Microsoft Project (1984) 33 Planning Windows

Microsoft Project is a project management chart and gantt chart generator. It is a Microsoft Office family member, and built on the Office code, although it has never shipped with any Office suite.

• 4.0
• 95
• 98

ACT! (1987) 7 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.

• 2.0
• 3.0

Windows Resource Kit (1991) 27 Utility Windows

The Microsoft Windows Resource kit is a set of supplementary tools for managing and deploying Microsoft Windows. The first Windows Resource kit was released in 1991 for Windows 3.0. Most, but not all, Windows versions after that had corresponding Resource Kits. These were often freely downloadable from Microsoft.

• 95
• NT 4.0

Visio (1992) 20 Graphics Windows

Visio is a flow-chart diagramming program for Microsoft Windows originally from Shapeware/Visio Corp. Visio was specifically designed as a flow charting tool rather than a generic drawing tool. It featured easy to use drag-and-drop diagram creation, and shipped with a wide variety of stencils. In 2000 Visio Corp was acquired by Microsoft. It competed with Aldus Intellidraw and Micrografx Snapgraphics and Meta Software's MetaDesign.

• 2.0
• 3.0
• 4.0
• 5.0

BackOffice Server (1994) 14 Windows

BackOffice was Microsoft's Windows NT along with an array of server side applications like SQL server, ISA server, et al. It was succeeded by Small Business Server.

• 1.5
• 2.0
• 4.0

Visual J++ (1996) 6 Windows

Visual J++ was Microsoft's proprietary dialect of the Java programming language which ran on Windows under Microsoft's Java virtual machine. It was part of the Microsoft Visual Studio product lineup. It included an Integrated Development Environment and many language extensions, such as the ability to make efficient use of the Win32 APIs. The primary advantage of J++ and Java was the ability to run on a byte-code virtual machine (pioneered by languages like the UCSD P-System ) at a time when Intel was threatening to cut off x86 compatibility in favor of 64-bit instruction sets.

• 1.0

Stuffit Expander (1997) 11 Archive MacOS

Stuffit Expander, from Aladdin Systems, is a freely redistributable tool for extracting Stuffit "SIT" archives on Apple Macintosh computers. Most Macintosh file archives are in this format. Unlike ZIP, Stuffit preserves special resource fork and creator type information required by Macintosh file systems. For the Microsoft Windows version, please see Aladdin Expander.

• 4.5

Microsoft Exchange (1996) 5 Chat PIM Server Windows

Exchange is a proprietary e-mail and groupware server software from Microsoft for Windows Server. The first version publicly sold was Exchange Server 4.0. The number 4.0 was used as it was a replacement for Microsoft Mail 3.x. At release, unlike other desktop/lan e-mail solutions it featured client/server communications rather than using file sharing, used a powerful messaging protocol, and stored all message and address book information in a database. It eventually evolved to include scheduling and many other functions. The Exchange Client (later Microsoft Outlook) supported rich text formatting, and the ability to create such things as e-mail forms.

• 4.0
• 5.5

FileMaker (1984) 9 Database Windows MacOS

FileMaker is a very easy to use graphical flat-file database management tool from Claris that allows for visual form and report creation. Originally for DOS, there were Macintosh versions and later it was ported to Windows.

• Pro 3.x
• Pro 4.x

Bookshelf (1987) 10 Reference Windows MacOS

Microsoft Bookshelf is a CD-ROM based multimedia reference tool from Microsoft, including a dictionary, thesaurus, quotations, atlas, and other types of references. Some versions were included and integrated with Microsoft Office, albeit sometimes stripped down.

• 94
• 95
• 96-97
• 98

MatLab (1986) 6 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

Toast (1995) 1 Utility MacOS

Toast was a popular CD mastering and burning application for classic Apple Macintosh. It was created by Astarte, who sold it to Adaptec, and later Roxio. Adaptec sold a different program for IBM PC compatibles named CD Creator

• 2.x
• 3.x

ArcView GIS (1996) 21 Graphics Other Database Windows

ArcView, from Environmental Systems Research Institute, Inc. is a geographical information system program for Win9x/NT.

• 3.0

THINK C (1988) 11 MacOS

THINK C, originally from THINK Technologies and later Symantec, was a C compiler for the Apple Macintosh. Initially released in 1986 under the name "Lightspeed C", it featured libraries and extensions useful to creating native Macintosh applications. It competed with Macintosh Programmers Workshop.

• 6.x
• C++ 6.x
• C++ 7.x

Microsoft Visual Studio (1996) 264 Windows

Visual Studio is an IDE (integrated development environment) for Microsoft Windows that allows developers to develop a variety of applications. It is a bundle of seperate programming products, including Microsoft Visual C++, Microsoft J++, Microsoft Visual Basic, and Foxpro

• 97 (5.x)

Microsoft Visual Basic (1991) 985 Windows

First released in 1991, Microsoft Visual Basic was a programming environment where one could build an application by visually creating the user interface first, and then adding code. In contrast, even the smallest Visual Basic basic programs could take reams of program code to write in C or C++. Visual Basic was extremely popular for business application programming. The language itself was an interpreted BASIC dialect, however speed was maintained through the use of reusable compiled libraries (DLLs and VBX controls). These however, limited application development to Microsoft Windows.

• 3.0
• 4.0
• 5.0

PATHWORKS (1994) 9 Web Browser Communications Windows

PATHWORKS is a network client suite that enables PCs to communicate with VMS and Ultrix systems from Digital Equipment Corporation.

• 1.0 for Win95

Encarta (1993) 88 Reference Windows MacOS

Microsoft Encarta was a home oriented interactive encyclopedia that was often sold with new OEM machines. Unlike a paper encyclopedia, Encarta took full advantage of being on a computer, with updates from the Internet, sound clips and movies, interactive charts and games, and good navigation.

• 1994
• 1995
• 1996
• 1997
• 1998

Microsoft Plus! (1995) 117 Utility Novelty Windows

Microsoft Plus! was an add-on package to Windows that added desktop themes, screen savers, sound effects, power-toys, and other assorted goodies for the home user. Plus! 95 also included Internet Explorer 1.0, which was not included in all Windows 95 distributions.

• 95

Visual C++ (1993) 94 Windows

Visual C++ is a greatly enhanced and re-branded version of Microsoft C/C++. The Visual C++ line is primarily aimed at Windows development on 386 CPUs. 5.0 and later were bundled as a part of Microsoft Visual Studio.

• 1.x
• 2.x
• 4.x
• 5.x

Oracle Server (1991) 8 Server Database Windows

Oracle Server is an enterprise grade relational database used in many corporations. It was mainly targeted at high end server operating systems, such as IBM AIX, Sun Solaris, HP UX, Digital VMS, Linux, and Microsoft Windows NT. Oracle makes current versions of their software avaialble for download, but older versions usually disappear.

• 7

Microsoft Outlook (1997) 4 Communications PIM Windows MacOS

Microsoft Outlook (not to be confused with Outlook Express) is an enterprise grade e-mail client. It is primarily intended for use with Microsoft Exchange Server. It was available as both a stand-alone product and as part of Microsoft Office.

• 97

Colorado Backup (1996) 7 Utility DOS Windows

Colorado Backup is the software provided with HP Colorado tape drives.

• Set
• 1.70 for Win 95

CorelDraw! (1989) 64 Graphics Publishing Windows

Corel Draw is a vector based drawing and illustration program. It is primarily a Windows application, but was ported to Mac OS, Mac OS X, Linux, CTOS and OS/2. It competed against Aldus Freehand, Adobe Illustrator, and Micrografx Designer.

• 4.0
• 5.0
• 6.0

Microsoft FrontPage (1995) 34 Publishing Windows

Microsoft FrontPage is a WYSIWYG HTML editor/Cuisinart for Microsoft Windows.

• 1.0
• 1.1
• 97 (v2)