In comparison, the Windows/386 variant is considered to be better than Windows/286, since it provides support for EMS emulation and is designed to use both conventional and extended memory.

Changes to the user interface did not occur in this version, and rather, its performance was increased and enhanced memory management was added.

Enhancements that were introduced were considered to have improved the operating environment, while the Windows/386 variant was noted to have a good level of functionality.

[1] It was released on May 27, 1988, and it was the first version of Windows to require a hard disk drive.

The variant uses an additional 64KB of the extended 286 KB memory in real mode.

[6] A few PC vendors shipped Windows/286 with Intel 8086 hardware; one such example was IBM's PS/2 Model 25, which included Windows/286, resulting in some customer confusion.

[17] As the successor of Windows 2.1, it was also released in Windows/286 and Windows/386 editions, with some minor changes in memory management and updates regarding printing options.

[20] Changes to the user interface did not occur in this version; instead, Microsoft had increased its performance and added enhanced memory management.

[21] The Windows/286 variant introduced LIM 4.0 boards to store and swap executable code.