had to come off the company LAN because it was a Win3.1 computer (old ways weren't as inter-compatible as they are now).
GWBASIC and QBASIC were great. If you're interested, you might want to check out FreeBASIC. It's really brought the old BASIC syntax from those environments into the future.
Brilliant! I ran DOSbox only the other day on my PC in order to play Descent. Didn't think about running it on a Pi nor to install Windows 3. Now I have some more things to go do.
BTW, just to be very pedantic, Windows 3.11 (Windows for Workgroups) was the last version of Windows that ran on DOS. :-)
Thanks for the video and do keep on doing what you're doing.
+Nick Russell Yes, agreed -- 3.11 was the last.:)
Memories oh the memories of sitting up late and learning all this stuff and the dos shell i am smiling from the nostalga. I remember running CIV for the first time and remember the mem maker for optimising ya memory So good and thanks i could go on about 286's and running dos 3 if i remember so many memeories
Very nice and impressive.
I'd love to see an old dot-matrix printer hooked up to the Pi and printing through Windows 3.1 for the full effect.
+jaykay18 DOSBox doesn't have parallel port emulation so far. If it had, it could be possible to use an USB parallel port converter connected to a dot matrix printer.
Mieszko Guliński That's really too bad. DOSBox is great for a lot of things, and sure got a lot of stuff right, but it's got a ways to go. I guess the closest you'd ever have is the actual hardware, which defeats the purpose.
They have serial port emulation. They didn't add parallel port emulation, probably because DOSBox is intended primarily for old games, and games don't need parallel port.
Mieszko Guliński I think there were sold old 486-era games that let you link not only by modem or direct serial, but also parallel. They of course are few and far between.
I've found serial emulation only works some of the time, a lot of times those USB to serial converters don't work, and to get down to business you need a _real_ serial port. For the casual use, such as direct link for games, I'm sure the emulation in DOSBox works great.
I used to use that card flying thing as test when I over clocked my sx33 to a sx66!
That takes me back. When you consider Windows 3.1 originally ran in less than 640K of memory, it was quite an achievement. I expect you remember the DOS setup tricks, to get drivers to run in so called upper memory, above the normal 640K DOS limit, to get more memory for Windows to run in. Many an hour spent trying to get a few kilobytes more there.
Those were the days!
Cool! I remember when Windows 3.1 was the queen of the ball, when 95 came out, we thought we had a wonderful old OS! I may try and set this up on my Beaglebone Black if I can find c copy of 3.1. I know I have several copies back at home but they do me little good here in the middle of the Mohave desert in Arizona.
how well I still remember.. DOS was all we had.. but it worked.. online banking and brokerage.. spreadsheet [Lotus 123]
I thought the most exciting thing about Win 3.1 was the easter eggs...
Example:
1. Hold Ctrl-Alt-Shift. Don't let up on any of these keys throughout the whole procedure.
2. Go to the Help menu of Program Manager and select About Program Manager.
3. There should be a nice colorful Microsoft Windows logo in the upper right hand corner of the window. Double Click on one of the four colors in the logo. Then hit OK.
4. Repeat steps 2 and 3 and click on a different color of the logo. The bottom of the window should change to display an animated waving window and some different text.
5. Repeat steps 2 and 3 once more and click on a different color of the logo. The bottom of the window will change once more to display a person and a chalkboard with the programmers' names scrolling on it.
6. Repeat the whole procedure several times more, using different color combinations. You should get different people in the final picture, and even a bear (or some sort of furry animal) if you're lucky.
Katalyzt
The DOS layer continued to exist through Win98. It was possible to configure 9x to boot into DOS mode and save a bunch of space and ram, and to run older DOS apps, especially for POS terminals and ATMs...
That's got to be the fastest installation of windows 3.1 I've ever seen!
I am on them since '95... still installed win31 and ms-dos up to 6.22 I think it was of the floppies... i remember always having to hit repair to recover the damaged sectors on them so I can achieve the long process of installing 3.1... brilliant stuff to remember... Norton Commander file manager... Duke Nukem, Heretic and all that fun... will try them on the RPi on DOSBox in my spare time :)
Calin C Oh yes, Norton Commander. I had forgotten that! :)
Thanks. I remember those days running windows 3.1 on a 286 IBM clone.
Ah, so long since we had 286 PCs that did not even need heatsinks and cooling fans! :)
Very nice. This is still relevant because people are asking how to run Windows on the rpi... This may be the most functional solution
It ain't Windows 3.1 without SkiFree.
OMG. I forgot about SkiFree. The Yeti always cracked me up towards the end. lol
I dunno skifree but I miss flying toasters
Just google skifree32 to play it on modern Windows.
ZipplyZane, I sometimes forget trying the obvious but you just made me a very happy guy right now. I like this better than the new version someone put out. Now if I can just get the old windows pinball games to work.
Z
Windows 9x actually ran on top of DOS. It loaded its own 32 bit extensions on top of DOS, but you could stop it from booting into the GUI automatically and use it as a standard DOS PC and run your DOS games.
+cjmillsnun Yes, Win 9x had parts of DOS integrated -- but this is not the point here. Windows 3.1(1) was the last version of Windows that had to be installed as a DOS program (ie it was an entirely separate product to DOS). Given what I am doing in this video, this is also critical, as here I am installing Windows on within a DOS emulator. Please also see the extensive and far more detailed discussion below.
1:20 You've got a treasure house for a cupboard!
I whould enjoy seeing whats in it thers gold in there i bet:D
It's true you can't use the included DOS for Windows 95, but you can actually get Windows 95 running in DOSBox. You just have to use the built in ability to use bootdisks (as was required for some older software). Well, that and a hard drive disk image, which DOSBox supports.
i am fourty plus plus.. its like listen to nostagic song. still remember my happy teenage era 90
dude, this channel needs to be called "TechSplainations"
The only old OS I have (That I properly and fully own) is Windows 98SE (The disc is the one for PCs without windows)!
EDIT: I just remembered. I own a copy of Windows XP but I don't have a disc... just the OS on a laptop.
Great video!
I'm always interested in Pi related things. You're really good at this!
This cool. My son has some really old pc games that should run on win 95 or win 3.1. Rather than build a big computer for a couple games, this might be a great alternative.
this is beautiful. thank you very much, Sir.
Thank you for this video! I think it's amazing you had a clean copy of Windows 3.1 lying around. I hope someone creates a free archive of these older OS for people to access. I still have a lot of play on a Windows 95 machine I use at Uni in my physics research lab. Great stuff back then.
Darren Lesinski It would be nice if Microsoft put older versions of Windows into the public domain now.
ExplainingComputers I used have a Windows 3.1 VM and thought it was cool, but what's the point, I can't do anything I can't already do. I gave up trying to get programs running on Windows 98 that wouldn't run XP coz it was faster, but now all my computer support Windows 7 or Linux.
> _"I hope someone creates a free archive of these older OS for people to access."_
yeah, exactly
> _"It would be nice if Microsoft put older versions of Windows into the public domain now."_
@@ExplainingComputers i doubt they should, 'cz the newer windows are just hacks and hacks built on top of older ones (just based on my observations, no rigorous source). so, no, they cant lol.
just yesterday my browser (latest vivaldi - based on chromium) showed window 7 styled buttons for a moment while the OS is win 10 20H2. so ha, windows OS is just a hack
wow, that's the first time I've seen somebody finish Solitaire. And that's over 20 years after the OS was released.
I have quite a bit of retro pc kit. If you find you are short, please do ask me, and I will be happy to post them for you to keep foc. Nice video, once again!
Kevin Hannan Hi Kevin. Many thanks for your kind offer. This retro video has gathered more interest than I imagined, so I may well do some more videos about older PC stuff, and if so I will be in touch. :)
Win 3.1 worked quite well here , perhaps as good as a 486 machine... Sometimes you just have to know if you can do something and enjoy a bit of nostalgia
+minnescanada :)
This is pretty cool! I remember doing the same thing on my PSP, but it ran very slow and the screen resolution wasn't right at all.
9:56: No until Windows ME all versions were based on DOS.
This changed when fully switching to the ME line in Windows 2000 / XP
Benedikt Müssig I said that Win 3.1 was the last to run 'over DOS' and this is true. You are right that the DOS kernel was integrated in 95, 98, etc. But 3.1 was the last Windows where you had to install DOS and **then** install Windows, and that is what is critical in a setup as here based on DOSBox. After 3.1(1) Windows did not run over another OS.
ExplainingComputers Ah okay. I see. Thanks for replying.
3.1 one is first pc i used decade ago.... its perfect memory.
Wow, this is great! Now I can run my favourite dos util/tool XTGold and Reflex database and more. And of course Win 3.11. This brings good times back.
Thinking about a 2nd Pi 2.. Thanks 4 sharing
PMR1WRT I Tested it on a Banana Pi, and it works great.
Windows 3.11, Reflex, XTree Gold and some old MS-Dos Ham Radio Stuff. Had problems with install Windows 1.xx and 2.xx. I must do this over some time.
Oh my goodness. This made my day! Maximum nostalgia.
Very Impressive. I love how these tiny computers are re-creating our heritage. We may be all for multicore and gigabytes.. But they must all have come from somewhere - and that knowledge is all the more impressive.
Recently I relearned the steps of my youth by making a PiDP8/i
This will be my next one :) :)
thank you much . loved the details . i have wanted to build a super computer of sorts since child hood and a big part of that was a way to run multiple os s from a single machine . i think makeing my own custom case on a new motherboard with 2 or 3 raspberry pis incorperated into the build is the cheapest solution. great video.
Only stumbled across your channel recently, great stuff, great range of topics and kutgw
Slight Correction: Windows ME was actually the last version of Windows which was a DOS shell. Windows 2000 was the first mainstream version based on the NT kernel.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Microsoft_Windows#Windows_ME
Gregory Casamento I keep answering the same question here! :) Yes, the DOS kernel was used after Windows 3.1. But 3.1 was the last version of Windows to install "over DOS" (which is what I actually say in the video) -- ie you installed DOS, and then Windows -- which is the critical point when using DOSBox as I am here.
PS: I would advise against using Wikipedia as a source of technical information! :)
Ack! You're right you did say that!!! Subtle difference, but different nevertheless. My apologies!
Gregory Casamento ExplainingComputers Your both wrong, I still got a DDOS promt on my windows 7 ;)
Noniksleft Windows 7 is based on the NT kernel. So whether you got a DDOS prompt or not you're not running Windows as a DOS process. :)
Noniksleft It's not a DOS prompt, it's a command line interpreter. Windows 7 is a full-fledged operating system with it's own kernel!
How nostalgic ; -)
the program manager in windows 3.1 was the most considerable system. unfortunately we lost our big tower ~13 years ago!
I think Win95 was the last version of windows that _did_ require DOS to be installed first. Starting with Win98 you could install without having DOS around but needed to install it if you wanted some of the "legacy" parts of DOS - anyway I'll have to give DOSBOX a try on my Pi - great video!
+Scott Warmbier I am not getting into this debate again (see below). I am very certain that Windows 95 onwards were sold as an alternative to DOS, and would wipe DOS if you had it installed on the same partition (though you could, as you note, put things back if you wanted). :)
+ExplainingComputers Yep - I see that now that I went and looked it up that Win95 didn't require DOS at all - I do seem to remember though that there were some short comings around the shell that often required one to add DOS back in and when Win98 shipped that problem was resolved. Again great series - really takes me back!
FUN FACT: Gaming Consoles, Smartphones, Tables, Raspberry Pi's and any device with an ARM/ASIC-based processor are not, I repeat, not, real computers and will never replace computers. They were designed for either single tasked or basic computing tasks with minimum amount of computing power, and are designed to be terminals connecting to servers. The x86/x64 based processor will only be the real computer which every professional still uses. Long live the PC!
Yes, go tell Apple this opinion -- all new Macs now have an ARM processor . . .
@@ExplainingComputers In my opinion, Apple should include an x64 coprocessor for their legacy applications, until their processors are capable of virtualizing them. Their decision of switching is a really bad decision.
I just came to watch this after you linked it in the comments from your video today...
First thing I noticed, the intro music is different than I'd ever heard before......
Second thing I saw, is the video is 7 years old....
Third thing I noticed..... You have not aged a day in those 7 years..... Like, what is your secret??????
Ah, you came over! Yes, the music changed (same MIDI file, different instruments) in December 2015 when I took the channel weekly. I have aged internally a great deal . . .
@@ExplainingComputers Ah awesome! tbh, I'm tempted to make an up beat version of that little tune! I have a Yamaha Tyros 2, and been playing since I was around 9. In fact, playing my Tyros 2 are the very first videos on my UA-cam channel. Shameless plug, feel free to have a look if you like that kinda stuff ;)
I'm glad you're keeping well! We shook hands at TCT I think it was 2017!
WOW! That was great.. A walk down memory lane.
My goodness, such memories.
I remember win3.1 my grandma had it, it was so much better than the Apple II we used in school. Paint and Minesweeper were amazing when I was a kid. The salesman told my grandma's she would never need a more powerful p.c than that
Wow it’s been 20yrs since I last used Win 3.1 on DOS. Also I used Professional Write on DOS best WP program I had.
Haha this was very entertaining to watch! I would like more!
***** I always (try to) do more of the content that gets the most views! So we shall see. So far, in the first few hours, this video is proving popular . . .