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Svga.exe: A must-have for Windows 3.1 users

Microsoft did not include a generic 256-colour driver in the Windows 3.1 package (though it did in the later Windows 3.11 set and of course in Windows 95 and later). If you're using Win3.1, here it is! A 353 kb self-extracting, compressed file... after downloading it, move it to a new directory, and double-click it, or type its name at a DOS command line to uncompress its contents.

To install it, quit Windows. From a DOS prompt, type: CD \WINDOWS to change to your Windows directory, then type Setup to change the Windows setup. Use the arrow keys to move to the Video line, and press Enter. You ll see a list of the drivers included with Windows 3.1 arrow to the end of the long list, choosing OTHER& then type the path to the location of the uncompressed drivers (i.e. A: if they re on a floppy disk) If you ve done this right, you ll see a list of screen sizes and colour depths, such as SVGA 640x480 256 Colors.

Pick the one you want, and press Enter. You should have the Windows 3.1 installation floppy diskettes handy.

Note: These drivers work for many, but not all video cards. If Windows fails to start after installing these drivers, return to the DOS prompt, return to C:\Windows, run Setup again, this time picking: VGA from the list of video drivers to return to the generic 16-colour driver that may be ugly but nearly always works.

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Alan Zisman is a Vancouver educator, writer, and computer specialist. He can be reached at