I have an old 386 computer and Windows 3.1. In DOS there is 256 colors in my screen but in Windows only 16. How can I get 256 colors in Windows too?

If your video card has 512K of memory or more you will be able to get 256 colors at 640 x 480. You need to load the specific windows driver for your video card. There are a few ways to figure out what video chipset you have. 1. If you have DOS 6.XX, you can type MSD at the DOS command prompt. Sometimes MSD will show the video card name and how much memory it has. Sometimes it just says GENERIC VGA or something like that. 2. At the DOS prompt (can't remember which version of DOS you need for DEBUG. type DEBUG (you will get a blinking _ symbol) type dc000:30 look at the text in the bottom right-it should display info about your video card. You may have to try other numbers like dc000:30 through dc000:90 3.) open the computer and look at the main chip on your video card and get the make and number from it. Whichever method you choose, then go to a driver site like www.driverguide.com to search and download the Win 3.1 drivers for your card. If there is a readme.txt file in the download, it may explain how to load the driver, otherwise try windows help or check back here. Good luck Some people might tell you to throw out the old 386. Just tell them to "Bugger off". I feel so British when I say that!

Try the universal SVGA driver for Win3.1. http://www.powerload.fsnet.co.uk/win3x.htm

Go to Windows Setup in the Main program Group and change the display to a driver that uses 256 colors or more-you should see a list, e.g(Svga, Western Digital etc.)

How soon we forget, Or never knew! Only later versions of 3.11 have 256 Drivers. If not use the MS Generic SVGA driver stated above.

Well, I downloaded the SVGA driver but I don't know how to install it! I want detailed instructions, because I don't want to mess up my Windows! My video card is VGA Quadtel (Trident) with 512k memory. Other info: -video mode 3 -number of columns 80 -number of rows 25 -no VESA support Info detected by DEBUG: 01/01/80 C2.11 (c) 1988-90 Trident Microsystems inc (c) 1987-90 Quadtel Corporation 256 colors. I couldn't access Driverguide.com, and I hope someone could help me...thanks, folks for answering my question!:)

Well again. I managed to install the SVGA anyway (with Windows Setup). It works quite well, but I just can't get 256 colors in the Paintbrush. Paint Shop Pro shows all the colors but Paintbrush doesn't. SVGA tends to change the color of the screen to grey after running some programs, but it changes back to 256 colors after running other program or restarting Windows.