Hi, I want to run a Win 3.1 derived OS on a Dell Latitude Laptop and I was wondering if there are any limitations as far as Win NT 3.51.

1) Do all 16bit programs (like Office, IE5, and Dos Games) that run on Win3.1, run on NT 3.51?

2) Can Dos Apps run on NT 3.51 even though it is an independant OS?

3) Can I play mp3s, internet, watch movies and do other things that work on Win3.1

4) Since NT 3.51 is a 32bit OS, will it run software that is meant for Win 95 or above?

Thanks for any help! Jake

Well NT has no DOS whatsoever it is emulated, actually NT is built on IBM OS/2 source, therefore as in NT4/5 and XP, DOS software is hit and miss. This article though NT4 based should give some guidance:
http://www.windowsitlibrary.com/Content/226/03/1.html

You appear to want to use DOS software and 16bit apps, therefore would go for WfW 3.11, though if poss I would install W95B

if you install sp5, you can run some 95+nt4 apps. all 16-bit apps run in nt 351. also the romte acess program actually dials to the net via tcp/ip unlike wfwg. ms recamends that you use the16-bit versions in nt 351, because nt351 is like win3.1 wih win32s, it cant run them all. since it is a 233mmx with 64megs, i would recemend you use 95c or even 98.

also, i got the cd version of nt 351, but i want the disk version.maby some oone can upload the disk images or floppys some where.

I'd probably go with NT 3.51 since it'd be more stable than 3.1x... But since you also want to run DOS apps, a dual boot of DOS 6.22 and NT 3.51 might be a good idea.

Most Win 3.1 apps should work fine, but don't count on getting Outlook Express 5 to work correctly... It say IE5 and OE5 are for W31 and Win NT 3.51, while the dialer is for 3.1 only. But the only install options are IE-standalone or everything, dialer included. And nothing works if you install everything... I have yet to learn of a way to make OE5 work...

I extracted OE manually from the .cabs and made it work. It appears to me that even tho it's included in the distribution, there is no circumstance where it is actually installed...

well, i have disk in hand myself,also just about to install nt351 , given tweaking, it should run everything.ok, i figure.
its only like wfw , subsystemwise, in that where wfw has a 32 bit api subsystem, NT has a 16bit one- its a bit of switcheroo there.
Because the main calls are 32 bit, however, i can only hold out a faint hope that mask will work on it...
but since calmira does, then who knows?

Maybe you can try Windows NT 4.0. I run that on my Dual P1 100 Mhz with 64 Mb RAM.

NT4.0 can run almost every 32bit program

I have the same question.
I have an Epson ActionNote650 laptop with the following configurations:

486-50MHZ
4MB RAM
250MB HD

What do you think? Is it possible to install NT 3.51 or NT 3.1 on this machine? I need 32-bit support, yet I can't stand the WIN-95 OS.

WIN32's don't solve the problem either. Is it possible to tweak this machine and make it run NT 3.51? And if so, can someone help me?

For the Epson laptop I guess you are out of luck, since both NT 3.1 an 3.51 need more RAM. On my NT 3.1 box it says 12 Mb is the recommended minimum.

I guess you cannot upgrade your memory, so with 4 Mb you´re stuck to Win95.
Of course 16-bit Windows 3.1x runs reasonably fast, only slow if you want to browse the net....

i personally dont like nt4.it was a pain in the xxx when i had it installed,and i suspect motley6 probably doesnt have a copy anywaysotherwise he wouldnt be asking about 351 (but you never know!)
For CGN....
NT351's limitations are not related to its (percieved) inability to run some modern 32bit apps , but have everything to do with it having progman as its shell...if you need 32bit support for some programs your going top find 351 a poor choice for out of the box support, as many, if not most of the apps that wont run on win32s expect to find an explorer interface- and explorer integrates with the programs to a greater extent than progman ever did. what this means is it would take some to a lot of tweaking (although its perfectly possible) to get some of those apps running under 351..the question is, if you just want 32bit support, how much tweaking are you prepared to have to do?

CPU/Ram: 233mhz 64Ram

Hmm... I think this guy can run 2000 if he wanted to, and he said it was a Dell laptop - shouldn't be too hard to upgrade to 128-256MB RAM... 2000 has pretty good DOS/Win16 support, too.

First off, MASK doesn't work with Windows NT 3.51...

Anyway, as for running 32-bit apps in NT 3.51, I've found that some apps will work fine in NT 3.51 if you put'em there manually, they just won't install if they see it's NT 3.51. I've made a page with details on this over at my website. (http://pcfwebzone.vze.com)

I've been thinking about adding downloads for some of these apps, so you wouldn't need a dual boot to install them, but I'd need someone to help with testing, and I don't know how many people even use that OS anyway... (I had someone helping me test, but I lost my old Netscape email address, so I now have no way to contact him)

Id love to help test, nt351 wa the os id wanted for the longest time, and only managed to find 4x . i finally got ahold of a copy (its not all that common!) and plan to replace my nt3.1 partition with it.BTW, i did contact you about this matter ( i think it was nt3.1 tho) however i sent it your netscape address (i lost mine too :)
real shame about mask tho.. i assume you did try it out, so what precisely about it wouldn't work?
could be tweaked, maybe.or not.
i dont have a 95 partition so i cant lift progs wholesale from the other OS, so making them avail that way would be a bonus.
I particularly would like to find out it photoshop 5.5 will run on it....or any higher version...

That'd be great! I've got a few things I need to do in the next couple days, so I'll probably be ready to start testing around the 23rd or 24th. I'll email you with the rest of the info.

Also, about MASK, it was quite a while ago that I tried it, so all I remember was it giving some sort of error message, then exiting.

Contry to popular belief NT is not based on OS/2 source. Its origins based on VMS.........

I thought there was a "NewShell" program that Microsoft released before the launch of the Win95/NT4 interface. It was a preview of the new interface, and I think it has all the features and looks of the Win95/NT4 interface. I have a copy, but it's a pity I never got a chance to use it.

Yep, from what I've heard, there were two versions. The original and NewShell ver 2 which had some bug fixes. Unfortunately, I've never been able to find the second version, and the first has several annoying bugs in it, so I don't use it very often.