Software:Windows3x

Overview

Windows 3.x is probably the most useful version of Windows to run under DOSBox, since it has the widest variety of compatible programs. Installation isn't very hard, either.

Installation

Copy the setup files

First, you need to actually have a copy of the Windows setup media. If your Windows is on a floppy, create a folder and copy the disk contents to its root and have that folder mounted under DOSBox. (You could also create the folder in your DOSBox's C drive if you have one; this might be preferable if you want to experiment with a ton of driver switching.) If you have a CD-ROM, just mount that.

Install Windows

• Mount the setup directory, change to it. and run SETUP.EXE.
• Elect to use Custom Setup.
• Select an appropriate installation path (the default should be OK.)
• The hardware probe should provide usable settings. However, I suggest that you use the VGA (Version 3.0) driver instead of the regular VGA driver.
• The setup process should work normally from here. When prompted, elect to return to DOS.
• Create a file in your DOSBox C drive called WIN.BAT with the contents:

PATH C:\WINDOWS;
SET TEMP=C:\WINDOWS\TEMP
WIN.COM /S

• Restart DOSBox.
• Run C:\WIN.BAT and Windows should load.

Sound

use control panel and your dosbox.conf to get sound working

Issues

• Running DOS programs in 386 Enhanced mode doesn't work very well at all. QBASIC randomly displays a "Division by zero" error box and eventually locks up hard, for example. Some mode switching problems can be ameliorated by using the VGA (version 3.0) driver.
• The Super VGA driver has a corrupted color palette sometimes.
• This article may not work if you don't use Windows 3.1.