Windows/386

Windows/386 is a graphical operating system shell released by Microsoft Corporation on December 9, 1987. The shell sits on top of an existing MS-DOS installation. Windows/386 was complemented by Windows/286 and succeeded by Windows 3.0, although Windows/386 was originally intended to be an upgrade path to Microsoft OS/2. Support was officially discontinued on December 31, 2001. While the full potential of Windows/386 can only be realised on an Intel 80386, it does have fallback functionality to run on Intel 8086, 8088 or 80286 processors, effectively turning it into Windows/286.