FastMenu - Gold & Lite
Graphical User Interface for MS-DOS
This is FastMenu Gold v7.0b (1995) a graphical menu-based DOS GUI by jwh Software.
(I've also included FastMenu Lite v1.0c which is a feature restricted version but v7.0b is the better option).
This is a menu based system, although quite a good one with a main application menu with sub-menus and a second Function Key menu where you can assign apps of functions to a Function Key, which is a nice touch.
Included are several apps - a Notepad, Calendar, Address/Phone Book, Dialer, Text Editor, Calculator, a Disk/File Manager and several useful tools such as a disk copy and format and drive information.
This also has good configuration options including colour choices, although no screen resolution choices.
While it has no concept of a Desktop, it's easy enough to set up DOS program options on the menus and sub-menus, or the Function Key menu so that just pressing a Function Key runs the DOS program.
It may look a little clunky now, but it worked well for me - programs start up very quickly and I had no issues with it.
The program was released as Shareware and there's a register nag screen on startup for 5 seconds - the registration fee back in 1995 was $64US (which equates to around $120US today) which was a bit of an ask back in 1995 so I imagine this was more targeted at companies.
A nice enough little DOS GUI for the day - but would you have paid the equivalent of $120US for it ?
If not, maybe that's why it went walkabout.
The VHD has 2 versions - the full version 7.0b and the Lite version 1.0c. The full version is the better one with more features as the Lite has quite a lot removed from it, although the menu system is still basically the same in both.
There's no autostart - to run the full version enter "GOLD" and to run the Lite version enter "LITE" as the C: prompt.
As well as the VHD I've included a .zip with the install files and all the screencaps.
The VHD was created using VirtualBox 6.1.26 and the DOS version installed is 6.22.
< Click here to download the VHD > < Click here to download the install files as a .zip >
Screenshots: (Use your browser's right click function "Open Image In New Tab" to see larger images)
FastMenu Gold 7.0b:
FastMenu Lite 1.0c:
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