Microsoft Windows 3.1

See Also
IPB 1040 - IPB 2122 - IPB 2125

Microsoft are today launching Windows 3.1; if you want a full review of the features and benefits of this new version you can phone the Microsoft Customer Response Centre on 0734-270000 for a glossy brochure.

Windows 3.1 is more than just a bug fix, many parts are substantially improved over 3.0a. 'Unrecoverable Application Errors' have been eradicated as Microsoft have taken great steps to trap errors and report them without locking the machine. File Manager has been greatly improved as have DOS boxes. The mouse is now usable by MS-DOS applications that usually support standard MS mouse drivers, and scalable fonts allow you to change the size of any DOS window. Network awareness is now built in, with industry standard network drivers installed as standard when the set-up program is run. Fully scalable fonts called 'TrueType' have been introduced as standard and everything has a much faster and more colourful 3D image.

The Microsoft version of Windows 3.1 will work successfully on any Apricot machine from the XEN-i upwards; it is worth noting however, that Real mode is no longer valid so any machine must have a minimum of 256K extended memory to run Standard mode. Apricot will be producing a driver to provide support for the 'Apricot Trackerball Mouse' on XEN-i systems, but it will not be providing a driver for the 'Apricot MicroScreen' keyboards.

The Apricot version of Windows 3.1 will be launched at the start of May and will include the Apricot high resolution screen drivers. If you buy the Microsoft version in the meantime, the maximum screen resolution will be 800x600. It should be noted that this resolution is not supported on the 14" HiVision monitor, which, being dual-sync, can only support 640x480 or 1024x768 resolutions. The high resolution drivers to be supplied with the Apricot version of Windows, however, will provide support for the full range of Apricot monitors.

MS-DOS 5.0 is seriously recommended for running Windows 3.1; although it is not essential, it is optimised to get the best out of Windows. On MS-DOS 3.3 with greater than 32MB partitions, the Permanent Swap Files will not work. In Windows 3.0 you had to run WIN /R SWAPFILE.EXE to set permanent swap files, but in Windows 3.1 it is automatically tried by the set-up routine. This causes setup to say that 512K sector size is needed; Permanent Swap Files are not essential for Windows although they are desirable.

Qi 600 / Qi PCi / Qi 386-25 machines must have two things to run MS-DOS 5.0 and Windows; 1.02.21 or later boot ROMs and APRA20.SYS loaded as the first DEVICE= line in config.sys.

HIMEM.SYS and SMARTDRV.EXE have been updated and are automatically copied into your Windows sub-directory. The set-up routine will automatically change your config.sys and autoexec.bat files, but it is important to make sure your old entries are not copied back.

SMARTDRV.EXE now has a facility called 'double-buffering' to ensure some older SCSI cards don't behave erratically with the new cache. The line "DEVICE=SMARTDRV.SYS /double_buffer" can be removed from config.sys as all standard Apricot hard drive controllers work perfectly with the new cache.

MOUSE.SYS and MOUSE.DRV will be shipped with the Microsoft version of Windows 3.1 but will be omitted from the Apricot version. All Apricot mice, since the old Trackerball, are made by Logitech and can work with either of the Microsoft drivers above, or the Logitech mouse drivers LMOUSE.COM and LMOUSE.DRV. Apricot will ship the Logitech drivers with Windows 3.1 and we will get a new version of our current MOUSE.SYS for MS-DOS 5.0 that is the equivalent of the LMOUSE.COM from Windows.

A new version of the Apricot Security Pack will be required to run Windows 3.1. Any person wishing to upgrade their current version of security to the new Release 9 should send their master Security Pack disks to Kelvin Hill or Colin Davis at the Apricot Technical Support Department.

The Prices:

If you require the upgrade product you will need to supply proof of purchase of Windows 3.0.

If you have bought a Microsoft version of Windows 3.1, we will put the Apricot specific drivers onto Insight BBS for download free of charge as soon as we have them available.

Microsoft and MS-DOS are registered trademarks and Windows is a trademark of Microsoft Corporation. TrueType is a registered trademark of Apple Computer Inc.

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