XTree (1985) 12 Utility Windows

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

• Gold for Windows 4.0

Freelance Graphics (1985) 2 Presentations Graphics Windows

GCI/Lotus/IBM Freelance Graphics is a vector based presentation and graphing package developed for DOS, OS/2, and Windows. It was intended for use alongside Lotus 1-2-3. Later versions were part of SmartSuite. Before it was acquired by Lotus it was known Freelance, from Graphic Communications.

• 1.0 (Win)

R:Base (1985) 5 Database Windows

R:Base, from Microrim and first released in 1983, was a popular relational database that competed with Ashton Tate's dBASE product. R:Base was the first relational database for the IBM PC, also notable as earlier relational databases typically required more powerful hardware. R:Base also includes a form and report generator that is optimized for the capabilities of the IBM PC and features the ability to add or remove fields without losing data or relationships.

• 5.0 (Win)

FormTool (1985) 1 Database Windows

FormTool is an easy to use form creation and data entry application.

• 3.x
• 1.x for Windows

Ability (1985) 3 Word Processor Spreadsheet Presentations Communications Database Windows

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.

• 1.5 for Windows
• 2000
• 2002

Omnis (1985) 1 Database Windows

Omnis, from the European based Blyth Software, is an easy to use multiuser relational database for Windows, MacOS, and OS/2. It was the first database ported to Microsoft Windows, which ran on Windows 1.0x.

• Quartz (Win)

Microsoft Works (1986) 77 Word Processor Spreadsheet Communications Database Windows MacOS

Microsoft Works was an all-in-one scaled-down Word Processor, Spreadsheet, and Database geared towards the home user. It was released in variants for early DOS, Windows, and Macintosh. Microsoft Works competed against Lotus Jazz, FrameWork, AlphaWorks/LotusWorks, PFS First Choice, and many others.

• 2.x (Win)
• 3.x (Win)
• 4.0
• 4.5
• 5.x
• 6.0
• 9.0

Windows SDK & DDK (1986) 31 Windows

The Microsoft Windows Software Development Kits (SDK) provide sample program code, extra libraries, and documentation to aid application developers producing Windows applications. Microsoft Windows Driver Development Kits are similar sets of samples and libraries but specific to device driver development, and much more in-depth.

• Windows 1.x
• Windows 3.0
• NT 3.x
• Windows 3.1
• WfW 3.11
• Windows 95
• NT 4.0
• XP (NT 5.1)
• 2003 (NT 5.2)

Norton Commander (1986) 74 Utility Windows

Norton Commander is a MS-DOS based file shell that was widely popular due to it's two column design. You could easily copy and move files between one folder or another, execute DOS commands and more. It competed against many other file managers including Gazelle Q-DOS and Xtree

• 1.x (Win)
• 2.x (Win)

Harvard Graphics (1986) 10 Graphics Windows

Harvard Graphics, from Software Publishing Corporation and initially called Harvard Presentation Graphics, is a graphing/plotting/presentation creation application for DOS. It was extremely popular in the late 1980s. At release, it competed against many graphing products such as PFS:Graph (AKA IBM Graphing Assistant ), Microsoft Chart, ChartMaster, and Cricket Graph, just to name a small few. A Windows port was released in 1991, but it lost out to Microsoft Powerpoint.

• 1.0 for Windows
• 2.0 for Windows
• 3.0 for Windows
• 4.0 for Windows

QuarkXPress (1986) 3 Publishing Windows

QuarkXPress was THE standard publishing software during the 1990s. However it failed to update its product line to newer technologies in a timely manager, charged insane amounts for updates or additional features that should have been built in to the software, and became very abusive to their customers. Later versions required a parallel port/ADB copy protection dongle. They lost most of their market share to Adobe InDesign.

• 4.0

Digitalk Smalltalk/V (1986) 1 Windows

Smalltalk/V was the first widely available version of Smalltalk. It was developed by Digitalk in 1986 for DOS, Macintosh, and later Windows.

• 2.x (Win)

Professional Write (1986) 4 Word Processor Windows

Professional Write, from Software Publishing Corporation, was a popular word processor for home use during the late 80s and early 90s. It features an easy to use menu system and an integrated spell checker. Professional Write was a revamp and replacement for SPC's earlier PFS:Write.

• Plus 1.x (Win)

In-a-Vision (1986) 0 Graphics Windows

In-a-Vision is a vector based drawing program that was one of the first commercial programs written for Microsoft Windows. It runs under Windows 1.x. Later versions of this software were called Micrografx Designer

• 1.x

Micrografx Windows Draw (1986) 8 Graphics Windows

Micrografx Draw is a free-form vector based drawing program with a collection of clipart. The earlier versions are especially notable as being among the few programs produced for Microsoft Windows 1.x.

• 1.04
• Plus 1.1
• 3.0
• 4.0
• 5.0
• 6.0

Ventura Publisher (1986) 5 Publishing Windows

Ventura Publisher, originally from Xerox, is a professional desktop publishing program for the GEM graphical environment and later Windows. It has the distinction of being the first popular publishing program for the IBM PC platform. It competed with Aldus PageMaker, which initially was more popular on the Mac platform. There are also versions for Mac and OS/2.

• 3.0 for Windows
• 4.0 for Windows
• 4.1.x for Windows
• 4.2

Time Line (1986) 1 Planning Windows

A once popular, powerful, easy to use project management program first released in 1984 from Breakthrough Software. Has unlimited number of tasks, dependencies, resources, and cost categories. It competed against Microsoft Project, and CA-SuperProject. Breakthrough Software merged with Symantec in 1987. The final version was 6.x for Windows.

• 6.x

MatLab (1986) 7 Mathematics Windows MacOS

MatLab is a high speed, interactive programming utility for manipulating, calculating, and plotting complicated mathematical equations. It is considered easy to use for those familiar with typical algebra equations.

• 4.x
• 5.x

Windows 2.x (1987) 113 Windows

Windows 2 changes from Windows 1.x consist mainly of visual improvements. Windows 2 adds overlapping windows, menu keyboard shortcuts, VGA support, and other user interface changes influenced by IBM standards. Windows 2 is the last version that supports installation to a floppy disk, and to be available as an application run-time. Later editions of Windows 2 added support for 286 high memory, and running applications in a 386 VDM. The versioning is a little confusing. 2.x and 2.x/386 were released side-by-side. When it reached 2.1x, the regular 8088 version was renamed to Windows 2.1x/286. This is all unified in Windows 3.0. | 1.0 | 2.x | 3.x | NT 3.x | 95 | NT 4.0 | 98 | 2000 | ME | All |

• 2.0
• Windows 286
• Windows 386

RightWriter (1987) 3 Utility Windows

RightWriter is a grammar / structure checking utility. You can feed it a document, and it will produce a marked up copy listing high level critiques such as readability, delivery strength, and jargon. It competed with Grammatik, but RightWriter generally produced superior results.

• 5.0 for Windows

Actor (1987) 0 Windows

Actor, released by The Whitewater Group, Inc. and later Genesis Development Systems, is an object oriented programming language and environment similar to Smalltalk. It is a completely Windows-native environment, and was among the early applications written for Windows. Actor 2 ran under Microsoft Windows 2, and Actor 1.0 runs under Windows 1.

• 1.x
• 3.x
• 4.x

PowerPoint (1987) 7 Presentations Windows MacOS

Microsoft PowerPoint is a graphical presentation tool that is today part of Microsoft Office. Prior to its acquisition by Microsoft, it was known as "Presenter" from Forethought Inc. These are the standalone versions. For the Office bundled versions, see Microsoft Office.

• 2.0
• 3.x
• 4.x
• 95 (7.0)

PageMaker (1987) 32 Publishing Windows OS2 MacOS

Aldus PageMaker, later Adobe PageMaker, is a desktop publishing program for Mac and Windows. First released in 1985, PageMaker was the first desktop publishing program for the Macintosh. It was followed over a year later with the release of 1.0 for the IBM PC. The PC version was a notable application as it was one of the few rare applications which would run under Windows 1.x. PC PageMaker 1.0 bundled a runtime version of Windows. This enabled MS-DOS users who had not decided to buy Windows to run PageMaker. Aldus skipped version 2.0 on the PC to bring version number in sync with the 3.0 Mac product.

• 1.00
• 1.0A
• 3.00
• 3.01
• 4.0
• 5.0
• 6.x

ACT! (1987) 2 PIM Windows

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.x
• 2.0
• 3.0
• 4.0
• 2000

LapLink (1987) 16 Communications Windows

LapLink, from Traveling Software Inc., enables users to easily and quickly move files between two DOS computers using only a serial null-modem cable or a special parallel port connector. No other hardware is needed. Laplink was extremely popular.during the late 80s and early 90s. It was infinitely easier to set up any two arbitrary PCs (often portables or laptops) with LapLink than other methods, such as DOS based networking. MS-DOS 6 bundled a similar set of file transfer tools called INTERLNK and INTERSVR.

• 7.5 for Windows 95
• 2000
• Gold (9.0)