Lesson Summary

The following points summarize the main elements of this lesson:

Windows 3.x is an operating environment that runs on top of MS-DOS.
Windows uses a GUI (graphical user interface) instead of the command line interface of MS-DOS.
In addition to the MS-DOS configuration files, Windows uses .INI files.
WIN.INI, SYSTEM.INI, and CONTROL.INI are the primary configuration files for Windows.
Sysedit is used to modify system files.
Windows also uses DLL (dynamic-link library) files to configure and run applications.
MS-DOS applications will run in Windows, but might require special settings to run properly. A .PIF file is used to create these settings.
Windows uses protected mode to allow the multitasking of applications.
General Protection Faults (GPFs) occur when an application tries to use resources allocated to other applications.