OT -- FA -- Ancient version of Microsoft Windows

Cripes. I still have my Windows/386, too. And Windows/286. And Windows 3.0, and 3.1. I even have Windows 2.0, but it wasn't worth playing with -- a mere toy in my experience. The first version that actually was decently usable was /386, I think. I have my old Microsoft C compilers, BASIC compilers, etc. Quite a shelf of boxes with books and floppies. Along with my 4-volume IBM PC/AT Technical Reference set, which I won't part with.

Jon

I have a copy of windows 1.0 that will install on a floppy. It is fun to play with.

My memory fades at this point, as to whether I have 1.0. I might, if I rummaged my attic for it. But I can't be sure. It wasn't until I started using Windows/286 and /386, that I found some programs and development on it tolerable, speedwise and crash-wise, and could even start to consider the idea of writing applications for it.

Having to write Windows programs back then (and the low level docs that Microsoft was forced to provide then) gave me a clear picture of the core design that made later understanding of MFC both trivial as well as knowing how to dig into the MFC code to find what I needed to know when Microsoft's docs failed or to modify it for competitive programs when Microsoft was trying to push "users" into rather less competitive and commonly-used paths of MFC (which they made easy to access, but which wasn't so often a good way of handling things.) Today, it is nearly impossible to find the kinds of really good docs on those basic concepts which still apply in general concept at a very low level and are still available to those who care about it.

Jon

I wonder if the diskettes are even still readable.

Well, in the past Microsoft has guaranteed to me the ability to secure replacement floppies, should they be unreadable. It was for a different product and it has been some years since I last needed to ask about such things. But the product was old then and no longer sold. So I would consider it at least a remote possibility, if one can demonstrate ownership to their satisfaction.

Jon

John -- I'm the seller. I haven't put the disks into the computer because I wanted to preserve the claim that they're totally unused. But I just checked the 3-1/2" floppy disk that was in the IBM DOS Tech Reference Manual I just listed and it reads fine on my 1-year old Dell. That's from 1987 and both products were stored in the same offices for over 15 years.

Norm

Sounds good. I've had varying success with old diskettes myself; then again most of mine have doubled at some point as coasters ;)

You really should check the disks

Also, ideally back up images of them onto a CD

I wrote an old dos utility for doing that

Somehow I doubt that MS would provide new copies

As a paying MSDN member, I can get new copies of DOS 5.0 - 6.22 and Windows

3.1, 3.11, and WfW 3.11 just by downloading them -- if I don't already have the disks as part of my subscription. They don't have any older versions on the website, but I'm going to ask about it in their newsgroup.

Norm

SS 5.25" floppy formats will NOT be readable under XP due to limitations in the OS. This includes 160k and 180k formats. I have a 2G FAT16 partition with DOS 6.22 so I can read the old single-sided floppies when needed (rarely).

In general, any of the NT-ish OSes (NT/2000/XP) are pretty bad at floppy handling, at least under 95/98 one could lock the drive and use DOS utils, but even a minor CRC error in the file slack will stop XP dead in it's tracks. DOS will allow utilities that can read through errors to allow data recovery. So the other use for the DOS partition is to deal with floppies in general, formatting & reading and verifying -- by really re-reading the darn thing. ;-)