Microsoft Exchange (1996) 1 Chat PIM Server Windows

Exchange is a proprietary e-mail and groupware server software from Microsoft for Windows Server. The first version publicly sold was Exchange Server 4.0. The number 4.0 was used as it was a replacement for Microsoft Mail 3.x. At release, unlike other desktop/lan e-mail solutions it featured client/server communications rather than using file sharing, used a powerful messaging protocol, and stored all message and address book information in a database. It eventually evolved to include scheduling and many other functions. The Exchange Client (later Microsoft Outlook) supported rich text formatting, and the ability to create such things as e-mail forms.

• 4.0
• 5.5
• 2000

Microsoft Fine Artist (1994) 2 Graphics Novelty Windows MacOS

Microsoft Fine Artist is a dumbed down Microsoft Bob-like drawing program targeted at children. It was sold alongside, and later bundled with, a word processor called Microsoft Creative Writer.

• 1.x

Microsoft FrontPage (1995) 8 Publishing Windows

Microsoft FrontPage is a WYSIWYG HTML editor/Cuisinart for Microsoft Windows.

• 1.0
• 1.1
• 97 (v2)
• 98 (v3)

Microsoft GIF Animator (1997) 2 Graphics Windows

Back before HTML 5, Flash, or fancy scripting, the only way you could be sure that you would annoy your readers was to use animated GIFs. Not wanting to disappoint, Microsoft made their own GIF creation program: GIF Construction Set. In the late 90's sprit of crushing competition, Microsoft gave it away for free. It was also bundled with Microsoft Image Composer and Microsoft FrontPage. Construction Set. Although in practice GIF Construction set worked better for building the animated GIFs, and then GIF Animator was useful for touching things up afterwards. (Mainly removing the shareware GIF Construction Set's "created by" comment text. :P )

• 1.0

Microsoft Great Greetings (1995) 0 Publishing Windows

Microsoft Great Greetings is a greeting card creation program that runs within the Microsoft BOB environment. It is unique in that it was the only retail product produced for Microsoft BOB. It is not quite the same as Microsoft's mainstream card software: Microsoft Greetings.

• 1.0

Microsoft Greetings (1997) 3 Publishing Novelty Windows

Microsoft Greetings is a greeting card maker for Microsoft Windows 9x/NT. It was made in conjunction with Hallmark.

• Workshop 2.0
• 99 (3.0)

Microsoft Office (1991) 232 Word Processor Spreadsheet Presentations Publishing PIM Database Windows MacOS

Microsoft Office is a bundle of Microsoft's productivity application. This includes Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Access and later Mail, Office Manager, and Outlook. The "1.x" versions of Microsoft Office were simply a marketing bundle of the standalone products sold together with no other packaging changes. Even though these were distinct applications, rather than one single monolithic program, they shared a similar user interface, integrated well together and shared the ability to embed documents from one application in the documents of another.

• 2.x
• 3.x
• 4.0
• 4.2
• 4.3
• 95
• 97/98
• 2000
• XP (2002 Beta)

Microsoft Outlook (1997) 7 Communications PIM Windows MacOS

Microsoft Outlook (not to be confused with Outlook Express) is an enterprise grade e-mail client. It is primarily intended for use with Microsoft Exchange Server. It was available as both a stand-alone product and as part of Microsoft Office.

• 97
• 98

Microsoft Publisher (1991) 19 Publishing Windows

Publisher is a desktop publishing tool from Microsoft geared towards ease of use with the home user. Microsoft publisher can be used to created professional looking newsletters, flyers, forms, and more. It includes guides and wizards that walk users through creation of common document types, while still offering powerful flexibility.

• 1.0
• 2.0
• 95 (3.0)
• 97 (4.0)
• 98 (5.0)

Microsoft Publisher Design Pack (1994) 0 Publishing Windows

The design pack is a set of templates and tools for use with Microsoft Publisher.

• 1

Microsoft Vizact (1999) 0 Publishing Windows

Microsoft Vizact 2000, was an application used to create HTML+TIME documents, adding effects such as animation.

• 2000

Microsoft Word (1983) 80 Word Processor Unix Windows DOS MacOS

The Microsoft Word word processor was first introduced for MS-DOS in 1983. Its design made use of a mouse and WYSIWYG graphics. Its crude WYSIWYG/mouse support was a direct response to the Apple Lisa/Mac, and VisiCorp Visi On. Initially it competed against many popular word processors such as WordStar, Multimate, and WordPerfect. Word for DOS was never really successful.

• 3.x (Unix)
• 1.x (Windows)
• 5.x (UNIX)
• 2.x (Windows)
• 6.x
• 95
• 97

Microsoft Works (1986) 47 Word Processor Spreadsheet Communications Database 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.

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

PC Paint (1984) 2 Graphics Windows

PC Paint, from Mouse Systems Corporation, is a Macintosh MacPaint-like paint program for the PC. It was often bundled with Mouse Systems mice. Despite the similar sounding name and appearance, it is NOT related to Microsoft/ZSoft PC Paintbrush.

• 3.x

PC Paintbrush (1984) 22 Graphics Windows

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

• 1.05 (Win)
• Plus 1.x (Win)

PerfectOffice (1995) 3 Word Processor Spreadsheet Presentations Graphics Database Windows

PerfectOffice is a bundle of office applications that competed head on with Microsoft Office.It bundles WordPerfect and a number of other office applications. This bundle started out as "Borland Office", was briefly known as "Novell PerfectOffice", then "Corel Office", and under Corel it later became "WordPerfect Office". (Not to be confused with the unrelated ~1990 groupware program, also called "WordPerfect Office")

• 3.0

PerfectWorks (1995) 0 Word Processor Spreadsheet Graphics Database Windows

PerfectWorks is an all-in-one word processing/spreadsheet/database/drawing program originally sold by WordPerfect Corp, and later by Novell.

• 2.x
• 3.x

Picture It! (1996) 1 Graphics Windows

Picture It!, from Microsoft, is a photo image adjustment tool for novice users. It includes a number of standard touch-up functions such as red-eye adjustment, resizing, brightness, contrast, and cropping. It can make direct use of scanners and digital cameras. All functions are presented as a dumbed down step-by step series of tabs and menus. Picture-It competed against Adobe Photodeluxe.

• 1.0
• 2.0
• 99

Policies Now! (1993) 0 Utility Publishing Windows

Policies Now is a document creation wizard that specializes in corporate policies. It provides general purpose templates with carefully constructed language that are customized via a series of questions. The results may be manually customized further with a built in text editor. accompanied by "DescriptionsWrite Now!" (A job description writing tool), and "Personal Policy Expert". These were renamed to "Policies Now!", "Description Now!", and "Policies Now! HR Pro Edition" respectively.

• 5.x

Publish Pac (1987) 0 Graphics Publishing Windows

Publish Pac is a set of drivers and a small scanning application for use with DEST scanners. It does not do much without the scanner, but it is interesting as it runs under Microsoft Windows 1. It includes a Windows 1.04 runtime, so DOS users would not have to purchase Windows.

• 2.x

PubTech File Organizer (1989) 0 Utility Publishing Windows

The PubTech File Organizer is an alternate desktop shell for Windows that attempts to mimic the Macintosh Finder. It features drive icons directly on the desktop, a Garbage icon, and folders that open in new cascaded windows with icons representing files. Applications are easily accessible from an "Applications" menu. Files and programs may be placed directly on the File Organizer desktop. In many ways, it is similar to the Windows 95 desktop, but the earlier versions work under Windows 2!

• 2.11
• 3.10

Schedule+ (1990) 1 PIM Windows MacOS

Schedule Plus is a calendar/personal information manager. It is designed to operate using a shared network Microsoft Mail "mailbox" over a LAN.

• 1.x

Sidekick (1984) 8 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) 1 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

Softkey/WordStar PC Paintbrush (1993) 2 Graphics Windows

Softkey/WordStar's PC Paintbrush is a paint program and photo editor for Windows 3.x. It only somewhat resembles Zsoft PC Paintbrush but is basically re-branded Zsoft PhotoFinish, released after Zsoft was bought out. It was initially sold by WordStar International, and then later SoftKey.

• 1.x