Turbo Lightning (1986) 4 Utility DOS

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

• 1.x

Popcorn Desktop (1986) 1 Utility PIM DOS

Popcorn desktop is a set of TSR utilities similar to Borland Sidekick. It includes a text editor, a calculator, and a calendar. It can copy information from currently running programs displayed on the screen.

• 1.x

Back-It (1986) 2 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
• 4.x

SuperKey (1986) 1 Utility DOS

Borland SuperKey is a combination resident macro program and file encryption tool. It can record and play back keystrokes in most DOS application, enabling you to automate repetitive tasks. It also includes a file encryption tool that lets you password protect sensitive files. It was marketed alongside Borland Sidekick.

• 1.x

Lotus Metro (1986) 0 Utility PIM DOS

Lotus Metro is a set of resident desktop management tools similar to Borland Sidekick or Popcorn desktop. Metro includes an appointment book, phone book, scheduler, calculator, clipboard, and a text editor. A user can call up these tools while almost any other DOS program is running. In addition to performing small tasks without exiting their primary program, Metro can copy information from or to the screen. It also include macro functionality for automating tasks comparable to Borland SuperKey. It was primarily targeted at existing users of Lotus 1-2-3 and Lotus Symphony.

• 1x

Executive Systems HOT (1986) 0 Utility DOS

HOT, from Executive Systems - the makers of XTREE, is a highly configurable menu shell for the IBM PC, with built-in "hot menus" for common DOS functions. It features a pop-up file browser, a small text editor, the ability to feed keystrokes to applications, and automatically sets up known programs found on your hard drive.

• 3.0

DS Backup (1986) 0 Utility DOS

DS Backup Plus is a simple hard disk backup utility. It was not as full featured or robust as other backup products, but it got the job done. Backups can be done from within the program or from the command line. It supports wildcards, filespec inclusion/exclusion, backup to any DOS drive type, automatic disk formatting, incremental backups, and claims to be faster than DOS backup and restore.

• Plus 1.x

Media Master (1986) 0 Utility DOS

Media Master is a disk utility for interchanging files between MS-DOS and certain CP/M or non-DOS systems. Supported disks must be MFM or FM decodable by the computer's floppy disk controller, therefore formats like Apple II or C64 can not work.

• 3.x

EZ-DOS-IT (1986) 0 Utility DOS

EZ-DOS-IT was a very low-cost low-resource multitasking program for DOS on the IBM PC and compatibles. It claimed compatibility with most popular software of the time. However, the initial 1.0 release had serious bugs, was copy protected, and was not compatible enough for many people. Although these issues were quickly fixed and copy protection removed, it earned them bad reviews.

• 4.x

Sideways (1985) 0 Spreadsheet Utility DOS

Sideways is a printing utility that enables you to print a spreadsheet sideways (landscape) when using a graphics printer. While that might seem like a common basic function these days, this is something that early spreadsheets lacked. Using continuous form (tractor feed) paper, a Sideways printout may seamlessly span multiple pages without having to tape or glue pages together. Sideways was sometimes bundled with spreadsheet products. "Sideways leaves no text un-turned".

• 3.11
• 3.3

PC Tools (1985) 37 Utility DOS

PC Tools, from Central Point Software, is a system and disk utility suite similar to the Norton Utilities. Central Point also produced a similar set of tools for the Apple Macintosh known as MacTools. Central Point Backup, bundled as part of PC-Tools, was also offered as a standalone product.

• 1.x
• 2.x
• 3.x
• 4.x
• 5.x
• 6.x
• 7.x
• 8.x
• 1.0 for Windows
• 9.x

XTree (1985) 9 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

TopView (1985) 4 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

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

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

IBM Document Retrieval Assistant (1985) 2 Utility DOS

IBM Document Retrieval Assistant is a tool that enables you to easily search through a large number of documents for specified keywords. It is designed to work with documents produced with any of the IBM Assistant Series applications.

• 1.00

PolyWindows DeskPlus (1985) 0 Utility DOS

PolyWindows DeskPlus is a collection of memory resident accessories for DOS. It was first released in 1984 by POLYTRON Corporation. It includes an editor, index cards, a calendar/appointment book, an alarm clock, several calculators, a phone dialer, DOS functions, keyboard macros, and can cut-and-paste between applications. HQ, Mastro, PC Desk, Pop-Up Desk Set, and WordPerfect Library.

• 1.2

IBM Personal Print Control (1985) 0 Utility DOS

Personal Print Control consists of a DOS based print spooler that runs in the background while you run other applications, and a controller TSR that you can bring up from within other programs to manage the spooler. It features the ability to print multiple copies directly from the spooler, recovery from printer errors, and printer formatting control code management.

• 1.00

IBM Utilities III (1985) 2 Utility DOS

Utilities III is a small set of PC utilities published as part of IBM's "Bargain Basement" Personally Developed Software Family and Productivity Family. It includes Five Utilities: Loadram and Saveram, Sort, Compare, Patch, and Errorlog.

• 1.00

IBM Personal Computer Organizer (1985) 0 Utility DOS

Personal Computer Organizer is a complete menu-driven system designed to help install, organize, and integrate a wide variety of applications on the IBM PC. This product appears to have been targeted mainly at IBM business customers that use IBM's high-end PC software.

• 1.00

PowerSOFT Super Utility (1985) 0 Utility DOS

PowerSOFT Super Utility is a disk editing utility that was originally developed for the TRS-80. It includes disk mapping, hexadecimal sector editing, directory editing, and sector copying.

• 1.00

Switcher (1985) 0 Utility MacOS

Switcher is an add on utility program written by Andy Hertzfield and released by Apple that adds the ability to load multiple programs and quickly switch between them - something that MacOS lacked at this point.

• 4.x

Protec (1985) 0 Utility DOS

Protec is a DOS menu shell that restricts access of files and programs to specific users. It hides files so they can not be easily seen by unauthorized users, includes encryption tools, and features access audit logging.

• 2.x,3.x

IBM Fixed Disk Organizer (1984) 2 Utility DOS

IBM Fixed Disk Organizer is a simple menu program for DOS. It was marketed by IBM for use on their IBM XT. Using this shell, you will no longer have to repeatedly muddle through DOS commands to get to your commonly accessed applications. You can customize your menu items, and organize them in customizable categories. It also lets you set a password for menu items, and you may customize the screen colors. While there were many, many better menuing programs produced for DOS, Fixed Disk Organizer was a standard IBM offering.

• 1.00

DESQView (1984) 8 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
• 2.x
• DESQView X 2.x