Windows 3.11 problem.

[Deleted member 2449024]

I recently picked up for 10 bucks 1992 laptop Toshiba T1850. It has 25 MHZ Intel 386 processor, 8 MB RAM and 120 MB HDD. It comes only with floppy drive. It has installed Windows 3.11 Workgroup Edition in German. What ar Operating System alternatives for this laptop? I think DSL (Damn Small Linux) won't run this pc. And I do not have any diskettes at home and none of my computers have floppy drives. So what are alternatives?

 

[13thmonkey]

Why do you want to change? is it the language?

 

[therealduckofdeath]

IBM OS/2 Warp might work. I can't remember its minimum recommended specs as it wasn't yesterday I last used it...

 

[TerryLaze]

Freedos ,actually quite usable.

 

[Alabalcho]

What you want to do with this antic? Run Tetris? Back in '92, Windows wasn't that popular. Most people used DOS-based programs.

Leave the old boy alone. It ran its useful life.

 

[Deleted member 2449024]

Why do you want to change? is it the language?

Yes. My windows 3.1 is in german.

 

[BFG-9000]

If you can navigate the Control Panel well enough in German, it's the "International" icon that looks like a globe

If not, boot to DOS and edit win.ini [intl] section from German:
sLanguage=deu
to US English:
sLanguage=enu

 

[Alabalcho]

@BFG-9000, this will change time / date / similar settings, it won't change the UI language - it's hard-coded into Windows files. Completely separate set of installation media is needed for the English (or any other supported language) version.

 

[BFG-9000]

It changes enough text to English, to make it more navigable for now. Yes, the many dialog boxes and such will still be in German, but if OP wants to convert everything into English, they will need install media on floppies. Note that even the foreign language versions included the English files, they just weren't installed by default as back then every byte on HDD was precious.

If the files are present, the setting for changing that is in the system.ini [BOOT] section:
language.dll=langeng.dll

I would suggest getting a USB floppy drive to make bootable disks for that machine, given that it can only boot floppies or hard disk, and floppy is the only available removable media. As IDE was not standardized until 1994, the usual obvious suggestion of a CF to 44-pin IDE adapter won't work, as the drive electronics are probably on the motherboard.

At least with German you can type the words into Google Translate--I remember working on Windows NT 3.1 machines in Chinese and Japanese--I had to use a computer running the English version of NT next to them to see what the icons were and where in the dropdown menus to click! I remember drawing the yes/no/cancel characters once I figured out what they were...