Have you used Microsoft Windows 3.1 or Windows 98? Try it here

What an era that was! Windows 3.1, where it all began uphill for Microsoft and their graphical user interface after the black-screened DOS operating system.

No doubt, there were lower versions of Windows before 3.1, but the first commercial use was Windows 3.1. Users could install software based on DOS or Windows at that time. The graphical interface, as compared to today’s Windows 8, or even Windows XP, is the crappiest you might have witnessed. But during that phase, it was beautiful.

I still can remember the days when I used to install Windows 3.1 with 1.44 MB floppies, inserting one disk after the other till the installation completed in around an hour. One bad floppy disk, and I would run helter-skelter for a duplicate disk, or else, most of my patient hour would have been wasted. Best remedy we found—copy the disks contents directly to the hard drive before you start the installation and you would be assured that your Windows installation would complete without any errors.

Later when Microsoft improvised on the graphical user interface and decided that DOS was no longer needed as a platform for Windows, they integrated Windows and DOS together to bring out the best operating system ever (in those days), Windows 98.

The system would boot-off directly into the graphical user interface, whilst still keeping DOS as the base platform. Ideally, Windows 98 was still working in the same manner of DOS and Windows 3.1, albeit, skipping right into the graphical user interface.

Windows 3.1 ran for a really long time, and so did Windows 98. Applications such as FoxPro, WordStar and Tally were available as DOS-based programming, documentation and accounting respectively. They would run under the Command Prompt DOS shell without any issues. Later, they had graphical user interfaces of their own, while some applications just died. Then Windows XP took over and you probably know story after that.

Today, we cannot even imagine or stand using the Command Prompt DOS shell. Windows 7 actually killed the DOS shell completely. The Command Prompt is now used only by computer engineers to do some testing and troubleshooting. Windows XP and 7 are what most people today still have on their computers and laptops. There are miniscule chances that you can run into someone still using Windows 98, let alone Windows 3.1.

For those who remember working on Windows 3.1 or Windows 98, here is a bit of nostalgia. While others of this generation, if you haven’t seen Windows 3.1 or Windows 98 at all, we have something in store for you.

If you want to try your hand on Windows 3.1 or Windows 98, click on the links below. The user interface is a browser-driven emulator which will give you the exact feeling of what Windows 3.1 or Windows 98 looked and worked. The emulator does not include all the features of Windows, but most of them are available. Click on the respective images above to know, use and experience Windows 3.1 and Windows 98, the way they were built.