Windows 3.X File Manager update in other languages \ VOGONS

Windows 3.X File Manager update in other languages

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First post, by NaoPb

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Hello everyone,

Long story short, I'm looking for the localized versions (mainly the dutch versions since I'm dutch) of the update that Microsoft released at some point in time to fix an issue with the File Manager in Windows 3.X with displaying dates after the year 2000. I've found the download pages on Internet Archive for these files, but sadly the files themselves have not been archived. I also cannot find them by searching the filenames in search engines. So I'm hoping maybe somebody could be of help here.

Long version:

This all started with me trying to install WinZip 6.3 in Windows 3.11. The setup seems to check its own file date and time with the readme.txt file that's included with it. For me, it then errors saying they are different, when they seem the same to me. After some searching I found a commenter at WinWorld mentioning that this may be related to how the File Manager has trouble dealing with dates after the year 2000. Looking into that, I found this thread: Windows 3.1 Filename Year Glitch
Here people mentioned there is an update available that fixes this issue in the File Manager in Windows 3.1/3.11/WfW.
Since I'm running a dutch version of Windows 3.1, I find myself looking for the dutch version of this update, instead of the English US version.
I was able to find some Microsoft download pages through the Internet Archive, but they don't seem to have archived the files themselves. I've searched the web but I did not find any results with these filenames.

The related files seem to be: Wfwy2knl.exe and W31y2knl.exe . I'd prefer both since I am running both 3.1 and WfW 3.11 in Dutch for fun.

Thank you for your time.

Reply 1 of 9, by NaoPb

Posted on Today, 18:10

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I don't know is there's a way to edit my post but I'd like to add that I would be happy with just the localized winfile.exe as well.

Reply 2 of 9, by Jo22

Posted on Today, 18:42

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Hi, the "Microsoft Year 2000 Resource CD" might have updated files in multiple languages.
The German version of the CD was given out for free by turn of millennium, I remember.
Internet Archive might have some copies.

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Reply 3 of 9, by NaoPb

Posted on Today, 19:15

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Jo22 wrote on Today, 18:42:

Hi, the "Microsoft Year 2000 Resource CD" might have updated files in multiple languages.
The German version of the CD was given out for free by turn of millennium, I remember.
Internet Archive might have some copies.

Thank you, I noticed your comment in that thread.

Are you talking about a localized version of that CD? Whenever I am searching, only English versions seem to come up. And I wouldn't know where to source a physical one these days.

Reply 4 of 9, by Jo22

Posted on Today, 19:25

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NaoPb wrote on Today, 19:15:

Thank you, I noticed your comment in that thread.

Are you talking about a localized version of that CD? Whenever I am searching, only English versions seem to come up. And I wouldn't know where to source a physical one these days.

Hi, you're welcome! ^^

I think I had this one back then.
https://archive.org/details/ms_y2k-cd_nov99_german

I vaguely remember that it had Y2K ready copies of Win 3.11 File Manager in different languages.
But that's been many years ago. Maybe my memory is playing tricks on me. 😅

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In what to one race is no time at all, another race can rise and fall..." - The Minstrel

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Reply 5 of 9, by eddman

Posted on Today, 20:00

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The one for WfW is listed here, and interestingly the microsoft link still works. https://www.mdgx.com/w31toy.htm#W3X

Finding the one for non-WfW was a bit tricky since, for some reason, MS had removed the links for the non-english files. https://web.archive.org/web/20061216235435/ht … =kb;en-us;85557

Since the direct links for WfW files still work, I tried replacing the filename and the language of the non-WfW english link with "nl-nl" and "W31Y2KNL", but that didn't work and is not archived either. I then noticed the link for dutch WfW file is "nl" not "nl-nl". I tried that and the direct link was still dead BUT, the archived file does exist.

https://web.archive.org/web/20030119035034/ht … nl/w31y2knl.exe

EDIT:
Links for the rest of the languages for Windows 3.1.

EDIT 2:

Attached them here, because you never know.

The attachment w31-wfw31-y2k.zip is no longer available

Last edited by eddman on 2026-02-11, 20:50. Edited 3 times in total.

Reply 6 of 9, by vetz

Posted on Today, 20:11

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eddman wrote on Today, 20:00:
The one for WfW is listed here, and interestingly the microsoft link still works. https://www.mdgx.com/w31toy.htm#W3X […]
Show full quote

The one for WfW is listed here, and interestingly the microsoft link still works. https://www.mdgx.com/w31toy.htm#W3X

Finding the one for non-WfW was a bit tricky since, for some reason, MS had removed the links for the non-english files. https://web.archive.org/web/20061216235435/ht … =kb;en-us;85557

Since the direct links for WfW files still work, I tried replacing the filename and the language of the non-WfW english link with "nl-nl" and "W31Y2KNL", but that didn't work and is not archived either. I then noticed the link for dutch WfW file is "nl" not "nl-nl". I tried that and the direct link was still dead BUT, the archived file does exist.

https://web.archive.org/web/20030119035034/ht … nl/w31y2knl.exe

Thank you! The same trick worked on the Norwegian localization file.

https://web.archive.org/web/20030119035034/ht … no/w31y2kno.exe

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Reply 7 of 9, by NaoPb

Posted on Today, 21:05

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eddman wrote on Today, 20:00:
The one for WfW is listed here, and interestingly the microsoft link still works. https://www.mdgx.com/w31toy.htm#W3X […]
Show full quote

The one for WfW is listed here, and interestingly the microsoft link still works. https://www.mdgx.com/w31toy.htm#W3X

Finding the one for non-WfW was a bit tricky since, for some reason, MS had removed the links for the non-english files. https://web.archive.org/web/20061216235435/ht … =kb;en-us;85557

Since the direct links for WfW files still work, I tried replacing the filename and the language of the non-WfW english link with "nl-nl" and "W31Y2KNL", but that didn't work and is not archived either. I then noticed the link for dutch WfW file is "nl" not "nl-nl". I tried that and the direct link was still dead BUT, the archived file does exist.

https://web.archive.org/web/20030119035034/ht … nl/w31y2knl.exe

EDIT:
Links for the rest of the languages for Windows 3.1.

Chinese (Simplified): https://web.archive.org/web/20040103033922/ht … CN/W31Y2KCN.EXE
Chinese (Traditional): https://web.archive.org/web/20031023181928/ht … TW/W31Y2KTW.EXE
Czech: https://web.archive.org/web/20031023181824/ht … CS/W31Y2KCS.EXE
Danish: https://web.archive.org/web/20040103033030/ht … DA/W31Y2KDA.EXE
Finnish: https://web.archive.org/web/20030124091456/ht … FI/W31Y2KFI.EXE
French: https://web.archive.org/web/20050313073512/ht … FR/W31Y2KFR.EXE
German: https://web.archive.org/web/20040103180400/ht … DE/W31Y2KDE.EXE
Hungarian: https://web.archive.org/web/20031023181334/ht … HU/W31Y2KHU.EXE
Italian: https://web.archive.org/web/20040304230200/ht … IT/W31Y2KIT.EXE
Korean: https://web.archive.org/web/20031023181543/ht … KO/W31Y2KKO.EXE
Norwegian: https://web.archive.org/web/20040103034644/ht … NO/W31Y2KNO.EXE
Polish: https://web.archive.org/web/20031023182555/ht … PL/W31Y2KPL.EXE
Portuguese (Brazilian): https://web.archive.org/web/20040103034221/ht … BR/W31Y2KBR.EXE
Russian: https://web.archive.org/web/20031023182627/ht … RU/W31Y2KRU.EXE
Spanish: https://web.archive.org/web/20040103033155/ht … ES/W31Y2KES.EXE
Swedish: https://web.archive.org/web/20030824222047/ht … SV/W31Y2KSV.EXE
Turkish: https://web.archive.org/web/20031023181931/ht … TR/W31Y2KTR.EXE

EDIT 2:

Attached them here, because you never know.

The attachment w31-wfw31-y2k.zip is no longer available

Thank you for your help.

I was about to update this thread since I found them by accident. Some files seem to still be hosted by Microsoft when I used to non-Internet Archive ones. Mainly the Windows for Workgroups ones, I think. The other ones I could retrieve by putting the download URL for the file directly into Internet Archive. Clicking the download links on this page I found ( https://web.archive.org/web/20000819031153/ht … dows3x/winfile/ ) would forward me to an external site http://msvaus.www.conxion.com/download/... and those seem to not be archived. However, when I try to insert the links on that page into the Internet Archive directly, it seems they are archived and that allows me to download all of them.

Your comment is a good way for others to find this in the future and find the proper localized versions for their systems.

Reply 8 of 9, by NaoPb

Posted on Today, 21:36

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Jo22 wrote on Today, 19:25:
Hi, you're welcome! ^^ […]
Show full quote

NaoPb wrote on Today, 19:15:

Thank you, I noticed your comment in that thread.

Are you talking about a localized version of that CD? Whenever I am searching, only English versions seem to come up. And I wouldn't know where to source a physical one these days.

Hi, you're welcome! ^^

I think I had this one back then.
https://archive.org/details/ms_y2k-cd_nov99_german

I vaguely remember that it had Y2K ready copies of Win 3.11 File Manager in different languages.
But that's been many years ago. Maybe my memory is playing tricks on me. 😅

I have since found them through another way. But for completeness I did give this a look. It seems it only contains the German versions of the files. Which is probably good news for everybody from Germany who comes across this. Or they can use the links earlier in this thread or maybe even Stephans page here: http://stephan.win31.de/dwnlod_d.htm

Reply 9 of 9, by NaoPb

Posted on Today, 21:37

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Sadly I did not find a solution for my original issue with installing WinZip 6.3. But that's not really what this thread was about so I'll probably make another one for that specific problem sometime later. Meanwhile I'll use PKZIP 2.50.

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