Any interst in a WFW 3.11 build ?

edited April 2007 in Software
In order to do some testing and migration, I've had to build a fully functional and well patched version of Windows for Workgroups 3.11. I've built it under Virtual PC 2007 but it also works under under Virtual PC 2004. For that matter, it works pretty much on any PC that has a FAT partition to put it on if you want to run it elsewhere. You'd just have to change the hardware support (Video + NC etc,)

It features:
1) MS DOS 6.2 with well defined config.sys and autoexec.bat using the smallest footprint I could get while still loading DOS support for the network, CDROM, Mouse etc...it has 559K base memory and a 36 K upper memory block available. The network stack for WFW takes up most of the used conventional memory. It also has the utilities for VESA support for the emulated S3 adapter and some other handy DOS utils.

2) A Y2K patched WFW with 32 bit disk and file access drivers configured for the emulated environment. I'm using the most stable release of Video drivers for the S3 (which are version 1.5 btw, the version 1.7 and up are awful). It has a full Office 4.3 pro install, NAV with UP TO DATE (like this month on the 17th) virus defs. I've installed IE5.0 (last release for win 3.1/nt 3.51). It has Win32s extensions (the .25 release, later releases won't work in VPC). The calmira shell software is installed but it's not the default shell (easy to change).

There are more tweaks on this windows installl than a typical Solaris build, it's unreal what you have to do to get things as rock solid as possible. No wonder we all hated it.

My question is , if anyone wants this I can make an effort to get it to you for playing around with either as a bootable ISO with a batch file for installtion or as a VHD. I can't host the file anywhere but it's a 100megs or so compressed (maybe smaller if I clean it up). To run it elsewhere, you'd need to configure TCP/IP for your own environment, by default it's set to use an ICS share (gets DHCP address and surfs the net from ICS).

Let me know if there's any interest and we'll figure something out. I've gotten some useful tips from this site and I'm willing to share. Can something this size be emailed from my gmail account maybe?

Anyhow, this post was made from WIndows 3.11, the forums work well on this old pig of a browser despite the lack of .png image support

Since this post is an offer to share files I put it here but if you think it belongs in Windows Classic, please move it.

Comments

  • WFW 3.11 is ABW by almost anyones definition, certainly ours. I appreciate your thinking ahead.

    *Moved to Support > Windows Classic*

    And yes, I, for one, would be extremely interested in something derived from this.

    -Q
  • You could upload the file to megaupload or rapidshare. Or even make a torrent of it on minimova.org. I;d be intrested in getting it as a vhd.
  • I have an FTP svr you can upload it to in whatever format you prefer.

    -Q
  • I;d be intrested in getting it as a vhd.
    Same here. I think it'd be pretty fun to play with in Virtual PC.
  • That woould be great, I was thinking of leaving it as a VHD for now unless there's a clamour for an ISO. I can't upload the file until we're back at work monday as I'm at the cottage with 26.4 K dial up service (yes, slower than 28.8 even).

    It will compress down to a couple hundred megs and that's it even after I deleted the permanent swap file and cleaned up the cache and directory structures. Not much I can do about the size unless I uninstall MSOffice which is 80 Megs of the space.

    I think I'll do the version with PC DOS, it's actually much more stable than the MS DOS build and has a lot more free base memory.

    Let me know where to put it and I'll see it gets there.

    I'm hoping it gets some use.
  • This is ready for you upload tomorrow, 140Meg Total, expands to 1 Gig VHD. Just need to know where to put it.
  • megaupload? membership is free after all.
  • www.divshare.com

    Faster servers, no advertisements, files stay online forever, and no download limits that I know of.

    -Kirk
  • Thanks I shall post a link on the morrow.
  • OK it should be on my svr when they're done uploading it.

    I've been down the <56K road, it's horrendous. I remember running Windows Update on 98SE and it taking all day and night to get IE 6SP1.

    -Q
  • http://fileho.com/download/2d6c83903251/311VHD.rar.html

    Give it whirl, let me know if any problems exist with it. There is an enclosed readme file. It's less than a page. Worth the effort.

    P.S. I think File ho is short for file hosting.. not ... well just not.... opinions?

    UnG
  • All I get when I try to download it is a page that says "Sorry please try again!" or something... squiggly.gif Anyone have this file and can give it to me via FTP or something?

    -Kirk
  • I tested it in IE 7 and Firefox 1.5 from another computer and it works... so I have no ideas.
  • I got it downloaded, but whenever I load the VHD in Virtual PC 2007, it locks up my entire computer.
  • Uhm... wow. I tested the VHD on VPC 2007 and 2004 SP1 on two separate host programs. It even works on Virtual Server OK.

    I recommend installing the Microsoft Loopback adapter on your real computer and using only that network adapter for your virtual machines. If you want to brindge the networking back to your physical network after that, then you can. NAT with VPC is not so hot.

    My virtual machines use a separate NIC that only has the Virtual network driver bound to it. No IP or file sharing or anything wlese (I just uncheck them) My host OS has it's own NIC from whcih I leave everything intact except I reverse the process and unbind the VM networking. It ensure all traffic for the VM 's uses one NIC and the Host traffic uses another. If you have no second NIC you install the Loopback Adapter. Seems be be the optimum config.

    But it did work with NAT on the second computer.
  • Anonymous wrote:
    http://fileho.com/download/2d6c83903251/311VHD.rar.html

    Give it whirl, let me know if any problems exist with it. There is an enclosed readme file. It's less than a page. Worth the effort.

    P.S. I think File ho is short for file hosting.. not ... well just not.... opinions?

    UnG
    Well thank you very much Guest and I have a copy now but as
    anxious as I am, I don't know when I'll get to trying it. It came
    pretty well but I don't know if I trust the site or not.
    guzzle.gif
    Thump
  • someone else try this if it was corrupted during compression or upload I'll manually FTP it to Q.

    As to site trust worthiness... nothing inside a VM can affect your host computer
  • I'm getting it off of "FileHO" (Err), and will put it on the FTP if you want. You can also upload it directly if you want.

    -Q

    [Edit. BTW, one error, you mention PC DOS as "PS DOS".
  • Uhmmmmm
    That means "Postscript DOS" . It was an afterthought for Y2K...

    Uhm Yeah

    That's my story and I'm sticking to it.....
  • Anyway, so you want me to put that on my FTP?

    -Q
  • Only if it works, if it doesn't I'll have to try again
  • I can make a winworld temp upload ftp on the server if needbe, and if the file is liked, I can do a cp command to move it to the winworld server.
  • well consider this a beta test, if so I have other abandonware images that might be suitable including a very sweet Win NT 3.51 build. But so far only guy who tried the existing got locked up.
  • Hey how would I change the resolution using the current driver?
  • Isn't the option somewhere in Control Panel?

    -Q
  • RN wrote:
    Hey how would I change the resolution using the current driver?

    best way imo
    quit to dos
    cd windows
    setup

    change it there

    or in windows
    Main
    Windows setup
    change system settings
    display options
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