roderus@fauern.UUCP (Helmut Roderus) (10/31/88)
I've seen now three different versions of MS Windows
- a 386 version, seems to have real multitasking and is
ruuning in protected mode
- the 2.x versions, which I suppose are to run on all
XT/AT ...
- a 286 version.
Who can answer the following questions to me?
Does the 286 version run in protected mode of the 80286?
Does it support multitasking?
Will all MS Windows Applications run on this special version?
Thanks for your answers,
Helmut Roderus
roderus@fauern.uucpphilba@microsoft.UUCP (Phil Barrett) (11/03/88)
In article <386@fauern.UUCP> roderus@fauern.UUCP (Helmut Roderus) writes: >I've seen now three different versions of MS Windows > - a 386 version, seems to have real multitasking and is > ruuning in protected mode > - the 2.x versions, which I suppose are to run on all > XT/AT ... > - a 286 version. > >Who can answer the following questions to me? > > Does the 286 version run in protected mode of the 80286? > Does it support multitasking? > Will all MS Windows Applications run on this special version? > >Thanks for your answers, > >Helmut Roderus >roderus@fauern.uucp There are 4 products that you may have seen: Microsoft Windows 2.03 Microsoft Windows/386 2.03 Microsoft Windows/286 2.1 Microsoft Windows/386 2.1 There were 2 versions: 2.03 & 2.1. Version 2.1 is the current USA/International English one. There are adaptations for a number of languages. The ones I am aware of are: French, German, Dutch, Swedish, Spanish and Italian. The differences/similarities: Windows/286 2.1 and Windows 2.03 will run on 8088/8086/80286/80386 machines. Windows/286 will take advantage of extended memory on a 286 or 386 to provide better performance. (That, perhaps, is the subject of a seperate article but I'll wait until a real group is created). If you have 2.03, you might want to upgrade to 2.1 to get better performance. (Please, no flames about advertising, I said might want). Windows/286 DOES NOT run in protected mode. Windows/386 does run in protected mode. Windows & DOS Applications run in V86 mode. Windows/386 runs on the 80386sx. Compatibility: In general, there is application compatibility across the 2.xx versions of MS Windows. The exceptions will be due to specific machine configuration differences (like not enough memory & such) and applications requirements (like expanded memory). Applications written for Window 2.03 will run on Windows/386 2.1. Multitasking: All versions of MS Windows support multitasking of Windows Apps. Windows/386 supports multitasking of DOS applications while Windows/286 (and Windows 2.03) only allow 1 DOS application to execute at a time. Under Windows/286 (and 2.03), you can load more than 1 DOS app but only the visible application (focus app) will actually run. The exception is windowed DOS apps under Windows/286 (& 2.03). Phil Barrett Microsoft Corp. Microsoft is a trademark of Microsoft Corp.
bturner@hpcvlx.HP.COM (Bill Turner) (11/04/88)
> I've seen now three different versions of MS Windows > - a 386 version, seems to have real multitasking and is > ruuning in protected mode > - the 2.x versions, which I suppose are to run on all > XT/AT ... > - a 286 version. In reality, Windows/286 IS Windows 2.x. Microsoft changed the name to match Windows/386. > Who can answer the following questions to me? > > Does the 286 version run in protected mode of the 80286? > Does it support multitasking? > Will all MS Windows Applications run on this special version? The 286 version doesn't use protect mode. It multitasks (sort of...) in the same way Windows 2.x does, since it is the same. I.e, Windows apps multitask fairly well, but I wouldn't use it as a task manager for non-MSW apps. All 2.x apps will work. --Bill Turner
chasm@killer.DALLAS.TX.US (Charles Marslett) (11/05/88)
In article <386@fauern.UUCP>, roderus@fauern.UUCP (Helmut Roderus) writes: > - a 386 version, seems to have real multitasking and is > running in protected mode > - the 2.x versions, which I suppose are to run on all > XT/AT ... > - a 286 version. > > Who can answer the following questions to me? > > Does the 286 version run in protected mode of the 80286? The 286 version runs on XTs (so it does not run in protected mode). It differs from the 2.0x version in the "bug fix" and upgrade state, and it comes with a "driver" that makes use of the 286 idiosyncracy that in real mode the 286 can access 1 MB + 64K - 16 bytes of memory, while the 8088 can only access 1 MB. The difference means a lot to some people, but I can't get to excited about it! > Does it support multitasking? All three Windows systems support a cooperative multitasking system -- the programs have to work at it (be coded explicitly for windows) to provide all the features of Windows programs. Only Windows/386 really time-slices to handle misbehaved or compute bound programs (I think this is true, but I may be spouting off, too). > Will all MS Windows Applications run on this special version? Windows applications that work with Windows/2.03 will work with all three version, most 1.04 applications works within limits, but obviously an application written for Windows/286 or Windows/386 that use the 286 or 386 instruction sets will fail if run under Windows/2.03 or Windows/286 on an 8088 machine (though Excel seems to work, or starts up at least, on a V20 based XT box -- I did not buy it, so the testing was very minimal). > > Thanks for your answers, > > Helmut Roderus > roderus@fauern.uucp In summary, all Windows environments are more or less the same (like all Unix systems :-) . . . but they are nested in functionality, like the Intel processors (386 runs 286 runs 8088 programs, most of the time!). Charles Marslett STB Systems, Inc. <-- apply all standard disclaimers chasm@killer.dallas.tx.us
benoitm@hpmwtd.HP.COM (Benoit Menendez) (11/05/88)
> Who can answer the following questions to me? > > Does the 286 version run in protected mode of the 80286? NO > Does it support multitasking? NO > Will all MS Windows Applications run on this special version? YES Starting from version 2.1 the regular PC/XT/AT version of Windows is called Windows 286. The 386 version is still called Windows 386. Microsoft changed the name so people are warned that there are some performance problems on slow 8086 or 80186 machines. Hope this helps... Benoit. BTW: To start the MKS ksh (or better yet login.exe) in a window, just create a PIF file with enough memory allocated. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Benoit Menendez ARPANET : benoitm%hpmwtd@hplabs.hp.com UUCP : ...hplabs!hpmwtd!benoitm
jcmorris@mitre-bedford.ARPA (Joseph C. Morris) (11/08/88)
In article <386@fauern.UUCP> roderus@fauern.UUCP (Helmut Roderus) writes: > > Does the 286 version run in protected mode of the 80286? > Does it support multitasking? > Will all MS Windows Applications run on this special version? No, no, and supposedly. The folks at usoft renamed the original Windows product to Windows/286 when they released version 2.1 of the product, probably to (1) parallel the name format of Windows/386, and (2) to reflect the fact that Windows applications usually are s-l-o-w on an 8088-based system. As far as I can tell there are no 80286-only facilities; I've run it (more correctly, crawled it) on an original PC-1 using a gen-you-wine IBM 8088 chip. Since it can't play the protect game, it isn't providing any isolation between processes. There isn't any indication that it can do anything significant that the older Windows 2.03 couldn't do (although some bugs were cleaned up), so its multitasking support is no different from what we (didn't) have with earlier versions. No documetation I've seen indicates that there should be any problem using applications which were designed for earlier versions in the 2.x range. There are, however, problems with some applications which were designed for the original Windows product since the 2.x (all subreleases) uses different file structures (such as font files). Joe Morris