QuarkXPress (1986) 9 Publishing Windows

QuarkXPress was THE standard publishing software during the 1990s. However it failed to update its product line to newer technologies in a timely manager, charged insane amounts for updates or additional features that should have been built in to the software, and became very abusive to their customers. Later versions required a parallel port/ADB copy protection dongle. They lost most of their market share to Adobe InDesign.

• 4.0

Serif PagePlus (1994) 0 Publishing Windows

Serif PagePlus, from the British software company Serif, Inc, is a desktop publishing program for Microsoft Windows that was designed to be a lower cost alternative to others desktop publishers on the market. It was advertised as exceedingly easy to use. Reportedly the original version was named PageStar, and ran on Windows 2.

• 3.x

Sidekick (1984) 7 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

SmartSketch (1994) 0 Graphics Publishing Windows

SmartSketch 1.0 is an easy to use vector based drawing targeted at business users. Although there were many other such drawing programs, it boasted simplicity and a large variety of clipart. It was originally intended for GO Corporation's PinPoint pen computing device, but when that was discontinued, SmartSketch was ported to Windows and Macintosh instead.

• 1.0

SnagIt (1994) 0 Utility Graphics Windows

Screen capture utility for Windows 3.1.

• 2.1

Stacker (1991) 1 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)

Statistica (1993) 0 Utility Windows

StatSoft Statistica provides data analysis, data management, statistics, data mining, and data visualization procedures.

• 4.x

SuperPrint (1994) 0 Utility Publishing Windows

Zenographics SuperPrint is a printing utility for Windows 3.x that applies advanced image processing techniques to printers that otherwise would not support them.

• 3.10

Talking Icons (1994) 0 Novelty Windows

Talking Icons 2.0 is a utility from Aristo-Soft for Windows 3.1 that adds silly sounds and animated icons to the Windows environment. It also features a tool (Windows FX) that changes the windows border with multiple themes, additional screen savers, wallpaper, additional mouse cursors, an icon editor, and "Talk" ready versions of Minesweeper, Solitaire, and Clock.

• 2.0

The All-Star Utilities Pac (1992) 0 Utility Other Windows

The All-Star Utilities Pac is a set of small windows-based productivity utilities. It was a freebie given away by PC Magazine.

• 1.0

The Print Shop (1984) 20 Publishing Windows

The Print Shop is a home oriented publisher capable of creating calendars, banners, greeting cards and other printable goods. It started off on the Apple II and Commodore 64 where it became popular for its simplicity and ease of use. From day one, it featured interactive editing, on-screen artwork/layout selection, print previewing, and a library of customizable clipart.

• Deluxe (Win)
• Deluxe 2.0 (Win)
• Deluxe III
• Premier 5.x (Win)
• Deluxe 6.0 (Win)
• Ensemble III
• 2002 (Mac)

The Print Shop PressWriter (1997) 0 Publishing Windows

The Print Shop PressWriter, from Broderbund, is a desktop publishing tool aimed at novice users. It comes with a simplified selection of pre-defined templates for newsletters, flyers, reports, resumes, brochures, and booklets. It includes a selection of extra fonts and clipart. It competed against PrintMaster Gold. Some versions were bundled with The Print Shop Deluxe for Windows.

• 1.0

Ventura Publisher (1986) 5 Publishing Windows

Ventura Publisher, originally from Xerox, is a professional desktop publishing program for the GEM graphical environment and later Windows. It has the distinction of being the first popular publishing program for the IBM PC platform. It competed with Aldus PageMaker, which initially was more popular on the Mac platform. There are also versions for Mac and OS/2.

• 3.0 for Windows
• 4.0 for Windows
• 4.1.x for Windows
• 4.2

Ways 2 (1992) 0 Utility Windows

Ways is a smart dictionary, thesaurus and database multitool that works with any Windows 3.1 application. It once had been part of the Witchpen word processing suite for DOS. When certain word processors began to dominate the market, Swiss developer Hannes Keller decided to separate and enhance the dictionary. In Germany, Ways was widespread thanks to being bundled with every Highscreen brand computer in the early 1990s.

• 2.x

Windows Resource Kit (1991) 38 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

WinWay Resume (1996) 0 Publishing Windows

WinWay Resume is a tool that assists people in creating professional looking resumes. It features an interview and salary negotiation simulator.

• 4.0

Wired for Sound (1992) 3 Novelty Windows

Wired For Sound, from Aristosoft, is a tool that assigns silly sounds to various Windows events. It also includes a set of backgrounds, alternate icons, and alternate cursors, and a talking clock. There were different editions of WFS Pro with different sound sets.

• 2.x
• 3.x

Xerox Rooms for Windows (1991) 1 Utility Windows

Xerox Rooms for Windows is a desktop enhancement for Windows 3.0 and 3.1 that gives them multiple desktops. It features customizable desktop icon "buttons" in each "room" that may represent applications or documents, "doors" that lead to different rooms, separate backgrounds in each room, and a room overview. It can be launched manually, or when Windows starts.

• 1.0

Xmas for Windows (1994) 1 Novelty Windows

What better way to celebrate the winter solstice than to give someone the gift of an ugly Windows 3.1 color scheme, annoying backgrounds, and looping MIDI music that will make you want to rip your ears off of your head? Xmas for Windows, from Sygenex, gives you all of that as well as themed system icons, a screen saver, and several themed games. it does contain the usual religious based Xmas musics and some graphics.

• 3.0
• 8.0

XVision (1993) 0 Utility Windows

XVision, from Visionware, is a commercial X-Windowing "server" for connecting client Windows 3.x computers to Unix and VMS systems.

• 5.0 (Win)