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Once every decade I get the itch to boot up a Windows 1.0 environment to poke around at it and marvel at how far we've come. However, in any of the environments I've seen (say PCjs), they never seem to have anything other than the default applications which came with Windows (e.g. WRITE.EXE, CALC.EXE, etc.)

I've tried using Google to find old Windows 1.0 applications, but what you end up with is simply version 1.0's of applications written for Windows, not applications written for Windows 1.0.

So that being said, is anyone aware of a repository of software designed for this ancient version of Windows? Even Windows 2.0 (whether 286 or 386 versions) would probably suffice.

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David Simunič maintains a website dedicated to Windows 1.0, which includes lists of third-party software for it. I don't believe he hosts the software itself, but knowing the names of packages may make it easier to track them down.

The only software from the list that I've personally installed and used is Micrografx In*a*Vision.

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Internet Archive holds a repository of retrocomputing software, some runnable in browser emulations. Searching for "Windows 2.0" and "Windows 1.0" software yields some hits for applications, including CD-ROMs of shareware collections.

(The keyword search is imprecise and also locates software for later versions of Windows, but you may find some surprises.)

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  • A date limited search may be useful also. Though I think one can rule out any data CD-ROM as too new to contain Windows 1.0 software, it would be all floppies.
    – jpa
    Jul 3, 2020 at 5:33
  • @jpa When CD-ROMs were produced, CDs were made that contained lots of software that previously had just been primarily distributed on floppies. As the CD-ROMs are more likely to have survived the time with data in tact, they may be a reliable way to access old software. Yes, the CDs would have been made after Windows 3, but that doesn't mean that all of the programs on the CD originated after the release of Windows 3. Maybe especially programs that were rather widely distributed, like freeware, trialware, etc. (The term "shareware" may not have caught on big until after Windows 3.)
    – TOOGAM
    Jul 4, 2020 at 16:11
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https://winworldpc.com/home this website has a lot of old software on it, there is some for Windows 1.0.

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