Windows 3.1 programs brought back to life in latest Internet Archive collection

The latest treasure trove of ancient software to hit the Internet Archive is a swathe of games, shareware, and productivity tools from Windows 3.1.

Dating from the early 1990s, Windows 3.1 was a notable step in the evolution of Windows as an operating system, and Software Library: Windows 3.x revives more than a thousand programs from the 16-bit operating system, right in your browser.

Though Windows has evolved a great deal over the past three decades, much of the basic usability — mouse, keyboard, windows — has remained the same. But looking back at some of the programs of yore, well, things have moved on just a little bit, graphically speaking.

Believe it or not, Windows 3.1 is actually still used in some parts of the world — just a few months back, Orly airport in France saw many flights grounded due to air-traffic control still reportedly using the ancient operating system.

Other recent initiatives to archive old software include more than 2,000 MS-DOS games, as well as online emporium of malware.