14 DAY TRIAL // Twenty years ago today, Microsoft officially launched Windows 3.1, which put Microsoft on a path to dominate the PC OS market.
The platform brought along a wide range of changes when compared to its predecessor, Windows 3.0, including File Manager and Program Manager, and removed support for real mode. It also featured Minesweeper instead of Reversi, Wikipedia claims.
Although it featured the same interface as Windows 3.0, this platform release came with a TrueType font system, which no longer required the Adobe Type Manager (ATM) font system from Adobe.
Basically, Windows 3.1 became the first viable desktop publishing platform from Microsoft, offering backwards compatibility with older versions of the OS, and opening the door towards the building of Windows 95.
Although a 16-bit operating system, the platform did add support for 32-bit disk access, and required a minimum of a 286 PC with 1MB of RAM to run, offering increased overall stability when compared to previous releases.
Some of the enhancements that Windows 3.1 brought over its predecessor include the ability for users to take advantage of the Windows mouse pointer to manipulate menus and other objects in windowed DOS applications.
It also included multimedia support for the first time, along with theoretical support for up to 4GB of RAM (in 386 enhanced mode). It also enabled applications to access the Windows Clipboard.
Microsoft loaded it with Office software such as Word 2.0 and Excel 4.0, and allowed users to run Visual Basic 1.0 (which had been released one year earlier).
Although it came with a Program Manager, it did not offer an easy way to navigate through open applications. Microsoft made that much easier in Windows 95 when it added a taskbar on the screen for users to view launched applications.
Windows 3.1 was released in a multitude of flavors, including Windows 3.1 for Central and Eastern Europe (with support for fonts specific to languages in these area) and Windows 3.1J with support for the Japanese language.
At the moment, Windows 3.1 is no longer available for download from Microsoft. The company does offer, however, the successor of this platform version, namely Windows for Workgroups 3.11.
