TopView (1985) 5 Utility DOS

Released by IBM in 1984, TopView was a text-mode windowed multitasker for the IBM PC, XT, and AT computer. It featured preemptive multitasking, text-based windowed task sessions, overlapping windows, and supports the use of a mouse. In part, it was one of the reasons why overlapping windows were added to Microsoft Windows 2.0. TopView was later overtaken by DesqView, OS/2, and Windows. For more information, see the Topview 1.00 Software Spotlight.

• 1.x

ToyBox Menu Manager / Magic Desk (1992) 4 Utility DOS

ToyBox II, later renamed to Magic Desk, is a simplified graphical menu system that lets you launch your DOS applications from a selection of tiled iconic buttons. Supports nested hierarchies, includes an icon editor, and a number of common icons.

• 2.x
• 3.x (Magic Desk)

Tree86 (1990) 3 Utility DOS

Tree86, from The Aldridge Company, is an easy to use tree-based file manager for DOS.

• 3.x

Trend Micro Chip Away (1993) 0 Utility DOS

Released in the early 90s by the Japanese company Trend Micro Devices, Inc (later just Trend Micro), Chip Away Viruses is a DOS based virus scanner that is intended to run from a hardware product built in to a PC motherboard before the system boots. It includes a custom embeddable DOS (called X-DOS), but it can be run from regular DOS. Trend Micro also produced the products PC Rx (A regular software virus scanner), and PC-cillin (a hardware/software combo that keeps critical boot information in a special device). Users sometimes misinterpreted the name "ChipAway Virus" as being a virus itself.

• 2.x

Turbo Lightning (1986) 1 Utility DOS

Borland's Turbo Lightning is a DOS based TSR spell checker. It can also look up Synonyms.

• 1.x

Type Faces (1983) 1 Utility DOS

Type Faces is a program that can print word processing documents using a number of fancy fonts. The fonts are rendered graphically so you are not dependent on the fonts included with your printer. At the smaller sizes, the fonts are letter quality. Type Faces supports formatting codes that you can insert in to your documents, such as right justify, centering, and underline.

• 1983

V-Print (1984) 3 Utility DOS

V-Print, from CompuView, is a printing product designed to accompany VEDIT.

• 2.x

V-Spell (1985) 0 Utility DOS

V-Spell, from CompuView, is a spell checking product designed to accompany VEDIT. VEDIT was a powerful, customizable, and portable editor designed for programmers and power users.

• 1.x

VersaCAD (1988) 3 Graphics Engineering DOS

First released in 1983 by T & W Systems Inc (later Versacad Corporation) and based on their earlier T-Square product, VersaCAD is a sophisticated professional object design and drawing tool for the IBM PC. It competed heavily against AutoCAD. A very in-depth history of VersaCAD can be found on Cadhistory (PDF Link)

• 5.3

Vertisoft SpaceManager (1993) 0 Graphics DOS Windows

SpaceManager, from Vertisoft, the authors of DoubleDisk which became Microsoft DoubleSpace, is a utility that adds more features to DoubleSpace. It adds access to additional compression methods to get better compression at the expense of CPU speed, can bypass compression for files that do not compress well, automatically schedule a drive recompression, automatically mounts compressed floppy disks, and shows drive usage details and compression statistics.

• 1.5x

Video Tape File System (1991) 1 Utility Reference DOS

Video Tape File System is a database program that you can use to organize your VHS video tapes. You can sort by title, actor, or category, print labels, and print a complete reference. It includes a top 100 movie reviews, can retrieve movie review information from Prodigy, and it includes 50 colored labels to get you started. There were version for Apple II and IBM PC.

• Plus

ViruSafe (1991) 0 Utility DOS

ViruSafe is a fast, comprehensive yet easy to use virus scanner produced by the makers of XTree. It can find known viruses and monitor files for any kind of unwanted changes. It features the ability to schedule scans, and can create a "recovery" boot disk to deal with boot sector viruses.

• 4.5

Vistapro (1992) 6 Graphics Other DOS

Vistapro is a three-dimensional landscape simulation program. Using U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Digital Elevation Model (DEM) files, Vistapro can accurately recreate real world landscapes in vivid detail. It can also create fractal based landscapes, and provides many customizations. Vistapro originated on the Amiga and also had a Macintosh port.

• 1.x (DOS)
• 3.x (DOS)

VPIC (1991) 0 Graphics DOS

VPIC was a popular shareware image viewer for DOS. It supports a wide range of graphics file formats, and supports the proprietary resolutions of almost every video card ever made.

• 4.x

Wang Freestyle (1990) 1 Utility Publishing DOS

Wang Freestyle is an "annotation" program that operates by making screen shots of DOS applications, to which the user may then add hand-written notes using a stylus or add a voice recording with a telephone-like handset. It features a Macintosh-like desktop that displays the annotated documents graphically on a proprietary high resolution monitor, and integrates a form of mail and fax.

• 1.x

WindowDOS (1987) 1 Utility DOS

WindowDOS is a pop-up TSR utility that enables DOS users to run DOS commands and perform file management while they are still running other applications. It can search for files, password lock a system, view files, and send special printer control codes to change printer text modes.

• 2.x

Word for Word (1989) 2 Utility DOS

Word for Word is a document converter that features the ability to convert multiple documents automatically, while retaining as much formatting as possible.

• 4.x (DOS)

WordPerfect Library (1998) 1 Utility Editor PIM DOS

WordPerfect Library, introduced in 1986 and later renamed WordPerfect Office (not to be confused with Corel's Windows office suite of the same name), was a package of DOS network and stand-alone utility software for use with WordPerfect. The package included a DOS menu shell and file manager, whose macros allowed text to be moved from one program to another (for example, from WordPerfect to Calendar, and vice versa), a do-all editor, apparently that of Wordperfect 3.0, which could edit binary files as well as WordPerfect or Shell macros, calendar, and a general purpose flat file database program that could be used as the data file for a merge in WordPerfect and as a contact manager.

• 2.0

WordPerfect Office (Groupware) (1990) 2 Utility Editor PIM DOS

WordPerfect Office, from WordPerfect Corp, is a groupware utility that includes a menu shell, text editor, calendar, calculator, notebook, and file manager. It is unrelated to the later Corel office suite by the same name. Earlier versions were known as WordPerfect Library.

• 3.0

WordPerfect Works (1992) 5 Word Processor Spreadsheet Presentations Graphics Database DOS

WordPerfect Works was an all-in-one integrated office productivity package that included a word processor, spreadsheet, drawing program, database, and a communications program. Initially it was just for DOS, but later there was a version for Microsoft Windows. Corporation's smaller lightweight programs. This included LetterPerfect, a scaled down DrawPerfect, PlanPerfect, and the WordPerfect Executive shell. The database was based around the Mailmerge system.

• 1.0

XtraDrive (1993) 1 Utility DOS

XtraDrive is a hard drive compression program that competed against programs like Stacker and SuperStor. XtraDrive was slightly slower, but was priced lower. before DOS and intercepts disk writes at the BIOS level. This allows many disk utilities to work that otherwise would not. Unlike the other drive compression programs at the time, XtraDrive features easy de-installation.

• 3.0

XTree (1985) 12 Utility DOS

XTree is an easy to use text-mode file manager. It pioneered the use of a GUI-like hierarchy tree, and provides many integrated file viewers. It competed against many other file managers including Gazelle Q-DOS and Norton Commander

• 1.x
• 2.x
• Pro 1.x
• Pro Gold 1.x
• Gold 2.x
• Easy
• Gold 3.x