IBM Typing Tutor (1981) 3 Education DOS Other

IBM Typing Tutor is an educational program sold by IBM alongside their original IBM PC. The software itself was licensed from Microsoft, and is notable as being one of only two known commercial programs that were sold for the IBM PC on cassette tape. (The other being IBM PC Diagnostics )

• 1.00

VisiCalc (1982) 6 Spreadsheet Other

VisiCalc was the first spreadsheet program for personal computers. It was extremely successful, and pivotal as it was significantly responsible for moving personal computing out of the realm of hobbyists and in to the realm of serious business tools. application suite that also included VisiWord, VisiFile, VisiSpell, VisiTrend/Plot, VisiSchedule and VisiTutor. a GUI based environment. But that did not catch on. The similarly named Visi On Calc spreadsheet is not at all related to VisiCalc, and later had to be renamed to Visi On Plan.

• Advanced Apple III

Lotus 1-2-3 (1983) 58 Spreadsheet Windows

Lotus 1-2-3 was an early spreadsheet application available for MS-DOS. It became extremely popular in the late 1980s, displacing the former leader VisiCalc. Lotus had difficulties adapting 1-2-3 to the Windows environment, and was overtaken by Microsoft Excel. Spreadsheet functionality was also included in Lotus Symphony. Later versions were included in Lotus SmartSuite.

• 1.x (Win)
• 4.x (Win)
• 5.x (Win)
• 97 (Win)
• 9.5 (Office)
• 9.0 (Win)
• 9.1 (Win)
• 9.5 (Win)

Norton Utilities (1983) 38 Utility Windows

The Norton Utilities is a suite of disk and system utilities designed to enhance system performance and stability. It started off as a set of disk utilities written by Peter Norton, and later was sold by Symantec. It competed against Central Point PC Tools and the Mace Utilities. In 2003, Norton Utilities was merged with Norton SystemWorks, but later split back out.

• 1.0 (95) for Win
• 2.0 (95) for Win
• for NT 4.0
• 3.0 for Win
• 4.0 for Win
• 2001 for Win

Cdex Training for the VisiCalc Program (1983) 0 Education Other

Released by Cdex in 1983, this is an interactive training program that will teach you how to use VisiCalc. Cdex also sold training programs for WordStar, SuperCalc, EasyWriter ||, The IBM Personal Computer, and The Apple //e Personal Computer. There were versions for both the IBM PC an Apple II.

• 1983

Cdex Managing Your Business With the Lotus 1-2-3 Program (1983) 0 Education Other

Managing Your Business With the Lotus 1-2-3 Program is an on-disk training system that focuses on the practical application of analyzing your business's performance while using the Lotus 1-2-3 spreadsheet. It includes quizzes, exercises, and sample spreadsheet templates.

• 1983

Sidekick (1984) 15 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

99/4 Auto Spell-Check (1984) 2 Utility Other

99/4 Auto Spell Check, by Dragonslayer ASC, is a spell checker for the TI-99/4A home computer with disk system.

• 1984

Microsoft Excel (1985) 61 Spreadsheet Windows OS2 MacOS

Excel, from Microsoft, is a powerful spreadsheet application for Mac, Windows, and OS/2. Excel was first released for the Mac. When it was ported to Windows 2.x, they started at version "2.0" to one up current Mac version. There was never a DOS version. Instead, DOS and 8-bit platforms used the older Microsoft Multiplan. Excel was later bundled as part of Microsoft Office

• 2.0
• 2.1
• 3.x
• 4.x
• 5.x
• 95 (7.0)
• 97/98 (8.0)

PC Tools (1985) 18 Utility Windows

PC Tools, from Central Point Software, is a system and disk utility suite similar to the Norton Utilities. Central Point also produced a similar set of tools for the Apple Macintosh known as MacTools. Central Point Backup, bundled as part of PC-Tools, was also offered as a standalone product.

• 2.0 for Windows

XTree (1985) 18 Utility Windows

XTree is an easy to use text-mode file manager. It pioneered the use of a GUI-like hierarchy tree, and provides many integrated file viewers. It competed against many other file managers including Gazelle Q-DOS and Norton Commander

• Gold for Windows 4.0

Ability (1985) 6 Word Processor Spreadsheet Presentations Communications Database Windows

Originally released in 1984 by the Canadian company Xanaro that went bankrupt, and then by Migent, Ability is an integrated office suite for DOS that includes word processor, spreadsheet, database, telecommunications, business graphing, presentation graphics capabilities, and built in file management. It features good integration between the different components, with the ability to import, share, and dynamically update data between them. It was advertised as a very easy to use and a quick to learn system.

• 1.5 for Windows
• 2000
• 2002

MG Advanced Diagnostic (1985) 1 Utility Other

MG Advanced Diagnostic is a floppy disk editor and diagnostic tool. Released in 1985 by Millers GraphicsFor the TI-99/4a with CorComp 9900 disk controller

• 1985

Quark Catalyst (1985) 2 Utility Other

Quark Catalyst is an Apple II utility that enabled moving applications, including copy protected applications, from 5.25" floppy disks to 3.5" floppy disks or hard disks, and provides launcher menu shell. As of version 3.0 the user interface was revamped to mimic the appearance of the Macintosh Finder. To appease software publishers, the Quark Catalyst software itself is copy protected.

• 3.0

Microsoft Works (1986) 44 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

Norton Commander (1986) 78 Utility Windows

Norton Commander is a MS-DOS based file shell that was widely popular due to it's two column design. You could easily copy and move files between one folder or another, execute DOS commands and more. It competed against many other file managers including Gazelle Q-DOS and Xtree

• 1.x (Win)
• 2.x (Win)

AppleWorks (1986) 8 Word Processor Spreadsheet Presentations Graphics Communications Database Other

AppleWorks is an all-in-one Word Processor, Spreadsheet, Database, Graphics Editor, and Presentations tool. The original product was a text-based product for the Apple II. The Apple Macintosh and Windows versions were forked from ClarisWorks in 1998 by Apple. At the time, Apple was under a lot of pressure to have a direct alternative to Microsoft Office. There were serious concerns that Microsoft might pull Microsoft Office for the Macintosh from development.

• 2.x (Apple II)

FontWorks (1986) 1 Utility Publishing Other

FontWorks is a utility that prints documents using high quality fonts on a dot-matrix printer. It was commonly sold as a companion product to AppleWorks on the Apple II. It can print sideways, it includes a number of high quality fonts, and includes a font editor.

• 2.x

RightWriter (1987) 3 Utility Windows

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.

• 5.0 for Windows

Quattro Pro (1987) 9 Spreadsheet Windows DOS

Quattro Pro, initially just named "Quattro", is a spreadsheet application from Borland International. It competed against Lotus 1-2-3 and Excel, and had several advantages including tabbed sheets, and the ability to handle up to a million rows. Quattro Pro was the subject a lawsuit by Lotus, simply because because Quattro Pro copied their menu user interface, but Lotus claimed this was not allowed. This also affected The Twin and VP-Planner.

• 1.0 (Win)
• 5.x
• 6.x (Win)

Micrografx Portfolio (1987) 10 Utility Graphics Windows

Micrografx Portfolio is a Windows 1.x preview and clipboard tool for use with Micrografx Clip art. It previews clipart on the screen and lets the user copy items to the clipboard, or export them to Micrografx Windows Draw and Micrografx In-A-Vision/Desginer. They can also be used with Micrografx Windows Graph. Clip art can be converted with Micrografx Windows Convert

• 1.0

IBM PS2 Collegiate Kit (1987) 1 Utility DOS Windows

The IBM PS2 Collegiate Kit is a set of floppy disks that contain a system tutorial and a runtime of Windows 1.04 with a PS/2 mouse driver. It was included with some PS/2 machines as an educational promotional deal.

• 1.00

Direct Access (1988) 4 Utility Windows

Direct Access is an easy to use menuing program designed to simplify access to applications on systems with many programs loaded on the hard drive. It is customizable, includes screen blanking, and includes password protection and usage logging. Later versions also detect common programs already installed on the hard disk.

• 1.0 (Win)

Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing (1988) 1 Education Windows

An interactive typing tutor for the IBM PC that uses a variety of entertaining learning styles.

• 4.x

Micrografx Windows Convert (1988) 1 Utility Windows

Micrografx Windows Convert is a simple utility program that converts between Micrografx In-A-Vision/Designer .PIC files and AutoDesk AutoCad drawing exchange .DXF files. Includes a Windows 2.1/286 runtime.Clipart can also be used with Micrografx Graph, Micrografx Windows Draw, and Micrografx Portfolio.

• 2.x