Word for Word (1989) 0 Utility DOS

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)

DiskLock (1993) 0 Utility DOS Windows

DiskLock, From Fifth Generation Systems, and later from Symantec as Norton DiskLock, is a data security tool that can lock a hard disk or individual files or directories so that it requires a password to access any data. It can also log activity to detect unauthorized access attempts. It also features the ability to lock the system after an idle usage period. There were versions for PC and Mac.

• 2.x
• 3.x

QAPlus (1989) 0 Utility DOS

QAPlus is an extensive set of tools to test the functionality of a PC, measure performance, and optimize the configuration. It can test motherboard resources, RAM, video cards, I/O ports, and floppy drives. Later versions supported Microsoft Windows. It competed with tools like Checkit and AMI Diagnostics.

• 3.x

Norton Desktop (1991) 1 Utility DOS

Norton Desktop is a powerful desktop shell and file manager bundled with many additional tools. There are versions for both DOS and Microsoft Windows.

• 1.0 for DOS

Autodesk AutoCAD (1984) 5 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)

FastBack (1986) 0 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

Autodesk Animator Pro (1993) 2 Graphics DOS

First released in 1989, AutoDesk Animator was a DOS-based professional animation tool. It could create full motion animations using VGA 320*200 256 color resolutions. It supports a number of animation techniques, and includes a freely redistributable animation player. It saves animations to the .FLI or "QuickFlick" format. This format was extremely popular during the very early 90s, and was one of the few that could do 256 colors, including pallet manipulation.

• 1.x

CheckIt (1988) 14 Utility DOS

CheckIt, from TouchStone Software Corporation, is a diagnostic tool for generic PC/XT/AT compatible computers. It can perform tests on RAM, hard disks, video cards, floppy disks, motherboard resources, and I/O devices. It has an easy to use menu interface but can also run tests non-interactively. It was followed up by the product WINCheckit.

• 1.x
• 2.1
• 3.0
• LAN 2.x
• Pro 1.x

Freelance Graphics (1985) 1 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)

3D FloorPlan Designer (1993) 0 Graphics DOS

3D FloorPlan is a 3-dimensional architectural and space planning program for small business professionals and home users. The user may design a home addition or remodel in 2D and FloorPlan automatically converts the drawing into 3D. The user can then walk through the 3D model in real time.

• 2.0

Autodesk Deck (1993) 0 Graphics DOS

Autodesk Deck is a stripped down CAD program that contains pre-defined objects specifically for designing deck layouts.

• 2.0

Conner Backup Basics (1993) 0 Utility DOS

Conner Backup Basics is a dumbed down version of Conner Backup Exec that only works with their tape drives. This software will not run at all without the appropriate tape drive attached.

• 1.1 (DOS)

Norton Backup (1990) 0 Utility DOS

Norton Backup, from Symantec, is a fast and easy to use backup tool for MS-DOS. The original 1.0 suffered from reliability problems, but these were fixed in 1.1. It does not include a backup scheduler. It competed against backup utilities such as PC Tools Deluxe PC Backup, Taketwo Manager, Gazelle Systems Back-It, Backup Pro, FastBack Plus, and Keep Track Plus.

• 1.x
• 2.x

Memory Commander (1992) 3 Utility DOS

Memory Commander, from V Communications, Inc, is a memory manager similar to QEMM or 386MAX, but can expand the DOS base memory beyond 640K with some kinds of applications.

• 3.x
• 4.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

Change Directory Plus (1993) 0 Utility DOS

Change Directory Plus is a small commercial utility distributed with Softdisk publishing's Big Blue Disk magazine. It indexes all folders on your hard drive, and permits you to change in to a deep subdirectory simply by specifying the final subdirectories name.

• 1.x

Back-It (1986) 0 Utility DOS

Back-It, from Gazelle Systems, is a fast and compact hard disk backup utility. It was sometimes part of OEM system bundles. It was kind of low-end, and changed backup formats between releases but otherwise did what it was supposed to do.

• 2.x
• 3.x
• 4.x

RIPaint (1993) 0 Graphics DOS

RIPaint is a tool for creating Remote Imaging Protocol vector graphics to be displayed over BBS/telnet using terminal emulators such as RIPTerm. quickly by the rise of the World Wide Web.

• 1.x

Pizazz Plus (1993) 0 Graphics DOS

Pizazz Plus is a commercial screen shot utility for MS-DOS, with support for Windows. It features built in image enhancement, card-specific support for a large number of video cards, built-in printing with support for a huge number of printers, and converter export tools for many file formats.

• 4.0

Vertisoft SpaceManager (1993) 0 Graphics DOS Windows

SpaceManager, from Vertisoft, the authors of DoubleDisk which became Microsoft DoubleSpace, is a utility that adds more features to DoubleSpace. It adds access to additional compression methods to get better compression at the expense of CPU speed, can bypass compression for files that do not compress well, automatically schedule a drive recompression, automatically mounts compressed floppy disks, and shows drive usage details and compression statistics.

• 1.5x

DECTalk PC (1993) 0 Utility DOS

DECTalk was a text to speech system used in automated telephone, radio, and TV systems. It was notably used as an artificial voice by Stephen Hawking. Most DECTalk devices were standalone serial devices, however DEC did produce an ISA expansion card for the IBM PC that contained this functionality. This software is required to operate these ISA cards.

• 4.x

XtraDrive (1993) 0 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

myHouse (1993) 0 Graphics DOS

myHouse is a simplistic easy to use CAD program that is specifically geared towards generating home layouts. It uses 2-D editing and features the ability to render the final product in 3-D.

• 1.x

Computer Shopper FastFiler (1993) 0 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

RightWriter (1987) 0 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