The Concrete Airship

The toolbox collection.



This collection is divided into four categories: DOS, Windows 3.1, Windows 95/98, and Linux. All of the material listed here is either freeware, shareware, free updates/patches to commercial software, or free for NON-COMMERCIAL use. We have specifically included some older and unsupported or abandoned versions of programs, because they run better on old computers.

No warranty expressed or implied, no responsibility accepted, and if anything breaks you get to keep all the pieces. For any technical support and/or the latest versions, visit the websites these programs came from.

Due to its popularity and limited bandwidth this site can be a bit slow at times. Be patient, or try again later.

For DOS :
Intended for older computers. Most of these will also work in Windows 3.1 as a DOS application.

Interesting DOS Programs has a much larger collection than this....


For Windows 3.1/3.11 and Windows for Workgroups :
There are still plenty of computers out there running these Windows, although Microsoft stopped selling them years ago and will end all forms of support after 2001. Most of the DOS programs listed above will also work in Windows 3.1.

NOTE 1 - These programs assume a DOS filesystem and may mangle Windows 95/98/2000/ME long file names; or quietly convert them to uppercase equivalents. This might cause problems when interoperating with newer software.

NOTE 2 - Windows 3.1 and Workgroups don't include a built-in Internet connection capability. Many of these programs will need either a PPP dialler (eg: Shiva or Trumpet Winsock) for your modem, or a TCP/IP connection via your network (eg: the Workgroups TCP/IP package).

  • Acrobat Reader 3.01 (3.7MB). Adobe's free PDF document reader for Windows 3.1.

  • CuteFTP trial version (534kB). Interactive FTP client from www.cuteftp.com. Useful for uploading/downloading entire sites.

  • Eudora Light 3.06 (4.4MB), a free email program for Windows 3.1/95/98/2000 from www.eudora.com. We also have the Eudora Lite manual (680kB).

  • Internet Explorer 3 with Shiva PPP dialler (3.8MB). This is an old version of IE which may not work properly (or at all) on some sites, but it's enough to get you going.
    The Shiva dialler does the same job as Trumpet Winsock (below), and can be used with other Internet programs eg: Netscape, Eudora, etc.

  • Internet Explorer 5.01 (9.2MB) is the final version of IE for Windows 3.1; and includes 128-bit encryption for secure connections. Some sites, however, still refuse to work with it because the fools who programmed those sites only anticipated Windows 95/98 users. Sigh....

  • Netscape Navigator 2.02 (2.4MB). The browser which brought the Internet to the public. Includes email capability. This is an old version which may not work properly (or at all) on some sites, but it's enough to get you going.
    The final versions of Netscape for Windows 3.1 - Navigator 4.08 (9.0MB) or Communicator 4.08 (17.8MB) - also support 128-bit encryption. Getting them directly from Netscape would probably be faster than from here.

  • Pegasus 3.12b for Windows 3.1/95/98/2000 (3.1MB), a free email program from Pegasus Mail. See above for the DOS client. Pegasus will work without TCP/IP on your network if it's getting mail from a Mercury server.
    The Mercury mail servers, also free from the same company, are available for Windows 95/98/NT/2000 (1.4MB) and Netware (NLMs for Netware 3 (812kB), or NDS for Netware 4 or 5 (944kB)). These mail servers also work with other POP3/IMAP-compatible clients such as Eudora, Outlook Express or Netscape Communicator.

  • Paintshop Pro 3.11 (1.8MB). Versatile shareware image editor from Jasc Software. Also works in Windows 95/98.

  • Secure Shell client (163 kB). Cedomir Igaly's SSH 1.2x client. You will also need the Crypt 2.0 libraries (772kB) to make this work. You may also need Microsoft's ODBC libraries (72kB).

  • Super Pad (80kB), PC Magazine's free and improved version of Windows 3.1 Notepad.

  • Trumpet Winsock 2.0 (203kB) provides Internet connectivity through a modem via PPP. This is an old but non-expiring shareware version from Trumpet Software.

  • Winzip 6.3 SR1 shareware version (614kB). Creates, updates, unpacks ZIP archives (also unpacks TAR,TGZ and some others). From www.winzip.com.

  • WS_FTP 5 limited edition (465kB). A free interactive FTP client from www.ipswitch.com. Pro version has more features.

  • Microsoft's Powerpoint 97/2000 viewer for Windows 3.1 (1.3MB). Allows you to display presentations made with Powerpoint 7, 97 or 2000. Note - works by converting the 97/2000 file to a Powerpoint 4 equivalent and playing that; so some of the 97/2000-specific features aren't supported.

  • Microsoft's Windows for Workgroups TCP/IP package (1.3MB). Adds TCP/IP connectivity and utilities (FTP, lookup, ping, Telnet) to a networked WfW system. We use it here on a couple of 386's so that they can access the Internet (and our servers) through our local network.

  • Microsoft's Win32s 32-bit extensions for Windows 3.1 (3.1MB). Allows some Windows NT and Windows 95 programs to run in Windows 3.1.

  • Microsoft's Visual Basic 3 runtime library for Windows 3.1/95/98 (389kB). Required for running Visual Basic 3 programs. Copy this to your \WINDOWS\SYSTEM directory.

  • Microsoft's Word 6/7 viewer for Windows 3.1 (1.2MB). Allows you to display & print Word 6 or 7 documents.

  • Microsoft's Word 97/2000 viewer for Windows 3.1 (2.2MB) . Allows you to display and print (but not edit) Word 97 or Word 2000 documents. Just what you need when some inconsiderate person sends you a Word DOC to read. CANNOT RUN MACROS therefore no virus danger when opening documents :) There's also a version for Windows 95/98. If you're running DOS only then VIEW (see above) is your best option.

  • Microsoft's WfW virtual server update for Windows for Workgroups (62kB). This fixes a security bug where Samba users (Linux/Unix) can see the entire file system of a networked WfW computer, regardless of its share permissions. This self-extracting update contains a new VSERVER.386 file. Quit Windows, replace your existing C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM\VSERVER.386 with this new file, and restart Windows.

  • Microsoft's Y2k update for Windows 3.1 File Manager (74kB). Fixes those wierd date symbols on your 21st-century files.

  • Microsoft's Y2k update for Windows for Workgroups File Manager (87kB).



For Windows 95/98 :
Most of these should also work in Windows 2000/NT/XP.



For Linux :
Coming soon...


homepage