Geoworks Desktop Manager

GeoWorks Desktop Manager was a third‐party Leading Edge branded software that acted as a graphical user interface for DOS‐based systems. Here was a quote from the user manual describing the software as, "an exciting new environment to work in, along with a family of applications that make full use of its power". The manual further detailed that, "GDTM was easy to use because it was visual and intuitive. Instead of using hard‐to‐remember commands, the screen showed you pictures of things, like buttons and icons". The software pack included two 5.25" 1.20MB disks.

Installation of the software was very easy and straightforward so that even a relatively novice user of the time would have been able to easily navigate throughout the installation prompts. Once the installation was completed, the user was presented with a welcome screen and three "operating environment" options to choose from. Option one was "Appliances", which was designed for newer users of the program as it displayed a very bare‐bones version where any new user would find it very difficult to become lost or overwhelmed with visual content. The second option was the "Professional" choice. Quite frankly, the "professional" selection was very reminiscent of Windows 3.X, where the user was presented with a multitude of program shortcuts, window tools such as expand, minimize, and close and a typical window toolbar plus a slew of additional system buttons at the bottom of the GUI such as disk drive selectors, a trash can, document organizer, and internet access button. It was indeed a busier interface than the "Appliances" choice. Finally, the last choice presented to the user on the welcome screen was the "DOS Programs" choice. This choice took the user to a screen that had three actions available: "exit", "help", and "Enter DOS". The Enter DOS button simply took the user to a c: prompt. Most users of GeoWorks Desktop Manager would have found the "Professional" choice selection to be the most appropriate working environment with the greatest control and ease of access over the system.

The program was contained on two 5.25" 1.20MB floppy disks. Both of the disks were presented with a white label that contained a prominent Leading Edge triple‐triangle logo at the bottom right of the label and the disk number designation in Leading Edge red directly above the Leading Edge triple‐triangle logo. At the upper left‐most portion of the label was the "Geoworks" logo in black and white and directly below in Leading Edge blue is "Desktop Manager" in all caps and "for Leading Edge Computers" directly below that. Finally, the version revision of the software along with copyright information could be found at the very bottom of the label in a much smaller font.

See below for downloadable images in the original 5.25" 1.20 MB format. The software's serial number was: 2005‐0050‐0701‐3102.