May 17, 2010

Google Nexus One running Windows 3.11 for Workgroups

Windows 311 Nexus One 300x194 Google Nexus One running Windows  3.11 for Workgroups

It's not often you see Windows 3.11 for Workgroups these days. In fact, the last time I probably used that OS was back in the 90's while at college. One user with a Google Nexus One has managed to get the old OS running on his smartphone.

Although the demonstration shows Windows 3.11 running on a HTC Nexus One from Google [GOOG], you can actually get it working on any Android OS based smartphone that has a decent processor and performance.

Other items used include a Bluetooth Wireless keyboard for sending commands to MS-DOS and a computer to get DosBox running.

If you are familiar with the Android OS, one thing you may be saying “huh?” about at this moment is that there is no HID support within the Bluetooth stack to allow the use of wireless keyboards. But we won’t let that stop us now, will we? Since ADosBox does not yet support the use of the onscreen virtual keyboard, we have no other choice! Don’t worry, there’s a solution that I’ll cover in here shortly.

What you need....

* On your phone:
* ADosBox
* Teksoft BlueInput for Android (this will give us the HID input we need for the iGo Stowaway keyboard… sorta). You will need the paid version because you need use of the Enter key. Also, this software is so buggy and inaccurate that I do NOT recommend it for anything outside of a project like this.

* On your computer:
* DosBox
* An installation image of Windows 3.11

If you have all that then head on over here for full instructions on how to install Windows 3.11 on your Android OS based smartphone. I'm sure it will be fun to use for maybe 30 minutes until you realise how much things have changed since the 90's! One good thing that could come out of this is Minesweeper although I really have no idea if that was included with 3.11 or not.


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