1. [primarily Ms-DOs] said of software conforming to system interface guidelines and standards. Well-behaved software uses the operating system to do choressuch as keyboard input, allocating memory and drawing graphics. Oppose ill-behaved. 2. software that does its job quietly and without counterintuitive effects. Especially said of software having an interface spec sufficiently simple and well-defined that it can be used as a tool by other software. see cat. [Jargon File]