Browsers for Windows NT 3.1/3.5/Win 3.x

[shelby]

https://github.com/tenox7/wrp

https://github.com/ttalvitie/browservice

what is the best?

 

 

Edited February 1, 2023 by shelby

[cmccaff1]

I'm surprised no one replied to this! Had to give it some thought because I have tested very old browsers in the past and do remember being curious about this topic.
If I'm not mistaken, the best browser you can run on Windows 3.x and NT 3.1/3.5 is 16-bit Opera 3.62.
For NT 3.51 it would be anything Gecko 1.8.1-based or older--I recommend using either the latest official RetroZilla release or one of @roytam1's custom forks.
Here's a link to Roy's repository of cool 'miscellanies', including various browser releases: http://o.rthost.win/gpc/files1.rt/home.html

[jumper]

The question was about wrp and browservice.

 

[roytam1]

you still need a web browser to use them(i.e. browsers' browser)

[cmccaff1]

Ah, true!

It depends on your preference, then: WRP will work on pretty much any browser you can run in Win3.x/NT 3.1/NT 3.5, but BrowService has issues with very ancient browsers so you’d need to go for a high end offering of the time. For parity’s sake I would recommend 16-bit IE5 as it’s the last version for 3.x & NT 3.1/3.5. It’s recent enough to have good compatibility with WRP and BrowService, has a simple and intuitive interface, and runs well on old PCs.

As for my recommendation of the two proxies my choice is WRP because it works with more old browsers than BrowService, but I will say that BrowService may be a better option for the browsers that can handle it properly (you’re looking at IE4/IE5 era ones minimum).