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by troad 1117 days ago
This is a fun little bite-sized post, but I wish it tackled more of the nitty-gritty.

Does anyone know of any write-ups on the architecture of early-90s Windows that are more in depth, now that this has whet my appetite? (Or other OSes of the era, come to think of it?)

1 comments

Raymond Chen has got you covered. These three are my favorite technical articles on Windows 3.1:

- If Windows 3.11 required a 32-bit processor, why was it called a 16-bit operating system? [0]

- What did Windows 3.1 do when you hit Ctrl+Alt+Del? [1]

- How did Windows 3.1’s virtual machine manager get the information to show in the text-mode Alt+Tab switcher? [2]

[0] https://devblogs.microsoft.com/oldnewthing/20100517-00/?p=14...

[1] https://devblogs.microsoft.com/oldnewthing/20140912-00/?p=44...

[2] https://devblogs.microsoft.com/oldnewthing/20211129-00/?p=10...

I keep coming back for those three articles.

You keep coming back to them? Really? Why? They're interesting articles but they just scratch the surface and I don't see how further readings would change that.
For me, re-reading triggers a trip down Memory Lane. I have fond memories of the 90s so I just love to revisit to feed my nostalgia.

Plus, I really enjoy Raymond Chen’s writing style. Lastly, I want to remember the technical details, and re-reading helps with that.