Quarterdeck Office Systems Software Overview

Quarterdeck Office Systems was a popular software suite in the 80s and 90s, known for its comprehensive set of tools and utilities.

It was developed by Quarterdeck Corporation, a company founded in 1983 by a group of entrepreneurs.

The software suite included a range of applications, such as QEMM, a memory management program that allowed users to optimize their system's performance.

QEMM was particularly useful for users with limited RAM, as it enabled them to make the most of their available memory.

One of the key features of Quarterdeck Office Systems was its ability to integrate with other popular software applications of the time.

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Quarterdeck Office Systems developed a range of software products, including CleanSweep, a utility that helped users manage their computer's resources.

One notable product was DESQview, which allowed users to run multiple operating systems on a single computer.

DESQview had several successors, including DESQview 386, which shipped bundled with QEMM 386, and DESQview/X, an X-based version of DESQview.

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Their software also included Partition-It!, a tool for managing disk partitions, and QEMM 386, an expanded memory manager.

In addition to these products, Quarterdeck Office Systems developed Quarterdeck InternetSuite, a collection of tools for managing internet connections.

They also created Quarterdeck Message Center, a tool for managing email, and Quarterdeck Mosaic, a web browser.

Other notable products included TotalWeb, a web development tool, and WebCompass, an early metasearch tool.

Here are some of the notable software products developed by Quarterdeck Office Systems:

Desq was Quarterdeck's predecessor to DESQview, a task switching product that allowed users to switch between running programs, shipped in late April or May 1984.

It was revamped to include multitasking and TopView compatibility, eventually becoming DESQview in July 1985, four months before Microsoft released the first version of Windows.

DESQview was widely thought to be the first program to bring multitasking and windowing capabilities to DOS, running concurrently in resizable, overlapping windows.

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DESQview was noteworthy in that it supported all common DOS-compatible programs and achieved a remarkable degree of performance and stability.

It also has a clever interface that is generally unobtrusive while being quickly available and very easy to learn.

Pressing the Alt key by itself brings up the DESQview menu allowing access to the program's features.

In addition, a Shift+Alt combination causes DESQview to learn a set of keys as a macro.

This allows DESQview to run other programs without interfering with any of the "keybindings" they might be using.

Many multiuser bulletin board systems were based on DESQview due to its modest hardware requirements, robust multitasking, and superlative handling of multiple communication ports.

Desq was a task switching product that allowed users to switch between running programs. It shipped in late April or May 1984.

Desq was later revamped by Quarterdeck, bringing multitasking and adding TopView compatibility. This update laid the groundwork for the release of DESQview in July 1985.

DESQview was widely thought to be the first program to bring multitasking and windowing capabilities to DOS. However, there was a predecessor, IBM TopView, which shipped in March 1985.

Under DESQview, well-behaved DOS programs can be run concurrently in resizable, overlapping windows. This was something the first version of Windows couldn't do.

A simple hideable menu allows cutting and pasting between programs. DESQview also provides support for simple editable macros.

Quarterdeck developed a set of optional utilities for DESQview, including a notepad and dialer.