Microsoft Autoroute Express (1995)
win3x.org
win3x.org
Microsoft "Streets and Trips" had better maps though, but didn't support GPS tracking, as I remember it. By the end of the 90s MS had a handful of different mapping products, that all competed with each other in some weird way, some were under the Encarta branding, some under the Expedia branding, some just Microsoft and some Autoroute.
This was a year or two after the 'original' release in the title though (Autoroute was a separate company for the first half of the 90s until MS bought them and rebadged their product).
...is a trip down memory lane. I remember printing out the directions, plotting the key turns on the paper maps from AAA, having to have a little folder of printed papers while going on a long trip; Trying to figure out how the heck to get back to the route when you made a wrong turn, or trying to reroute around a long-closed street that the directions said you should take. Or having to search for hotels or restaurants where the whole family could stay/eat along the way, and having to do all of this ahead of time because there's no way you're getting internet access once you actually head out.
Puts into perspective how much modern mapping/navigation apps have changed things.
It did, actually. You could even buy a version that had an included GPS unit that supported a USB connection to your laptop, or (IIRC) Bluetooth.
https://blog.codinghorror.com/who-killed-the-desktop-applica...
contains this mind bending sentence:
Combined with a USB GPS receiver and a laptop, Streets and Trips is a fine navigational aid on trips. Well, assuming you were going to take the laptop on your trip anyway, which I always do.
The world has changed so much since 2007
At the time, I believe 1993 or maybe 1994, I was a first-year student so of course I had a pirated copy. I didn't even own a car, but I had never seen a computer map before, so just navigating it and playing with routing was a blast, especially as the routing process visualization on my slow PC was eye candy.
I credit Autoroute Express for introducing me to GIS and routing algorithms - the first step on a path that led me to the Openstreetmap Foundation's board and to managing telecommunication networks geographical and topological data... So thanks !
Translation: it's not for you.
So please knock it off with the phony alarmist infosec nonsense.