Micro-CDS/lSIS, suitable for storage retrieval of structured textual data, has beenrndeveloped and is distributed by UNESCO free of charge to non-profit makingrnorganizations. The first version was released for public use ill December 1985. Since thenrnUNESCO has released different versions adding some new facilities and fixing bugsrnobserved and reported by users all over the world. In addition to the different releases,rndifferent application programs have been developed by UNESCO and other users tornaugment and enhance the functionality of the standard releases of the package.rnSubsequently, taking into consideration the increasing popularity of Microsoft Windows asrnan operating system for micros, UNESCO has re leased a Beta version of CDS/ISIS forrnWindows operating system, cal led WINISIS, in July 1996. Since then different testrnversions have been released.rnTaking Micro-CDS/ISIS, which is the widely used text retrieval package in developingrncountries, and WINISIS, which is most likely to follow the suit, this study compared andrncontrasted them using features and facilities which are common to most text retrievalrnpackages. The study is based on the May 1997 version, which is the pre-release ofrnWlNISIS 1. 0, obtained by courtesy of the UNESCO CDS/ISlS Developers Team.rnIn addition, this study enlisted all the new facilities provided by WlNISIS, andrnrecommended areas of application of the software, and identified areas for furtherrnimprovements.