On Tue, Jan 19, 2016 at 1:06 PM, Herb Johnson via vcf-midatlantic < vcf-midatlantic@lists.vintagecomputerfederation.org> wrote:
Working on a Dell 486 computer. I need a RTClock battery, but otherwise
it's running quite nicely Windows for Workgroups 3.11
The question of batteries is on-topic IMHO.
Batteries in the long term, cause corrosion of parts that have constant current on them. This is true all the way back to 128K Macs. also, many batteries leak (not coin cells), that's not good either. If you add a battery pack, make sure you can readily pull it out when the computer is in long-term storage.
Windows for Workgroups (Win 3.1 + networking) is worth preserving. It's a legacy OS now. It ran for many years in embedded applications (back ATMs) and Microsoft support only ended several years ago. Many consider Win 3.1 the first really "successful" M/S Windows OS product.
If I had time and interest, I'd see about migrating Win 3.1 to the Heath-Zenith Z-100. That's a S-100 system that is somewhat IBM PC compatible. I don't recall if Windows was offered for that platform, later Zenith PC's ran even earlier Windows (I have those distributions).
Herb
-- Herbert R. Johnson, New Jersey USA http://www.retrotechnology.com OR .net
Win 3.11 is a 16 bit application, do you have a Zenith S-100 system with a 16-bit processor? Windows 3.11 is best run on 486's or early Pentium although you could eek out a usable system with 386 running as long as it had enough RAM.. Bill