There’s one more driver issue to take care of. You’ll then be able to select a different video mode. If Windows won’t work properly after you select a display mode, run the following command after using the “cd windows” command to enter the Windows directory: After you do, you’ll see your new graphical settings in effect.
Windows will install the drivers and you’ll be prompted to restart it. This is the highest resolution and number of colors many games will support.Ĭlick OK several times. We recommend choosing 800×600 with 256 colors. For example, if you unzipped them to the C:\dos\s3 folder, you’d type “C:\S3” here.Ĭhoose your preferred resolution and colors. Click the “Options” menu in the Windows Setup window and select “Change System Settings.”Ĭlick the “Display” box, scroll down to the bottom, and select “Other display (Requires disk from OEM).” In Windows 3.1, double-click the Main program folder and double-click the “Windows Setup” icon.
For example, it would make sense to put these files in the “C:\dos\s3” folder.
zip file to a folder inside your DOSBox C: drive folder. You can download the S3 video driver from the Classic Games website. For best graphics support, you’ll want to install the S3 graphics drivers and configure Windows 3.1 to use a higher resolution and more colors. By default, it’s set up to emulate S3 Graphics. However, it also supports some other types of graphics. When you restart DOSBox, you can launch Windows 3.1 by running the following commands in order:ĭOSBox supports standard VGA graphics. When it’s done, close the DOS system by clicking “Reboot” in the wizard. Go through the Windows 3.1 setup wizard to install Windows 3.1 in DOSBox. (If you named the folder something else, type that instead of install.)įinally, launch the Windows 3.1 setup wizard: Next, enter the folder containing your Windows 3.1 installation files: Switch to the C: drive by typing the following two characters and pressing Enter: (If you named the folder somewhere else or placed it at another location, type that location instead of c:\dos.)
At the DOS prompt, type the following command and press Enter to mount the folder you created as your C: drive in DOSBox: You can use Windows 3.1 or Windows for Workgroups 3.11 - whichever you have available. Windows 3.1 is still under Microsoft copyright, and can’t legally be downloaded from the web, although many websites do offer it for download and Microsoft no longer offers it for sale. Make a folder like “C:\dos”, for example.Ĭreate a folder inside the “C:\dos” folder - for example, “C:\dos\INSTALL” - and copy all the files from your Windows 3.1 floppy disks to that folder. Don’t use your actual C: drive on Windows for this. This folder will contain the contents of the “C:” drive you’ll provide to DOSBox. Install Windows 3.1įirst, you’ll need to create a folder on your computer. Windows 3.1 in DOSBox is an ideal combination for running old Windows 3.1-era applications. Windows 3.1 was actually just an application that ran on DOS, and DOSBox is an emulator designed to run DOS and DOS applications. This is particularly useful as only 32-bit versions of Windows can run those 16-bit applications.
Install Windows 3.1 in DOSBox to run old 16-bit Windows games on 64-bit versions of Windows, Mac OS X, Linux, and anywhere else DOSBox runs.