WinFax
Encyclopedia
WinFax is a Microsoft Windows
-based software product designed to let computers equipped with fax
-modems to communicate directly to stand-alone fax machines, or other similarly equipped computers.
in 1990, and soon became the company's flagship product. Delrina started out by producing a set of electronic form products known as PerForm
and later, FormFlow
.
In 1990 Delrina devoted a relatively small space to WinFax at that year's COMDEX
, where it easily garnered the most attention of any Delrina product being demonstrated at that show. This interest convinced Delrina of the commercial viability of the product. The rapid acceptance of this program in the market soon overtook that of the initial forms product in terms of revenues, and within a few years of its launch, WinFax would account for 80% of the company's revenues.
Several versions of WinFax were released over the next few years, initially for Windows 3.x
and then a Windows 95
-based version. Versions were also created for the Apple Macintosh ("Delrina Fax Pro") and DOS
("DosFax"). The Windows versions were also localized to major European
and Asian
languages. The company made further inroads by establishing tie-ins with modem manufacturers such as U.S. Robotics
and Supra
that bundled simple versions of the product (called "WinFax LITE") that offered basic functionality. Those wanting more robust features were encouraged to upgrade to the "PRO" version, and were offered significant discounts over the standalone retail version. All of this rapidly established WinFax as the de facto fax software. By 1994, almost 100 companies were bundling versions of WinFax, including IBM
, Compaq
, AST Research, Gateway 2000, Intel and Hewlett-Packard
.
WinFax PRO 3.0 was launched in November 1993 for Windows 3.x machines. This was followed by a version for Macintosh systems. This version of this product saw long life as a "non-PRO" version that was bundled with various fax modems by the end of its product cycle.
The release of WinFax PRO 4.0 in March 1994 brought together a number of key features and technologies. It introduced an improved OCR
engine, introduced improvements aimed specifically at mobile fax users, better on-screen fax viewing capabilities and a focus on consistency and usability of the interface. It also included for the first time the ability to integrate directly with popular email
products that were beginning to emerge in the marketplace, such as cc:Mail
and Microsoft Mail
. It was soon followed by a networked version of the same product, which allowed a number of users to share a single fax modem on a networked system. This version of the product was also bundled with a grayscale scanner manufactured by Fujitsu
, and sold as WinFax Scanner.
In 1994 the firm acquired AudioFile
, a company that specialized in computer-based voice technology. The company created a product called TalkWorks
, which enabled users to use certain fax/modems as a voice mail client. This program would later be bundled with subsequent versions of WinFax and the CommSuite 95
product.
products which were then at the same number. It was the first Delrina product designed to work with the Windows 95
operating system, and was a full 32-bit application
, setting it apart from its competition at the time.
By the time WinFax PRO 7.0 was being sold from retail shelves, Delrina had been acquired by Symantec
.
Symantec discontinued sales and support of WinFax on June 30, 2006.
Microsoft Windows
Microsoft Windows is a series of operating systems produced by Microsoft.Microsoft introduced an operating environment named Windows on November 20, 1985 as an add-on to MS-DOS in response to the growing interest in graphical user interfaces . Microsoft Windows came to dominate the world's personal...
-based software product designed to let computers equipped with fax
Fax
Fax , sometimes called telecopying, is the telephonic transmission of scanned printed material , normally to a telephone number connected to a printer or other output device...
-modems to communicate directly to stand-alone fax machines, or other similarly equipped computers.
History
The product was created by developer Tony Davis at DelrinaDelrina
Delrina was a Canadian software company founded by four individuals, Dennis Bennie as CEO and chairman, Mark Skapinker as president, Bert Amato as executive vice president and chief technical officer and Lou Ryan as executive vice president of world wide sales...
in 1990, and soon became the company's flagship product. Delrina started out by producing a set of electronic form products known as PerForm
PerForm
PerForm and PerForm PRO were electronic form programs, initially designed to work under GEM in DOS. Later versions were designed to work in Windows 3.1, at which point it was succeeded by FormFlow....
and later, FormFlow
FormFlow
FormFlow was the name of a line of electronic forms products initially created and sold by Delrina in the early- to mid-1990s. The first product in this line was PerForm, which was designed to work under GEM in DOS...
.
In 1990 Delrina devoted a relatively small space to WinFax at that year's COMDEX
COMDEX
COMDEX was a computer expo held in Las Vegas, Nevada, each November from 1979 to 2003. It was one of the largest computer trade shows in the world, usually second only to the German CeBIT, and by many accounts one of the largest trade shows in any industry sector...
, where it easily garnered the most attention of any Delrina product being demonstrated at that show. This interest convinced Delrina of the commercial viability of the product. The rapid acceptance of this program in the market soon overtook that of the initial forms product in terms of revenues, and within a few years of its launch, WinFax would account for 80% of the company's revenues.
Several versions of WinFax were released over the next few years, initially for Windows 3.x
Windows 3.1x
Windows 3.1x is a series of 16-bit operating systems produced by Microsoft for use on personal computers. The series began with Windows 3.1, which was first sold during March 1992 as a successor to Windows 3.0...
and then a Windows 95
Windows 95
Windows 95 is a consumer-oriented graphical user interface-based operating system. It was released on August 24, 1995 by Microsoft, and was a significant progression from the company's previous Windows products...
-based version. Versions were also created for the Apple Macintosh ("Delrina Fax Pro") and DOS
DOS
DOS, short for "Disk Operating System", is an acronym for several closely related operating systems that dominated the IBM PC compatible market between 1981 and 1995, or until about 2000 if one includes the partially DOS-based Microsoft Windows versions 95, 98, and Millennium Edition.Related...
("DosFax"). The Windows versions were also localized to major European
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
and Asian
Asia
Asia is the world's largest and most populous continent, located primarily in the eastern and northern hemispheres. It covers 8.7% of the Earth's total surface area and with approximately 3.879 billion people, it hosts 60% of the world's current human population...
languages. The company made further inroads by establishing tie-ins with modem manufacturers such as U.S. Robotics
U.S. Robotics
USRobotics Corporation is a company that makes computer modems and related products. It sold high-speed modems in the 1980s, and had a reputation for high quality and compatibility. With the reduced usage of voiceband modems in North America in the early 21st century, USR is now one of the few...
and Supra
Supra, Inc.
Supra, Inc., previously known as Supra Corporation, were best known as manufacturers of modems for personal computers, but also produced a range of hardware for the Amiga, including SCSI controllers, memory boards, and processor accelerators....
that bundled simple versions of the product (called "WinFax LITE") that offered basic functionality. Those wanting more robust features were encouraged to upgrade to the "PRO" version, and were offered significant discounts over the standalone retail version. All of this rapidly established WinFax as the de facto fax software. By 1994, almost 100 companies were bundling versions of WinFax, including IBM
IBM
International Business Machines Corporation or IBM is an American multinational technology and consulting corporation headquartered in Armonk, New York, United States. IBM manufactures and sells computer hardware and software, and it offers infrastructure, hosting and consulting services in areas...
, Compaq
Compaq
Compaq Computer Corporation is a personal computer company founded in 1982. Once the largest supplier of personal computing systems in the world, Compaq existed as an independent corporation until 2002, when it was acquired for US$25 billion by Hewlett-Packard....
, AST Research, Gateway 2000, Intel and Hewlett-Packard
Hewlett-Packard
Hewlett-Packard Company or HP is an American multinational information technology corporation headquartered in Palo Alto, California, USA that provides products, technologies, softwares, solutions and services to consumers, small- and medium-sized businesses and large enterprises, including...
.
WinFax PRO 3.0 was launched in November 1993 for Windows 3.x machines. This was followed by a version for Macintosh systems. This version of this product saw long life as a "non-PRO" version that was bundled with various fax modems by the end of its product cycle.
The release of WinFax PRO 4.0 in March 1994 brought together a number of key features and technologies. It introduced an improved OCR
Optical character recognition
Optical character recognition, usually abbreviated to OCR, is the mechanical or electronic translation of scanned images of handwritten, typewritten or printed text into machine-encoded text. It is widely used to convert books and documents into electronic files, to computerize a record-keeping...
engine, introduced improvements aimed specifically at mobile fax users, better on-screen fax viewing capabilities and a focus on consistency and usability of the interface. It also included for the first time the ability to integrate directly with popular email
Email
Electronic mail, commonly known as email or e-mail, is a method of exchanging digital messages from an author to one or more recipients. Modern email operates across the Internet or other computer networks. Some early email systems required that the author and the recipient both be online at the...
products that were beginning to emerge in the marketplace, such as cc:Mail
Cc:Mail
cc:Mail is an obsolete, store-and-forward LAN-based e-mail system originally developed on Microsoft's MS-DOS platform by Hubert Lipinski in the 1980s. At the height of its popularity cc:Mail had about 21 million users.-Message store:...
and Microsoft Mail
Microsoft Mail
Microsoft Mail was the name given to several early Microsoft e-mail products.-Mac Networks:The first Microsoft Mail product was introduced in 1988 for AppleTalk Networks. It was based on InterMail, a product that Microsoft purchased and updated. An MS-DOS client was added for PCs on AppleTalk...
. It was soon followed by a networked version of the same product, which allowed a number of users to share a single fax modem on a networked system. This version of the product was also bundled with a grayscale scanner manufactured by Fujitsu
Fujitsu
is a Japanese multinational information technology equipment and services company headquartered in Tokyo, Japan. It is the world's third-largest IT services provider measured by revenues....
, and sold as WinFax Scanner.
In 1994 the firm acquired AudioFile
AudioFile (company)
AudioFile was a software company that was founded in Massachusetts in 1990. It was founded under Venture Capital Investment by the Massachusetts Technology Development Corporation....
, a company that specialized in computer-based voice technology. The company created a product called TalkWorks
TalkWorks
TalkWorks was a program designed to allow computers equipped with an appropriate fax-modem to act as a voice mail program.Original work was done on the program by AudioFile, a company that specialized in computer-based voice technology. This firm was bought by Delrina in 1994, which then rolled...
, which enabled users to use certain fax/modems as a voice mail client. This program would later be bundled with subsequent versions of WinFax and the CommSuite 95
CommSuite 95
CommSuite 95 was a communications software "suite" of products launched by the Canadian software company Delrina in December, 1995. It was a 32-bit based program created specifically for use in Windows 95...
product.
Fate
The final Delrina-made version of WinFax was WinFax PRO 7.0, which shipped in November 1995. There was no intervening version 5.0 or 6.0, and the jump to version 7.0 was purely a marketing decision, based on keeping up with Microsoft's suite of OfficeMicrosoft Office
Microsoft Office is a non-free commercial office suite of inter-related desktop applications, servers and services for the Microsoft Windows and Mac OS X operating systems, introduced by Microsoft in August 1, 1989. Initially a marketing term for a bundled set of applications, the first version of...
products which were then at the same number. It was the first Delrina product designed to work with the Windows 95
Windows 95
Windows 95 is a consumer-oriented graphical user interface-based operating system. It was released on August 24, 1995 by Microsoft, and was a significant progression from the company's previous Windows products...
operating system, and was a full 32-bit application
32-bit application
On the x86 architecture, a 32-bit application normally means software that typically uses the 32-bit linear address space possible with the 80386 and later chips...
, setting it apart from its competition at the time.
By the time WinFax PRO 7.0 was being sold from retail shelves, Delrina had been acquired by Symantec
Symantec
Symantec Corporation is the largest maker of security software for computers. The company is headquartered in Mountain View, California, and is a Fortune 500 company and a member of the S&P 500 stock market index.-History:...
.
Symantec discontinued sales and support of WinFax on June 30, 2006.
Version history
- WinFax 1.0 — 1990 (Windows 3.x)
- Delrina WinFax PRO 2.0 — 1991 (Windows 3.x)
- DosFax — 1992 (DOS)
- Delrina WinFax PRO 3.0 — November 1992 (Windows 3.x)
- Delrina WinFax PRO for Networks 3.0 - (Windows 3.x, Windows for Workgroups 3.1x)
- Delrina Fax PRO – 1993 (Macintosh)
- Delrina WinFax PRO 4.0 — March 1994 (Windows 3.x, later revisions supported Windows 95)
- Delrina WinFax PRO for Networks 4.0 - (Windows 3.x, Windows for Workgroups 3.1x)
- Delrina WinFax PRO for Networks 4.1 - (Windows 3.x, Windows for Workgroups 3.1x, Windows 95)
- Delrina WinFax Scanner — 1994 (Windows 95)
- Delrina WinFax PRO 7.0 — November 1995 (Windows 95)
- Delrina WinFax PRO for Networks 5.0 Server - (Windows 3.x, Windows for Workgroups 3.1x, Windows 95)
- WinFax PRO 7.5 (bundled with TalkWorks) — October 1996 (Windows 95)
- WinFax PRO 8.0 (bundled with TalkWorks PRO) — March 1997 (Windows 95, Windows NT)
- TalkWorks PRO 2.0 — August 1998 (Windows 95, Windows NT)
- WinFax PRO 9.0 — August 1998 (Windows 9x, Windows NT/2000/XP)
- TalkWorks PRO 3.0 — August 1999 (Windows 9x, Windows NT/2000/XP)
- WinFax PRO 10.0 — February 2000 (Windows 9x, Windows NT/2000/XP)
- WinFax PRO 10.01 — January 2001 (Windows 9x, Windows Me, Windows NT/2000/XP)
- WinFax PRO 10.02 — August 2001 (Windows 9x, Windows Me, Windows NT/2000/XP)
- WinFax PRO 10.03 — November 2002 (Windows 9x, Windows Me, Windows NT/2000/XP)
- WinFax PRO 10.04 — January 2005 (update patch only from version 10.03)