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Cum instalam Windows 1.0 pe un PC ultimul răcnet

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How to install Windows 1.0 on a last-generation PC

Windows 1.0 was released in the fall of 1985. Due to the backward compatibility of the x86 architecture it can also be installed on a last generation system. The newest configuration I’ve run Windows 1.0 on in real mode is a Ryzen 3900x , on an X470 chipset motherboard, 32GB DDR4 RAM @ 3200 and an RTX 2070 Super video card.

Back in the mid-80s, Windows 1.0 made a decent impression and that’s about it, it wasn’t taken very seriously, as evidenced by the fact that there aren’t many programs and games developed for Windows 1.x and 2.x. The main advantage of Windows 1, namely the possibility of using a mouse, came at a time when ordinary PCs were generally not equipped with a mouse. Windows 3.x is on a whole other level and it really is a system you can do interesting things with, especially since you have Office, Photoshop, Premiere and hundreds of other titles available. With Windows 3.11 you can connect to the Internet using TCP/IP. No wonder, with all its limitations, Microsoft effectively pulled Windows 3.11 from the market in 2008 .

To be or not to be… operating system

Because Windows 1.0 appears to be more of a graphical interface for MS-DOS, it has been questioned whether it is really an operating system. We have to keep in mind that Windows 1.0 works with its own hardware drivers which is way above the level of a simple GUI.

Stranger Things

Due to the mega-popularity of Stranger Things , which pays homage to the 80s, and which in its last season reached the age of Windows 1.0, Microsoft did a little advertising for it last year. Season 4 which takes place in 1986 when the Chernobyl event also takes place and which integrates perfectly into the Stranger Things story.

Where do we get Windows 1.0?

Obviously not from Microsoft. For retro operating systems there is only one reference site, and it is called winworldpc.com . In case winworld fails, I will put the download kit at the end of the article.

Once we get to the download page, we also download Windows 2.0 because we need the mouse driver, the mouse.drv file. Windows 1.0 will not work with our mouse on PS/2. (in 1985 the standard was not even invented).

I no longer have a floppy drive, what do I do?

No problem, no one has anymore. After we download the installer – which is a 528KB .7z archive – we’ll use 7zip to extract the installer.

Archive in Archive: Our files are contained in 5 diskette images. To make things extremely simple, 7zip lets us extract from disk images all the files in one place using the Extract Here command.

Back to DOS

Because Windows 1.0 is more of an extension to DOS and less of an operating system per se , since we have the files below on a bootable DOS partition, we can start the installation. Windows 1.0. it uses a text interface for installation and we have to express our options using numbers or letters: C to C continue, Q to Q uit, Y for Y es and N for N o, etc.

Order subst

To get to the lovely screens above, we can’t run setup.exe if it’s in a C: folder (at least, not on the first try). Let’s not forget: it’s 1985, and the folks at Microsoft are obligingly expecting us – just like any sane human being – to boot from the floppy drive, which is A:

So we’re at a bit of an impasse, because a FAT 16 DOS partition will get the letter C: when we boot from it. Fortunately, since DOS 5, there is the external command subst (external: that is, it requires the file subst.exe) by which we can assign a drive letter to a folder, including the letter A. The syntax is as follows:

subst [<Drive1>: [<Drive2>:]<Path>] 

subst A: C:\kit

For this command to work, it is enough to copy the file subst.exe to C:\ if we do not have a full DOS installation, which includes all utilities.)

Let’s also set the DOS version with setver

Setver.exe, like subst.exe, is also part of the DOS 5 (and following) special team set to “spoof”. Setver will make a program – which needs a specific version of DOS – think that the current version of DOS is the one it needs. To get this trick, copy setver.exe to C: and add the following line to config.sys:

DEVICE=SETVER.EXE WIN100.BIN 3.34

Windows 1.0 will think it’s using DOS 3.34 and finally boot.

It installed for me but did not start. Time for VGASETUP.EXE!

You see, I suffered the same. In my case, the problem was from the RTX 2070 Super video card that did not want to start in EGA mode which is implemented in the EGAHIRES.DRV driver , i.e. the best display mode since 1985. Although the RTX is compatible with the VGA standard ( introduced in 1987) and by default also with the previous EGA standard – simply the system that blocks when entering Windows. The solution comes with installing a 640×480 VGA driver and running VGASETUP.EXE – the file this utility creates.

To use this driver we need to restart the installation process and copy WIN1VGA.EXE to the installation folder, it will patch some files and create a VGASETUP. EXE from which we will start the installation and we will be able to select as VGA video mode. Here are its own installation instructions:

Instrucțiuni ~~~~~~~~~~~~
1. Extrageți toate fișierele de instalare Windows 1.0 într-un director pe hard disk. [ceea ce noi am făcut deja]    (de exemplu, C: \ WINSETUP).
2. Copiați WIN1VGA.EXE în acel director și rulați-l. Un nou driver și un nou program setup va fi creat.

Victory! We have Windows 1.0 working perfectly!

 

The installation kit

How about having all Windows 1.0 installation files already unzipped in one folder including mouse driver + VGA driver already installed (we start installation from vgasetup.exe) + subst.exe and setver.exe in one 554 KB archive?

https://www.pinzaru.ro/kit_windows_1.0.7z

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