Ability (1985) 5 Word Processor Spreadsheet Presentations Communications Database DOS

Originally released in 1984 by the Canadian company Xanaro that went bankrupt, and then by Migent, Ability is an integrated office suite for DOS that includes word processor, spreadsheet, database, telecommunications, business graphing, presentation graphics capabilities, and built in file management. It features good integration between the different components, with the ability to import, share, and dynamically update data between them. It was advertised as a very easy to use and a quick to learn system.

• 1.0
• Demo
• 1.2
• Plus 1.0

ACT! (1987) 5 PIM DOS

ACT!, or "Activity Control Technology", originally from Conductor Software, and later Contact Software and then Symantec, is an easy to use business relationship management system targeted at traveling sales professionals. It can track things like billable time and expenses.

• 1.10 (DOS)

AnyTime (1992) 1 PIM DOS

AnyTime, from Individual Software, is a personal information manager that helps you keep track of day-to-day appointments, events, and to-do items. You can keep a list of family, friends, and business contacts using the Address Book.

• 1.0

Applause (1988) 1 Presentations Graphics DOS

Originally called Draw Applause, Applause is a slide making, charting, and presentation program for DOS from Ashton-Tate. It also served as a client front end to Ashton Tate's Graphics Service, through which one could purchase high-quality prints. Applause II beefs up the standalone desktop presentation and graphing abilities.

• 1.0
• II

Automenu (1987) 5 Utility DOS

Automenu is a sophisticated commercial menuing system that lets you control your computer using custom menus, rather than using DOS commands. It features small, compact memory usage and built in help.

• 4.x

Back-It (1986) 4 Utility DOS

Back-It, from Gazelle Systems, is a fast and compact hard disk backup utility. It was sometimes part of OEM system bundles. It was kind of low-end, and changed backup formats between releases but otherwise did what it was supposed to do.

• 2.x
• 3.x

BlueMAX (1991) 2 Utility DOS

BlueMAX is a version of 386Max that is specifically intended for IBM PS/2 computers rather than clones. BlueMAX offers automatic easy-to-use installation and configuration, automatically adding upper memory where possible and moving DOS device drivers to make use of this memory.

• 6.x

Boeing Graph (1987) 0 Presentations Graphics DOS

Boeing Graph is a graphing program for the IBM PC that specializes in producing high quality 3D plotted graphs. It was sold as a companion product to Boeing Calc.

• 2.00

BULL Micral Prologue (1984) 0 DOS

BULL Micral Prologue system for the Olympia People Computer.

• 2.x

Cache86 (1990) 0 Utility DOS

Cache86 is a high speed disk caching program for DOS and Windows 3.x systems. It features a very small conventional memory overhead, speed, reliability, support for Extended memory on 286+ machines, and support for Expanded memory on PC/XT class machines.

• 3.x

Calendar Creator Plus (1990) 4 Novelty PIM DOS

Calendar Creator Plus from Vermont Creative Software/Power Up, and later Spinnaker Software, is a tool for creating printed calendars with different styles and custom lists of events.

• 3.x (DOS)

Carbon Copy (1990) 1 Utility DOS

Carbon Copy is a remote control desktop program for DOS and later Windows, similar to PCAnywhere. protection. You can not connect to other copies of Carbon Copy if the serial numbers are the same.

• 5.x

Central Point Anti-Virus (1992) 0 Utility DOS

Central Point Anti-Virus was a DOS-based antivirus program developed originally by an Israel company, CARMEL Software Engineering Ltd. as "Turbo Anti-Virus", and licensed by Central Point Software Inc. It was the basis for Microsoft's Anti-Virus for DOS and Windows (MSAV and MWAV). In 1994 it was acquired by Symantec Corporation and merged into Norton Antivirus.

• 1.x

Chart-Master (1985) 0 Presentations Graphics DOS

Chart-Master, originally introduced in 1981 by Decision Resources, Inc., was the first software that could produce presentation quality graphics with a plotter on a personal computer. Decision Resources also produced Sign-Master and Diagram-Master. They were acquired by Ashton-Tate in 1986. This program was also bundled in the Master Graphics Presentation Pack.

• 6.x

CheckIt (1988) 13 Utility DOS

CheckIt, from TouchStone Software Corporation, is a diagnostic tool for generic PC/XT/AT compatible computers. It can perform tests on RAM, hard disks, video cards, floppy disks, motherboard resources, and I/O devices. It has an easy to use menu interface but can also run tests non-interactively. It was followed up by the product WINCheckit.

• 1.x
• 2.1
• 3.0
• LAN 2.x

Company Ladder (1990) 0 Presentations DOS

Company Ladder is a budget oriented tool that specialized in making corporate organizational charts. It could handle large numbers of entries and print high quality graphs.

• 1.x

Control Room (1990) 0 Utility DOS

Control Room is an all-in-one resident system information and configuration tool. It includes a number of disk utilities such as undeleting, wiping, and encrypting files. It can scan files and detect unwanted changes. Control Room can change system settings such as keyboard repeat rate and supports creating keyboard macros.

• 1.0

Copy II PC (1985) 4 Utility DOS

Central Point Copy II PC is a disk duplication program that can successfully copy many copy protected disks using only standard IBM PC hardware. It is generally considered the best software-only solution for duplicating such disks. "snatchit".

• 2.xx
• 3.xx
• 4.xx
• 5.xx
• 6.00

CopyWrite (1990) 0 Utility DOS

CopyWrite is a disk duplicator that can duplicate disks with many advanced copy protection schemes using a standard IBM PC floppy drive and controller.

• 1990

Correct Grammar (1989) 0 Word Processor Utility DOS

Correct Grammar is a grammar checking and analysis tool for DOS. Correct Grammar incorporates technology from the Houghton Mifflin CorrectText system.

• 2.x

CorrectStar (1984) 0 Word Processor Utility DOS

CorrectStar, from MicroPro International, is an add-on spell checker for WordStar 3.3. It was sold both bundled with WordStar and separately. Later versions of WordStar integrated the spell checker.

• 3.3x

Dan Bricklin's Demo (1988) 0 Presentations DOS

Dan Bricklin's "Demo" is a tool for creating tutorials, interactive application demonstrations, and interface prototypes. It has a powerful scripting system, with the ability to store and manipulate both text and graphics screens, and a redistributable runtime. author of VisiCalc. Demo was first released in 1985 by Dan Bricklin's consulting firm Software Garden. It was later sold under Peter Norton Computing, and then Sage Software.

• II v2

DESQView (1984) 16 Utility DOS

DESQView, from Quarterdeck, was a DOS application multi-tasker and in later versions functioned as an X client for applications on remote UNIX systems. It competed against IBM Topview. The original DESQ was just a task switcher, but subsequent versions offered preemptive multitasking of well behaved DOS programs on real-mode 8088 PCs. It gained popularity when DESQView 386 added virtual x86 support. This enabled the ability to multi task many poorly behaved programs, and was often used on BBSes due to its excellent COM port handling. It was later overtaken by OS/2 and Windows.

• 1.x
• DESQView X 1.x

Diagram-Master (1985) 1 Presentations DOS

Diagram-Master, from Decision Resources and later Ashton-Tate, is a graphics tool specifically geared toward making organization and Gantt charts. It can produce very high-quality presentation graphics using laser printers and plotters. Supports CGA, EGA, and the IBM Professional Display. This program was also bundled in the Master Graphics Presentation Pack.

• 5.x

Direct Access (1988) 3 Utility DOS

Direct Access is an easy to use menuing program designed to simplify access to applications on systems with many programs loaded on the hard drive. It is customizable, includes screen blanking, and includes password protection and usage logging. Later versions also detect common programs already installed on the hard disk.

• 4.x
• 5.x