The PCWorld Windows 3.0 Test Drive! - Installation & Demo
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- Опубликовано: 22 мар 2022
- In 1990, InfoWorld subscribers were able to get their hands on a special version of Windows 3.0 that was offered alongside a PCWorld subscription. Luckily, somebody got their hands on it and decided to archive it. So let's check it out!
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I can't help but think of a "Windows dealer" as someone selling Windows on unmarked floppies from an unmarked van.
Personally I think of someone selling framed glass panes.😉
"Hey kid, want some Windows 3.0?"
@@xX420MCplayerXx "Mommy told me not to talk to strangers."
@@brajtheanimator223 "FWEE GAMES?!?! Ok where is this stuff？"
@@brajtheanimator223 "I KNOW MOMMY TOLD ME NOT TO DO THIS BUT I'M GOING IN!"
Your videos remind me of the earlier days of RUclips and they always give me such a comforting vibe. Keep up the great work, Michael!
modern day druaga1
i get that same vibe ~ michael is my favorite youtuber :)
@@electrodeyt3491 he's still modern and relevant Ian has/had something's came up in his life that took over and became priority number
One
Bro, I was literally about to type a comment with the same exact sentiment. Hats off.
For some reason, the concept of a demo version of Windows is super interesting to me. Let's hope some other ones make their way online in the future. Thanks for doing a video on this one, Michael!
One of my most vivid computing memories when I was young, was getting a beta copy of Windows 95 from a BBS. I soon found out it was not supposed to be distributed, and I felt super lucky to have it before the official version was released. It was also a real pain to scrounge that many spare 3.5" disks, and it took forever to download at 28.8kbps. haha
Everything about it was exciting, though. It really felt like a watershed moment in computing. I mean, even _copying files to floppies_ was (like, a LOT!) faster in Win95.
@Levathon Tech Channel I dunno what country they come from, but in the case of the US, the last thing we need right now is a greater sense of nationalism. It would do us well to remember we're not the only country on Earth, and far from a monopoly on greatness.
I wouldn't expect a Windows 11 or a Windows 12 demo, but I can expect a retail copy with a screensaver of Windows.
But Windows is a demo without a license. You just can't customize things.
@Adidel Why here?
"Windows Dealer" is such a weird thing to say. I just imagine someone with a trench coat in a dark alley selling floppy disks.
My windows dealer wasn't legit and now I'm trapped in his basement lol
Wanna score some DOS?
"Hey kiddo, y'want some... diskettes?".
The first one is always free :D
@@ricardog2165 Yeah, that's what this Test Drive was 🙂
I remember getting a demo version of Excel that included a version of Windows with it that was something like this.
I honestly don't remember where I got it; I just remember calling a bunch of 1-800 numbers from ads in PC Magazine and getting whatever freebies I could get. 12 year old me loved getting mail.
I'm a recent subscriber as of a few days ago, but I've been loving going through your back catalogue... the content is retro enough without it being super esoteric. Love it, keep up the good work!
Thanks so much for subscribing! Glad you enjoy the videos : )
@@MichaelMJD ❤️❤️❤️
This had to be mind-blowing for all the people who used Windows 386. It was a real step up from "MS-DOS Executive."
Win 3.1 was a pretty decent upgrade, especially considering how valuable scalable fonts were at that time, and TrueType was just bundled right in with a couple fonts that covered all the bases. And multimedia support.
Then Windows 95... HUGE leap forward, moving to a full -32-bit- GUI ... _with some kinda partly 32-bit code thrown in for good measure._ (Edit: I'm getting into FAR too much trouble for what was just really poor phrasing.) Microsoft was on fire there for a while. Win 98 seems like a pretty meager change in comparison, but to be fair, that's partially because so many things were added to Win 95 along the way as OEM or downloadable updates. Better networking with DUN 2.0 and all that, FAT32 and fledgling USB support in OSR2, DirectX...
Correction: Windows 9x is an hybrid of 16-bit and 32-bit
@@lucss21a Yes yes yes, I'm aware. Everyone's aware. :-)
Let me clarify my wording: I said "a full 32-bit GUI" and meant to convey that it was a full GUI environment (as in, no longer a mere shell over a protected-mode CLI -- although, yes, I'm also aware even that is debatable), and that it was 32-bit. At least partially.
I know it would've been more accurate to separate the "32-bit" part from the "full GUI" part, but the syntax read better that way. Its legacy of having real-mode components is well documented, and I glossed over that. Mea Culpa. It's just too cumbersome to craft every post to ensure 100% technical accuracy. It often requires a litany of caveats, as evidenced here, and I let this one slide in favor of brevity.
@@nickwallette6201 I think full 32-bit GUI is stretching it a bit _too_ far as AFAIK almost all of the graphics/windowing system is actually 16-bit. For all the overall improvements there's surprisingly little extra in (edit: the core of) 95 vs Enhanced Mode 3.1.
@@eDoc2020 sigh. Once again, this is getting way too literal. I was trying to convey that the OS was 32-bit.(*) And it had a full GUI. I was not trying to imply that all code, or even the entire GUI, was 32-bit. It was inexact wording, and it never occurred to me that such an off-the-cuff flowery remark would be under this level of scrutiny. I assumed: Those aware of the subtlety, already know. Those who aren't, mostly don't care.
(*): Just to be crystal clear: NOT ENTIRELY 32-bit, just that it was moving, slowly, toward a protected-mode, pre-emptive multitasking framework with a flat memory model and access to virtual memory. I also duly recognize that not all of these features were entirely new to Win95, but were an evolution of 386 Enhanced Mode, and Win32s, and Win NT.
I submit to all of your technical superiority over my sloppy phrasing. And I assure you, I understand it's technically flawed. Noted. The record now shows how that statement will likely be misinterpreted, and it's entirely my fault that it is, and the truth exists here for all to gaze upon.
@@nickwallette6201 Wording technicalities are the worst. That's why the Spanish town of Llívia is located in France.
I really didn't know that infoworld actually made a free demo version of windows 3.0. I only knew about the demo version of windows 3.0 released by accent software. Still I really did enjoyed this video. Keep up with the great work Michael MJD!
What would happen If you pull a "DEMO" app and ran it in a Full-Featured version of Windows 3.0? Also, interesting that the Support number is based in San Francisco at least based by the area code
This reminds me of my early computing days. I was playing with an old IBM PS/2 (286) and I didn't have access to Windows. I installed a copy of xwin and XTree Gold to make it easier to use, little did I know back then DOS Shell existed... Thanks for the Video!
In the early 1990's, I was a hard-core GEOS user. There was no way Windows would ever match the power and speed of GEOS. And I was right... till about Windows 95.
This reminded me of the Windows Vista Test Drive which was quite similar just it was hosted on a website and wasn't a demo operating system
Yes, Microsoft did a bunch of such test drives in the mid 2000s for their programs and even operating systems themselves. It was basically a virtualized instance of Windows running on the technology provider’s server and streaming the screen contents as images to your Internet Explorer through a fancy ActiveX component. Very ahead of its time indeed, sort of like cloud gaming these days.
Awesome video, Michael!
Thanks!
PCWorld: Don't call the number.
Michael MJD: Okay, I'm calling the number.
Great video Michael, well done..I enjoyed it.. 🙂
In some ways this was a very early version of AppLocker, a security feature that was introduced in the Win7 era that blocked the use of any external programs based on configuration from an IT systems admin.
There was also a demo version of Word for Windows, with a demo version of Windows included. I think I still have the floppy.
I have a question: If you copy the demo programs from this demo of windows 3.0 to the exel demo would they still work fine?
I love how you used the portal background as test
Windows 3.1/3.11 was the first version of Windows I ever used
Challenge: make this version a full windows version by adding programs from full windows version
Good ol windows videos!
Best videos.
Keep going
PCWorld demo version might be very interesting!
i love u guy ! keep it up !
I wonder... as Win 3.X used INI files for all it's config (basic stuff before we got the registry), Is there a change you can do in there that modify the OS to install full apps ?
Never used this demo but, started really using PCs with DOS and Windows 3.0 was my first Windows version...
How Many versions of windows have you used ?
Michael MJD : Yes
You are ome of my fav. RUclipsrs and you deserve more subscribers.. like 1M
You found a VGA version of this? Nice. I had only seen screen shots of the EGA version previously.
Yeah! Both of them are on WinWorld actually.
@@MichaelMJD Ah it must be a relatively recent addition then. I just recall for a long time that people were looking for the VGA version, so they had to settle for the EGA one until then.
This is Windows 3.0 S edition
10:34
"... I think that looks pretty good. That looks preeetty pretty nice." made me lol
Ah yes, reminds me of the good ole' days of me using computers, thanks man
Looks nice.
This very rare now, find this software is really unique, this limitations only are minimal
"No boss! I wasn't slacking off on my work..."
"I was just getting used with this new thing called mouse."
Dear Michael, could you please upload this version to the internet archive? This is super cool and I'd like to check it out myself
You can actually find it online!
It's on WinWorld
@Sunnystew You need to select Windows 3.0/3.1 in the OS library, then select 3.0 TestDrive.
"your local windows dealer"
😬
Did you every get the Compaq Portable working? I would love to see a video on that.
Neat! :D
Did the Test Drive and the Excel demo check for the same string? That is, if you copied the demo Excel executable to this version, or copied one of the applications that came with this version to the Excel demo installation, would it run?
What happens if you try to do an upgrade installation with e.g. Windows 3.11?
Yesss, I want to see him do this
Did it load that fast after typing Win (without any logo) or did you cut?
I'm actually wondering if this might be a good way to have a minimized version of Windows 3.0, for things like running Windows games in DOSBox.
Probably actually that fast. A few years ago I was running a full Windows 3.11 install off a RAM disk on a similar-specced system. Most of the time the monitor couldn't adjust to the graphics mode frequencies before the logo was gone.
Cool video with the special demo version of Win 3.0 but what really happened when you rang the phone number?
I did a voicemail lookup on SpyDialer and it said 'rang no answer' which I'm assuming means that the line just kept ringing continuously.
It would be odd for an unused phone number to do that, it would mean there's no voicemail service and would act just like a landline where no one ever picks up.
So the number's still in service but abandoned it seems - if it was out of service then there would be the usual recorded message.
Just a note. PC world is a large current UK retail store group. Maybe worth re-titling the video ...PCWorld (US Magazine [insert year here]).... don't want you to get any grief my friend
I wonder... can you try to upgrade this demo windows to Windows 3.1/3.11 (and maybe later to 95, 98 and so on) and see what happens? :D
youll get that application execution error but you can try to modify the header
@@vistaman1 and if you circumvent that by manipulating the setup file?
@@twipsy2047 Yep, that is what they said.
@@twipsy2047 idk i havent tried it
Could you try running that demo of Excel on this version? Might be interesting since it used a 3.1 shell and this is 3.0
What would happen if you put that Demo Disk in while a full version of Windows is installed?
Wildcards are broken on Windows 10, and I assume it's the same in Windows 11. Just this week I tried searching for some duplicate files OneDrive backed-up to the cloud (why OneDrive wasn't smart enough to detect those files were already backed-up in the first place is another topic) and which had a " 1.jpg" at the end of their filenames, and the "* 1.jpg" didn't work in File Explorer at all. The search kept returning all the files that had a 1 somewhere in their names and ended with the .jpg extension, not only the files that ended with a blank space, then a number 1 and the .jpg extension.
I had to download all the files from that date to my computer, and use CMD where the wildcard actually worked.
a two disk demo of a 7-disk application requires sacrificing some functionality, so they might have decided that demo-specific builds are the safer option for making sure that all API calls are properly processed. (and this whole thing reminds me of the unstable beast that was Win32s (which basically allowed, when it was willing, for win3.X to run some win9x programs))
I love Windows history!
"Contact your Windows dealer"
"Aye... i got that 4.0... it's 32 bit...."
I am wondering are you ever going to do a video on this pc
Where can I download it? Kinda interesting
With the strange phobia I have of "Phone Robot Voices" if I had called that number and heard that myself I would have terror tears down my face in seconds
Hell, even though you were laughing throughout it it still made me form some x.x
A cut-off robotic voice through the phone.. Terrifying ,_____ ,
i know this is a bit of a stretch but could you maybe make a video installing windows 11 on an imac using bootcamp
It is odd that to close a window in 3.0, it's a "-" button on the left, instead of the familiar "x" on the right.
Interesting look at a prototype of a operating system even through not really much different there between it and the final product, Through they probably should of locked you out of some features like changing the colour.
Why do you say that?
A windows test drive... I've never heard of that.
I loooove the memes intro 🤣😂🤣😂
Nice
Is this version on the wayback machine or winworld?
You'r voice is so clam😍
Now gather all Windows 3.0 Demoversions and create your own full blown 3.0 Super Demo :D
WHOA! When did they add MS-DOS Dark Mode?!
So, if what you said about the headers is true.
Can't you just edit the program header to be a "demo app" and it will run?
Should have tried out the EGA version too since that one looks even weirder than the VGA one
Can you upgrade to Windows 3.1 from this?
Another day I find out about a Windows version that I didn't know existed
Next you should try the Microsoft Office 2004 Test Drive for Mac.
i find it hilarious how you take each word literally lol
"test drive" shows Portal and a car
It kinda bothers me that the default install directory is C:\WINDOWS. What if the user already had a copy of Windows there? Would it screw up their existing installation? Were there any safeguards to prevent that from happening, or was the user expected to know to put it in a different directory?
As with regular versions of Windows it will probably suggest a different directory name if the default is already taken. I believe Windows.000 is normally next, and presumably Windows.001 and Windows.002 would come after.
@@eDoc2020 I don't think Windows.00? was used until the 9x series. I've never seen earlier installers suggest using Windows.00? (where ? = digit). My experience with the older installers was that it would display the default and then warn you that an existing install of Windows was in that folder, but generally wouldn't prevent you from overwriting the files. This was useful for upgrades but I'm curious how this "demo" version would handle it.
@@OzzFan1000 Maybe it wasn't introduced until 9x, I"m not sure. Either way I'd presume the demo would handle it the same way a retail version would. I would _hope_ that a user savvy enough to be using the demo would have enough sense not to mess up their existing installation if they cared about it. So to get back to your original question, my guess is it would mess up an existing installation if you tell it to.
Now I want to try this just so I could hack some old Windows software to run. I used to hack old Mac demo software to full or nearly-fully working software back in the day, but we had ResEdit to do these things for us. (the hacks tended to be unstable, but it was for kicks, so I could live with the odd crash)
So you hack
@@near5148 more like past tense... OSX kind of changed things, and I guess I got lazy with time. Now a days, I more tinker
Is this running in 256-color mode?
This remidns me of that PC Gamer version of Minecraft
Why do these videos always make me want to go to sleep?
Hey Michael, I'd like to see you set up a quake server on the Linux PlayStation; if only to see the difficulty my estranged friend had setting up his.
Well...looks like Microsoft actually was capable of making a bare bones unbloated version of Windows after all. :P
All kidding aside, it's an interesting little piece of computing history there. Back then Microsoft still had to earn their sales. They didn't have the market completely cornered yet so it's interesting to see their marketing at that time with things like demo versions of Windows to get their products out to as many people as possible to get people interested in it. It obviously worked in the end though. Windows 3.x was the first version of Windows I ever used as a kid as a result of that. However, I also remember using a DOS shell made by IBM called Quickmenu and thought it looked cooler as a kid. Windows was fun to play with the colors on, but we didn't have much for games and other software that needed it so I ended up using Quickmenu a lot and learning the DOS command line to get to my games and the image applications so I could try and draw things before I was on a 2nd grade reading level. lol
lol thats crazy reminds me of current windows beta version testing
I think it would be interesting to see, if the windows 3.0 demo version. Would let you upgrade to windows 95 from it.
My first pc was a gateway like that.
You should try running the demo version of Microsoft Excel on the demo version of windows 3.0.
Can you please try upgrading this to windows 95
is the pc world on this version of windows the same pc world that was a pc store in the uk
PC World in this context was a US computer magazine.
No, it was a magazine in the US. PC World, PC Computing, Byte, etc.
1:28 Interesting that the area code is 415, as that is for the San Francisco bay area, rather then around Redmond, Washington, where Microsoft was and is still based.
PC World was based in SF. The publisher was IDG Consumer and SMB. They are still based at 501 Second St. SF, as I believe they were in 1990. The 415 number was and is likely still assigned to them for their corporate phone system. The recording was probably made by their staff.
@@mitchbart4225 Ah, that makes sense. I thought at first it would be a number to order from Microsoft, similar to how a lot of computer games and software would have for demo/shareware versions.
pcworld also had a minecraft test version
See your Windows dealer to purchase
Omg so old school
There's this, then there's convincing your buddy to let you install their copy of windows on your pc
the Windows logo on the thumbnail looks like the Denmark flag
Number is still unallocated two years later
WINDOWS HAHA wait a test drive? I’ve only seen that on Linux
I Got floppy image and extract into CD without floppy and tested on emulator
I'm from Romania and I called this number just to hear the "the number you have dialed is unallocated" idk but is funny =))))
I miss the 3.x color schemes. you can't customize windows 10 that granularly
Interesting
I got that full version 3.0 and ran it think lack networking so solution 3.1 then 3.11 with networking I got both dirt cheap at a yard sale have to say Geos was better
0:09 [ n i c e p o r t a l r e f e r a n c e ]
Fun Fact, you download Windows 3.0 File Manager from the Microsoft Store for Windows 10/11
what
Is it real?
@@egeh. yes
Back then DOS was DOS.
I thought you are going to play Test Drive Video Game :'(