Software
System 7 was the first version of the Mac OS that required a Macintosh equipped with a hard disk as it was too large to work comfortably from a floppy disk. It was also the first Apple operating system to be available on CD although it shipped on a set of 15 floppy disks initially. System 7 itself did not come bundled with major software packages, but newly purchased Macintosh computers were often bundled with software such as HyperCard, At Ease and Mouse Practice. The Macintosh Performa series added various software bundles including ClarisWorks, The New Grolier Multimedia Encyclopedia, Microsoft Bookshelf, Spectre VR and Power Pete. Since System 7 was introduced before the Internet came to popular attention, software such as MacTCP, FreePPP and Netscape were not included at first, but was later available on disk from internet service providers and bundled with books such as Adam C. Engst's Internet Starter Kit for Macintosh. PowerPC Macintoshes included Graphing Calculator. System 7 also included networking and file sharing software in the form of system extensions and control panels.
The basic utilities installed by default with System 7 included TeachText (superseded by the more flexible SimpleText in later versions) for basic text editing tasks and reading readme documents. Also available on the additional "Disk Tools" floppy disk are Disk First Aid for disk repair and Apple HD SC Setup for initializing and partitioning disks.
Later versions of System 7, specifically System 7.5 and Mac OS 7.6, came with a dedicated "Utilities" folder and "Apple Extras" folder including: AppleScript, Disk Copy, QuickDraw GX Extras and QuickTime Movie Player. More optional extras and utilities could be manually installed from the System CD.
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