What was this menu application in DOS?

Question

My father's computer in the early 90s (probably 1991, or at the latest 1992) had a piece of software that acted as an application launcher. I think it was simply called "menu".

Its graphics were simple text-based ones, with all borders drawn as characters such as full block (similarly to classic DOS software like QBasic and Lotus 1-2-3).

The application simply displayed a 3x3 grid of white rectangles, and each had the name of a program in it. Pressing a function key (F1-F9) would launch the corresponding software, and page up/down switched "pages" (groups of 9 applications).

Other keys were used to edit which application corresponded to each rectangle, probably with the path to an executable and a display name.

Once an application was launched an exited, it would simply drop back to a command line. I think the command to make the menu appear again was simply menu. This was definitely not run on Windows, simply MS-DOS.

I've tried a few searches but I couldn't find any reference to such a launcher. Given the simplicity, I think it's entirely possible that a programmer friend of my father had made it for us, but I'd like to be sure.

This is a mockup of how I remember it looking (the full block characters aren't full blocks in this website's font):

█████████████████████████████████████████████████
█┌──────1──────┐█┌──────2──────┐█┌──────3──────┐█
█│             │█│             │█│             │█
█│    ProgA    │█│    ProgB    │█│    ProgC    │█
█│             │█│             │█│             │█
█└─────────────┘█└─────────────┘█└─────────────┘█
█████████████████████████████████████████████████
█┌──────4──────┐█┌──────5──────┐█┌──────6──────┐█
█│             │█│             │█│             │█
█│    ProgD    │█│    ProgE    │█│    ProgF    │█
█│             │█│             │█│             │█
█└─────────────┘█└─────────────┘█└─────────────┘█
█████████████████████████████████████████████████
█┌──────7──────┐█┌──────8──────┐█┌──────9──────┐█
█│             │█│             │█│             │█
█│    ProgG    │█│    ProgH    │█│    ProgI    │█
█│             │█│             │█│             │█
█└─────────────┘█└─────────────┘█└─────────────┘█
█████████████████████████████████████████████████
 PgUp/Dn: Change page      F1-9: Select

Answer 1

There were a number of menu builders for DOS such as MenuWorks and PowerMenu. Here is a 1988 article that reviews some others.

Answer 2

I think I know what software you're talking about. I picked up an IBM PC AT off of eBay about a year ago, and the hard drive worked perfectly fine. When I first booted the machine, I was greeted with a text-based menu software, looking like this (I took this photo long after I restored the computer):

After a quick Google search of the company and software, which I have forgotten the name of, all I could find was a Google Books copy of a magazine from the 80's briefly mentioning the release of the software. As far as I know, I'm one of the only people with a copy of the software, named "menu.exe". I hope this is what you were looking for.

Edit: After looking through the magazine linked in snips-n-snails' answer, I found a picture of the software, made by Direct Access.

Answer 3

Sounds like “Deskmate II” or possibly even Saber Menu system.

Deskmate pic from Wikipedia:

Answer 4

I believe the first official TUI (Text User Interface) file manager for DOS was DOS Shell, first distributed as part of MS-DOS and PC DOS v4.0 (1988). Microsoft eventually dropped it from its distributions (though it would still function), probably as a small incentive to MS-DOS users to add an early version of Windows instead. I believe PC DOS kept it thru its final version (7.x).

(Note that until 1993, with MS-DOS 6.0 and PC DOS 6.1, they were essentially differently-branded versions of the same software. After that, there was still a lot of commonality. Immediate differences included Microsoft's dropping of DOS Shell, IBM's dropping of QBASIC and adding the superior E editor instead. (The Microsoft editor had been QBASIC with a different skin.) PC DOS 7 added IBM's own Rexx language to re-offer a programming language to its distribution.)

Answer 5

I used this system! I can’t remember the name of it, but it was easy to set up and use. You could even have sub menus with it, like if you set up “G” for games, it could open another menu with the various games which could be accessed with one key. You could also assign different colors to different menus. It was really terrific for us DOS users. I keep thinking of the name “Cheetah,” but that might not be the name of this menu software.

Answer 6

I still use an old programm simply called "Hard Disk Menu" (HDM). Perhaps it's this? I think there were newer versions of it, but my one is from 1986.

The third box appears, when you press the '/' key for the configuration.

Perhaps this is the searched program..?

Thomas

Answer 7

I used this software. I want to say it was called Menu Master.