Microsoft Works (1986) 89 Word Processor Spreadsheet Communications Database DOS 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.

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

Borland C++ Builder (1996) 81 Windows

First released in 1997, Borland C++ Builder is a Rapid Application Design environment that uses the C++ language, but includes the same GUI IDE as Borland Delphi. It includes the Delphi compiler and can make use of Delphi code in C++ projects. Borland C++ Builder replaces Borland C++ product. This product was targeted at business and enterprise customers. Current supported versions are sold by Embarcadero Technologies.

• 1.x
• 5.x
• 6.x

FoxPro (1990) 79 DOS Windows MacOS Unix

FoxPro, originally from Fox Software and later Microsoft, is a relational database that clones the functionality of dBase IV, but offers vast speed improvements. It was based on Fox Software's FoxBASE (a dBASE II clone) and FoxBASE+ (a dBase III Plus clone). It adds a new mac-like user interface that was first developed for FoxBASE+/Mac.

• 1.0x
• 2.0
• 2.5
• 2.6
• 3.0

Norton Commander (1986) 70 Utility DOS 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
• 2.x
• 3.x
• 4.x
• 5.x
• 1.x (Win)
• 5.5x
• 2.x (Win)

Microsoft SQL Server (1989) 67 Windows OS2

A database server from Microsoft. It was originally based on Sybase SQL Server, and the first versions were for OS/2. It was available as a standalone product and also as a part of Microsoft BackOffice Server.

• 4.x
• 6.0
• 6.5
• 2000
• 9.x

Fallout (1996) 64 Windows

A post-apoloptic role playing game.

• 1.0
• 2.0

Age of Empires (1997) 64 Windows

Age of Empires is a civilization simulator strategy game where different empires fight to rule.

• Gold Edition

Lotus 1-2-3 (1983) 63 Spreadsheet DOS Unix Windows

Lotus 1-2-3 was an early spreadsheet application available for MS-DOS. It became extremely popular in the late 1980s, displacing the former leader VisiCalc. Lotus had difficulties adapting 1-2-3 to the Windows environment, and was overtaken by Microsoft Excel. Spreadsheet functionality was also included in Lotus Symphony. Later versions were included in Lotus SmartSuite.

• 1.x (DOS)
• 1A (PCJr Cart)
• 2.x (DOS)
• 3.x (DOS)
• Add-ins
• 1.x (Unix)
• 1.x (Win)
• 4.x (Win)
• 4.x (DOS)
• 5.x (Win)
• 97 (Win)
• 9.5 (Office)
• 9.0 (Win)
• 9.1 (Win)
• 9.5 (Win)

Microsoft Plus! (1995) 63 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
• 98

Sound Blaster Drivers (1990) 63 DOS Windows

The Sound Blaster is a series of sound cards from Create Labs. For a time, the Sound Blaster was considered a de-facto standard for DOS based gaming. Initially it competed against the uncommon IBM Music Feature card, and the Adlib cards. The original sound blaster provided 8-bit mono digital sound in addition to Adlib-compatible FM music synthesis and stereo CMS Game Blaster compatible square-wave music. Most DOS games work best with the earlier ISA cards. Later PCI cards use completely different hardware and only provide Sound Blaster compatiblity through software emulation.

• Sound Blaster 1.0
• Sound Blaster 1.5
• Sound Blaster 2.0
• Sound Blaster Pro
• Sound Blaster AWE32
• Sound Blaster AWE64
• Sound Blaster Live!

Adobe Acrobat (1993) 63 Publishing Windows MacOS Unix

Adobe Acrobat, first released in 1993, is a tool for creating portable electronic documents. Its documents retain complex formatting when used across differing systems, so that they appear identical when viewed on screen or printed to a printer. Acrobat accomplishes this by encapsulating Adobe's PostSript printer language in to a document file format and offering the ability to embed fonts that are not present on the target system.

• 2.x
• 3.x
• 4.x
• 5.x
• 6.x

Borland Turbo Assembler (1989) 61 DOS Windows

Turbo Assembler is an x86 16-bit assembler from Borland. It competed against, and was often cited as faster than Microsoft Macro Assembler.

• 1.x
• 2.x
• 4.x
• 5.x

Borland Turbo Pascal (1983) 54 DOS Windows

Borland Turbo Pascal is a Pascal programming language compiler with an Integrated Development Environment targeted at the hobbyist and entry-level market. There were versions for CP/M and DOS. For a time, it was sold along side their professional "Borland Pascal" product line. Borland also produced a set of "toolbox" libraries along side their earlier versions.

• 1.00
• 2.x
• 3.x
• 4.x
• 5.x
• 6.x
• 1.x (Win)
• 7.x

CorelDraw! (1989) 54 Graphics Publishing Windows Unix

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.

• 1.x
• 2.0
• 3.0
• 4.0
• 5.0
• 3.5 (Unix)
• 6.0
• 7.0

Microsoft C/C++ (1983) 50 DOS Windows OS2

This is the original standalone Microsoft C/C++ compiler for DOS and Windows - Later versions were rebranded and renumbered as Microsoft Visual C++ and were bundled with Visual Studio or the SDKs.

• 1.x
• 2.x
• 3.x
• 4.0
• 5.x
• 6.x
• 7.x

Sun Solaris (1989) 49 Unix

Solaris is a Unix based operating system created by Sun Microsystems (now purchased by Oracle in 2010). It is the successor to SunOS and was released initially in June of 1992. The OS is based off of System V Unix and its first release was known internally as SunOS 5. This OS was typically used on SPARC based processors, up until 1994 when it began to support x86 and x86-64 based machines. Versions of Solaris up until version 8 are considered abandoned, with version 9's support ending in October 2014.

• 1.x
• 2.x
• 7.x
• 8

Borland Turbo C (1987) 45 DOS

Turbo C is an Integrated Development Environment and compiler for the C programming language from Borland. First introduced in 1987, it was noted for its integrated development environment, small size, fast compile speed, comprehensive manuals and low price. After 2.0 it this product was replaced with Borland Turbo C++. It competed against, Microsoft Quick C and was generally considered faster and more successful.

• 1.x
• 2.x

Ghost (2000) 45 Utility DOS

Ghost, originally released in 1995 by Binary Research and later under Symantec with the "Norton" title, is a PC cloning and imaging tool. It can image and restore drives to drives of different sizes, supports many different file systems, and supports many different archiving and communications methods. Ghost 7.5 and earlier support running from DOS. Later versions are Windows-only.

• 7.x

Microsoft Excel (1985) 44 Spreadsheet Windows OS2 MacOS

Excel, from Microsoft, is a powerful spreadsheet application for Mac, Windows, and OS/2. Excel was first released for the Mac. When it was ported to Windows 2.x, they started at version "2.0" to one up current Mac version. There was never a DOS version. Instead, DOS and 8-bit platforms used the older Microsoft Multiplan. Excel was later bundled as part of Microsoft Office

• 2.0
• 2.1
• 3.x
• 4.x
• 5.x
• 95 (7.0)
• 97/98 (8.0)

Microsoft Access (1992) 42 Database Windows

Microsoft Access is a powerful and friendly desktop database. You can design complex tables, forms, and reports through selection and drag-and drop. You can make a fully usable interactive database application without a line of code, but for more advanced functionality it supports built-in Visual Basic for Applications. It is also bundled with some versions of Microsoft Office

• 1.x
• 2.0
• 95 (7.0)
• 97

Oracle Forms and Reports (1997) 41 Database Windows

Oracle Forms and Reports is a GUI application builder. It is similar to Visual Basic, but uses the PL/SQL language and integrates heavily with Oracle Server databases.

• 4.5 (Developer 2000)
• 6i

WordStar (1981) 39 Word Processor CPM DOS Windows

WordStar, originally from MicroPro, was a popular word processor during the early 80s. It was ported to a number of CP/M architectures as well as Unix and PC/MS-DOS. It competed directly against many word processors, including WordPerfect, Microsoft Word for DOS, and Multimate. By the late 80s most business word processing had moved to WordPerfect. In the early 90s, Microsoft Word for Windows took over.

• 2.x
• 3.00
• 3.30
• for PCjr
• 2000
• 4.0
• 1512
• 5.0
• COLT
• 5.5
• 6
• 1.5 for Windows
• 7
• 2.0 for Windows

Norton Utilities (1983) 38 Utility DOS Unix Windows

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
• 5.0
• 6.0
• 7.0
• 8.0
• 1.0 (95) for Win
• 2.0 (95) for Win
• for NT 4.0
• 3.0 for Win
• 4.0 for Win
• 2001 for Win

Windows Media Center (2004) 38 Video Audio Media Player Windows

Windows Media Center was a full-screen media player and video recorder designed for use on home theater PCs. It competed against digital recording devices like the Tivo.

• 6.1 (7)
• 2005 (XP)

Microsoft Entertainment Pack (1990) 37 Windows

The Microsoft Entertainment pack was a collection of 16 bit games designed for Windows 3.x. These games were developed in house by Microsoft to show the gaming ability of Windows at a time when most games were being produced strictly for DOS. The first release was in 1990 with the first pack, and the last 16 bit version released was The Best of Microsoft Entertainment Pack in 1995.

• 1
• 2
• 3
• 4
• Best of