And this is what's called a "Dll-hell". I can play something in Real Player
Microsoft office is loading some junk here as usual
Hey guys and welcome to a Nomadic Dmitry channel
Today we're going to talk about Windows 3.x
Windows 3.1/11 is quite interesting. It doesn't use much resources
It's efficient and still possible to use for simple tasks
Good example is Word Processing
I'm using the Russian version here because it's already adjusted for a Cyrillic Codepage
I will be able to run any applications that use this code-page this way
run Russian applications without any problems you don't need to install
additional support files this way.
I'm running Windows 3.11 inside the DOSbox on Mac OS 10.14.6
one inside the dos box and it doesn't take much memory
You can just use this environment on Mac, Windows or Linux
without any problem it's very cool
I have about 128 mb of memory allocated to it (in DOSBox settings)
The first things I wanted to try is to install Win32s subsystem to run 32-bit Windows applications here
Here is a setup application here
It complains about share.exe file that needs to be loaded
I need to add this file to autoexec.bat
I install it here into this directory
It was installed and even one application (FreeCell) was included there as an example
We use this application to verify that it successfully runs Win32s subsystem
Next we need to restart the Windows 3.11 as per the requirement
This application should work now
Yes, it works and in "About" it also shows how much memory is allocated for the system (185 mb)
Also, I have a Control Panel here with all the settings for Win 3.x
Drivers there
Settings for the ports
Regional settings are set here ("Standards")
This is very interesting to explore especially since I'm used to Windows 95/98 kind of systems back in the 1990s
It also says something about the "smartdrv" driver which is a driver for utilizing additional memory in DOS/Windows 3.x
I also have a RealPlayer installed here
But for some reason it keeps crashing frequently
(This is how buggy Windows used to be before)
"Creative CD" application is used for playing CDs
I like the UI of such applications a lot
It just feels interesting to use
Total Commander is my favorite file manager
But remember that DOS (and Windows 3.11) doesn't support long file names
I've tried to find an app to play MP3 files, but no luck so far
There is no Winamp or similar application as far as I know for Windows 3.11
I also wanted to install Microsoft Office 4.3
This is how I configured the autoexec.bat
I am mounting the volumes using the DOSBox
For playing audio files there is a WinPlay, but it doesn't support all file formats
It shows mp3 as a supported format, but when you try it then it doesn't work
I'm still confused by all the icons in Windows 3.11
Internet Explorer is also available and remember that the latest supported version is Internet Explorer 5.0 for 16-bit Windows
DOS application (vc.com) for some reason gives an error when trying to execute it
Winfile.exe is one of the favorite file management applications, especially for those who used old versions of Windows
It cannot be executed because there is not enough memory, I need to exit Windows
Let's start it again and now it works
Multi-tasking and memory management was not that good in the older versions of Windows
Let's install something interesting
For example, Microsoft Office 4.3 for Windows 16-bit
Let's type something here
I'm going to install all the components here
All the apps that you expect from the Office suite are there (Excel, PowerPoint, Word, Access, etc)
I like this old style of the Setup on earlier versions of Windows
It shows all the new features and that's interesting
Installations nowadays are boring
But here is looks like a show where it presents me (as a user) new features of the application
You can still use this versions of Office to open and create documents
It might not be the latest, but it should do the job if it's a basic document
Also, if you remember all those installations were based on many diskettes
Here is automatically installs all those
And now we are seeing what's called a "DLL-Hell"
This was a problem in the earlier version of Windows when one application overwrote the library files for another application
Windows 3.11, Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows ME all have this problem
It was fixed around Windows 2000 which is based on NT-technology
I chose the option to preserve the current version of DLL files
Alright, we are done here with the installation
Another message reminding to reboot Windows 3.11
Again, this reminds us that we need to add "share.exe" line to autoexec.bat
Here we have all those issues once again
I need to figure out how it all works
This is the problem with all those earlier versions of Windows
Internet Explorer 4.0 is not functional to load websites, but I think I need to add something to have a network access here
And some websites might still work there
For some reason games are not running at the same time, this is strange
Some other weird error message with "OK" and "Cancel" options, but both do the same thing
Subscription Manager... This is interesting, this is even more relevant now when everything has a subscription fee
"Registry Editor". It's strange to see a registry editor in a version of Windows before Windows 95, right?
It's a very basic registry editor here
Real Player works at times
This was popular back in those days
Sound Recorder, Calculator and other apps are available
Macro Command Editor for executing some scripts here
This message is reminding me to close applications since all memory is used already
Write is a simple word processor. Consider it's like a basic version of Word
To close applications I need to return to desktop and then click on the icon and select "Close"
Windows 95 and 98 were much more advances in term of Window management and the Interface
You can also install the "Calmira" application to run the "Shell" similar to Windows 95/98, but in Windows 3.x
But it's all limited and not an ideal solution
There are still many apps that you can find for Windows 3.11 and use it those days
Small games and adventure games were available. For example I liked the "Torin's Passage" game which run fine on both DOS and Windows
Thank you for watching and please subscribe for more videos!
I also like the Paintbrush application here
Also, Windows 3.11 was the last version of Windows that allowed you to exit from Windows straight to DOS
Later versions were more complex in this scenario