25 Years Of Microsoft Windows
With Windows 7 about to arrive, lets take a look back at the history of Microsoft’s operating system.
1985 – Windows 1.0
Windows 1.0 used the MS-DOS Executive as its primary interface – you’d boot programs from the command line which would launch in the main window while MS-DOS Executive minimised itself, reappearing when the program was terminated.
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1987 – Windows 2.0
The first Windows operating system that allowed you to ’tile’ open windows, rather than having windows either minimised or maximised, like in Windows 1.0.
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1990 – Windows 3.0
The first Windows operating system to offer desktop backgrounds and a ‘Program Manager’ with quick-launch icons. It was soon followed by Windows 3.1, which also had screensavers.
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1993 – Windows NT 3.1
NT, standing for New Technology, was a fully 32-bit operating system – previous operating systems as well as future versions such as Windows 95 and 98 were 16-bit/32-bit hybrids.
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1995 – Windows 95
The taskbar was introduced for the first time in Windows 95, with open window buttons, a clock, a notification area and the Start button. The My Computer and Recycle Bin icons also made their first appearance.
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1996 – Windows NT 4.0
Graphically this operating system looked very similar to Windows 95 but was focused more on the business market. It was famed for its stability and was able to close down applications that had stalled without the whole OS crashing.
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1998 – Windows 98
Continuing the new naming system of using the year the product was released, Windows 98 was on sale for less than 12 months before a wide-ranging update for the OS was issued. One major bug in this OS meant that the computer would shut itself down if left on for 50 consecutive days.
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1999 – Windows 98SE
The updated version of Windows 98, the SE stood for Second Edition. It fixed many bugs in the original and improved support for the USB (universal serial bus) standard.
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2000 – Windows 2000
Another OS from the Windows NT family, Windows 2000 was aimed more at the business market though it ended up on many home computers as well. It was initially intended to replace both Windows NT 4.0 and Windows 98, but Microsoft changed its mind after the release of Windows 98SE.
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2000 – Windows ME
Windows Millenium Edition (ME, pronounced ‘me’) was the successor to Windows 98 and aimed very much at home users, with several entertainment-based features. However, it was panned by reviewers and customers because it was notoriously unstable – so much so that one magazine called it ‘Windows Mistake Edition’.
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2001 – Windows XP
Windows XP was the successor to both Windows 2000 and Windows ME and offered Home and Professional versions. Though it did suffer from several security vulnerabilities, it stayed as Microsoft’s front-line OS product for the best part of six years and had sold 400 million copies by October 2006.
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2007 – Windows Vista
Windows Vista, with the exception of Windows ME, has become probably the most derided of all Microsoft’s operating system, though the company points to sales figures that show it to be the most popular version of Windows to date. One of the main criticisms was of the number of warning prompts the User Account Control (UAC) showed to users.
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2009 – Windows 7
Windows 7 will launch on 22 October 2009, bringing features such as support for touchscreen devices and an easier home-networking setup. According to Microsoft, Windows 7 is faster than its predecessor, but will run on lower-spec PCs.
Posted on October 20, 2009 | Filed Under Tech
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