Or try starting Windows in 386 Enhanced mode by typing win /3.Ĭannot start Windows in enhanced mode with the currently installed Make sure you are not running other protected-mode software, It's relatively easy to install FreeDOS in VirtualBox, and then the installation of Windows goes smoothly too - until you've installed it and want to run it. It may not be MS-DOS, but it should be enough to run Windows on. First, though, I needed to install a DOS-like operating system, since Windows 3.1 itself is not a real operating system (more of an elaborate DOS game).įreeDOS FreeDOS is an open source implementation of a DOS-like operating system. So, I tried installing Windows 3.1 on this. I use it all the time to do all kinds of mad scientist experiments with my operating systems. So, after I discovered VirtualBox, it became my favorite virtual machine software. So, DOSBox isn't a very satisfactory emulator for running Windows 3.1 on. Sure, Windows would still run, however its color palette would be off (brown dirt blocks in Chip's Challenge would be teal, for instance), and many programs would cause DOSBox to entirely crash. If I wanted to upgrade it to, say, Super VGA and get 800圆00 pixels, or even do something as crazy as to get 256 colors, DOSBox didn't handle it well. Windows uses a VGA graphics driver by default, which gives it an entire 16 colors to use with a 640x480 pixel desktop. However, DOSBox wasn't made to run Windows. It installed, and ran, and I was able to install Chip's Challenge from Microsoft's Best of Windows Entertainment Pack and play it, with sound effects and everything.

I was able to install Windows 3.1 on top of the DOSBox emulator.

It wasn't an easy virtual machine to work with, and I could scarcely get even Windows XP to function to my liking with it, let alone try running a dinosaur of an operating system that isn't up to speed with current hardware, like what QEMU emulates for its virtual machines. The first virtual machine software I found in the last year or two was QEMU. So, I have more than a few nostalgic memories with the operating system, and have been trying to somehow virtualize it and relive a little bit of my past. My first computer ever was an old late-80s Tandy machine that was running MS-DOS and Windows 3.1 - I got it when I was in kindergarten or first grade, and kept it until after I started 7 th grade.

Windows 3.1 free download for dosbox