Easy way to shrink the size of Windows 3.1 WIN.COM \ VOGONS

Easy way to shrink the size of Windows 3.1 WIN.COM

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First post, by Kahenraz

Posted on 2019-09-01, 21:21

Kahenraz Offline

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I've been playing around with Windows 3.1 lately and found a neat trick after reading this site:

http://www.win31.de/etips.htm

The program WIN.COM is actually an executable with the boot logo appended to it. The original COM file is actually WIN.CNF in the system/ directory.

So, if you rename WIN.CNF to WIN.COM and place it in your C:\WINDOWS folder then it will boot without the logo. In my case, the file size shrunk from 41.9kb to 13.8kb. That's some pretty big savings. 😀

It also skips displaying the logo which is nice when you're only using Windows to bootstrap a game.

Reply 1 of 6, by derSammler

Posted on 2019-09-01, 21:28

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Kahenraz wrote:
In my case, the file size shrunk from 41.9kb to 13.8kb. That's some pretty big savings. 😀

How small can a hard disk be that 28 kb less do matter? There are readme files included that are bigger an can be deleted. I don't see why one would care about 28 kb for a Windows installation that is way over 10 mb in size.

Reply 2 of 6, by Kahenraz

Posted on 2019-09-01, 21:49

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Windows 3.1 also starts faster without the logo having to display.

Reply 3 of 6, by BinaryDemon

Posted on 2019-09-01, 22:01

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Good info. I doubt the filesize matters to most of us but I remember hearing about crazy projects where people would minimize Win3.1/3.11 to the point where it would fit on a single 1.44 floppy.

Check out DOSBox Distro:

https://sites.google.com/site/dosboxdistro/ [*]

a lightweight Linux distro (tinycore) which boots off a usb flash drive and goes straight to DOSBox.

Make your dos retrogaming experience portable!

Reply 4 of 6, by Caluser2000

Posted on 2019-09-02, 00:29

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Cool tip. Thanks.

BinaryDemon wrote:
Good info. I doubt the filesize matters to most of us but I remember hearing about crazy projects where people would minimize Win3.1/3.11 to the point where it would fit on a single 1.44 floppy.

Yip. China Dos Unions Mini-Windows. [link to copyrighted software removed by moderator]

The attachment dos.png is no longer available

The attachment win32.png is no longer available

The attachment win3.png is no longer available

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Reply 5 of 6, by swaaye

Posted on 2019-09-03, 02:46

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Please no links to download illegal copies of software.

Reply 6 of 6, by Jo22

Posted on 2019-09-03, 15:05

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Reminds me of the 90s. Back then, I tried to make Windows 3.1 fit on an 1.44MB floppy. ^^

Anyway, there's something even cooler than that.
Some person managed to install Windows 3.1 on a BIOS chip. 😎
On hackaday.com, for example, there's an article of it called "Windows 3.1 In My BIOS?".

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