In the mid 1980's Xtree Company, a Division of Executive Systems Inc., introduced a complete new kind of file management to the public. They proudly presented one of the first attempts to something like a "Graphical User Interface" for the pure command-line world of DOS. To speak with the introductory words of an early XTree manual: 

"The purpose of XTREE is to facilitate the file and directory maintenance process by providing you commands to access, delete, rename, view, move, list, or show any and all files within any and all directories on your floppy and hard disks.  XTREE is remarkable for its ease of use, clarity of organization, and multitude of services. XTREE presents a visualization of the directories, subdirectories, and files on your disks in clear, graphic screen displays.  Statistical  data is also displayed at all times; this data is updated as you  perform your tasks."

XTree for DOS has become a great success, and soon versions for other operating systems followed, XTree for Unix and Xtree for network systems. The program experienced a steady development, more and more useful features have been added through the years. With the grown popularity of Microsoft Windows (tm) XTree Company also released a Windows version in 1992. Regrettably they thought it necessary to equip it with a totally different user interface, that had little to do with the fast and handy hotkey-management of it's DOS colleagues.

After issuing the last DOS version, XTreeGold 3.0 along with XTree for Windows 2.0 in 1993, XTree-Company has been sold to Central Point Software, Inc. The development for the DOS versions has now been ceased and the new owners have released only one more version in 1994, XTreeGold for Windows 4.0 in which some PC Tools features were merged in.

Already in the early 1990s Symantec began to aggressively acquire Norton as well as Xtree and Central Point Software and - before anyone realized it - assumed complete ownership of the Windows utilities market.

So finally, in 1994 Symantec took over Central Point and this also meant the end of the XTree history. Symantec presented the Norton Navigator File Manager, which was based on XTree Gold for Windows and Central Point's PC Tools. They equipped it with an "XTreeGold compatibility mode", that uses most of XtreeGold's keystrokes, but many users couldn't see this as a serious replacement for the unsurpassed XTree versions for DOS.