What was new in Windows 3.1 was a special handler for Ctrl+Alt+Del which tried to identify the program that was not responding and give you the opportunity to terminate it.
This worked 1% of the time. Because of the cooperative multitasking in win 3.1, 3.11, 95, 98 and Me the usual way out of this was reset or power off. Sometimes pressing the Ctrl+Alt+DEL will reboot the computer.
Windows 3.1 on a 386 used preemptive multitasking, yes, but only between Windows as a whole and other DOS programs you were running. Within Windows, win16 apps were cooperatively multitasked even on a 386.
Comments
Chen is a marvelous writer. Punchy sentences replete with wisdom.
This worked 1% of the time. Because of the cooperative multitasking in win 3.1, 3.11, 95, 98 and Me the usual way out of this was reset or power off. Sometimes pressing the Ctrl+Alt+DEL will reboot the computer.
Only Win 3.1 used cooperative multitasking (and only when running on a 286). All others used preemptive multitasking.
Windows 3.1 on a 386 used preemptive multitasking, yes, but only between Windows as a whole and other DOS programs you were running. Within Windows, win16 apps were cooperatively multitasked even on a 386.
I stand corrected.
The comments at the end are marvelous.
I get
I presume they're referring, not to blog comments by visitors, but to Chen's own comments (or commentary, if you prefer) in the footnote at the end.
That was a wonderful read