Brief (1988) 8 Editor DOS

Brief is a text editor primarily aimed at programmers and designed to edit source code. Originally written by UnderWare Inc., and briefly sold under Solutions System / SLR Systems, Brief was later sold under Borland. Features included multiple windows, regular expression searching, extremely large file support, and high customizability.

• 2.x
• 3.x

Computer Shopper FastFiler (1993) 1 Utility DOS

FastFiler, from Ziff-Davis Publishing Company and Strange Software LTD, is a rudimentary easy to use file manager shell. It was sold alongside Computer Shopper magazines. While it offers a friendlier interface than the DOS command prompt, it has fewer features and abilities than competing file managers.

• 1.x

Failsafe Computer Guardian (1992) 0 Utility DOS

Failsafe Computer Guardian is a DOS TSR utility that prevents programs or other users from accessing or making changes to designated files on the hard drive. It includes password control, user groups, logging, keyboard locking, screen blanking, and support for Microsoft windows. Notably, it can do all of this with minimal DOS memory overhead, only 14k of RAM.

• 1.x

FastBack (1986) 3 Utility DOS

Fastback, by Fifth Generation Systems, Inc, is a backup utility for DOS. Its key feature is that it can read and write both a floppy disk and hard disk at the same time by making use of dual-channel DMA. Combined with speedy data compression, it can make a very fast backup.

• 5.x
• Plus 1.x
• Plus 2.x
• Plus 3.x
• Plus 6.x

FastTrax (1987) 2 Utility DOS

FastTrax is a disk optimization program for MS-DOS on IBM PC computers. It rearranges and defragments files to make file access faster.

• 3.x
• 4.x

FileCommand (1983) 5 Utility DOS

FileCommand is an alternate DOS shell from IBM. The user interface is based on the IBM 3081/3084 mainframe VM/CMS Fulist/Filelist tool. It provides an on-screen file list, and a command area, but uses its own command set. Although advertised as friendlier DOS shell for general PC users, most users would likely find it confusing unless they had prior experience with Fulist.

• 1.00
• II

FirsTime (1985) 2 Editor DOS

FirsTime is a source code editor that is aware of a program's syntax and helps guide you as you create code. It highlights the current relevant sections of code, has customizable macros, and alerts you to certain kinds of errors.

• 1.x

Flu-Shot Plus (1988) 2 Utility DOS

Flu-Shot Plus (usually written Flu-Shot+) is a tiny tool that prevents unwanted reading and writing to boot sectors and specified files on a hard disk or floppy disk. The package flaunts its ability to block virus spreading, but despite this, it is not a virus scanner, and can not detect or remove viruses.

• 1x

GOfer (1987) 1 Utility Document DOS

GOfer is a desktop search tool capable of searching many document formats. It loads as a TSR and can be called while other programs are running. It support multiple word search, operators, and inexact searches. It does not use an index, that makes it slower but requires no additional disk space.

• 1.0

hTest-hFormat (1998) 1 Utility DOS

hTest-hFormat is a set of disk tools for low level formatting, and testing hard disk drives. Include a performance analyzer, interleave optimizer, partition tool, and tools for reading and writing individual sectors.

• 2.0

IBM Fixed Disk Organizer (1984) 2 Utility DOS

IBM Fixed Disk Organizer is a simple menu program for DOS. It was marketed by IBM for use on their IBM XT. Using this shell, you will no longer have to repeatedly muddle through DOS commands to get to your commonly accessed applications. You can customize your menu items, and organize them in customizable categories. It also lets you set a password for menu items, and you may customize the screen colors. While there were many, many better menuing programs produced for DOS, Fixed Disk Organizer was a standard IBM offering.

• 1.00

IBM Personal System/2 Software Sampler (1987) 0 Utility DOS

The IBM Personal System/2 Software Sampler is a set of tiny and fairly useless sample applications bundled with some IBM PS/2 computers. It includes three disks, Education, Entertainment, and Personal Productivity.

• 1.x

IBM Professional Editor (1982) 6 Word Processor Editor DOS

Professional Editor is an early editor for the IBM PC. It makes extensive use of function keys, has user definable macros, and can work with files larger than available RAM. You WILL need to read the manual to use this!

• 1.00
• II

IBM Word Proof (1983) 6 Utility DOS

IBM Word Proof is a stand-alone spell checker for the IBM PC with a list of over 125,000 standard English words. It can also find synonyms and anagrams, and features a built-in full screen editor. You may add your own specialized words to its list.

• 1.00

InfoSpotter (1990) 0 Utility DOS

InfoSpotter is a system information reporting and diagnostic tool that reports detailed configuration information about your computer and the software it is running. It can provide detailed information about IRQ and DMA usage, system interrupts, loaded DOS drivers, EMS and XMS usage, and more. It has the interesting ability to show a memory dump of programs or drivers loaded in to memory.

• 2.5

McAfee VirusScan (1995) 2 Utility DOS Windows OS2

McAfee VirusScan was a very popular and reliable virus scanner during the late 90s. Notably, they distributed a free shareware version of their product. VirusScan was often pre-loaded with OEM computers.

• 2.x
• 4.x

Memory Shift (1983) 1 Utility DOS

Memory Shift is a very early task switching program for DOS. It operates by "partitioning" the computer's memory and loading different applications in to each partition. It can then switch between each application and share data between applications.

• 2.0

Microsoft MS-DOS Manager (1987) 3 Utility DOS

MS-DOS Manager is a friendly file manager shell provided through OEMs for use with MS-DOS 3.x. It was bundled with systems from Zenith, 3COM, and others. It is similar in operation to the Windows 1.x and 2.x MS-DOS Executive. single or split screen file list (but no drag-and-drop), files may be viewed with details or as a compact list, supports associating file type with external applications, and programs installed on your computer are easily added to an "Applications" dropdown menu.

• 1.00

Microsoft Spell (1984) 0 Word Processor Utility DOS

Microsoft Spell is a spell checking application intended for use with Microsoft Word 1.x for DOS. You can also use it as a standalone program. Microsoft Spell 1.0 was available for purchase by itself, but later versions were bundled with Microsoft Word for DOS.

• 1.0

PC Magazine Labs Performance Tests (1991) 2 Utility DOS Windows OS2

These disks contain Hardware and Graphics tests from 1990 for Microsoft Windows 2, and OS/2 1.x Presentation Manager.

• 1.x

PC World PowerBase/Best Of Star-Dot-Star (1988) 3 Utility DOS

PC World PowerBase/Best Of Star-Dot-Star is a set of user contributed utilities and tips. These 5.25" floppy disks were distributed alongside the PC-World magazine as a supplement to their long running Star-Dot-Star column.

• Vol I
• Vol II
• Vol III
• Vol VI
• Vol V
• Vol IV

PC-Fullbak (1988) 0 Utility DOS

PC-Fullbak was a small low-cost hard drive backup program that aggressively competed head-on against Fifth Generation Systems Fastback. It was comparatively speedy, and supported appending to existing backups. under the name "PC-FullbakEZ". There were also versions for the Macintosh.

• 2.x

PFS Preface (1990) 2 Utility DOS

PFS Preface is a menu system and file manager for DOS that uses an interface style similar to other PFS products.

• 1.00

PFS Proof (1984) 4 Utility DOS

PFS:Proof is a stand-alone spell checker that is compatible with PFS:Write documents, and part of the low-cost PFS office suite.

• Axx
• Bxx

PowerSOFT Super Utility (1985) 1 Utility DOS

PowerSOFT Super Utility is a disk editing utility that was originally developed for the TRS-80. It includes disk mapping, hexadecimal sector editing, directory editing, and sector copying.

• 1.00