Does user.exe draw Windows 3.1 window frames?

[Stephen]

Does anyone know which files produce the window frames and the maximise and
minimise buttons on the title bars in Windows 3.1 - the things that make
Windows 3.1 look like Windows 3.1 ?
What sets the font in the dialog boxes, and minimises programs to a proper
32x32 icon, rather than a Windows 95 bar?
Are these instructions somewhere inside \windows\system\user.exe, for
example?
These are only visual display options, and should not have to directly
affect the way the system works or runs programs, so:
What would happen if you went into an installation of Windows 95 and
replaced the Windows 95 versions of the files containing these windowing
instructions (like user.exe maybe) with the Windows 3.1 versions?
Is it possible to make Windows 95 boot up looking like Windows 3.1 ?

[Anomaly]

User.exe manages windows, but the drawing is done by gdi.exe, which
contains some graphics, the remainder is directly stored in the display
driver (in EACH display driver), such as mouse cursor. Using 3.1 display
drivers is possible, but will slow down your machine and will not does
give you the desired effect. Downgrade gdi.exe is certainly not
recommended at all, and downgrade user.exe is impossible, because
win95's user.exe is a thunk over user32.dll (opposed to gdi32.dll, which
IS a thunk over gdi.exe).

If you want 32-bit Windows with 3.1-appareance, you should look for
Windows NT 3.51.

[Artur Yelchishchev]

On Mon, 2 Jun 2003 14:06:33 +0100, "Stephen"
<ste...@junkmailblocker.sptv.demon.co.uk> wrote:

>Does anyone know which files produce the window frames and the maximise and
>minimise buttons on the title bars in Windows 3.1 - the things that make
>Windows 3.1 look like Windows 3.1 ?
>What sets the font in the dialog boxes, and minimises programs to a proper
>32x32 icon, rather than a Windows 95 bar?
>Are these instructions somewhere inside \windows\system\user.exe, for
>example?

Hi Stephen,

Too many questions in single message! :-) Well, I'll try to
answer some...

The visual aspects of Win3.1x interface are controlled by many
files, not single one.

The control buttons are stored as bitmaps within graphic card's
driver, fonts and dialog style are handled mostly by COMMDLG.DLL,
CTL3D.DLL and similar libraries, and also affected by USER.EXE.

Concerning the minimized icons - I have no exact information, but
IMHO it's a PROGMAN.EXE business.

You can search the web for many Win3 "interface enhancers" - many
of them include good documentation about related things. For
example, I'm currently using the next add-ons:

'Makeover for Windows' by Playroom Software (including OSFrame,
ButtonMaker and IconMaker),
'Kframe' by Kauru Nakajima,
'More Control' by Sloop Software,
'All3D' by Andreas Furrer,
'Ministry of Buttons' by Jonathan Mote,
'Instant File Access' by Alexoft Software,
COMMDLG.DLL patch by Maxim Gready,
USER.EXE from Win98 MINI.CAB archive,

and many other patches, modifications, improvements and hacks -
I've just figured out, that I'm unable to give a full list of
them!

>What would happen if you went into an installation of Windows 95 and
>replaced the Windows 95 versions of the files containing these windowing
>instructions (like user.exe maybe) with the Windows 3.1 versions?

Nothing good, I suppose! ;-)

>Is it possible to make Windows 95 boot up looking like Windows 3.1 ?

There's an option in the Win95 installation, where you can select
which interface do you want to use - Win95 or Win3.1 one. If the
latter is selected, the Win95 looks pretty much similar to the
Win3.1x, although it isn't 100%-identical.

WBR,
Artur