Quarterdeck GameRunner (1995) 2 Utility DOS

Quarterdeck GameRunner, from Quarterdeck Corporation, is a specialized packaging of their QEMM memory management product that is specifically designed to automatically maximize the memory and speed available to known games. DOS based games of the time used a hodgepodge of memory access methods, that varied from product to product and often created conflicts. GameRunner attempts to mitigate some of this chaos by providing automatic configuration and management.

• 2.x

Quarterdeck Manifest (1988) 0 Utility DOS

Manifest is an easy to use diagnostic program that provides incredibly detailed information about DOS resource usage, loaded programs, IO devices, and memory usage including EMS, XMS, and UMB memory. It was available as a standalone program and bundled with QEMM and Deskview. Tools like this were essential for resolving compatibility problems between poorly behaved DOS programs and highly customized environments, especially in task switched or multitasking environments.

• 1.x

RightGrammar (1991) 0 Utility DOS

RightGrammar 1.0 was a short lived rebranded version of RightWriter 4.0. It is not clear why it was rebranded or if there is any difference.

• 1.0

RightWriter (1987) 3 Utility DOS

RightWriter is a grammar / structure checking utility. You can feed it a document, and it will produce a marked up copy listing high level critiques such as readability, delivery strength, and jargon. It competed with Grammatik, but RightWriter generally produced superior results.

• 2.x
• 3.x
• 3.2 for DeskMate
• 4.0

ScreenExtender (1992) 1 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

Search & Rescue (1998) 0 Utility DOS

PowerQuest Search & Rescue is an advanced file recovery tool. It operates as a set of bootable floppy disks that can scan a FAT or FAT32 hard drive, piecing together files even when partitions or file systems are damaged.

• 1.0

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

SpinRite (1988) 14 Utility DOS

SpinRite, by Gibson Research, is a tool that can diagnose, repair, and rejuvenate the low-level formatting and optimize the interleave of MFM and RLL (ST412/506 interface) hard disk drives. Its pattern testing ability is also useful for verifying the operation of SCSI and IDE hard drives.

• 1.x
• II
• 3.x
• 4.x
• 5.0

Stacker (1991) 9 Utility Archive DOS Windows

Stacker, from Stack Electronics, was a hard drive compression tool. It was wildly popular until Microsoft virtually eliminated the third party market for this by including their own drive compression tool with MS-DOS 6. and Expandz! Plus.

• 1.0 (DOS)
• 2.0 (DOS)
• 3.x (DOS)
• 4.0 (DOS)

StarBurst (1983) 0 Utility DOS

StarBurst is an office workflow process automation tool that integrates with other MicroPro products. StarBurst features a programming language and screen builder that can collect data from users, manipulate files, and control MicroPro programs such as WordStar.

• 1x

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

Super PC-Kwik (1992) 0 Utility DOS

PC-Kwik is an easy to use hard drive disk caching utility. Compared to some other caching utilities, it is easy to use, it automatically configures itself, and is less likely to cause data corruption.

• 5.x

SuperKey (1986) 8 Utility DOS

Borland SuperKey is a combination resident macro program and file encryption tool. It can record and play back keystrokes in most DOS application, enabling you to automate repetitive tasks. It also includes a file encryption tool that lets you password protect sensitive files. It was marketed alongside Borland Sidekick.

• 1.x

SuperSort (1980) 5 Utility DOS

Micropro SuperSort is a generalized and flexible sort and merge utility designed to operate at high speed on huge volumes of text-file based data. It can also be used for manipulating individual data files, doing things like reorganizing fields or changing field lengths.

• 2.x

SuperStor (1992) 1 Utility DOS

SuperStor is a drive compression program similar to Stacker, DoubleDisk or Microsoft DriveSpace. can not compress.

• Pro 2X

System Commander (1996) 10 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) 1 Utility DOS

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

• 1989

Toolworks Backup Pro (1990) 2 Utility DOS

Backup Pro, from The Software Toolworks, is an easy to use backup program for MS-DOS. It features drop down menus and mouse support. It was sometimes bundled with OEM computers, and was sold for very low cost compared to others.

• 1.x

ToyBox Menu Manager / Magic Desk (1992) 4 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)

Tree86 (1990) 0 Utility DOS

Tree86, from The Aldridge Company, is an easy to use tree-based file manager for DOS.

• 3.x

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

Turbo Lightning (1986) 0 Utility DOS

Borland's Turbo Lightning is a DOS based TSR spell checker. It can also look up Synonyms.

• 1.x

V-Print (1984) 2 Utility DOS

V-Print, from CompuView, is a printing product designed to accompany VEDIT.

• 2.x

ViruSafe (1991) 2 Utility DOS

ViruSafe is a fast, comprehensive yet easy to use virus scanner produced by the makers of XTree. It can find known viruses and monitor files for any kind of unwanted changes. It features the ability to schedule scans, and can create a "recovery" boot disk to deal with boot sector viruses.

• 4.5