Starting Windows 3.1 like it's 1994

This is a real Intel 486 DX2 PC running at 66 MHz booting up exactly as it would have in the mid-1990s. The machine first powers through an AMI BIOS memory check, then loads MS-DOS along with a stack of drivers - including a Creative Sound Blaster Vibra 16 audio card and a Mitsumi CD-ROM - before landing at the command prompt. From there, the user simply types 'win' and hits Enter, which is how Windows 3.1 was launched every single time. Windows 3.1 was not a standalone operating system. It was a graphical shell that sat on top of MS-DOS and was released by Microsoft on April 6, 1992. It introduced TrueType fonts, drag-and-drop between programs, Minesweeper, Solitaire, and the Windows Registry - features that became staples of every Windows version that followed. The PC here is fitted with a Creative Sound Blaster Vibra 16 sound card, a Mitsumi CD-ROM drive, and an Exabyte tape drive - typical high-end hardware for a home or office machine of that era. It also runs CuteMouse, a free DOS mouse driver still actively maintained decades after MS-DOS itself was retired. Machines like this one were the everyday computers of 1994 and 1995, before Windows 95 arrived and changed everything. #windows