Ability (1985) 10 Word Processor Spreadsheet Presentations Communications Database DOS

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.

• 1.0
• Demo
• 1.2
• Plus 1.0

Autodesk AutoCAD (1984) 22 Graphics Engineering DOS

AutoCAD, from Autodesk and first released in 1982, is a powerful Computer Aided Design tool. It was, and still is, often considered the standard for CAD tools. Primarily for the IBM PC platform, it was ported to x86 machines with higher video resolutions such as the Zenith Z-100 and NEC APC. Intermittently, versions for the Macintosh appeared. Later versions use a dongle copy protection.

• 1.x (DOS)
• 2.x (DOS)
• r10 (DOS)
• r11 (DOS)

Automenu (1987) 1 Utility DOS

Automenu is a sophisticated commercial menuing system that lets you control your computer using custom menus, rather than using DOS commands. It features small, compact memory usage and built in help.

• 4.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

Bank Street Writer (1984) 6 Word Processor DOS

Bank Street Writer is an easy to use word processor intended for beginners and educational use. It was very popular on the Apple II, but also had ports for Atari, Commodore 64, MSX, Macintosh, IBM PC, and IBM PCjr.

• IBM PC
• Plus

Better Working Eight-in-One (1989) 2 Word Processor Spreadsheet Graphics Communications Database DOS

Better Working Eight-in-One, from Spinnaker Software is an integrated office suite for DOS. It contains a word processor, a spelling checker, a data base, a spreadsheet, an outliner, a graphics program, a communications program and a set of desktop utilities - all in one single, consistent application.

• 2.x

Borland Sprint (1988) 7 Word Processor DOS

Sprint is a text-based word processor for DOS that features a powerful scripting language, multiple user interfaces, exceptional speed, the ability to handle very large files, and powerful PostScript capabilities. "Mark of the Unicorn", and bought by Borland where it was renamed to "Sprint" in 1987. WordPerfect, Microsoft Word for DOS, and Multimate. preview at a time when that was clearly the way forward. However Sprint was targeted towards power users that needed advanced features WYSIWYG editors did not yet provide.

• 1.0x

Brown Bag Word Processor (1985) 1 Word Processor DOS

The Brown Bag Word Processor was an inexpensive word processor that offered features comparable to more expensive programs. It is essentially an OEM licensed version of Quicksoft's PC-Write with a different user interface. Formatting is done using "dot" commands and it includes a mail-merge module.

• 2.x

BULL Micral Prologue (1984) 0 DOS

BULL Micral Prologue system for the Olympia People Computer.

• 2.x

Cache86 (1990) 0 Utility DOS

Cache86 is a high speed disk caching program for DOS and Windows 3.x systems. It features a very small conventional memory overhead, speed, reliability, support for Extended memory on 286+ machines, and support for Expanded memory on PC/XT class machines.

• 3.x

CADKEY (1988) 1 Graphics Engineering DOS

CADKEY is a 2D/3D mechanical CAD (computer aided design or computer aided drafting) software application released for various DOS, Solaris, and Microsoft Windows operating systems. Originally released for DOS in 1984, CADKEY was among the first CAD programs with 3D capabilities for personal computers.

• 1.x

Carbon Copy (1990) 2 Utility DOS

Carbon Copy is a remote control desktop program for DOS and later Windows, similar to PCAnywhere. protection. You can not connect to other copies of Carbon Copy if the serial numbers are the same.

• 5.x

Celebrity (1987) 3 Word Processor DOS

Celebrity is a powerful word processing program that includes a Speller, Thesaurus, Forms System, Report Writer, Calculator, Calendar, and File Cabinet. It was advertised as a solution for novice users, however the command based interface makes it less than user friendly.

• 1.0

CheckIt (1988) 5 Utility DOS

CheckIt, from TouchStone Software Corporation, is a diagnostic tool for generic PC/XT/AT compatible computers. It can perform tests on RAM, hard disks, video cards, floppy disks, motherboard resources, and I/O devices. It has an easy to use menu interface but can also run tests non-interactively. It was followed up by the product WINCheckit.

• 1.x
• 2.1
• 3.0

ChiWriter (1990) 7 Word Processor Mathematics DOS

ChiWriter is a WYSIWYG scientific text editor for DOS. Created by Cay Horstmann in 1986, it was one of the first that could write mathematical formulas on common PC computers.

• 4.00

COMPAQ Personal Computer MATCHMAKER (1989) 0 DOS

MATCHMAKER is a floppy disk based customer survey sent to potential Compaq customers. The intent was to collect data about current hardware and software application use for marketing and development purposes. It also provides an interactive overview of then-current Compaq 386 hardware products.

• 1989

Control Room (1990) 0 Utility DOS

Control Room is an all-in-one resident system information and configuration tool. It includes a number of disk utilities such as undeleting, wiping, and encrypting files. It can scan files and detect unwanted changes. Control Room can change system settings such as keyboard repeat rate and supports creating keyboard macros.

• 1.0

Copy II PC (1985) 1 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

CopyWrite (1990) 0 Utility DOS

CopyWrite is a disk duplicator that can duplicate disks with many advanced copy protection schemes using a standard IBM PC floppy drive and controller.

• 1990

Correct Grammar (1989) 3 Word Processor Utility DOS

Correct Grammar is a grammar checking and analysis tool for DOS. Correct Grammar incorporates technology from the Houghton Mifflin CorrectText system.

• 2.x

CorrectStar (1984) 2 Word Processor Utility DOS

CorrectStar, from MicroPro International, is an add-on spell checker for WordStar 3.3. It was sold both bundled with WordStar and separately. Later versions of WordStar integrated the spell checker.

• 3.3x

Dac-Easy Word (1987) 1 Word Processor DOS

DAC-Easy Word is a budget word processor package. It can have up to four document windows open, can work with large-ish documents, supports macros, features drop-down menus, built-in help, and includes a mailing list manager.

• II

Davong Hard Disk Controller Drivers (1982) 1 DOS

This is the driver software used to configure and access a Davong internal hard disk controller for the IBM PC. This controller was significant as being one of the few hard disk systems accessible under DOS 1.x. system instead partitions the disk in to several smaller drives.

• 2.4

DesignCAD 2D (1988) 2 Graphics Engineering DOS

DesignCAD is a low end, but well featured, drafting program. It was sometime a companion product to DesignCAD 3D.

• 3.x

DesignCAD 3D (1987) 2 Graphics Engineering DOS

DesignCAD 3D is a powerful, easy to use, and low cost DOS based CAD program that claimed to have all of the features of the more expensive CAD programs. It competed against low-cost CAD programs such as TurboCAD, Generic CADD, and Drafix. It was sometimes sold alongside DesignCAD 2D

• 1