this post was submitted on 14 Feb 2026
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It looked like this:
It was pretty similar to modern Windows but without taskbar or Start menu.
Instead, you had a main window called "program manager" with icons in it to start other programs.
Do you have any specific questions about it?
What is that? I don’t think that’s what I had in mind. I think it’s DESQview I was trying to think of. Anyway, not important.. it was just driving me nuts I could not remember.
Sorry, I think I misunderstood your question.
And I had literally never heard of any Windows 3 alternatives up to now.
To be fair, I was quite vague. I think there are multiple right answers.. but I recalled one starting w/a 'D' and that’s what I was trying to recall.
I thought your question was clear for what it's worth. If it was Windows 3.0 era you're probably looking for ViewMAX (from the same company as DR-DOS, which was an MS-DOS compatible operating system, maybe that's where the 'D' comes from?). I vaguely remember reading (or maybe watching) a good feature about it online a while ago but I can't find it unfortunately.
Digital Research DOS, of my memory is right
Correct, yes (I meant the 'D' evenwicht said they recalled it starting with if that wasn't clear, indeed for Digital Research, in fact I had to look up DR-DOS to remember the name ViewMAX).
O, wow, ViewMaxx... I had completely forgotten that.
Sure would like to get a collection of this stuff and run in a VM just for fun.
HP had an internal system just to make a simple GUI in DOS, forget what it was called. Just gave you buttons for a dozen programs.