Sidekick (1984) 13 Utility PIM DOS

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
• 2.0

QuickC (1987) 13 DOS

Microsoft QuickC is a C compiler with an Integrated Development Environment, designed to compete with Borland Turbo C. It was targeted at home/hobbyist users with a much lower price tag than Microsoft's corporate-oriented professional products. Microsoft also produced QuickPascal and QuickBasic with similar integrated environments.

• 1.x
• 2.x

Microsoft BASIC (1981) 13 DOS CPM OS2

Although Microsoft did not invent BASIC, their founding product was a BASIC interpreter for the Altair computer. The descendants below includes Microsoft's BASIC-80 (MBASIC), BASIC-86 (pre-GWBasic), BASIC for Mac, BASIC Compiler 86/88, Basic Compiler for Mac, and Professional Development System 7.x. IBM Personal Computer Basic Compiler, GW-BASIC, QuickBasic, and Visual Basic are listed separately.

• -86 5.x
• -86 Compiler 5.x
• Compiler 6.0
• PDS 7.0
• PDS 7.1

Borland Turbo Basic (1987) 12 DOS

Turbo BASIC is a version of Basic sold by Borland. It features an IDE similar to later Turbo Pascal/C products. After Borland stopped selling it, it was purchased back by the original author and continued under the name PowerBASIC. Borland also released a set of Turbo Basic Toolboxes

• 1.x

Professional Write (1986) 12 Word Processor DOS

Professional Write, from Software Publishing Corporation, was a popular word processor for home use during the late 80s and early 90s. It features an easy to use menu system and an integrated spell checker. Professional Write was a revamp and replacement for SPC's earlier PFS:Write.

• 1.x
• 2.x
• 3.0

ACT! (1987) 11 PIM DOS

ACT!, or "Activity Control Technology", originally from Conductor Software, and later Contact Software and then Symantec, is an easy to use business relationship management system targeted at traveling sales professionals. It can track things like billable time and expenses.

• 1.10 (DOS)

Bookshelf (1987) 11 Reference DOS

Microsoft Bookshelf is a CD-ROM based multimedia reference tool from Microsoft, including a dictionary, thesaurus, quotations, atlas, and other types of references. Some versions were included and integrated with Microsoft Office, albeit sometimes stripped down.

• 87
• 91

CheckIt (1988) 11 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

Multitasking MS-DOS 4.00 (1985) 11 DOS

Multitasking "MS-DOS 4.00" is a developmental version of MS-DOS that was never released to retail consumers. It was eventually licensed to some companies for internal use. Development started in parallel during the DOS 2.x days, and was intended to be the successor to MS-DOS 3.x. It would have competed against Digital Research's Concurrent DOS.

• 4.00

Copy II PC (1985) 11 Utility DOS

Central Point Copy II PC is a disk duplication program that can successfully copy many copy protected disks using only standard IBM PC hardware. It is generally considered the best software-only solution for duplicating such disks. "snatchit".

• 2.xx
• 3.xx
• 4.xx
• 5.xx
• 6.00

Microsoft MS-DOS Manager (1987) 11 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

Norton Editor (1990) 11 Editor DOS

The Norton Editor is a text editor targeted at programmers and power users. It features the ability to edit files of any size, supports very long lines, automatic indentation, and compressed display. It supports executing DOS commands from inside the program, and is very configurable.

• 2.0

Microsoft Project (1984) 10 Planning DOS

Microsoft Project is a project management chart and gantt chart generator. It is a Microsoft Office family member, and built on the Office code, although it has never shipped with any Office suite.

• 1.0 for DOS
• 2.0 for DOS
• 3.0 for DOS
• 4.0 for DOS

Sound Blaster 16 ASP Drivers (1993) 10 DOS Windows

Drivers for the Sound Blaster 16 ASP series of cards.

• SB16-STD-01 (Revision 6)

QEMM (1990) 10 Utility DOS Windows

Quarterdeck QEMM is a DOS Extended Memory Manager for 386+ computer which allows you to make use of memory beyond the 640kb barrier. It can also be used with QRAM, a utility for freeing up the 640k base memory.

• 5.x
• 6.x
• 7.x
• 8.x
• 9.x

XTree (1985) 10 Utility DOS

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

• 1.x
• 2.x
• Pro 1.x
• Pro Gold 1.x
• Gold 2.x
• Easy
• Gold 3.x

FORTRAN PowerStation (1993) 10 DOS Windows

Microsoft FORTRAN Powerstation was a rebranding of Microsoft's earlier Microsoft Fortran product. It featured support for 32-bit DOS and Microsoft Windows.

• 1.x

Jill of the Jungle (1992) 10 DOS

New 256-color scrolling arcade adventure, supports VGA/EGA/CGA/Jys, Sound Blaster. HOT! Epic MegaGames brings you a new era in gaming with this immense 16-level world featuring Super Nintendo-quality animation, effects and sound track. Try JILL OF THE JUNGLE now!

• Jill of the Jungle
• 2 - Jill Goes Underground
• 3 - Jill Saves The Prince

Lattice C (1984) 10 DOS

Lattice C was originally released by Lifeboat Associates in June 1982 for the IBM PC. Microsoft repacked Lattice C as "Microsoft C 2.0", however Microsoft C 3.0 and later used Microsoft's internally developed product instead. Lattice C was ported to MVS, VMS, Unix, OS/2, Amiga, Atari ST, and Sinclair.

• 2.x
• 3.x

DESQView (1984) 9 Utility DOS

DESQView, from Quarterdeck, was a DOS application multi-tasker and in later versions functioned as an X client for applications on remote UNIX systems. It competed against IBM Topview. The original DESQ was just a task switcher, but subsequent versions offered preemptive multitasking of well behaved DOS programs on real-mode 8088 PCs. It gained popularity when DESQView 386 added virtual x86 support. This enabled the ability to multi task many poorly behaved programs, and was often used on BBSes due to its excellent COM port handling. It was later overtaken by OS/2 and Windows.

• 1.x
• DESQView X 1.x
• 2.x
• DESQView X 2.x

Oracle Server (1991) 9 Server Database DOS

Oracle Server is an enterprise grade relational database used in many corporations. It was mainly targeted at high end server operating systems, such as IBM AIX, Sun Solaris, HP UX, Digital VMS, Linux, and Microsoft Windows NT. Oracle makes current versions of their software avaialble for download, but older versions usually disappear.

• 6

GEM (1985) 9 DOS

GEM is a graphical application environment that runs on top of MS/PC-DOS. It was built on the technology of Digital Research's GSX portable runtime (Used in DR Draw and DR Graph ) . Notably, a port of GEM and CP/M was used as the primary GUI on the M68k based Atari ST. GEM was also bundled with Amstrad computers.

• 1.x

DOS Plus (1986) 9 DOS

Digital Research's DOS Plus was an intermediate product between CP/M-86 and DR-DOS. It can run both CP/M-86 and MS-DOS programs, and read both disk formats. It is essentially a stripped down version of Concurrent DOS that keeps the DOS compatiblity.

• 1.x
• 2.x

Microsoft COBOL (1980) 9 DOS Windows

Cobol is a high level language designed for use in business that uses English-like commands. Microsoft got its early start by producing language products such as this one. Their other early language products included Microsoft Fortran, Microsoft Pascal, Microsoft Basic, and Macro Assembler. This product was also licensed to IBM as IBM Cobol Compiler.

• 1.x
• 2.x
• 3.x
• 4.5
• 5.0

AutoSketch (1987) 9 Graphics DOS

AutoSketch is a 2D vector program sold by Autodesk. Unlike artistic drawing programs, AutoSketch is specifically geared towards engineering applications. Although not as powerful as AutoCAD, it can work with 2D AutoCAD files. Autodesk also produced AutoCAD LT, a higher end 2-D drawing program. But unlike AutoSketch, AutoCAD LT was based directly on AutoCAD and worked similarly.

• 1.x (DOS)
• 2.x (DOS)
• 3.x (DOS)