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C:\SYSTEM> SHELL.EXE 

µOS

System Operacyjno-Użytkowy ("Operating-and-User System") for Personal Computer Users — a Polish graphical shell for DOS, designed in 1992 as a teaching tool for the first school computer labs.

Created1992
AuthorAndrzej Donczew
EnvironmentBorland Pascal + assembler
Medium1 floppy disk, 1.44 MB
Last version1.9 (1995)

About the project

A teaching tool from when DOS was still enough

In the early 1990s, newly established school computer labs in Poland had to make do with budget PCs — no commercial graphical environment in sight. µOS was built as a response: a graphical shell for DOS in Polish, bundled with a handful of small helper applications, all fitting on a single floppy disk.

This site documents the project's history, its creators, and the surviving source material — from the original installation floppy to its commercial release on a CD published by Albion in 1996.

The site documents preserved material and a present-day reconstruction of the environment in an emulator — it does not present µOS as actively developed software.

Screenshots

The system desktop

Screens from the original µOS installation tutorial, preserved on a 3.5" floppy disk.

µOS installer welcome screen with the diamond logo
Installer — welcome screenOP000.BMP
Explanation of the µOS desktop
System desktop — walkthroughOP001.BMP
System requirements screen
System requirementsINSTX.PCX

Browse the full gallery →

Documentation

Start here

History

The project's origins, its creators, development in 1992–1995, and its commercial release.

Technology

Borland Pascal, in-house libraries, plug&play, and the contents of the installation floppy.

Press

A review of µOS in Enter magazine, issue 3/1996 (no. 61). (summary, full text in Polish)

Download

Preserved material: floppy image, manual, screenshots. (summary, full text in Polish)