Home > This Old PC

Old PCs (486s) are fun toys. Perhaps that's an opinion I hold because I used them a lot when they weren't so old. But either way, it's a hobby, and here's some info which might be useful if you are similarly inclined. Generally, I'm interested in 486 laptops, and programs for DOS (games, productivity, etc). If you have similar interests and web pages, drop me a line. See the email link at the bottom of this page.

This page features thee sections: (1) software I've written for DOS, (2) reviews of DOS-centric hardware and software, and (3) references to other websites (often long gone, sadly).

	My Software
	I've written some software for DOS machines, mostly long ago in the days known as the "90s". DosPP - Two programs; a CD replacement app that accepts unix style slashes, and also works with wildstars. Nice if you use unix as your other command line OS. Also includes "forline" a program to execute a user-specified command for each line of a file. Full C source to both included.

My reviews

486 Hardware Reviews

All the old PC parts were reviewed once by professionals, but short of the library it's hard to find those reviews any longer. Here the web comes to the rescue.

IBM ThinkPad 755CSE - 486 100 MHZ laptop with a built-in track point controller, and proprietary sound. I investigate its use as a Windows 95 box, and a Dos gaming box.

Software for old PCs

Installing Win95 without a CDROM - Windows 95 makes a good 486 OS, especially if you want to get some work done. Here's the guide to getting it installed quickly.

Outside reviews

486 Hardware Reviews

The Compaq Contura 430CX - 486DX4-100, active matrix 640x480, built in trackball, no sound card. (CX means active matrix, C means passive)