I have Windows 3.11(not WFW) and can't find an option to turn off 32-bit
disk acass in BIOS.
On 02/20/2018 06:09 AM, Eric Auer wrote:
Forwarding... Gregg Eshelman g_alan_e yahoo.com wrote:
Windows 3.0 runs in Real Mode for 8088 and 8087, Standard Mode for 80286
and up, 386 Enhanced Mode for 80386 and up.
Windows 3.1 and 3.11 dropped Real Mode. 3.11 was briefly available on
OEM systems but sets of install floppies could be bought and it came on
many OEM CD-ROMs conveniently divided up for copying to floppies. It's
32bit support was essentially useless because it only went 'halfway'.
Naturally when running on an 80286 the 32bit checkbox was disabled. I do
recall being disappointed after checking that box on my first 386
because its disk performance was *worse*.
There was a Workgroups For Windows addon, don't know if it it was only
for 3.1 and 3.11 on an 80386 and up or if it'd work on an 80286. Did it
only add networking features or did the changes go deeper? I never used it.
ISTR a very short lived (maybe announced but unreleased?) WFWG 3.1. If
it existed, did it support Standard Mode?
WFWG 3.11 only runs in 386 enhanced mode. Enabling both 32bit Disk and
File access could give a decent speed boost in disk I/O because it
didn't have to use BIOS calls. A high performance VLB IDE controller
might have been able to be faster without Windows' 32bit boxes checked
if its onboard BIOS was done right.
My opinion back then was when Microsoft first received 386 sample
systems they should have worked on completely dropping 16bit right away
to go with a purely 32bit system. That didn't happen until Win 98 or
98SE, though they still had the 16bit subsystem to support olde
software. Win 95 could still use Windows 3.1x printer drivers. Win 98
all drivers and other system stuff had to be 32bit.
On Monday, February 19, 2018, 7:00:43 PM MST, Eric Auer wrote:
Windows 3.11 (OEM release between 3.1 and WFWG 3.11) has either 32bit
disk or 32bit file access, I can never remember which. Either way
it's useless because both are needed (which only WFWG 3.11 has) to do
any speed improving. 32bit incompatible drivers in config.sys and
autoexec.bat can prevent both using 386 enhanced mode and 32bit disk
and file access.
With a modern disk, speed should be no real problem, so I would
rather recommend to disable 32 bit disk access on modern PC, as
the Windows 3.x drivers expect old PC & formats. When you disable
those, it should fall back to BIOS & DOS compatible disk access.
This is just an "as far as I remember" statement, though...
I think 3.11 OEM or 3.12 or something also was the update which
fixed the 3.1 file manager to display file dates from 2000 upwards
as years "00" and up rather than as the years ":0" and so on? :-p
Note that far too many just say "Windows 3" or 3.1 when they mean
"Windows for Workgroups 3.11" which is quite different from the
normal 3.x series because WfW 3.11 almost insists on using 386enh
mode and it involves more networking stuff. The non-386 mode on
WfW 3.11 is a bit like "safe mode" of Windows 9x. While in classic
Windows 3.0 and 3.1, it was still quite normal to use non-386 modes
unless you wanted to use some modern performance features and such.
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