I have been working DOSBOX version 0.74, and it is pretty solid - ran old DOS programs and games well. Pretty much a wrapper between a FreeDOS environment and the operating system, providing Sound Blaster compatibility and S3 video. Windows 3.1 installed without a hitch, and the popular DOS games ran well, including the Doom, Doom2, Quake, and Duke Nukem's.
As I was rummaging through a box of old floppies, I came across Word for Windows Version 6, and version 1.1. How about them old days. They stayed in the box. I have a student version of Microcap, and handful of communications programs.
DOSBOX: http://www.dosbox.com/
A second or two to download, easy to run and setup.
Before running DOSBOX, I created a folder called/located at C:\DOSBOX
and in DOSBOX is where I copied my game and Win3.1 files
When you run DOSBOX, two windows appear, one will have a Z:\ prompt. At the Z:\prompt enter the following, that will look like this:
Z:\>mount c c:\DOSBOX
You will see a message that says: Drive C is mounted as local directory C:\dosbox\
At the Z:\ prompt, enter C:
Z:\>c:
You will now see...
C:>
You are in dos, at the root directory.
And that's all!