Windows 2.1 Like its predecessor,
Windows 2.0, the
operating environment was released with two different variants with differing
CPU compatibility. However, the cosmetic naming convention was changed to "Windows/286" and "Windows/386". It was released on May 27, 1988, and it was the first version of Windows to require a
hard disk drive. Despite its name, Windows/286 did not require a
80286 processor and was fully operational on an
8088 or
8086 processor, although it would not use the
high memory area since the latter lacked the feature. It is a rehash of its predecessor, Windows 2.03. The variant uses an additional 64 KB of the extended 286 KB memory in
real mode. To access the additional memory,
HIMEM.SYS is needed. A few PC vendors shipped Windows/286 with Intel 8086 hardware; one such example was
IBM's
PS/2 Model 25, which included Windows/286, resulting in some customer confusion. The other variant, Windows/386, is more advanced since it had introduced a
protected mode kernel, and it allows several
MS-DOS programs to run in parallel in the
virtual 8086 mode of the
80386 processor, rather than suspending background applications. It has also provided support for
EMS emulation, to use
RAM beyond the 640 KB limit. It has spruced-up rendering of the 80386 version, and its setup program is considered to be better than the Windows/286 one. The facilities for converting extended memory into expanded memory are built into Windows/386, although, any EMS that is separately controlled would not be available on Windows/386. A Korean version of Windows 2.1 was published by Microsoft in May 1990. It was re-released in September 1990 as Windows 2.12. As the successor of Windows 2.1, it was also released in Windows/286 and Windows/386 editions, with some minor changes in memory management and updates regarding printing options. It was noted that costs for organizations that ran Windows 2.11 were lower. == Features ==