Windows 3.11 DOS Boot CD: How to Create and Use a Bootable CD-ROM Image

This page provides details about creating a boot diskette, or floppy disk, for Windows and not how to create a bootable CD. If you're looking for steps for newer versions of Windows (e.g., Windows 7, 8, or 10), see: How to create a recovery disk in Windows.

I wouldn't say there are any advantages, but there aren't many disadvantages either. If you run Win98, it's very easy to dual boot into DOS (7.1 or even 6.22). If you're running Win98 then obviously you can't take advantage of the library that supports Windows exclusively, but I get that's outside the realm of your question but IMHO something to consider.

Windows 3.11 DOS Boot CD

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Those icons vs rolled up windows reflect a global change in Windows 95 support for MDI applications. The same thing happened in Program Manager (which is still present in Windows 95 but sucks for this very reason), Word 6 and many others. But I am suprised that there were games using the same API.

It depends. Originally, a bootable CD-ROM contains a "hidden" image of a 1.44MB floppy.The BIOS of a Pentium era PC would include a rudimentary IDE/ATAPI CD-ROM support and boot that image from CD-ROM.Just like it would from a floppy. At this point, some of the DOS drivers (if any) would take over and make the drive available.

Especially the OEM releases. Best I found was an entry for QB 4.5. The 88/89 release ended ts life in 1999.If DOS6.22/WFW3.11 were support as long as that, support would have had ended in 2004,several years after El Torito was introduced. Anyway, not sure about it. ?

Setup completes and advises you that your AUTOEXEC.BAT and CONFIG.SYS files have been changed so that Microsoft Network Client is loaded upon system bootup. Press Enter to restart your VM.

Its possbile that this release was never made available for download from novell.com/download given that Client 2.6 was listed as the current release on 28 january 1999 only 21 days before 2.71 was released.A copy of this may have to be extracted from a Netware 5 Clients CD.?2.627 October 1998This version was replaced a little over 3 months after release (less if 2.70 really did exist) - not long enough for archive.org to grab a copy it seems. There are few usenet posts and even fewer websites visible to google mentioning it. The file name, as far as I can tell, was dw26en.exe but there are no hits for this on google and no non-novell download sites mentioned in googles usenet archives. The archive.org likely has a copy but without a search engine there is little chance of finding it.As a result I've been unable to locate a copy of this version. It may require tracking down a Novell Support Connection CD-ROM of just the right age.dw26en.exe2.515 April 1998 Not a lot on the internet or archive.org about this version. The copy here came from ftp.kernel.ee/pub/arc/Novell/DosWinClnt/ and appears to be the real thing (Install.exe included with the copy here contains the string "2.50 Novell Client Install for DOS and Windows 3.1x (980325)" which is about as certain as I can be without installing it on something).This appears to be a Netware 5 release of the client (client.nlm contains the string "NetWare 5 Requester"). The readme file mentions the client only supports IPX connections to Netware 5 servers. Given that TID 2952540 says 2.70 shipped with Netware 5 perhaps 2.5 was used with some beta releases?dw23e_n.exe,Readme2.209 July 1997 This version was difficult to find as archive.org didn't manage to capture any novell page mentioning its filename. Only three usenet posts give the filename but they're all in russian. The copy here comes from which appears to have the only remaining copy on the internet visible to google.Product support page on archive.orgUpdates:adm32_22.exe, Readme - These files are provided as a supplement to the electronic release of the IntranetWare Clients 2.20 for DOS/Windows 3.x and Windows 95.Part 1,Part 2,Part 3,Part 4,Part 5,Part 6,Part 7,Part 8,Readme2.121 June 1997ReadmeUpdates:clty2kp1.exe, Readme - Y2K Patchadm32.exe, readme - IntranetWare Client Admin Files (for DW & 95)dwenu_n3.exe2.1122 October 1996This is the version shipped with netware 4.11 and IntranetWare. Can be installed from dos (install.exe) or windows (setup.exe)Updates:clty2kp1.exe, Readme - Y2K PatchNet Install2.11 BETA5 September 1996"This beta version of Client 32 for Dos/Windows 3.1x is provided as a client update to the Public Beta CD for NetWare 4.11(Green River). DW32NB.EXE contains a Network Install version of the Beta Client."A very roughly reformatted copy of the readme (TID 2912906) is available in html and rtf. The original (html, rtf) had lost all of its line breaks when Novell imported it into the Support Connection CD making it fairly unreadable.

Before going through this guide, consider if you really need this as the integrated DOS emulation in DOSBox-X is more convenient for typical use-cases.Booting real DOS is rarely necessary to run DOS applications and games, or even running Windows version up to Windows 3.11 in DOSBox-X.And even if you have an application that requires a specific DOS version, you can change the reported version of the integrated DOS in DOSBox-X.

Inability to use the MOUNT command to access directories on the host filesystem (see below for a possible workaround). All storage will have to be in the form of images, and they need to be mounted using IMGMOUNT before using the BOOT command to boot regular DOS.

Starting with DOSBox-X 2022.08.0, there is optional support to dynamically convert a host folder mount to an emulated FAT harddisk for use when you need to boot a guest OS, such as PC DOS, MS-DOS or FreeDOS.This can be accomplished in one of two ways. Either when you issue the boot command, you add the option -convertfat. e.g. boot c: -convertfat.

You can reboot (restart) DOS by selecting the "Reboot guest system" menu item (under "Main").If for some reason you want to do a reboot from the command-line, you can do so with the command SHUTDOWN /R. For running real DOS disk images, you need to copy the SHUTDOWN.COM program located in the Z:\BIN directory to your disk image.For rebooting DOS with such a command you may also want to check the "Enable quick reboot" menu item (under "DOS") for a faster restart of the guest DOS system.

Pressing Enter or F1 will continue the boot process, without having to wait for the timeout.Alternatively you can remove the boot menu by booting to DOS and running FDISK /MBR to create a new MBR without the boot menu.

If you are using one of the FIRST German or Danish (and probablysome other non-US versions) of the OEM Service Release 2 (OSR2) version ofWindows 95, there is an ERROR in the IO.SYS system file, which preventsHIMEM.SYS from loading in the HMA area, leading HIMEM.SYS to use 45 Kb ofconventional memory instead of 1 Kb.You can downloadthe IO2PATCH.EXE program here. This program fixes the problem. Justput the IO2PATCH.EXE file in the root of your bootup drive (usually C:\), where theIO.SYS system file is placed, execute the IO2PATCH program, and then the problem shouldbe fixed.

Windows looks for the file C:\WINDOWS\WINSTART.BAT before starting. So, if you for any reason want to run any programs or commands before startingWindows, you can put them into this file. Unlike DOSSTART.BAT, WINSTART.BATis also executed by Windows 3.11.

Depending on the BIOS this might cause the computer to hang during bootup! First try removing the FRAME=C800 statement. This might lead to a third UMB blockplaced after the page frame. If this is the case, some of the drivers and/or TSRprograms must be loaded into UMB 3 using a DEVICEHIGH /L:3 = or a LH /L:3 statement. If removing the FRAME=C800 statement still causes the computer to hang,then the HIGHSCAN statement must be removed as well. Then it is not likely thatany more Upper Memory can be gained using EMM386

If you have 2 harddisks, both partitioned to 2 drives, then the firstharddisk (harddisk 0) will contain the logical drives C: and E:, whilethe other harddisk (harddisk 1) will contain the logical drives D: andF: after the partitioning. During the partitioning it is importantto remember to set the primary partition on disk 0 to be the active partition,otherwise drive C: will not be bootable

I might be trying to do something that is not possible. I am trying to convert my old XP desktop machine into a machine that will run DOS 6.2 and Windows 3.11 like my old 486DX66 machine did until it crashed and burned recently. I have a very old DOS program that I run on a weekly basis and it is very important to me.

I used special software and wiped my XP hard drive clean. I then installed DOS 6.2 and Windows 3.11on the clean hard drive. I have a DOS partition of 2 gigabytes to work with. When I boot up I get a C prompt and I can access Windows.

To access a CD-ROM drive when you boot to a Windows command prompt or restart the computer in MS-DOS mode, you must load the real-mode CD-ROM driver in the Config.sys file and the MSCDEX driver in the Autoexec.bat or Dosstart.bat file. If your CD-ROM drive is supported in protected mode in Windows, the real-mode CD-ROM and MSCDEX drivers are most likely not being loaded in the Config.sys and Autoexec.bat or Dosstart.bat files on the hard disk. In addition, if you boot from a floppy disk, the CD-ROM and MSCDEX drivers will not load unless you manually configure the Config.sys and Autoexec.bat files on the floppy disk to load them.

FWIW Last year as a test I took a Dell dual core computer. added a floppy drive and loaded DOS and Windows on a USB flash drive. I had the internal hard drive disconnected and had set the boot order to Floppy for the install and USB to run DOS after that and to install Windows 3.11

The following lines in your CONFIG.SYS are needed for windowsDEVICE=C:\WINDOWS\SMARTDRV.EXE /DOUBLE_BUFFERDEVICE=C:\WINDOWS\IFSHLP.SYSThe following lines in your CONFIG.SYS may be needed for your particular DOS or Windows setupDEVICEHIGH=C:\DOS\ANSI.SYSDEVICE=C:\DOS\SETVER.EXE 2ff7e9595c