This week marks the 30th anniversary of Windows 3.1. A version larger than its numbering may matchbecause it has released features that still use the latest Windows, and laid the groundwork for pre – installing the PC OEM channel, which Microsoft absolutely dominates and has been key to its success over the three decades.

Microsoft released Windows 3.1 in April 1992, just two years after the advent of Windows 3.0. It should be noted that Windows 3.0 was well received by industry and consumers, but it lacked key components, had many bugs, bitmap fonts, and came as an MS-DOS add-on. Recognizing the need to stay competitive with Apple’s Macs, Microsoft was preparing to jump to the 32-bit and (real) graphical interfaces that would come with Windows 95, so it immediately developed a new version.

What’s new in Windows 3.1

Windows 3.1 was not an update, but a completely new version that not only improved everything on the previous one, but also released key components that are still in use. Simply all the following Windows up to Windows 11 without some of them they would not work. Howtogeek provided a good overview of the new features of this version. We will leave you a summary of the main ones.

TrueType fonts. One of the weaknesses of Windows 3.0 was its reliance on bitmap fonts, which caused endless scaling problems. Adobe offered scalable PostScript fonts for desktop publishing on Windows, but its enterprise control was terrifying. Apple developed a scalable TrueType font system, and Microsoft licensed and adopted it into Windows 3.1 to free itself from Adobe, improve desktop publishing, and add another important feature, printer support. This type of font was key in the history of Windows.

Windows registry. Windows 3.1 included configuration files (.ini extension) for each application, which made it easier to run another core component of Windows: the registry. Today, it is a basic database that the system, applications and devices use continuously and from which the operation of the PC, its appearance, the behavior of its components or access to functions is completely controlled. Without it, no later Windows system would work.

Copy and paste. The shortcuts Ctrl + C, Ctrl + X and Ctrl + V also debuted in Windows 3.1 as a derivative of Command + C, Command + X and Command + V, which Apple introduced on Macs years ago. Today, we still use them daily in all systems and applications.

Media and games. Windows 3.1 has brought a touch of multimedia and multimedia support to the mainstream Windows line with screen savers, Media Player, which can play MIDI music files and AVI video files, and Audio Recorder, which allows you to record and play audio. computers had hardware support. Two games that have become classics are standard and it’s impossible that you haven’t played them yet: Solitaire and Minesweeper.

Teamwork. Microsoft launched a year later Windows for Workgroups with which it extended Windows 3.1 with integrated networking features designed primarily for business use, greater stability and improved capabilities in various sections, such as program and file manager.

OEM and heritage. In addition to its capabilities, Windows 3.1 was a major change for Microsoft to become the technology giant as we know it today. Since the public announcement of Windows nearly a decade ago, Microsoft has worked hard to gain industry support for its operating environment. With Windows 3.1, the company has taken a major step for OEMs to pre-install Windows on their new computers.

In those years, OEMs preferred to install only MS-DOS and PC buyers so that they could purchase and install Windows separately. With version 3.1, Microsoft has created a huge demand from both end users and enterprise IT and has been widely used by OEMs. As a result, Windows 3.1 was a brutal successsold three million copies in the first three months and many more throughout its life.

Windows 95 later came with a revolution that brought the first true graphical interface to Windows, but much of today’s Windows market share (87% of desktop computers) is due to the OEM channel that Microsoft began to dominate from the previous version.