Rapid: File Manager (1994) 1 Utility Windows

Rapid: File Manager is a Windows based file manager from Gazelle Systems, the makers of Q-DOS.

• 1.0

ReadRight (1989) 0 Document DOS

ReadRight 2.0 is a software OCR application for IBM PC computers. It has built in support for a number of scanners, and can OCR from existing graphics files. It recognizes a number of different fonts, font sizes, supports text columns, and can output to a number of different formats. time, other OCR tools used specialized hardware accelerator cards to achieve acceptable performance.

• 2.0

Ready Set GO (1986) 0 Publishing MacOS

Ready Set GO, from Manhattan Graphics Corporation, is a desktop publishing program for the Apple Macintosh. It competed against Mac Publisher, Scoop, Quark Xpress, and PageMaker.

• 3
• 4.5
• 6.0

ScreenExtender (1992) 0 Utility DOS

ScreenExtender is a series of add-on software enhancements for popular word processors such as WordStar and WordPerfect. ScreenExtender increases the amount of text that is visible on the screen at one time. It does this by enabling smaller text characters at higher resolutions. Such text modes, up to 160 columns and 58 rows, are commonly possible with VGA adapters, but ScreenExtender can even extract extra screen real-estate on CGA, EGA, and MGA/Hercules graphics cards.

• 2.0

Sidekick (1984) 2 Utility PIM DOS OS2 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.x
• Plus
• 1.0 for OS/2
• 2.0
• 1.0 for Windows
• 2.0 for Windows

Sideways (1985) 0 Spreadsheet Utility DOS

Sideways is a printing utility that enables you to print a spreadsheet sideways (landscape) when using a graphics printer. While that might seem like a common basic function these days, this is something that early spreadsheets lacked. Using continuous form (tractor feed) paper, a Sideways printout may seamlessly span multiple pages without having to tape or glue pages together. Sideways was sometimes bundled with spreadsheet products. "Sideways leaves no text un-turned".

• 3.11
• 3.3

SoftLogic Disk Optimizer (1987) 0 Utility DOS

Disk Optimizer, from SoftLogic Solutions Inc., was a low cost disk defragmentation utility that competed directly against the Norton Utilities. Like other disk optimizers, it re-arranges where files are stored on a hard drive to decrease file access time. It was, however, not as full featured or robust as the Norton Utilities.

• 2.x

Software Bridge (1989) 0 Utility DOS

Software Bridge is a set of executable word processor file converters. It can convert between a large number of word processors while preserving formatting.

• 3.x

Springboard Certificate Maker (1986) 0 Publishing DOS

Certificate Maker, from Springboard, is a fun little program for printing a variety of styled certificates on your dot-matrix printer. You must refer to the manual to see what the templates look like, as it provides no on screen preview. Award Maker seems to be an offshoot of this product.

• 1

Springboard The Newsroom (1985) 0 Publishing DOS

"The Newsroom" is a very simplified desktop publishing program aimed at novices and children. It uses a simplified step-by-step interface similar to the original "The Print Shop", and bundles a variety of fun clipart images. requires a PC or PCJr with one floppy drive, CGA, and 128K of ram. Additionally, there were versions for the Apple II, and Commodore 64. transfer documents between any two instances of The Newsroom, even between the IBM/Apple/C64 platforms.

• 1985
• Pro 1989

Stardock Object Desktop (1996) 0 Utility OS2

Object Desktop is a set of utilities for OS/2 power users. It provides a number of visual enhancements, define hotkeys, an improved editor, desktop configuration backup, archive management, system help advisors, and system backup.

• 1.5.x

StarProof Bridge (1984) 0 Word Processor Utility DOS

The StarProof Bridge is a utility that enabled IBM Word Proof to work with WordStar documents.

• 1.00

StepWay Desktop Publisher (1994) 0 Graphics Publishing DOS

StepWay Desktop Publisher is a very low-end budget graphics editor and desktop publisher for DOS. It appears to have been targeted at new computer users and educational markets. The StepWay software is considered "modular", with additional functionality added in separate modules, sold separately. The separate modules they sold included Desktop Publisher, Art Shop, To Do List, Checkbook, Banner, Cookbook, Home Inventory, Greeting Cards, Mail List, and Calendar.

• 1.x

System Commander (1996) 0 Utility DOS

System commander, from V Communications, Inc, was a commercial boot manager for PCs. It offered a graphical menu and the ability to hide other partitions from the selected OS. It supported a variety of OSes including DOS, Windows 9x, Windows NT/2000, Linux, OS/2, and various Unixes.

• 2.x
• 3.x
• Deluxe 4.00
• 2000 (5.x)

The Program Director (1989) 0 Utility DOS

The Program Director is a tiny little customizable menuing program. It was sold commercially as budget software.

• 1989

ToyBox Menu Manager / Magic Desk (1992) 0 Utility DOS

ToyBox II, later renamed to Magic Desk, is a simplified graphical menu system that lets you launch your DOS applications from a selection of tiled iconic buttons. Supports nested hierarchies, includes an icon editor, and a number of common icons.

• 2.x
• 3.x (Magic Desk)

Trend Micro Chip Away (1993) 0 Utility DOS

Released in the early 90s by the Japanese company Trend Micro Devices, Inc (later just Trend Micro), Chip Away Viruses is a DOS based virus scanner that is intended to run from a hardware product built in to a PC motherboard before the system boots. It includes a custom embeddable DOS (called X-DOS), but it can be run from regular DOS. Trend Micro also produced the products PC Rx (A regular software virus scanner), and PC-cillin (a hardware/software combo that keeps critical boot information in a special device). Users sometimes misinterpreted the name "ChipAway Virus" as being a virus itself.

• 2.x

TypeReader (1992) 0 Document Windows

Type Reader, from ExperVision, is an optical character recognition program that features the ability to correctly format complex documents, and the ability to export to a large number of different programs. TypeReader competed with OmniPage.

• 1.x

Video Tape File System (1991) 0 Utility Reference DOS

Video Tape File System is a database program that you can use to organize your VHS video tapes. You can sort by title, actor, or category, print labels, and print a complete reference. It includes a top 100 movie reviews, can retrieve movie review information from Prodigy, and it includes 50 colored labels to get you started. There were version for Apple II and IBM PC.

• Plus

Whereabouts Deluxe (1991) 0 Novelty DOS

Whereabouts Deluxe flashes a fun, animated, and colorful messages on your PC that tells people your whereabouts. Choose one of 11 bright messages from each volume or create your own custom message.

• 1.x

WinDelete (1994) 0 Utility Windows

WinDelete, from IMSI, is a Windows 3.1 tool for uninstalling unwanted software and cleaning the system.

• 1.0a
• 3.0

WindowDOS (1987) 0 Utility DOS

WindowDOS is a pop-up TSR utility that enables DOS users to run DOS commands and perform file management while they are still running other applications. It can search for files, password lock a system, view files, and send special printer control codes to change printer text modes.

• 2.x

Windows Resource Kit (1991) 7 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

Wired for Sound (1992) 0 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

Word for Word (1989) 0 Utility DOS Windows

Word for Word is a document converter that features the ability to convert multiple documents automatically, while retaining as much formatting as possible.

• 4.x (DOS)
• 6.x (Win)