Sidekick (1984) 28 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) 4 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

Stardock Object Desktop (1996) 4 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) 1 Word Processor Utility DOS

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

• 1.00

System Commander (1996) 15 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) 4 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) 9 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) 4 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

Video Tape File System (1991) 1 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) 1 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) 1 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) 63 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) 2 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)

WordPerfect Library (1998) 1 Utility Editor PIM DOS

WordPerfect Library, introduced in 1986 and later renamed WordPerfect Office (not to be confused with Corel's Windows office suite of the same name), was a package of DOS network and stand-alone utility software for use with WordPerfect. The package included a DOS menu shell and file manager, whose macros allowed text to be moved from one program to another (for example, from WordPerfect to Calendar, and vice versa), a do-all editor, apparently that of Wordperfect 3.0, which could edit binary files as well as WordPerfect or Shell macros, calendar, and a general purpose flat file database program that could be used as the data file for a merge in WordPerfect and as a contact manager.

• 2.0

WordPerfect Office (Groupware) (1990) 2 Utility Editor PIM DOS

WordPerfect Office, from WordPerfect Corp, is a groupware utility that includes a menu shell, text editor, calendar, calculator, notebook, and file manager. It is unrelated to the later Corel office suite by the same name. Earlier versions were known as WordPerfect Library.

• 3.0

Xerox Rooms for Windows (1991) 0 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

XtraDrive (1993) 1 Utility DOS

XtraDrive is a hard drive compression program that competed against programs like Stacker and SuperStor. XtraDrive was slightly slower, but was priced lower. before DOS and intercepts disk writes at the BIOS level. This allows many disk utilities to work that otherwise would not. Unlike the other drive compression programs at the time, XtraDrive features easy de-installation.

• 3.0