It was originally released in 1985 for MS-DOS, but was subsequently ported to Microsoft Windows.
On January 3, 1990, it was announced that Paradox Development of Para-Mail was acquired by Office Automation Systems later known as OCTuS, Inc. Para-Mail was suitable for single or multiple users on stand-alone computers or on local area networks.
A key feature of Para-Mail was that it supported image scanners, faxes, optical character recognition and voice mail all through one common user interface.
[citation needed] The original version worked with Novell NetWare networks and its Novell's Message Handling System (MHS) mail system;[1] a cut-down MHS-only version called PM-Remote was bundled with NetWare.
[citation needed] From being the de facto standard email client[citation needed] on Novell NetWare networks, Para-Mail, along with Eudora and others suffered a similar fate to Netscape Navigator when Internet Explorer version 3.0 bundled Microsoft Internet Mail and News version 1.0 free-of-charge within Windows 95.