Apricot Computers pre-announced "MS-DOS 4.0" in early 1986,[3] and Microsoft demonstrated it in September of that year at a Paris trade show.

However, only a few European OEMs, such as SMT Goupil and International Computers Limited (ICL), actually licensed releases of the software.

In September 1987, a version of multi-tasking MS-DOS 4.1 was reported to be developed for the ICL DRS Professional Workstation (PWS).

This limited form of multitasking was considered to be more useful in a server rather than workstation environment, particularly coupled with MS-Net 2.0, which was released simultaneously.

Other limitations of MS-DOS 3.0 remained, including the inability to use memory above 640 KB, and this contributed to the product's lack of adoption, particularly in light of the need to write programs specifically targeted at the new environment.