I recently decided to try setting up MSDOS 6.22 and then install Windows for Workgroups 3.11 on top of it. Getting some drivers set up was a bit tricky; in particular getting a driver for higher resolution (SVGA) took a bit of Googling. CDROM wasn't too hard to get set up, most generic CDROM drivers work fine.

Network support is what I'm fiddling with now. With the proper driver, Windows *does* pick up the network card, and I can even see network activity on login. I need to find a TCP/IP stack and software to use it, so I can play around with
the internet on there.

I've installed a few different IDEs, because I was thinking about trying to write some Win 3.11 software. However, I forgot how awful programming for Windows is, and apparently back in the 3.11 days it was even worse & somehow more obtuse and confusing. I may give it another crack, but I guess I'm spoiled
with all the libraries and frameworks available now.

For anyone who hasn't found it yet, WinWorld is an amazing resource for DOS and
Windows 3.x/9x software and utilities. They do have a daily download limit, but it's difficult to actually use it all up. The number of software packages they have is incredible. Once you get CDROM up and running, you can do an ad-hoc VISO with VirtualBox to quickly transfer files back and forth. This is a
great feature and makes file management super easy.

I had a brain fart when I first set up the VM: I set it to have 1.5GB of RAM. DOS seemed to mostly ignore it, but the Windows installer absolutely freaked out and refused to start, as it thought I had -1004345k of RAM or something like that. Huge integer overflow, I guess.

Anyway, my experiement was quite successful and I'd be happy to pass on any other tips if people have questions. I'd also like to hear if anyone has played
with TCP/IP on Win 3.11 and if they had any success. I know it can be done with DOS 6.22 so I see no reason why it shouldn't work in Windows (famous last words).

Cheers


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Badass Engineer

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Re: MS-DOS & Win 3.11 in VirtualBox
By: Aurelius to All on Wed Jun 05 2019 06:50 pm

For anyone who hasn't found it yet, WinWorld is an amazing resource for DOS and
Windows 3.x/9x software and utilities. They do have a daily download limit, but it's difficult to actually use it all up. The number of software packages they have is incredible. Once you get CDROM up and running, you can do an ad-hoc VISO with VirtualBox to quickly transfer files back and forth. This is a
great feature and makes file management super easy.

Hmmm... I may check out WinWorld some day and see what they have. Thanks for the tip!

-jag
Code it, Script it, Automate it!
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