Windows 3.1 includes a Super VGA driver providing screen resolution of 800x600 at 16 colors. This driver is based on the VGA driver source code.
This driver supports the 16-color 800x600 modes of most Super VGA display adapters, and is capable of automatically detecting many OEM numbers.
When the Super VGA driver loads, it checks the [SUPERVGA.DRV] section of the SYSTEM.INI file for a mode number specified by the svgamode setting. The setting takes a single decimal value specifying the video mode number. If the driver finds a value in SYSTEM.INI, it attempts to put the adapter into that mode.
If the mode switch fails, or if a value is not specified in SYSTEM.INI, the Super VGA driver will attempt to automatically detect the correct mode number. If it detects one, it writes this value out to SYSTEM.INI. If it does not, the driver fails to load, and the user is returned to the MS-DOS prompt.
Users with adapters not detected by the Super VGA driver must specify the correct (decimal) mode number in the [display] section of SYSTEM.INI.
Microsoft recommends that current users of 16-color 800x600 drivers switch to the driver included in Windows 3.1, since it contains new features and performance optimizations.