MS-DOS applications: Norton Commander
After seeing XTree Gold and DOS Navigator, we will end the MS-DOS file explorer series with the last entry: Norton Commander. As we saw earlier, this was not the first file explorer for MS-DOS, and maybe it did not have all the features of DOS Navigator, but it certainly was the most successful and popular of them all. Why? Resilience. Made initially by Peter Norton in 1986 and bought later by Symantec in 1990, Norton Commander further stretched into the Windows 95 era spanning a lifetime of around 12 years.
In all this time it got refined, improved, streamlined, integrated with more tools, and finally ported to Windows. Looking at it we see a stark difference from both XTree Gold and DOS Navigator. The UI itself may look almost the same but the experience is much better. Look at the organization of the main menu: five entries. The most useful commands are lined down in the status bar. Nothing feels crammed or exaggerated. You won’t find a spreadsheet editor here like in DOS Navigator, but as for file management no compromise was made. You can grab the software from WinWorld or from my Github repository.
The installer
Norton Commander had plenty of time to get everything right. Don’t be fooled by the good-looking screenshots. It wasn’t always like this. But once here, we can see why it became the first choice. The installer pictured above shows good front advertising, helping users understand that their purchase was correct. The discrete Symantec logo in the top right corner speaks about confidence: no need for more. Both Symantec and Norton Commander were well known names by version 5.
Note the simple installation procedure: a mere copy and rename. The original file had the extension damaged by an exclamation point, which was renamed to the correct one at the destination. This was a frequent practice in the MS-DOS era, discouraging users from simply copying the disk content. Once done, the installer offered sensible endings:
The application
Norton Commander made full use of the modern MS-DOS environment, by allowing the users to switch to a graphic mode version of the UI:
Sure, it looked largely the same. The difference was made by the nicer looking controls like radio buttons and checkboxes. Text mode radio buttons were not available in round circles, neither were the checks for the checkboxes. By using the graphics mode, Norton Commander brought better and modern visuals to an already perfectly streamlined file management experience.
And because system information in the MS-DOS era was scarce and hard to get, Norton Commander went ahead and implemented four pages of well documented, easily readable and understandable details of the current working environment:
Starting with a plain summary pictured above, every hardware aspect was translated into an easy and informative read. What is my CPU? 386DX running at 17 MHz. Do I have a co-processor? Nope. Video adapter? EGA. What is my running operating system? DOS 6.22. Of course, this was just the first page. Look at the memory screen:
The whole memory is explained and put in categories. And if you are a nerd or a software developer, you can see exactly what beginning address has each memory segment. But the point here is not just the amount of information. It’s also about how it’s presented. Spanning only five top menu items, it was impossible to get lost. And the open menus don’t look crowded either:
Looking at the Files menu we can see it has everything we need, but somehow put together so concise and streamlined that it seems underwhelming. The Commands menu is also a good example:
We find useful features here like comparing directories and terminal emulation. Of course, terminal emulation does not refer to opening a command window. The command window is already open if you look above the status bar menu at the MS-DOS prompt. Terminal emulation back then was referring to sending commands to devices connected to serial or parallel ports. Or communicating with a server on a phone line with a modem:
Norton Commander was the Swiss army knife of modern file management for MS-DOS. And it even reached as far as Windows. Unfortunately, the run was cut short when Windows 95 introduced Windows Explorer. That changed everything. There still was a Norton Commander developed for Windows 95, but it didn’t succeed. Windows Explorer was here to stay.
Thank you for staying with me on this MS-DOS file management series. And this entire old MS-DOS retrospective. It brings a lot of nostalgia to revisit this old software. I hope you get a bit of insight into how the older PC platform was used and how much newer software resembles what we already had decades ago. See you next time!
