The family of
Microsoft Windows operating systems were released from
1992 to
1994 , succeeding
Windows 3.0 . This family of Windows could run in either Standard or 386 Enhanced
Memory Mode s. The exception was Windows for Workgroups 3.11, which could only run in 386 Enhanced mode.
''Windows 3.1'' (originally codenamed ''Janus''), released on
March 18 ,
1992 , included a
TrueType Font system (and a set of highly legible fonts already installed) which effectively made Windows a serious
Desktop Publishing platform for the first time. (Similar functionality was available for Windows 3.0 through the
Adobe Type Manager (ATM) font system from
Adobe .)
Windows 3.1 was designed to have a large degree of
Backward Compatibility with older Windows platforms. As with Windows 3.0, version 3.1 had File Manager and Program Manager. But unlike all previous versions, Windows 3.1 and later supported
32-bit Disk Access , couldn't run in
Real Mode , and included
Minesweeper instead of Reversi.
A special version named ''Windows 3.1 for Central and Eastern Europe'' was released that allowed the use of Cyrillic and had fonts with diacritical marks, characteristic for the Central and Eastern European languages. There was also ''Windows 3.1J'' with support for the
Japanese Language .
Microsoft also released an update for Windows 3.1 which (aside from installing new files) changed the Windows version displayed in "About" dialog boxes to 3.11. Thus, ''Windows 3.11'' wasn't a standalone version of Windows, but rather an update from Windows 3.1, much like modern Windows
Service Pack s. For those who did not own Windows 3.1, full disk sets of Windows 3.11 were sold.
''
Modular Windows '' was a special version of ''Windows 3.1'', designed to run on the
Tandy Video Information System .
''Windows for Workgroups 3.1'' (originally codenamed ''Kato''), released in
October 1992 , featured native networking support. Windows for Workgroups 3.1 is an extended version of Windows 3.1 which came with
SMB file sharing support via the
NetBEUI and/or
IPX network protocols, included the
Hearts card game, and introduced
VSHARE.386 , the
Virtual Device Driver version of the
SHARE.EXE Terminate And Stay Resident program.
Finally, ''Windows for Workgroups 3.11'' (originally codenamed ''Snowball'') was released in
December 1993 . It supported
32-bit File Access , full 32-bit network redirectors, and the
VCACHE.386 File Cache , shared between them. The standard execution mode of the windows kernel got discontinued in Windows for Workgroups 3.11.
A
Winsock package was required to support
TCP/IP Networking in Windows 3.x. Usually third-party packages were used, but in
August 1994 Microsoft released an add-on package (codenamed ''Wolverine'') which provided limited TCP/IP support in Windows for Workgroups 3.11.
Limited compatibility with the new 32-bit
Windows API used by
Windows NT was provided by another add-on package,
Win32s . There is the rumor that Microsoft didn't want to increment any mainstream Windows 3.1x version to something like "Windows 3.2" because it could be scrambled with the
Win32 API or otherwise distract consumers from upgrinding to some 'real 32 bit OS' like the upcoming Windows 95 might be. In fact, only for the limited Chinese market did Microsoft release a true Windows for Workgroups 3.2 version (see below).
Windows 3.x was eventually superseded by
Windows 95 ,
Windows 98 , and later versions which integrated the MS-DOS and Windows components into a single product.
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For the
Chinese market Microsoft released a
Simplified Chinese version of Windows for Workgroups; the updated system identified itself as ''Windows 3.2''. The update was limited to this language version, as it fixed only issues related to the complex writing system of the
Chinese Language .
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Windows 3.2 was generally sold by computer manufacturers with a ten disk version of MS-DOS that also had Simplified Chinese characters in basic output and some translated utilities.
Pre-NT Windows systems, not only 3.x and earlier but also 95, 98 and ME, have a complex, original, hybrid and not fully documented internal structure. Most notably, they require MS-DOS in order to run, and run 'on top' of MS-DOS. As a consequence, it can be difficult to decide whether they are operating systems or MS-DOS extension
Shells . Many users consider them to be operating systems, because they appear to behave as such, while other people, often having used other environments, refute this label.
Windows 3.x requires pre-installation of MS-DOS, which must be
Booted on PC startup. Windows is started as an application program, and can be terminated at any time, returning the user to the MS-DOS prompt. MS-DOS also provides device drivers for certain tasks such as CD-ROM or network access, specifically remote disk drive or remote printer access; these drivers run in
Real Mode . However, in 386 enhanced mode of Windows for Workgroups, the networking drivers are running in protected mode. On the other hand, Windows requires specifically written
Applications , and has a specific on-disk file format, which is much more complicated than the format of MS-DOS executables. It has many of its own
Device Driver s and for the most part its own
Memory Management system.
Other considerations include the fact that MS-DOS does not isolate applications from the hardware and does not protect itself from applications. The memory-resident part of MS-DOS is akin to a
Library of
Routine s for dealing with disk-type
Peripheral s and loading
Applications from them; an MS-DOS program is free to do whatever it desires, notably replacing or bypassing part or all of MS-DOS code, temporarily or permanently. Windows took advantage of this, and the degree to which bypassing was performed increased with every new release. Windows 3.1 and its
32-bit Disk Access superseded the BIOS code for accessing disks, while
32-bit File Access of Windows for Workgroups 3.11 bypassed the native MS-DOS code for accessing files. This opened the way for Windows 95's support for long file names, which made DOS file code and related
8.3 utilities obsolete.
Furthermore, an MS-DOS program running in the Windows environment could take advantage of those features of Windows which were natively unsupported by DOS. An MS-DOS program running on Windows for Workgroups 3.11 would automatically use 32-bit File Access rather than the native MS-DOS file and disk access routines. Similarly, a specially written MS-DOS program running on Windows 95 can access long file names.
The same operating principles applied to
Windows 95 ,
Windows 98 , and
Windows Me which still mixed 16-bit and 32-bit code. With each successive version, however, 16-bit code became less apparent.
Windows NT ,
Windows 2000 , and their successors represent operating systems completely separate from MS-DOS legacy and their kernel is entirely composed of 32-bit code. MS-DOS (and Windows 3.x) programs run inside
Virtual DOS Machine s, which are implemented ''over'' the normal system API rather than underlying the system.
