Microsoft Works (1986) 114 Word Processor Spreadsheet Communications Database MacOS Windows

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

NeverEnding Disk (1994) 0 Utility Windows

NeverEnding Disk (or "NED"), from Sytron, is a personal storage manager that goes beyond just an archiver or backup tool. easily compress or migrate them to external media, and easily find and retrieve them when you need them.

• 2.x

Norton Backup (1990) 3 Utility Windows

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.

• 2.x (Win)

Norton Desktop (1991) 23 Utility Windows

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 Windows
• 2.0 for Windows
• 2.2 for Windows
• 3.0 for Windows

Norton SystemWorks (1998) 4 Utility MacOS Windows

Norton SystemWorks was a utility software suite by Symantec Corp. It integrates three of Symantec's most popular products – Norton Utilities, Norton CrashGuard and Norton AntiVirus – into one program designed to simplify solving common PC issues. Backup software was added later to high-end editions. SystemWorks was innovative in that it combined several applications into an all-in-one software for managing computer health, thus saving significant costs and time often spent on using different unrelated programs.

• 1.x
• 2000
• 2001

Packard Bell Navigator (1993) 15 Utility Other Windows

Packard Bell Navigator is an alternate user interface that replaces the Windows 3.1 Program Manager shell. It presents the content of your computer as a series of rooms.

• 1.0
• 1.1
• 3.6
• 3.9

Parsons Atomic Clock (1999) 1 Utility Windows

Parsons Atomic Clock is a fancy utility for synchronizing your computers clock with a time server, either via modem or to an internet time server. Features include an audio spoken clock, time drift estimates, daytime map, lunar phase events, and customizable time counters.

• 5.0

PATHWORKS (1994) 12 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
• 32 V7.x

PFS:WindowWorks (1991) 3 Word Processor Spreadsheet Presentations Communications PIM Database Windows

PFS WindowWorks, from Spinnaker Software and Ancier Technologies, is an integrated all-in-one office application that includes a word processor, spreadsheet, chart editor, telecommunications, database, label maker and address book. Supposedly it was the first of such office suites for Windows 3.0, but soon competed with Microsoft Works for Windows. for Windows"](/product/better-working-eight).

• 1.x
• 2.x

Pilot Desktop (1995) 0 Utility Windows

Pilot Desktop is a program used to synchronize data with a Palm Pilot.

• 1.x

PKZip (1990) 16 Utility Windows

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.

• 2.5 for Windows

QuickLink (1990) 9 Communications Windows DOS

Quick Link Fax, from Smith Micro Software, is a program for receiving and sending Faxes under DOS and Windows 3.1 with a compatible FAXModem. It competed against Delrina WinFax. On the Macintosh, Smith Micro provided MacComCenter.

• II 1.x (Win)
• II 3.2 (Win)
• 3.0 (Win)

Sidekick (1984) 31 Utility PIM Windows

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.

• 1.0 for Windows
• 2.0 for Windows

Softkey Address Book Maker (1992) 0 PIM Windows

Softkey / Spinnaker Easy Working Address Book Maker is a personal information manager that stores and retrieves names, addresses, and phone numbers. with the ability to print them out in the format used by many popular paper organizers.

• 1992

Stacker (1991) 0 Utility Archive DOS Windows

Stacker, from Stack Electronics, was a hard drive compression tool. It was wildly popular until Microsoft virtually eliminated the third party market for this by including their own drive compression tool with MS-DOS 6. and Expandz! Plus.

• 4.0 (DOS)

WINCheckIt (1994) 4 Utility Windows

WINCheckIt, from TouchStone Software Corporation, was a popular diagnostics and system cleaning utility for Microsoft Windows 3.1. It diagnoses issues with CMOS/BIOS setup, finds IRQ problems, tests I/O devices and memory, benchmarks system performance, removes unused application files, and fixes system files. WinCheckIt is the successor to their earlier DOS based CheckIt diagnostics.

• 2.0
• 4.0

Windows Resource Kit (1991) 19 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.

• 3.x
• 95
• NT 4.0
• 98
• 2000

Winlink 3 (1993) 0 Utility Windows

WinLink 3, from Widget Software Ltd, is a utility for communicating between a Psion Series 3 or 3a and Windows. It connects to a Psion mobile device via a serial cable, and presents the contents of the device as a navigable file window.

• 1.x