FoxBASE (1987) 6 Database DOS Unix MacOS

FoxBASE, a relational database from Fox Software, started off in 1984 as a clone of dBase II that boasted many speed improvements. FoxBASE+ adds feature parity and compatibility with dBase III Plus. It was later aquired by Microsoft and became FoxPro

• Plus 1.x
• Plus 2.x

Instant Artist / Print Artist (1992) 5 Graphics Publishing Novelty DOS

Instant Artist, later renamed to Print Artist, is a greeting card and sign creation program that uses vectorized graphics. It was created by The Pixellite Group, the original authors of The Print Shop, and published in 1992 by Autodesk. It was later sold by Sierra On-line. It features a high quality set of generic reusable clip art. The clip art uses vector based technology that was also used in BannerMania.

• 1.0 (DOS)

Norton Desktop (1991) 5 Utility DOS

Norton Desktop is a powerful desktop shell and file manager bundled with many additional tools. There are versions for both DOS and Microsoft Windows.

• 1.0 for DOS

Quattro Pro (1987) 5 Spreadsheet DOS Windows

Quattro Pro, initially just named "Quattro", is a spreadsheet application from Borland International. It competed against Lotus 1-2-3 and Excel, and had several advantages including tabbed sheets, and the ability to handle up to a million rows. Quattro Pro was the subject a lawsuit by Lotus, simply because because Quattro Pro copied their menu user interface, but Lotus claimed this was not allowed. This also affected The Twin and VP-Planner.

• 1.0
• Pro 1.x
• 2.x
• 3.x
• SE 1.0
• 4.x (DOS)
• 5.x
• 5.6 (DOS)

IBM Personal Decision Series Data Edition (1984) 5 Database DOS

IBM Data is a high-end flat-file database management system targeted at large corporate users. It is part of the Personal Decision Series family, and reportedly a required prerequisite for other modules or "editions". by IBM.

• 1.0
• 2.00

AutoSketch (1987) 5 Graphics DOS

AutoSketch is a 2D vector program sold by Autodesk. Unlike artistic drawing programs, AutoSketch is specifically geared towards engineering applications. Although not as powerful as AutoCAD, it can work with 2D AutoCAD files. Autodesk also produced AutoCAD LT, a higher end 2-D drawing program. But unlike AutoSketch, AutoCAD LT was based directly on AutoCAD and worked similarly.

• 1.x (DOS)
• 2.x (DOS)
• 3.x (DOS)

Multiplan (1983) 5 Spreadsheet DOS OS2

Microsoft Multiplan was an early 8-bit spreadsheet application for CP/M and MS-DOS with ports to numerous other platforms in the early 80s. Initially it competed against VisiCalc and later Lotus 1-2-3. A companion product, Microsoft Chart, provided graphing support. Multiplan was never ported to Windows, where it was replaced with Microsoft Excel. Excel also replaced Multiplan on the Macintosh platform.

• 1.x
• 2.x
• 3.x
• 4.x

Microsoft MS-DOS Manager (1987) 5 Utility DOS

MS-DOS Manager is a friendly file manager shell provided through OEMs for use with MS-DOS 3.x. It was bundled with systems from Zenith, 3COM, and others. It is similar in operation to the Windows 1.x and 2.x MS-DOS Executive. single or split screen file list (but no drag-and-drop), files may be viewed with details or as a compact list, supports associating file type with external applications, and programs installed on your computer are easily added to an "Applications" dropdown menu.

• 1.00

DataPerfect (1993) 5 Word Processor Database DOS

DataPerfect, originally written by Lew Bastian, published through WordPerfect Corp, and later through Novell, was a fast, memory efficient, but capable relational database for DOS. WordPerfect Corp sold the product alongside their other DOS based office products, such as WordPerfect and PlanPerfect. In 1995 Novel released DataPerfect as freeware and development was continued by its original author until about 2008.

• 2.x

SpinRite (1988) 4 Utility DOS

SpinRite, by Gibson Research, is a tool that can diagnose, repair, and rejuvenate the low-level formatting and optimize the interleave of MFM and RLL (ST412/506 interface) hard disk drives. Its pattern testing ability is also useful for verifying the operation of SCSI and IDE hard drives.

• 1.x
• II
• 3.x
• 4.x
• 5.0

Micrografx Designer (1988) 4 Graphics Publishing Windows OS2

Micrografx Designer, originally released as IN-A-VISON for Windows 1.x, is a vector based drawing and design program. It features ease of use, multiple layers, and dimensioning. Micrografx also sold large libraries of clip art. It competed against Corel Draw.

• 2.0

Norton Anti-Virus (1990) 4 Utility DOS Windows

Originally written by Symantec and sold as Symantec Antivrus for Macintosh, it became part of the "Norton" branded products sold by Symantec after they acquired Peter Norton Computing. Norton Anti-Virus became a popular product on DOS, Windows, and Macintosh (SAM was renamed to NAV in 1998) and battled the then-new threat of malicious software. In 2015, Symantec unified their security product lineup under the single "Norton Security" product. It was also bundled with Norton SystemWorks.

• 1.0
• 1.5
• 2.0
• Michelangelo Edition

XTree (1985) 4 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

KeyCAD Complete (1993) 4 Graphics DOS

KeyCad Complete, from Softkey, is a low-end computer aided design and drawing tool.

• 6.0 (DOS)
• 1.0 for Windows

3D FloorPlan Designer (1993) 4 Graphics DOS

3D FloorPlan is a 3-dimensional architectural and space planning program for small business professionals and home users. The user may design a home addition or remodel in 2D and FloorPlan automatically converts the drawing into 3D. The user can then walk through the 3D model in real time.

• 2.0

Norton Backup (1990) 4 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
• 2.x

Expert Perfect Forms (1990) 4 Database DOS

Expert Software's Perfect Forms is a budget form creation and data entry tool. It comes with a large number of ready-to-use forms for a variety of business needs. You can customize existing forms, or create new ones.

• 1.0
• 3.00

IBM Personal Decision Series Reports Plus Edition (1985) 4 Database DOS

Reports+ is a program generator that lets you design your own reports and screens, and enables you to design applications that can be run under the Personal Decision Series Data program.

• 1.0
• 2.00

Sidekick (1984) 3 Utility PIM DOS OS2

Borland Sidekick is a DOS based PIM (Personal Information Manager) and one of the first widely-used TSR (terminate and stay resident) programs. The key feature of Sidekick was that one could use Sidekick's utilities while using most other MS-DOS applications. This was important because MS-DOS had no built-in multi-tasking or task switching capabilities.

• 1.x
• Plus
• 1.0 for OS/2
• 2.0

DeluxePaint (1988) 3 Graphics DOS

DeluxePaint, from Electronic Arts, is a bitmap pixel graphics editor that was ported to DOS from the Amiga.

• 1.x
• 2.x

My Advanced MailList (1991) 3 Database DOS

My Advanced MailList is a comprehensive mailing list manager database that supports a wide variety of label formats, embedded graphics, import/export with other databases, and printing POST-NET barcodes.

• 3.x (DOS)

MicroPro ReportStar (1983) 3 Database DOS

MicroPro ReportStar is a report generator for DOS used in conjunction with DataStar and sometimes bundled as InfoStar.

• 1.01

Lotus Symphony (1984) 3 Word Processor Spreadsheet Presentations Graphics Communications Database DOS

Lotus Symphony is a an integrated software program that combines five tools: spreadsheet - word processing, graphics, database management, and data communications - in one package. The spreadsheet has similar functionality to Lotus 1-2-3, however it uses a different software "engine". These releases are of the original suite produced by Lotus. For the unrelated suite produced by IBM under the same name, see "IBM Lotus Symphony".

• 1.00
• 2.00
• 3.00

The Twin (1986) 3 Spreadsheet DOS

"The Twin", from Mosaic Software, is a spreadsheet that touts compatibility and visual similarity with Lotus 1-2-3. better graphics, a much lower price, and was not copy protected. It was a little slower than Lotus 1-2-3, but this was less of an issue for budget users. The Twin, along with Paperback VP-Planner and Borland Quattro Pro were the subject of a lawsuit claiming that duplicating the "look and feel" violated Lotus's copyrights.

• 1.x
• 2.x

VP-Planner (1986) 3 Spreadsheet DOS

VP Planner is a Lotus 123-type spreadsheet, but featuring 3-D (paged) spreadsheets and other advances over Lotus 123. This was the subject of a lawsuit, also involving The Twin, and Borland Quattro Pro, which Paperback Software eventually won, but which sank the company.

• 1.x
• Plus 2.x