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Windows 3.1 is a major release of Microsoft Windows.It was released to manufacturing on April 6, 1992, as a successor to Windows 3.0.Like its predecessors, the Windows 3.1 series run as a shell on top of MS-DOS; it was the last Windows 16-bit operating environment as all future versions of Windows had moved to 32-bit.
WIN.COM is the executable file used to load versions of Windows that run from DOS. In Windows 3.11 and its predecessors, it is executed either manually from the DOS prompt or as a line in AUTOEXEC.BAT. In Windows 95 and onward it is automatically invoked by IO.SYS after AUTOEXEC.BAT is processed. [1]
However, Windows 3.1 had two separate successors, splitting the Windows line in two: the consumer-focused "Windows 9x" line, consisting of Windows 95, Windows 98, and Windows Me; and the professional Windows NT line, comprising Windows NT 3.1, Windows NT 3.5, Windows NT 3.51, Windows NT 4.0, and Windows 2000.
It bypassed MS-DOS and directly accessed the disk, either via the BIOS or (preferably) 32-bit disk access (Windows-native protected mode disk drivers). This feature was a backport from the then-unreleased Windows 95, as suggested by Microsoft's advertisements for Windows for Workgroups 3.11 ("the 32-bit file system from our Chicago project").
Program Manager descends from Desktop Manager (also known as Presentation Manager), the shell for OS/2 1.2. [3] Unlike Desktop Manager, which presents its program groups in a simple list, and opens each group in a separate window, Program Manager opens program groups in child windows using the new multiple document interface in Windows 3.x.
IFSHLP.SYS (the Installable File System Helper) is an MS-DOS device driver that was first released as part of Microsoft Windows for Workgroups 3.11. It enables native 32-bit file access in Windows 386 Enhanced Mode by bypassing the 16-bit DOS API and ensuring that no other real mode driver intercepts INT 21h calls.
The 16-bit Windows 3.1 version of Cardfile (file version 3.10.0.103) can run on all x86-based 32-bit versions of Windows including both Windows 10 Home and Pro 32-bit. Version 3.10.0.103 was included on the Windows 98 and Windows Millennium Edition installation CD but was not installed by default. [2]
SYSTEM.INI is an initialization (INI file) used in early versions of Microsoft Windows (from 1.01 up to Me) to load device drivers and the default Windows shell (Program Manager or Windows Explorer), among other system settings.