Running Windows 3.1¶

DOSBox Staging fully supports Windows 3.1, which was not a standalone operating system but an operating environment running on top of DOS. Windows 3.1 was the platform that kicked off the CD-ROM gaming era: its built-in multimedia support made it the natural home for FMV-heavy interactive movies and lavish point-and-click adventures that were simply too large for floppy disk — titles like Myst, The Journeyman Project, and the cult Western adventure Dust: A Tale of the Wired West. Many of these games were never ported elsewhere and can only be played this way.

See The DOS eras for more notable titles and recommended hardware settings.

Warning

Windows 9x (95, 98, ME) is not supported by DOSBox Staging.

Installation¶

You’ll need Windows 3.1 (or Windows for Workgroups 3.11) installation media, either as floppy disk images or the files extracted from them.

Mount your installation files so they’re accessible from DOS (e.g., copy them to C:\INSTALL).
Run SETUP from the installation directory.
Install into C:\WINDOWS.
When prompted, choose 386 Enhanced mode (technically, DOSBox Staging alwyas emulates at least the 386 instruction set)
After installation completes, launch Windows with the WIN command.

Use the following DOSBox configuration (adapt mididevicefor your MIDI setup):

[dosbox]
machine = svga_s3
memsize = 32

[cpu]
# Emulate era-authentic 486DX2/66 speeds
cpu_cycles = 25000
cputype = pentium

[sblaster]
sbtype = sb16

[midi]
# Alternatively, set it to 'mt32' or 'fluidsynth',
# or don't set it if you don't care about MIDI
mididevice = soundcanvas

Warning

Setting cputype to pentium is important — some Windows 3.1 games (e.g., Betrayal in Antara) require it.

Tip

Adding WIN : (note the space and colon) to your [autoexec] section launches Windows automatically and skips the startup logo.

Video driver¶

Install the S3 Vision 964 v1.41B5 driver for proper SVGA support inside Windows.

Extract the ZIP to a directory accessible from DOS (e.g., C:\DRIVERS\S3).
Exit Windows and run SETUP from the DOS prompt.
Navigate to the Display section and select Other.
Point to the driver directory and choose 640×480, 256 colours as a safe starting point.
Higher resolutions up to 1600×1200 are available if you set vmemsize to 4 or higher.

Important

Always install the video driver after the initial Windows installation, not during it. Back up your C:\WINDOWS directory before changing display drivers.

Audio driver¶

Install the Sound Blaster 16 driver for digital audio and OPL music.

Extract to C:\DRIVERS\SB16 and run INSTALL from the DOS prompt (the installer is a DOS program; won’t work from Windows).
Choose Full Installation.
When prompted for hardware settings, use the DOSBox Staging defaults:
- Base address: 220
- IRQ: 7
- DMA: 1
- High DMA: 5
After installation, delete the CONFIG.SYS and AUTOEXEC.BAT files the installer generates; they are not needed under DOSBox.
Test by playing C:\WINDOWS\CANYON.MID in Media Player.

MIDI setup¶

After installing the Sound Blaster 16 driver, configure MIDI output:

Open Control Panel → MIDI Mapper.
Select SB16 All MIDI as the active setup.

This routes MIDI output through DOSBox’s configured mididevice, so you can use Roland MT-32, Sound Canvas SC-55, or FluidSynth, emulation for Windows 3.1 games — just change the mididevice setting in your DOSBox config.

Mouse setup¶

The built-in PS/2 mouse driver that Windows installs by default works fine and requires no additional configuration.

The two-button mouse without a scroll wheel was the standard throughout the DOS era — scroll wheels only became common in the late 1990s. DOSBox emulates a two-button mouse by default, which is the safest setting. Only a small number of early-to-mid 90s Windows games support a third mouse button; if you need it, enable three-button mouse emulation via the dos_mouse_driver setting.

For seamless mouse integration (the pointer moves freely between the DOSBox window and your desktop without needing to capture/release it), install the VirtualBox mouse driver.