Norton Backup (1990) 1 Utility DOS

Norton Backup, from Symantec, is a fast and easy to use backup tool for MS-DOS. The original 1.0 suffered from reliability problems, but these were fixed in 1.1. It does not include a backup scheduler. It competed against backup utilities such as PC Tools Deluxe PC Backup, Taketwo Manager, Gazelle Systems Back-It, Backup Pro, FastBack Plus, and Keep Track Plus.

• 1.x

Norton Commander (1986) 81 Utility DOS

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
• 2.x
• 3.x

Norton Textra Writer (1989) 2 Word Processor DOS

Norton Textra Writer is an easy to use word processor for IBM PCs and compatibles running DOS. It was based on Ann Arbor Software' Textra, a small and fast word processor highly optimized for speed and rapid data entry, and published by the W W Norton & Co Inc publishing company (no relation to Peter Norton Computing or Symanetc).

• 2.0

Norton Utilities (1983) 68 Utility DOS Unix MacOS

The Norton Utilities is a suite of disk and system utilities designed to enhance system performance and stability. It started off as a set of disk utilities written by Peter Norton, and later was sold by Symantec. It competed against Central Point PC Tools and the Mace Utilities. In 2003, Norton Utilities was merged with Norton SystemWorks, but later split back out.

• 2.0x
• 3.00
• 3.10
• 4.0
• 4.5
• For System V
• 1.0 for Mac
• 5.0

Nota Bene (1990) 0 Word Processor DOS

First released in 1982 and based on XyWrite, Nota Bene is a word processor specifically tailored to academic use. It is a very complex, unfriendly, program, but it is packed full of features. Features include footnotes, endnotes, redlining, styles, outlining, tables, indexes, bibliographies, a text retrieval system, foreign language support, spell checker, thesaurus, and a built in programming language. The Ibid component was an option that acted as sort of a database of bibliographic references.

• 3.0

OfficeWriter (1989) 3 Word Processor DOS

OfficeWriter, from Office Solutions, Inc and later Software Publishing Corporation, is a word processor that mimics the Wang word processor system. It was targeted at corporations and competed against Multimate, another Wang word processor workalike.

• 6.x

Open Access (1990) 1 Word Processor Spreadsheet Graphics Communications Database DOS

Open Access III is a DOS based integrated office suite that includes a database, word processor, spreadsheet, statistical analysis, graphics, telecommunications and a C style custom application programming language.

• III

PageView (1988) 2 Word Processor Windows

Pageview is a tool to graphically display, manipulate, and print Microsoft Word 3.0 and 4.0 for DOS documents. This was released almost two years prior to Word 1.0 for Windows.

• 1.0

Partition Commander (1988) 0 Utility DOS

Partition Commander is a Wizard based partition and disk utilization tool. It supports FAT, FAT32, NTFS, HPFS, and some Unix file systems.
It runs in real-mode DOS and installs from only two floppy disks. It competed directly against Partition Magic. Memory Commander, a 386 Expanded/Extended Memory Manager.

• 1.x

PC Tools (1985) 36 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

PC World PowerBase/Best Of Star-Dot-Star (1988) 0 Utility DOS

PC World PowerBase/Best Of Star-Dot-Star is a set of user contributed utilities and tips. These 5.25" floppy disks were distributed alongside the PC-World magazine as a supplement to their long running Star-Dot-Star column.

• Vol I
• Vol II
• Vol III

PC-Fullbak (1988) 0 Utility DOS

PC-Fullbak was a small low-cost hard drive backup program that aggressively competed head-on against Fifth Generation Systems Fastback. It was comparatively speedy, and supported appending to existing backups. under the name "PC-FullbakEZ". There were also versions for the Macintosh.

• 2.x

PC-Write (1984) 0 Word Processor DOS

PC-Write, written by Bob Wallace of Quicksoft, was an editor for the PC and along with PC-File and PC-Talk was one of the first widely distributed shareware programs.

• 2.4
• 2.7

Peachtext 5000 (1983) 1 Word Processor Financial Database DOS

PeachText 5000 is a complete personal productivity system for word processing, financial modeling, mailing lists and simple database management. It contains a thesaurus, spell checker, and file conversion tools.

• 2.x

Peachtree Mailing List Manager (1982) 2 Utility CPM

Peachtree Mailing List Manager, from Peachtree Software Incorporated, is a mailing list manager included with Peachtree software bundles.

• 1

Perfect Writer (1983) 0 Word Processor DOS

Perfect Writer, from Perfect Software, Inc, is a simple word processor for MS-DOS and CP/M-80 systems. It was bundled with many 8-bit CP/M systems and some early MS-DOS and IBM PC compatible computers. It was generally considered a low end entry-level product, but it was designed with portability in mind.

• 1.x

Perks (1987) 3 Utility PIM DOS

Perks-PC is a set of terminate-and-stay-resident utilities originally designed for the Zenith Z-100 and optimized for use on laptop computers. It features a notepad, typewriter tool, a four-function calculator, appointment calendar, card file, a rudimentary telecommunications program with file transfer abilities, and alarm clock. Notably, it claims to support all versions of DOS including DOS 1.x.

• 2.x

PFS First Choice (1987) 13 Word Processor Spreadsheet Presentations Database DOS

PFS First Choice is a simple, easy to use integrated office suite marketed towards new users. It includes a word processor, spreadsheet, graphics, database, and telecommunications. First Choice is similar to, but not as feature rich as, the standalone PFS office products. It competed against AlphaWorks/LotusWorks and Microsoft Works.

• 1.x
• 2.x
• 3.x

PFS Preface (1990) 3 Utility DOS

PFS Preface is a menu system and file manager for DOS that uses an interface style similar to other PFS products.

• 1.00

PFS Proof (1984) 7 Utility DOS

PFS:Proof is a stand-alone spell checker that is compatible with PFS:Write documents, and part of the low-cost PFS office suite.

• Axx
• Bxx

PFS:Write (1983) 10 Word Processor DOS

PFS:Write, originally from Software Publishing Corporation and later sold to Spinnaker Software, was an early and easy to use word processor for the IBM PC and Apple II. It was also licensed by IBM as IBM Writing Assistant. It can exchange data between PFS:Graph, PFS:File, and PFS:Report. SPC later replaced PFS:Write with Professional Write. Early versions had no built in spell checker, and were instead used with PFS:Proof.

• Axx
• 01.00.00 (Tandy 2000)
• Bxx
• Cxx

PKZip (1990) 23 Utility DOS

Pkzip is the most common archiver for MS-DOS based systems. It implements a an open compression method and is much faster than other archivers of its time.

• 1.x

Plus Hardcard (1987) 1 DOS

These are the software tools and drivers needed to install and operate a Plus 20 Hardcard internal hard drive.

• 1987

PolyWindows DeskPlus (1985) 1 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

POP Menu (1989) 3 Utility DOS

A program to organize your computer programs and avoid the DOS prompt. With MENU! you create a personal display of program names. Then run any program with the touch of a single key.

• 2.x