TopView

   

TopView was a text-mode MS-DOS multitasker written by IBM and released in 1984 (or 1985 according to certain reports).

It ran in real mode on any x86 processor and could run well-behaved MS-DOS in windows. It did not make use of any later introduced virtualization features in the Intel 80386 processors.

TopView first introduced PIF files, or Program Information Files, which defined how a given MS-DOS program should be run in a multi-tasking environment, notably to avoid giving it unnecessary resources which could remain available to other programs. TopView's PIF files have been inherited by Microsoft Windows and allegedly by DESQview. IBM promised to give TopView a user-friend GUI, but never did.

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