Microsoft Works (1986) 161 Word Processor Spreadsheet Communications Database DOS

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)
• 3.x (DOS)

dBASE (1983) 91 Database DOS Windows

Ashton-Tate dBase was an early popular database management system for CP/M and MS-DOS. It was regarded as one of the killer applications for CP/M, and achieved good success. At the time of conception Ashton-Tate was a garage based company but quickly grew.

• II v2.x
• III v1.0
• III v1.1
• III Plus v1.0
• III Plus v1.1
• IV v1.0
• IV v1.1
• IV v1.5
• IV v2.0
• 5.x

Lotus 1-2-3 (1983) 81 Spreadsheet DOS

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
• 4.x (DOS)

Instant Artist / Print Artist (1992) 52 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)

Procomm Plus (1985) 50 Communications DOS

ProComm, from Datastorm technologies, was a powerful and very popular telecommunications program for DOS and Windows. TERMULATOR, written to fill the gap left by shareware PC-Talk when its author died. protocols for uploading and downloading, and automatic redial. The commercial "ProComm Plus" includes a scripting language, more terminal types, additional file transfer protocols, context sensitive help, support for 8 COM ports, and a professionally written manual (telecommunications)](/product/microsoft_access_business_information_access_program), Crosstalk, Relay Gold, and PFS Access. Later, it competed with QModem and Telemate.

• 1.1 (shareware)
• 1.1
• 2.x (Shareware)
• 2.x

Quattro Pro (1987) 34 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)

Autodesk AutoCAD (1984) 23 Graphics Engineering DOS

AutoCAD, from Autodesk and first released in 1982, is a powerful Computer Aided Design tool. It was, and still is, often considered the standard for CAD tools. Primarily for the IBM PC platform, it was ported to x86 machines with higher video resolutions such as the Zenith Z-100 and NEC APC. Intermittently, versions for the Macintosh appeared. Later versions use a dongle copy protection.

• 1.x (DOS)
• 2.x (DOS)
• r10 (DOS)
• r11 (DOS)

LapLink (1987) 22 Communications DOS

LapLink, from Traveling Software Inc., enables users to easily and quickly move files between two DOS computers using only a serial null-modem cable or a special parallel port connector. No other hardware is needed. Laplink was extremely popular.during the late 80s and early 90s. It was infinitely easier to set up any two arbitrary PCs (often portables or laptops) with LapLink than other methods, such as DOS based networking. MS-DOS 6 bundled a similar set of file transfer tools called INTERLNK and INTERSVR.

• 2.x
• 3.x
• 4.x
• 5.x

Turbo Pascal Toolbox (1985) 19 DOS CPM

The Borland Turbo Pascal Toolbox consists of several sets of sample source code for different purposes. They are designed for use in conjunction with the Turbo Pascal Compiler product. The sets include Turbo Graphix Toobox, Turbo Database Toolbox, Turbo GameWorks Tooolbox (new in 1986 with TP 3), and Turbo Editor Toolbox (new in 1986 with TP 3). Also see the Turbo Pascal Tutor.

• 1.x
• 4.0

Smartcom (1989) 14 Communications DOS

Hayes Smartcom is an easy to use communications program geared toward beginners. Hayes was a well known and popular maker of hardware modem products, and sold Smartcom alongside their hardware as a complementary product.

• II
• EZ

PC-File (1984) 12 Database DOS

PC-File is a simple flat file database management program for DOS. PC-File, along with PC-Write, and PC-Talk were the first popular products sold under the "Shareware" concept.

• III 2.0
• III 4.0
• Plus
• 5.x
• 6.x
• 7.x

IBM Storyboard (1985) 12 Graphics DOS

IBM Storyboard is a presentation, charting, and animation program that was part of IBM's standard office products during the 1980s. First released in 1985, 1.00 only supports the IBM PC with CGA graphics. Later versions, including "Storyboard Plus" and "Storyboard Live", added EGA and VGA support and video capture. It competed against slideshow programs such as Show-Partner FX.

• 1.x
• Plus 1.x
• Live 1.0
• Live 2.0

AutoSketch (1987) 10 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)

FastLynx (1990) 9 Communications DOS

FastLynx, originally called FastWire, is a high-speed file transfer program that operates on two computers connected together via a serial nullmodem or special parallel port cable. It competed against similar file transfer programs such as LapLink.

• 1.x
• 2.x

Multiplan (1983) 8 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

PFS First Choice (1987) 8 Word Processor Spreadsheet Presentations Database DOS

PFS First Choice is a simple, easy to use integrated office suite marketed towards new users. It includes a word processor, spreadsheet, graphics, database, and telecommunications. First Choice is similar to, but not as feature rich as, the standalone PFS office products. It competed against AlphaWorks/LotusWorks and Microsoft Works.

• 1.x
• 2.x
• 3.x

Harvard Graphics (1986) 7 Graphics DOS

Harvard Graphics, from Software Publishing Corporation and initially called Harvard Presentation Graphics, is a graphing/plotting/presentation creation application for DOS. It was extremely popular in the late 1980s. At release, it competed against many graphing products such as PFS:Graph (AKA IBM Graphing Assistant ), Microsoft Chart, ChartMaster, and Cricket Graph, just to name a small few. A Windows port was released in 1991, but it lost out to Microsoft Powerpoint.

• A.00
• A.01
• 2.x
• 3.x

PrintMaster (1985) 7 Graphics DOS

Print Master was another sign and banner creation program similar to The Print Shop. The earlier version got in to trouble for looking too much like the Print Shop.

• 1.0
• Plus 2.0
• Gold 1.0 (DOS)

VisiCalc (1982) 7 Spreadsheet DOS

VisiCalc was the first spreadsheet program for personal computers. It was extremely successful, and pivotal as it was significantly responsible for moving personal computing out of the realm of hobbyists and in to the realm of serious business tools. application suite that also included VisiWord, VisiFile, VisiSpell, VisiTrend/Plot, and VisiTutor. a GUI based environment. But that did not catch on. The similarly named Visi On Calc spreadsheet is not at all related to VisiCalc, and later had to be renamed to Visi On Plan.

• 1.x
• IV
• Advanced IBM

FormTool (1985) 7 Database DOS

FormTool is an easy to use form creation and data entry application.

• 1.x
• 2.x

Microsoft Paintbrush (1987) 6 Graphics DOS

Microsoft Paintbrush is Microsoft's OEM version of Zsoft PC/Publisher's Paintbrush for MS-DOS. It was commonly bundled with Microsoft mice in the late 80s and early 90s.

• 2.0
• 4.0

PC Paintbrush (1984) 6 Graphics DOS

ZSoft PC Paintbrush is a bitmap drawing program visually similar to MacPaint. The earlier DOS versions were often bundled with Microsoft and Microsoft compatible mice, and were notable for supporting a huge variety of video adapters. It competed against Mouse Systems PC Paint (not related despite the similar name). ZSoft PC Paintbrush eventually became Microsoft Paintbrush included in Windows 3.x. For Microsoft's rebranded version see Microsoft Mouse and Microsoft Paintbrush

• 2.x (DOS)
• 3.x (DOS)
• Plus 1.x (DOS)
• IV (DOS)

Freelance Graphics (1985) 6 Presentations Graphics DOS

GCI/Lotus/IBM Freelance Graphics is a vector based presentation and graphing package developed for DOS, OS/2, and Windows. It was intended for use alongside Lotus 1-2-3. Later versions were part of SmartSuite. Before it was acquired by Lotus it was known Freelance, from Graphic Communications.

• 1.0 (DOS)
• 2.0 (DOS)
• 4.0 (DOS)

Clarion (1989) 6 Database DOS

Clarion is an advanced user friendly 4GL DBMS and programming environment for DOS and Windows. It boasted the ability to greatly reduce application development time, featured highly integrated visual creation tools, and a powerful set of program functions.

• 2.X (DOS)
• 3.0 (DOS)
• 3.1 (DOS)

Chart-Master (1985) 6 Presentations Graphics DOS

Chart-Master, originally introduced in 1981 by Decision Resources, Inc., was the first software that could produce presentation quality graphics with a plotter on a personal computer. Decision Resources also produced Sign-Master and Diagram-Master. They were acquired by Ashton-Tate in 1986. This program was also bundled in the Master Graphics Presentation Pack.

• 6.x