Table of index (click to expand)

Introduction

Windows 1.0x was the first Windows release

NOTE: Although Windows 1.0x can be installed in DOSBox, there is little practical use other than curiosity or historical research. Most early 16-bit Windows games and applications run just as well, or better, under the later Windows 3.1x.

Windows 1.01

Initial US release, released on November 20, 1985. It was an early release, specifically meant for the US market. It lacks support for international keyboards or other regional settings.

When running SETUP to install Windows 1.01, it is recommended to select the following options for use with DOSBox:

Select "Continue" to start the installation
Confirm to install to C:\WINDOWS
Select "Continue" to confirm you understand the requirements
Select "Microsoft Mouse (Bus/Serial)"
Select "EGA (more than 64K) with Enhanced Color Display"
When Windows setup asks for the "Build" disk, press ENTER
When Windows setup asks for the "Utilities" disk, press ENTER
When asked about a printer, select to Continue
When Windows setup asks for the "Desktop Applications" disk, press ENTER
When Windows setup asks for the "Microsoft Write Program" disk, press ENTER

Windows 1.02

Release May 14, 1986, mainly for the European market. It adds support for international keyboards and regional settings.

When running SETUP to install Windows 1.02, it is recommended to select the following options for use with DOSBox:

Select "Continue" to start the installation
Select "Setup on a hard disk"
Confirm to install to C:\WINDOWS
Select "Continue" to confirm you understand the requirements
Select an appropriate keyboard layout
Select "Microsoft Mouse (Bus/Serial)"
Select "EGA (more than 64K) with Enhanced Color Display"
When Windows setup asks for the "Build" disk, press ENTER
When Windows setup asks for the "Utilities" disk, press ENTER
When asked about a printer, select to Continue
When Windows setup asks for the "Font" disk, press ENTER
When Windows setup asks for the "Desktop Applications" disk, press ENTER
When Windows setup asks for the "Microsoft Write Program" disk, press ENTER

Windows 1.03

Windows 1.03 was released August 24, 1986. It adds additional drivers, including for Tandy graphics.

When running SETUP to install Windows 1.03, it is recommended to select the following options:

Select "Continue" to start the installation
Select "Setup on a hard disk"
Confirm to install to C:\WINDOWS
Select "Continue" to confirm you understand the requirements
Select an appropriate keyboard layout
Select "Microsoft Mouse (Bus/Serial)"
Select "EGA (more than 64K) with Enhanced Color Display"
When Windows setup asks for the "Build" disk, press ENTER
When Windows setup asks for the "Utilities" disk, press ENTER
When asked about a printer, select to Continue
When Windows setup asks for the "Font" disk, press ENTER
When Windows setup asks for the "Desktop Applications" disk, press ENTER
When Windows setup asks for the "Microsoft Write Program" disk, press ENTER

Windows 1.04

Released April 8, 1987. Adds very basic support for PS/2 (but lacks drivers for PS/2 mouse or VGA).

When running SETUP to install Windows 1.04, it is recommended to select the following options:

Select "Continue" to start the installation
Select "Setup on a hard disk"
Confirm to install to C:\WINDOWS
Select "Continue" to confirm you understand the requirements
Select an appropriate keyboard layout
Select "Microsoft Mouse (Bus/Serial)"
Select "EGA (more than 64K) with Enhanced Color Display"
When Windows setup asks for the "Build" disk, press ENTER
When Windows setup asks for the "Utilities" disk, press ENTER
When asked about a printer, select to Continue
When Windows setup asks for the "Font" disk, press ENTER
When Windows setup asks for the "Desktop Applications" disk, press ENTER
When Windows setup asks for the "Microsoft Write Program" disk, press ENTER

Windows 1.04 - IBM OEM

Released May 27, 1987 by IBM as part of their "Personal Publishing System" and "Collegiate Kit" bundles.

This release adds support for VGA, MCGA, 8514/A and PS/2 Mouse.

When running SETUP to install Windows 1.04 - IBM OEM release, it is recommended to select the following options:

Select "Continue" to start the installation
Select "Setup on a hard disk"
Confirm to install to C:\WINDOWS
Select "Continue" to confirm you understand the requirements
Select an appropriate keyboard layout
Select "IBM Personal System/2 Mouse"
Select "IBM Personal System/2 Model 50, 60, 80"
When Windows setup asks for the "Build" disk, press ENTER
When Windows setup asks for the "Utilities" disk, press ENTER
When asked about a printer, select to Continue
When Windows setup asks for the "Font" disk, press ENTER
When Windows setup asks for the "Desktop Applications" disk, press ENTER
When Windows setup asks for the "Microsoft Write Program" disk, press ENTER

[Top]

DOSBox config

Here is an example dosbox config for use with Windows 1.0x. Save this as dosbox.conf in the root of the directory where you will install Windows 1.0x. Make sure to adjust the MOUNT path for the C: drive to a suitable location for your host system.

[dos]
ver=3.4
expand_shell_variable=true

[autoexec]
@ECHO OFF
MOUNT C /home/myuser/winroot
C:
SET PATH=%PATH%;C:\WINDOWS;
IF EXIST C:\WINDOWS\IBMMOUSE.DRV GOTO WINDOWS.IBM
IF EXIST C:\WINDOWS\WIN.COM      GOTO WINDOWS
ECHO No Windows installation found
GOTO END

:WINDOWS
ECHO Starting Windows 1.0x with Serial Mouse Systems Mouse
CONFIG -SET SERIAL SERIAL1=mouse
C:\WINDOWS\WIN.COM
GOTO END

:WINDOWS.IBM
ECHO Starting Windows 1.04 IBM OEM Release
C:\WINDOWS\WIN.COM
GOTO END

:END

[Top]

Installation

The installation steps provided are for installing Windows 1.0x in a folder mount. It is also possible to boot real DOS in DOSBox and run Windows 1.0x from there, but this is not covered by these instructions.

Start DOSBox with the above config file, and mount the DOSBox virtual C: drive to a folder:

e.g. to mount the current host directory (.) as the virtual DOSBox C: drive, and make it the current drive:

SUBST A: .
MOUNT C .
C:

Windows 1.0x shipped on three to seven floppy disks, depending on version and media type. It is possible to mount them all and swap between them with the CTRL-F4 hot-key when prompted by the Windows installer to swap the disk. But this is a laborious process, and DOSBox provides no feedback that the disk has been swapped or which disk is the current one (other then looking at the LOG output).

If you want to use this process, it is recommended to use high-density media types such as 1.2MB disk images.

e.g., when using a 5 disk version:

IMGMOUNT A DISK01.IMG DISK02.IMG DISK03.IMG DISK04.IMG DISK05.IMG
A:
SETUP

Another way is to extract the contents of all the disk images and place it in a single folder, such as INSTALL. This is also useful if in the future you ever need to re-install Windows 1.0x. You can use any program that can open the disk image files to extract them, including DOSBox itself!

e.g., from DOSBox when using a 5 disk version:

MKDIR INSTALL
IMGMOUNT -T FLOPPY A DISK01.IMG
COPY A:\*.* C:\INSTALL
IMGMOUNT -U A
IMGMOUNT -T FLOPPY A DISK02.IMG
COPY A:\*.* C:\INSTALL
IMGMOUNT -U A
IMGMOUNT -T FLOPPY A DISK03.IMG
COPY A:\*.* C:\INSTALL
IMGMOUNT -U A
IMGMOUNT -T FLOPPY A DISK04.IMG
COPY A:\*.* C:\INSTALL
IMGMOUNT -U A
IMGMOUNT -T FLOPPY A DISK05.IMG
COPY A:\*.* C:\INSTALL
IMGMOUNT -U A

What you are doing here, in order is

create an INSTALL directory
mount a floppy disk image on the DOSBox virtual A: drive
copy the contents of the floppy disk to the INSTALL folder
unmount the floppy disk
repeat steps 2-4 until all disks have been copied.

After this, you can start the Windows installation simply from the C:\INSTALL folder, and the installer will not prompt for disk changes.

CD INSTALL
SETUP

[Top]

Video

By default, the best possible video option that DOSBox Staging can offer is:

VGA 640x480 in 16 colours for the IBM OEM release of Windows 1.04
EGA 640x350 in 16 colours for all other Windows 1.0x releases

While there are no Windows 1.0x drivers for any of the SVGA adapters that DOSBox Staging emulates, there is a patch available that can convert the Windows 1.0x EGA driver to VESA 800x600 in 16 colours. But note that this does not work with the IBM OEM release of Windows 1.04, as that release does not include the EGA drivers.

[Top]

Mouse

Windows 1.0x does not use the DOS mouse driver that DOSBox provides. Instead it uses its own mouse driver, which must be selected during Windows SETUP. This has the effect that by default you will need to click in the DOSBox window to lock the mouse to the window area.

It is possible to set DOSBox Staging to seamless mouse mode regardless, but this can cause some issues with the mouse cursor positioning, especially around the window borders. To enable this, add the following lines to your DOSBox config file:

[mouse]
mouse_capture=seamless

[Top]

Printing

DOSBox-Staging has no support for emulating a printer, or even for emulating a parallel printer port. As such you cannot print directly from Windows 1.0x to a real printer.

Also the work-around available in later Windows versions to print to a file does not appear to be supported by Windows 1.0x.

[Top]

Known issues

Running Windows 1.0x SETUP

Windows 1.0x SETUP does not really support installing from a HDD folder. As such you need to trick it by first running something like SUBST A: C:\INSTALL, and then running SETUP.

Running Windows 1.0x from real DOS

Windows 1.0x will refuse to run from DOS 4.0 or later. When using such a DOS version, it is necessary to load SETVER to allow Windows 1.0x to run.

Resources

[Top]

General

How-to's

Lists

Audio

Video

Issues

Dev

Misc

Wiki Home · Website · Discord · Open Collective · Mastodon
Latest stable binary releases for Windows, macOS, or Linux
Unstable development snapshots also available for testing