Lotus Magellan
Version 1.0 (1989)

Magellan was a desktop file viewer and search tool. It indexes all files on your hard drive, and you can search for related information across file formats. The program comes with a demo to help you get up to speed quickly on its use.

The download above is the full product. Click here to download the PC Magazine demo cover disk image.

I have a dedicated Lotus Magellan page here at DOS Days.

Lotus Magellan
Version 2.0 (1990)

Magellan was a desktop file viewer and search tool. It indexes all files on your hard drive, and you can search for related information across file formats.

Version 2.0 added a lot of new functionality, including multiple new 'viewers', support for seeing inside ZIP files, and more file operations including undelete, backup and restore.

I have a dedicated Lotus Magellan page here at DOS Days.

FileMaster
Version 3.1 (1997)

A clone of Executive Systems' Xtree Gold.

This one makes use of any Expanded Memory you have which avoids 'out of memory' errors - it's able to read hard disk contents with over 100,000 files, so it's a great choice for more 'modern' retro computing.

It also contains a WordStar-compatible editor!

XTree
Version 1.06 (1985)

This is a very early version of XTree, by Executive Systems.  
Note that on start up, it will count the number of files on C:   Some computers will contain more files than this early version of Xtree can deal with, in which case Xtree will terminate.

XTree
Version 2.00E (April 1990)

XTree v2.00E by Executive Systems. This is the Evaluation Version, but is fully functional.
In 1990 you would have had 30 days to register to continue using it.

As with earlier versions, Xtree 2.00E has a limit of no more than 2500 files and 180 directories on a disk, which these days may be too restrictive.

XTree Gold
Version 1.44 (1990)

Create a directory named XTGOLD on C: then copy unzipped contents into that directory.  To run, execute XTG.EXE within that directory.

NOTE:If you decide on a different directory name, inform the program of that by running XTG_CFG.EXE, then choosing option [1], then changing the "Program path:' setting (on page 4). Failure to do that will result in some functionality not working (e.g. built-in help).

XTree Gold
Version 3.01 (1993)

XTree v3.01 by Executive Systems. This is the full version that came on two high-density 3.5" floppy disks.

It has 45 file viewers that allow you to see a file's contents from many applications including word processors, spreadsheets and databases.

CRC
Version 6.71 (20 Mar 1986)

Written by Howard Vigorita, CRC calculates a signature for one or more files (in the form of a CRC or Cyclic Redundancy Check).

It is able to store CRC values in a file called CRCKLIST.CRC, and then later check whether they have changed. if the signature differs.

FastBack +
Version 2.09 (1988)

Fastback Plus, 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 of your hard disk to floppies.

FB2.09 can be run from the floppy disk - no installation is necessary.

FastBack +
Version 2.10 (1988)

Fastback Plus, 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.

FB2.10 can be run from the floppy disk - no installation is necessary.

FastBack +
Version 3.0 (25 June 1991)

Fastback Plus, 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.

FB3.0 needs to be installed to hard disk before it can be used.

FastBack +
Version 6.0 (27 May 1993)

Fastback Plus, by Fifth Generation Systems, Inc, is a backup utility for DOS.

This version supports backing up to a QIC tape drive or SCSI tape device, has built-in virus scanning, offers hypertext help, network device sharing, and laptop-to-desktop backups.

FB6.0 needs to be installed to hard disk before it can be used.

Norton Ghost
Version 7.5 (2000)

Norton Ghost is a PC cloning and imaging tool.

Tape Mate
Version 1.1 (1992)

SCSI tape backup software by Trantor.
File SUPPORT.LST contains a list of supported tape drives.

Tape Mate
Version 1.2 (1994)

SCSI tape backup software by Trantor.
File SUPPORT.LST contains a list of supported tape drives.

Quickview Pro
Version 2.61 (29 July 2016)

QuickView Pro is a DOS-based multimedia viewer written by Wolfgang Hesseler. The product is shareware.

It supports videos of type MP4, DIV, AVI, MPG, MOV, QT, VideoCD and more, music audio of type MP3, WAV, VOC and more, and pictures of type JPG, BMP, GIF, PCX, TGA and more.

Videos need the DivX codecs (incl. videos with FourCC DIV3, DIV4, DX50 and MP43), Indeo (tm) and QPEG (tm) codecs among many others. Subtitles with AVI (DivX) files are supported as well.

It is a 32-bit protected mode program and therefore needs at least a 80386 processor and a VGA card. It will run under DOS 3.0 or better, or in a DOS shell under Windows 95/98/ME and OS/2. Most ISA sound cards are supported as well as some PCI sound cards. Sound drivers: PCI card, AdLib, SB, EMU10K (SB Live!), Cirrus 4281, PC Spkr, VIA chipset mobos, SB Live 24

Download the driver for your sound chip and copy it into the directory in which QV.EXE is. You can then use this driver using the -WE$x command where x is the driver name.
Example: QV -WE$SPEAKER.SDR

Quickview
Version 1.03b (13 Nov 1998)

A "Real mode" version of QuickView for old 286 systems, systems operating under low memory conditions or if you use QuickView with your own real mode programs.

MPEGone
Version 1.10 (?)

An MPEG and VideoCD player for DOS.

Supported are MPEG files with suffix .MPG, .M1V, .MPE, .MPV and .DAT. DAT files are files from the VideoCD that are usually named AVSEQ01.DAT and so on. VideoCDs and CD-i (partly) are supported using the /VCD command.

The player is a 32-bit protected mode program and therefore needs at least a 80386 processor. For playback of MPEGs with higher resolutions, a Pentium 166 system is recommended. For sound decoding you must have a coprocessor. Full screen video playback is supported either using hardware scaling (certain graphics chips only) or via software (requiring more CPU power).
The player will run under DOS 3.0 or better, or in a DOS shell under Windows 95/98 and OS/2. You must have a VGA card in your system. For sound support you must have a Sound Blaster compatible sound card, a Gravis UltraSound Classic or MAX, or Windows Sound System.

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uHex
Version 1.04 (2015)

uHex is a simple and fast multi-platform hex editor. uHex has been written with care to work fast even on an 8086 CPU, providing support for large files (up to 2 GB) while using minimal amounts of memory. "uHex" stands for "micro Hex" (it should actually be spelled µHex, but DOS operating systems do not allow non-ASCII symbols in filenames, thus the official name became just "uHex").

uHex supports several video text modes (80x25, 80x43, 80x50.. and any other, as long as it has at least 80 columns), both in color and black & white modes.

uHex has very low requirements. It runs on anything that provides:
 - an 8086/8088 compatible CPU,
 - a MS-DOS 2.0 compatible operating system,
 - ca. 20K of free conventional memory,
 - an 80 columns video mode.

PKZip
Version 2.04g (1 Feb 1993)

PKZIP/PKUNZIP from 1993. Version 2.04g was considered the definitive version to use during the later DOS era. It had arguably the best degree of compression, was backward-compatible with all earlier versions, and also supported the creation of self extracting archive files (.EXE), spanning multiple disks and password encryption.

The suite of tools comprises PKZIP, PKUNZIP, PKUNZJR, PKZIPFIX and ZIP2EXE.

LHA
Version 2.55 (15 Nov 1992)

LHA, written by Haruyasu Yoshizaki, was a popular compression and archival utility for DOS. It produced .LZH files with excellent levels of compression, and also supported self-extracting .EXE files that contained the archive.

Unlike some other archiving tools, the single executable file performs all operations.

ARJ
Version 2.75 (2 Sep 2000)

ARJ is a file compression utility that uses the Robert Jung compression algorithm. It didn't get a much publicity as LHA or ZIP, but is still a good quality compression tool.

This late version of ARJ supports long filenames, has password encryption and is Year 2000-compliant. You can create self-extracting archives.

The suite of tools comprises ARJ, DEARJ, REARJ, and ARJTEST.

RAR
Version 2.06 (7 Dec 1998)

RAR is a file compression utility written by Eugene Roshal. As with LHA and ZIP, RAR files have excellent compression.

This late version of RAR is unique among its peers here in that it supports both a UI/mouse-driven interface to create and manipulate RAR archives as well as the traditional command-line options. Just as with other tools, it also supports the creation of self-extracting archives.

The suite of tools comprises RAR, UNRAR and RCVT (to convert archives from other formats).

PAK
Version 2.51 (1990)

Not to be confused with the more common PKPAK from PKWare, PAK comes from NoGate Consulting.

By default it creates .PAK files, but it can also create .ZIP-format archives.

The suite of tools comprises PAK and PAKINST (a config tool), PAK itself performs all the creation and manipulation of your archive file.

PKPAK
Version 3.61 (2 Aug 1988)

Before the .ZIP archive format, PKWare had PKPAK and PKUNPAK. These use the .ARC file extension.

It supported file encryption. It was possibly the fastest archiving utility in operation, but its compression algorithm was not up to par with the later .ZIP, .LZH, .RAR or .ARJ formats.

The suite of tools comprises PKPAK, PKUNPAK, PKPAKJR and PKUNPAKJ.

TeleGet
Version 2.13i (1990)

This DOS program by Sydex can be used to create an IBM PS/2 Model 25XT Starter Disk from a .TG0 TeleDisk file.

ARCE
Version 4.0g (1991)

So you've got an old ARC archive file that none of the modern ARC extractors recognise?

What you need then is an old ARC extractor (one that recognises the earlier ARC formats).
Here is ARCE from 1991.

Copy II PC
Version 1.71 (1983)

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 disk.

This is a very early release.

Copy II PC
Version 2.55 (7 Oct 1985)

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.

Copy II PC will not save images to floppy disk. However this limitation can be overcome with a third party utility called "snatchit".

Copy II PC came on a system disk, and included other utilities including BULKERAS, NOGUARD and NOKEY. It also had a PCjr-specific version called CopyIIJr.

Copy II PC
Version 3.08 (1986)

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.

Copy II PC will not save images to floppy disk. However this limitation can be overcome with a third party utility called "snatchit".

It is speculated the omission of saving was to appease businesses using copy protection, but more likely is was to avoid competition with their Copy II PC Option Board/Transcopy hardware.

Copy II PC
Version 6.00 (1990)

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.

Copy II PC will not save images to floppy disk. However this limitation can be overcome with a third party utility called "snatchit".

This is the final version of the product. It is also the preferred version for anyone using Copy II PC as it has the best support for faster processors. In a few cases, however, it may reject specific copy protection methods that earlier ones may copy due to pressure from vendors.

Transcopy
Version ? (?)

This is the Transcopy utility software for use with the Copy II PC Option Board.

The Copy II PC Option/Deluxe Option Board/"Transcopy" card is an ISA expansion card created and sold by Central Point Software that enables an IBM PC or compatible to duplicate most floppy disk copy protection methods.

Despite the name, it has little in common with the original software-only Copy II PC (see below).

Disk Technician Gold
Version ? (1991)

Disk Technician Gold is a hard disk utility and surface monitor. It contains an interleave adjuster and pattern tester similar to Spinrite, and also includes a defragmenter and disk-level virus protection.

MaxLLF
Version 1.1 (1996)

MAXLLF is a utility for low level formatting IDE (PATA, Parallel ATA) hard disks drives. Technically, on newer IDE drives this simply wipes the drive, but also forces bad/weak sectors to re-map to spares. Supports CHS (Cylinder/Head/Sector) and LBA (Logical Block Addressing) up to 127GB and works with any brand of drive (not just Maxtor).

Park
Version ? (?)

A program that parks the heads in MFM and RLL drives.

SpeedStor
Version 6.03 (1989)

Use 6.03 for XTs and clones. Copy the ZIP contents to a bootable 360K or 1.2M floppy.

SpeedStor
Version 6.05 (1991)

Use this version for ATs and clones. Copy the ZIP contents to a bootable 1.2M floppy