| Graphics Utils | File Utils | System Utils | System Upgrades | Internet Utils | Miscellaneous | Tweaks |
Graphics utils
LView Pro [version 1.D2]. Great image viewing utility that supports a number of formats. It requires very little memory and is extremely quick to open an image. You can preview images without opening them, resize images, change colors and image formats, and even run a slide show. Associate all your .jpg, .bmp, and .gif files with LView and open them quickly and easily with LView.
MainActor [version 1.50]. Converts between just about every multimedia format. Create avi's, mov's, mpegs, animated gifs, etc. A very powerful utility. This shareware version is fully functional. You will be reminded to register periodically while using the application.
Microsoft GIF animator [version 1.0]. Easily create animated gifs for use on the web pages, conversion to movies, etc.
GIF Construction Set [version 1.0Q]. Create transparent, interlaced and animated GIF files. Very flexible and simple to use, it even has an "animation wizard" for creating animated GIFs. By Alchemy Mindworks.
QuickTime for Windows [version 2.1.2.59]. Browser plugin and movie player for .mov files. Has options to allow movie looping, play selections only, loop selections, loop forward and backward, easy resizing, save images and more.
Smartvid [version 1.02.006]. Convert between windows .AVI and quicktime .MOV formats quickly and easily with this tiny program.
VidEdit [version 1.1]. Microsoft's Videdit, a utility for working with AVI files can cut, paste, add sound, and even capture video if you have a video capture card. This is a 16-bit application, so it works under win3.1 as well as win95 or winNT.
Morph Man [version 1.1]. A simple shareware morphing utility. You must set the morphing parameters after reading the included help file. By default it will fade from one graphics file to another. Several graphic formats are supported. It will output an AVI movie of the morph sequence.
File utils
Search and Replace [version 2.90]. A utility that searches text files for a string of text using several options and returns file names and line numbers. I have found this to be a highly useful tool for programmers who want to know, for instance, which source files are calling a function or using a variable and where. This shareware version allows you to search, but the replace option is disabled. Check out the author's homepage at www.funduc.com.
Funduc Explorer Extensions [version 2.10]. Another nifty utility by the author's of search and replace (see above). This adds additional functionality to the win95/NT explorer. Right-click to encode or decode files, split or concantenate, or change file attributes. The split/concantenate feature is quite useful for transporting large files on floppy diskettes.
WinZip [version 6.2]. A must have! Easily zip and unzip files with WinZip. A utility nobody should be without. Winzip supports several archive formats alone, including unix .tar (tape archive) and .gz (gzip) formats. With external support, winzip can decompress .lzh, .arj, and .arc formats. Winzip can also make self-extracting archives. You can view and virus scan archive files before opening them.
Folder Size shell extension [version 2.10]. A nice freeware shell add-on. It adds a tab to the properties page for folders that shows the disk space occupied by that folder, as well as all daughter folders. I find it quite useful for evaluating disk usage, something that Win95 forgot to add.
Klik-A-Dir [version 1.2]. One of the coolest utilities I've seen for navigating your hard drives! Highly configurable! It can be run from your system tray, or in the corner of your screen. This utility gives you a "start menu" - type of nested listing of all disks and directories on your computer. By default you may open windows explorer in the directory, or open a window in the directory, or create a DOS prompt in the directory. Best of all, you can add any command you wish to the menu, such as copy, delete, zip, search, etc. inside the directory. You can add specific directories to the menu that you access often.
Hex Workshop [version 2.20]. A full-function hex editor. Find, replace, goto offset, view hex and/or ascii mode, etc. Hex editing may also be added to your context menu, so you can hex edit with a right-click, or from within windows explorer.
System utils
bScreen [version 1.0]. Created by Denis Lukianov at Voxelsoft Ltd., bScreen is a utility that can be used to change colors of the well known 'blue screen of death' with a simple interface.
Norton Crashguard [version 2.01]. Trial version. This utility adds an "unfreeze" button to the CTRL-ALT-DEL dialog. It attempts to catch computer crashes before they freeze your system, allowing you to save and safely reboot. You can attempt to unfreeze applications that have locked up.
MTUspeed [version 4.10]. This utility streamlines registry settings to enhance your internet speed. It did seem to speed up my home system, which uses a modem to access the internet.
Old DOS utilities from Microsoft (such as memmaker). Why did DOS 7.0 not come with these? If you play any DOS games, and need to alternate between several different config.sys and autoexec.bat configurations to maximize the size of free conventional RAM , you'll find memmaker useful.
Powertoys for win95 from Microsoft. A set of utilities to tweak your system. Download all the toys with the link above, or get my individual favorites: Tweakui, CabView, Dos prompt here, and Explore from here.
RegClean from Microsoft [version 4.1a]. A must have! Cut the fat from your system registry. Regclean scans your registry for old entries and conflicts and gets it running smoothly again. Do you have programs listed in the add/remove programs control panel that you can't remove? Let Regclean fix it.
Dr. Watson for Win95 from Microsoft [version 4.03]. Nice little application for analyzing problems with your computer. It generates a snapshot of your system and gives you tons of information about resource usage. Dr. Watson starts in your system tray. Right click on the icon and selet "Dr. Watson". Click on "view" and select advanced view.
Cool Info [version 1.0?]. A small program that gives you lots of information about your computer including OS, CPU, disk usage, memory usage, file locations and version, etc. It's pretty cool!
Virtual Desktops [version 2.0]. This small program runs from your system tray and allows you to quickly switch between multiple different desktops. This is a really, really, really useful companion to multitasking. It allows you to specify which applications and windows are open under which desktops and switch between them quickly and easily. The interface is highly configurable. At the very least, it is great for instantly minimizing all windows, allowing you instant access to your desktop. The installation instructions didn't mention it, but it was necessary for me to reboot after installing to get access to the virtual desktops from the system tray.
Toolbar [version 3.7]. This utility gives you a microsoft-office-like toolbar to use for launching programs. It is easily minimized to the system tray, and may be placed on the left or right side of the screen when opened. My only criticism is that the buttons are a little large. Otherwise, it's a great thing to have if you don't already have the MSOffice shortcut bar. Some extras include the ability to activate your screen saver instantly, and get some quick system information (resources free, video mode). Certain hidden utilities within Win95 are shown as well, such as file manager, task manager, registry editor, etc.
Tray utility [version 1.0?]. Drag any file or shortcut onto this tiny application. Viola! There is an icon for it in the system tray. Now, all you need to do to open the file or shortcut is click on the tray icon. Useful if you like using the system tray instead of your start menu.
More Properties [version 2.0]. An advanced utility that not only shows you several of the hidden system properties within windows 95/98, but allows you to modify them! For instance, you can go through all the windows "tips of the day", enable/disable your windows splash screen, alter the default source path for windows installation files, etc. This is really a fantastic utility!
PowerBar [version 1.31]. Another MSOffice-shortcut-bar-like utility. This one has some added functionality. It has the normal clickable shortcut icons, but also autohides itself, supports multiple desktop switching, display resolution and color depth switching, restart or shutdown computer, button customization, bitmap bar backgrounds, display of current memory utilization, and more! Very powerful.
System upgrades
Year 2000 fix1 for win95. This update corrects year 2000 problems with DIR and DATE commands in windows 95.
Year 2000 fix2 for win95. An updated version of file manager for win95. This update corrects year 2000 problems with file manager displaying dates for files created after 1/1/2000.
Microsoft's Dial-up networking upgrade [version 1.2b]. This upgrade corrects the "unable to negotiate a compatible set of protocols" error, and minimizes your DUN connection to the system tray instead of the task bar. Note: INSTALL THIS FIRST BEFORE INSTALLING THE WINSOCK UPDATE AND/OR TCP/IP UPDATES! Installation of this upgrade will replace your current TCP/IP protocol stack.
Winsock 2.0 Upgrade. Updates windows sockets API. It updates the files: winsock.dll and wsock32.dll to version 4.00.1111.
Updated TCP/IP stack. Prevents Ssping/Jolt attacks (the "ping of death") by people with access to your IP address. Also fixes a slight problem caused by the winsock2 update, as well as some other problems which may result in slow communication or system hangs during access to the internet. It updates the file vip.386 to version 4.10.1512.
Updated TCP/IP stack. This update prevents OOB (winnuke) attacks by people with access to your IP address. It updates the files: vtcp.386 to version 4.00.0954 and vnbt.386 to version 4.00.0959.
Win95 Kernel update. This update fixes a small memory leak that occurs when you run a program that uses windows sockets (internet access) in Windows 95. A gradual increase in the memory used by the operating system may occur over time, especially if the program opens and closes a large number of sockets.
Win95 Font Extension [version 1.0?]. Install this and you can right-click on any truetype font file to learn almost everything about it. If you are interested in installing lots of fonts onto your system, check this page.
Windows 98 components. Here are a couple win98 components, if you're interested in more win98 components, then have a look at this site or this site.
TweakUI: for Win98 beta3 [version ?]. There is an IE4 tab, and the general tab has added features such as allowing for smooth scrolling, window animations, etc. I have heard that this version also works with win95, but I haven't confirmed this.
Plus themes from win98 [version n/a]. Baseball, water, space and jungle themes that come with windows 98. These will definitely work with win95 since they are just icons, cursors, backgrounds, and sound files.
FAT32 converter [version n/a]. This utility converts your file allocation table to a more compact format, saving disk space. Warning: once converted to FAT32, you cannot use this utility to go back to FAT16 again (you would need something like partition magic for this).
Internet utils
VNC [version 3.32]. Thanks Jason for directing me to the VNC Homepage! This is possibly the coolest thing I've seen yet. VNC (Virtual Network Computing) is a program that allows you to run any computer from any other computer, so long as they can communicate via a TCP/IP connection. The zip file provided here is for Win95 or NT4.0 SP3, but you may obtain versions for several operating systems from the VNC download page. The zip file includes both the server and client. Install the server on the computer you wish to run remotely, then run the client from any other computer. You will see the desktop of the remote computer wherever you decide to run the client. For example, you can email a document on your NT4.0 system in New York to your boss while you are using a unix system in Chicago. This is really nifty!
Neotrace [version 1.21]. A traceroute utility. Use this to determine the efficiency of your connection to specific internet sites. Neotrace gives you a nice graphical display, showing you the specific path and how long it takes a signal to travel from your computer to all the other servers on the internet that relay the signal to its destination.
DNScape [version 1.1]. A really nice freeware DNS lookup tool. Use this to do NSLookups. You can select whatever server you wish to use to do the lookup against, such as mit.edu. You can search for A records, name servers, MX records, PTR records, CNAMES, SOA records, or do a zone transfer.
CrowCall [version 1.30]. This utility uses internet explorer to activate several internet search engines simultaneously. It's quite nifty! Basically, if you open this application you get IE with a different menu at the top, customized for searching the internet. Check for the latest version at the Crowcall home page.
Fnord HTTP daemon [version 1.0.0.23]. A great, easy to use application that allows you to turn your computer into a web server when you're online. Read the included readme.txt file! You've got to change a setting after installing the program, easy to do but the program won't work unless you do it.
Xitami HTTP and FTP daemon [version 2.3b]. Another web server. I just switched from Fnord to Xitami because Fnord kept crashing on me when I enabled logs. This functions as both an FTP and HTTP server, and is configurable remotely via the web. I switched to Xitami on 5-13-98.
War FTP daemon [version 1.65]. Turn your computer into an FTP server when you're online! War FTP is very easy to configure, just add users and configure the type of hard drive access you want them to have.
ZanNet [version 1.0]. This is a network client that allows you to map a Unix login to a network drive. This is a fantastic utility for people who telnet and FTP a lot to a Unix server on the internet. It enables you to work with files on the server as if they reside on your windows 95/98 computer. Create, copy, edit, delete, archive, and search for files and directories on the unix server. You can easily change file permissions as well by right-clicking and selecting "properties". Very cool. Check out the ZanNet home page.
Tera Term Pro [version 2.3]. A telnet application, more powerful and more configurable than the telnet.exe included with windows 95.
Secure Shell Libraries for Tera Term Pro [version 1.4]. Secure shell allows connection to servers which require clear text, RSA, or rhost password protection.
WS_FTP95 LE [version 4.12]. A great FTP client application. I prefer WS_FTP to cute ftp or ftp explorer.
WSping32 [version 95.07.08]. A windows ping utility! Useful for NSlookup (name server look up) and tracing as well. Use wsping to check IP addresses, find out how efficient your connection is to various locations, etc.
Miscellaneous
Hack NT [version 0.1]. OK, this is not for win95. It's a getadmin attack for NT4.0. Read the included instructions. If you have a logon to the NT box, just log in as normal and use this utility to run any command (such as musrmgr) as SYSTEM. Check http://http://www.nmrc.org/files/nt/ for the latest version.
Microsoft Frontpad [version 2.0.2]. HTML WYSIWYG editor that comes with Internet Explorer 4.0.
Loki Diary [version 1.16]. A nice diary for windows 95.
Apollo 13 image: Earth rising over moon's horizon [true color bitmap 800x600 pixels] This image is great for a win95 desktop background. You may preview a reduced size version of this image.
Win95 Startup Screen: This is my favorite animated startup screen. It doesn't say windows 95. In fact, there is no text at all, just a mountain stream with animated sparkling water. To install it, extract it and rename the file to logo.sys and move it to the root directory of your boot drive (C: for most people, host_for_c if you have disk compression installed). Note: it will replace your old logo.sys file, so rename the old file first if you want to restore it later. If you are interested in other animated startup screens, check out this site.
Active Desktop stuff [version N/A]. If you have installed IE4 or win98, your computer supports active deskop. This zipfile contains two items that you might enjoy using. They are currently set up to be used with a BLACK background, like the Apollo 13 image above. The first item allows you to execute a metacrawler search from your desktop. The other item is an animated GIF of the Enterprise (from Star Trek). If you don't know how to add an active desktop item, read this.
Rings.gif [version N/A]. Just a cool animated GIF I scarfed from the internet. It makes a neat active desktop item to spruce up your desktop (for use with a black background).
C tutorial [version 2.8]. Author: Gordon Dodrill. Written in HTML to be viewed with your web browser, this is a 13 chapter lesson in C programming. Also download the example programs and answers to programming exercises. Gordon Dodrill's FTP site is here. If you wish, you may view the lesson now.
Djgpp Readme [version 2.0]. DJGPP is a completely free C\C++ compiler for DOS. You should download DJGPP from ftp.simtel.net. The server there has a much faster internet connection than this one. To build C programs, you'll need djdev201.zip, gcc2721b.zip, and bnu27b.zip. For C++, also get gpp2721b.zip and lgp271b.zip. To read the online manuals, get txi390b.zip and run "info".
High Color Backgrounds [version N/A]. Here are some really nice tiled backgrounds for your windows desktop. They are beautiful! - 28 different backgrounds in this zip file. Check out a few of them here.
Win95 Tweaks!
