Windows 386
| A version of the Microsoft Windows operating system | |
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Screenshot of Windows 2.1
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| Developer | Microsoft |
|---|---|
| Source model | Closed source |
| Released to manufacturing |
May 27, 1988 |
| Latest release | 2.11 / March 13, 1989 |
| License | Commercial software |
| Preceded by | Windows 2.0 (1987) |
| Succeeded by | Windows 3.0 (1990) |
| Support status | |
| Unsupported as of December 31, 2001 | |
Windows 2.1x (marketed as Windows/286 and Windows/386) is a family of Microsoft Windows graphical user interface-based operating environments.
Windows/286 2.10 and Windows/386 2.10 were released on May 27, 1988, less than six months after the release of Windows 2.0. These versions can take advantage of the specific features of the Intel 80286 and Intel 80386 processors. A hard disk was required for the first time to install Windows.
Two editions of Windows 2.1x were released, both of which could take advantage of the Intel processor for which they were designed.
Windows/286 takes advantage of the HMA to increase the memory available to Windows programs. It introduced the HIMEM.SYS DOS driver for this purpose. It also includes support for several EMS boards, although this support is not related to the 80286 processor. The segmented nature of 16-bit Windows programs is quite suited to the usage of EMS, as portions of code and data can be made visible in the first megabyte of memory accessible to real-mode programs only when the program using them is given control. Microsoft encouraged users to configure their computers with only 256KB of main memory, leaving the address space from 256-640KB available for dynamic mapping of EMS memory.
Despite its name, Windows/286 was fully operational on an 8088 or 8086 processor. Windows/286 would simply not use the high memory area since none existed on an 8086-class processor; however, EMS could still be used, if present. A few PC vendors shipped Windows/286 with 8086 hardware; an example was IBM's PS/2 Model 25, which had an option to ship with a "DOS 4.00 and Windows kit" for educational markets, which included word processing and presentation software useful for students, which resulted in some confusion when purchasers of this system received a box labeled Windows/286 with a machine that was definitely less than an 80286.
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