Martin's Ghetto-Rigged Computer:
Power Supply: 450 watts
Chassis: Gateway Micro-ATX
Motherboard: Intel D845PT (Intel i845D chipset)
CPU: Intel Pentium 4 1.8 GHz (256 KB cache, Willamette core)
Memory: 256 MB PC2100 DDR SDRAM
Graphics Card: 32 MB NVIDIA RIVA TNT2 Ultra (Diamond Viper V770 Ultra), AGP 4x
Sound Card: Integrated SoundMAX audio
Optical drive #1: Sony 16x DVD-ROM drive
Optical drive #2: 24x10x40x CD-RW drive
Hard drive: 200 GB Western Digital WD-2000BB 7200 RPM (Ultra ATA/100)
Ethernet: Davicom DM9102 10/100 Mbps PCI
Integrated Ethernet: Intel PRO 100/VE
Monitor: 19" Norwood Micro MT9ANK TFT LCD @ 1280x1024, 60 Hz
Floppy drive: 3.5", 1.44 MB
Keyboard: Standard Toshiba PS/2 keyboard
Mouse: Standard Dell PS/2 wheel mouse
Operating Systems: Windows 98 Second Edition (with unofficial Service Pack 2.1a), Windows for Workgroups 3.11
Both Windows 98 and Windows 3.11 are on the same 131 GB FAT32 partition (this is a known limitation with Windows 95/98/ME's SCANDISK program being only 16-bit; I might reserve the rest for installing Windows 2000 or for storing other stuff). This was made possible using the 3XSTART program (which allows Windows 3.1x to start from within the MS-DOS 7.10 shell included with Windows 95/98), as well as making numerous modifications to CONFIG.SYS, AUTOEXEC.BAT and MSDOS.SYS. Obviously, both Windows 95/98 and Windows 3.11 have to be installed in separate directories. The upside with this configuration is that it is painless to get up and running, without having to create additional partitions (and you can run Windows 3.11 on a FAT32 partition as well!). All the 3XSTART program does is patch Windows 95/98's IO.SYS file so that Windows 3.1x can load under newer versions of DOS. The program also creates a backup of your IO.SYS file in case anything goes sour. The main downside, however, is that every time I install new drivers to load at startup, I have to manually edit CONFIG.SYS and AUTOEXEC.BAT (otherwise the driver installation programs screw up those two files to the point where I am unable to boot correctly into either OS - all Windows 98 and Windows 3.11 settings must be loaded separately). Furthermore, programs that require SHARE.EXE (or make extensive use of it - Microsoft Office is one notorious example) are unable to fully function correctly, even when SHARE is loaded. I have tried starting Windows 3.11 using the SHARE.EXE from MS-DOS 6.22, but the same results occur. Thus, there is currently no workaround for this issue, unless if you do know, please contact me!
Software I use under Windows 98 SE:
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CD backup/creation: PowerISO 4.3, Virtual CloneDrive (for mounting images)
Disk partitioning: PowerQuest Partition Magic 8.0
File compression: WinRAR 3.90, 7Zip 4.65
Graphics: Jasc Paint Shop Pro 5.03, Animation Shop 1.03, MS Paint
Instant messenger: Pidgin 2.5.8
Internet browser: Mozilla Firefox 2.0.0.20
Music and video player: Winamp 5.2.4
Office suite: MS Office 97 (Standard, with SR2 update)
PDF Viewer: Adobe Reader 6.0
Web authoring: KompoZer 0.7.10, Notepad
NOTE: Just in case you're wondering, Windows 98 can run versions of the Office suite up to Office XP, but I honestly don't have any need for a newer, more bloated version. Apparently MS broke everything in Office 2007 (especially for those who got used to using Office 2003 and other previous versions). The only reason I use MS Office is to maintain consistency and compatibility with assignments I do for my university courses.
Games: (A selection of the games I play to keep myself from getting bored while alone - mostly FPS/action)
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Software I use under Windows for Workgroups 3.11:
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File compression: WinZip 6.3, WinRAR 2.06
Graphics: Jasc Paint Shop Pro 3.12 (32-bit) - requires WinG and Win32s installed; MS Paintbrush
Instant messenger: AOL Instant Messenger (AIM) 1.0.414 (16-bit)
Internet browser: Opera 3.62 (still can decently render many websites without spitting back any GPFs; however the new My Cal Poly portal design isn't compatible with it). Netscape Navigator 4.08 (the last known 16-bit version) is compatible with more websites, but in my opinion (speaking from prior experience) it tends to be slower and more crash-prone. Well, at least it beats having to ever install that pathetic excuse for a browser known as Internet Explorer.
Music player: IIS WinPlay 3, Voyetra Multimedia Suite (for playing MIDIs)
Office suite: WordPerfect Works 2.0 (Because of the way it accesses SHARE.EXE, MS Office 4.3 doesn't work correctly with my non-standard partition configuration. However, I find WordPerfect to be worlds better anyway.)
PDF Viewer: Adobe Acrobat Reader 3.01
Video player: MS Media Player 5.2 Beta
Web authoring: Notepad!!! :-)
Additional Windows 3.1x Resources:
Lightspeed's Windows 3.x Resource Page
Quality Freeware for Windows 3.x
Windows 3.1x Tweaking and the Win32s Compatibility List
Please feel free to contact me if you have any comments or suggestions regarding this page, or if you want to add any additional links related to this material.