Status: Active through 2025. Excellent Graphical and text browser.
Core links: [homepage] [wikipedia] [cwsdpmi]
Status: Active through 2025. Another excellent and currently maintained DOS text browser.
Core links: [homepage] wikipedia [cwsdpmi] [tips] [about]
Status: version 3.0.2b from 2013. Graphical browser that remains a premiere solution for DOS users. Its rendering engine is still effective today on many sites.
Core links: [download 1] [download 2] [download 3] [nullpkt]
Status: version 1.99 from 2021. Internet suite containing an excellent graphical browser. The most famous and influential browser for DOS. It gave us hope during a time when everyone was transitioning away from DOS.
Core links: [wikipedia] [download]
Status: version 2.9.0dev.5 from 2021. Still remains a premiere browser for DOS with support for additional protocols.
Core links: [Community Edition w/TLS] [v2.8.5 for DOS] [v2.8.5 download]
Status: active through 2025. A new entry into the DOS Browser space. 16-bit real mode graphical browser.
Core links: [github]
Status: c. 1998. Text-based browser based on Lynx, not a Lynx port.
Core links: [download standard] [download latest] [What is Bobcat?]
Status: c. 1997. DOS text-based browser with drop-down menus. I personally love the way it's put together with drop-down menus, color scheme, etc. Lots of old school charm. Sadly... weaker html rendering.
Core links: [home] [download] [readme]
Status: 2.1 beta 2 from 1998. DOS graphical browser based on Arachne.
Core links: [download] [wikipedia] [2.1 announcement]
Status: latest version 1998. DOS graphical browser. Great UI but weak rendering engine. Trial downloads still available.
Core links: [Webboy Home] [download]
Status: latest version 1999. HV - a graphical offline viewer - works with WWW/LX to turn it into a full browser. Needs int5f to run in regular DOS.
Core links: [WWW/LX Home] [download] [int5f/TSR]
Status: latest version 1994. Text-based. The best TUI for an internet suite, multiple windows. HTML rendering nearly non-existant (pre-HTML 2.0).
Core links: [wikipedia] [download] [download]
Status: latest version 1998. Text-based Internet suite. Poor HTML 3.2 rendering.
Core links: [home] [download]
Status: latest version 1997. Open World Navigator (Own) - text-based offline browser, works with 'gethttp.exe' to transform it into an online browser. Decent HTML coverage for its time.
Core links: [download]
Status: latest version 2001 or 2003. Both an online/offline browser. HTML rendering produces wall of text (missing blank linefeeds). John Lewis page for latest.
Core links: [home] [download] [john lewis]
Status: latest version late-90s (?). Saturnus Personal Internet Navigator: Spin.
A graphical browser. Never saw a general release to the public (beta requests only). No downloads anywhere. From my testing in the late-90s: Needed a 486+ and more RAM that any of its competitors.
Core links: [Original Site/Docs]
Status: latest version 2001 (?). Small graphical browser for DOS & embedded DOS.
Core links: [Home Page] [Current site]
Status: latest version 2001 (?). Light DOS & embedded DOS browser. Note: I could never get the DOS demo to run on various machines.
Core links: [Graphical MicroBrowser] [Browser Demo Instructions]
Status: latest version 2002 (?). Browser that was part of Breadbox Ensemble (which ran on top of DOS).
Core links: [screenshots] [youtube] [download] [download] [search wayback] [PC/GEOS]
Status: latest update 2021. SSH for DOS as a means to access browsers on remote machines.
Core links: [SSH2DOS]
Status: Active, 2025. curl for DOS is a tool that can be used to retrieve web pages (along with resources for many other protocols). This is one of the few programs I have not tested. Binaries and sources available.
Give the page (http://mik.dyndns.pro) time to load. If it fails the first time, come back several minutes later and try again (re: dyn).
Core links: [DOS curl] [downloads] [FreeDOS post]
Great viewer, can even handle modern sites (stripping away stuff it doesn't understand and displaying content in a readable way.
Core Links: [download] [download] [download] [Solway's Software Page]
View, convert and print Wordperfect, Word, Ami Pro, Wordstar, Write, Notepad, HTML, ASCII, ANSI and UNIX files. The HTML viewer excellently converts (to text) and displays with smooth, line-by-line, scrolling.
Core Links: [download] [view113a.zip & view111.zip]
Strips all the html tags away, all the render and display the unaltered text.
Core Links: [download] [download]
A 300kb powerhouse. More than just a viewer. It's an internal (offline) LAN-based browser.
Core Links: [download] [download]
It's only 8.4kb and... yet so fast at stripping tags and displaying!
Core Links: [download]
I always loved knots. It was a lightweight local graphical browser that was visually appealing to me. It has some issues with smooth scrolling and HTML support but when it worked, it was a thing of beauty.
Screenshots: [startup] [features] [limitations] [future of knots]
Core Links: [download] [download] [download]
An editor that renders html and shows you the rendered output. It's an editor and a viewer. On some systems (windows and linux), it's also a browser.
Core Links: [wikipedia] [home]
Extreme Viewer (ev.exe arstechnica.htm): failed. The program nearly crashed my system.
Limited to 32kb files as a viewer. Untested this as an editor. The Ars Technica test page is 132kb in size.
highv126.zip: highview file.htm : multiple issues. Scrolling not smooth, displayed text not well aligned, missing linefeeds.
hlist.exe file.htm : failed. Only managed to display a few links from the top of the test page (Ars Technica). Nothing else displayed. Also... five lines are used to display file and program information. Too much lost screen real estate.
hlist.exe file.htm : failed. Smooth scrolling, very fast load and display but... it loaded too much non-content (css, script info) and failed to display actual content because it was overwhelmed.
I tested this a long time ago. On even simple html, it would report errors and crash. I did not retest.
Found L_H inside hpg13.zip. Long ago determined this was not a good html viewer. Did not retest.
vhtml.exe : It is like the more command. Displays one screen at a time. No ability to PgUp. No smooth scrolling. There is no way to exit until you reach the end of the file. Its html rendering is basic.
h2t151b.zip: lots of command-line options to fine tune the output (that can be reused in a batch file). Performed excellently on my test HTML page (Ars Technica).
Core links: to follow...
h2txt102.zip: failed. Displayed 100s of lines of internal html non-content from modern HTML page. Scrolled more than half-way through document in order to start seeing actual content. The content itself not extracted well: shortened sentences, line breaks - not very readible.
Core links: to follow...
Included about 500 lines (80 characters/line) of non-content from modern HTML page. Does not process the content in a readable way: no linefeeds (ie, wall of text). Fail.
Core links: to follow...
htmlco20.zip: Fail. Same issues as above. Displays hundreds of lines of non-content HTML. Displays the actual content in a difficult to read manner.
Core links: to follow...
htms0208.zip: Fail. Very surprised by this. This had always been a great program for HTML conversion to text. It not only displayed the recurring issue with HTML non-content being shown but it failed to produce any of the actual content itself. It's still the most powerful converter with tons of INI options. It just needs less modern HTML.
Core links: to follow...
The Search Engine for Vintage Computers.
Tests SSL/TLS capabilities of your browser.
Provides DPMI services for DOS. A few DOS browsers require this.
Fakes a Packet Driver. This allows some programs to run even without a real packet driver. (note: works great!)
run programs written for the HP 200/LX computer.
Superb HTML-based Calendar Creator. htmlcal.exe /a will generate all 12 months of the current year. Many more options are available via command line switches. Protip: In Linux, rename all filenames in the current directory to lower case (the program outputs filenames in All Caps):
rename 'y/A-Z/a-z/' *
I've included here a sample of its 12-month output for 2024 (htmlcal /a) and its original documentation (the document is original - not a word changed; I just stylized it a bit). Direct download here too.