I have a really slow and old computer that has win 95 on it. it only has 20 mb of ram so i can't really run a lot of programs. will changing from win 95 to 3.1 help me and if so do I have to uninstall win 95 to install 3.1???

It depends on what progerams you run. If you are only running dos or 16 bit Windows programs, then it may pay to go to windows 3x. That is what I run on all my 486 and earlier machines. If you are running 32 bit programs (like Microsoft Office 95 or 97) then they will not work on 3x. You could install both operating systems in a dual-boot format, but it would probably make little sense, since your hard drive is probably too small in an older machine to leave much room for programs, and your not happy with the performance of Win95 on that machine anyway. I'd wipe the harddrive and install 3x from scratch. One other thing if you do...remember that Win3x has no built-in TCP/IP stack, Winsock, or dialer, so you will not be able to access the Internet without installing these manually. There is a version of Internet Explorer 3.03 16 bit that will intall all of these for you, as well as the browser. Find it by seaching the download library on the zdnet.com site.

There is also a slick (and free) Windows shell called Calmira (www.calmira.org) that can make your Win3.1 system look and work exactly like Win95.

Also, when you install Win95, it gives the option to use the Win3.1 shell. There is a tweak program that can switch between the two, but I can't remember what it is called.

mr.dogg: try this link http://software.ntr.net/ and choose "netscape 3.01 with stack & dialer". it has the phone dialer for windows 3.1 built-in; if you use ICQ for windows 3.1, the dialer that comes with internet explorer 3.02 or 3.03 does not allow ICQ to connect - it errors out. if you'd like some windows 3.1 software to get you started, i highly recomment calmira to get you started, then try: http://win3x.tucows.com/window3x.html it has some windows 3.1 shareware & freeware