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Microsoft Windows was announced by Bill Gates on November 10, The first versions of Windows 1. Windows 95 , though still being based on MS-DOS, was its own operating system, using a bit DOS-based kernel [ citation needed ] and a bit user space.
Windows 95 introduced many features that have been part of the product ever since, including the Start menu , the taskbar , and Windows Explorer renamed File Explorer in Windows 8.
It aimed to integrate Internet Explorer and the web into the user interface and also brought many new features into Windows, such as the ability to display JPEG images as the desktop wallpaper and single window navigation in Windows Explorer. Windows 98 included USB support out of the box, and also plug and play , which allows devices to work when plugged in without requiring a system reboot or manual configuration.
In , Microsoft released Windows NT 3. Unlike the Windows 9x series of operating systems, it is a fully bit operating system. In , Windows NT 4. Windows NT was originally designed to be used on high-end systems and servers, but with the release of Windows , many consumer-oriented features from Windows 95 and Windows 98 were included, such as the Windows Desktop Update , Internet Explorer 5 , USB support and Windows Media Player.
These consumer-oriented features were further extended in Windows XP in , which included a new visual style called Luna , a more user-friendly interface, updated versions of Windows Media Player and Internet Explorer 6 by default, and extended features from Windows Me, such as the Help and Support Center and System Restore.
Windows Vista , which was released in , focused on securing the Windows operating system against computer viruses and other malicious software by introducing features such as User Account Control. New features include Windows Aero , updated versions of the standard games e.
Despite this, Windows Vista was critically panned for its poor performance on older hardware and its at-the-time high system requirements. Windows 7 followed in nearly three years after its launch, and despite it technically having higher system requirements, [3] [4] reviewers noted that it ran better than Windows Vista. Windows 8 , which was released in , introduced many controversial changes, such as the replacement of the Start menu with the Start Screen, the removal of the Aero interface in favor of a flat, colored interface as well as the introduction of "Metro" apps later renamed to Universal Windows Platform apps , and the Charms Bar user interface element, all of which received considerable criticism from reviewers.
The following version of Windows, Windows 10 , which was released in , reintroduced the Start menu and added the ability to run Universal Windows Platform apps in a window instead of always in full screen. Windows 10 was generally well-received, with many reviewers stating that Windows 10 is what Windows 8 should have been. The latest version of Windows, Windows 11 , was released on October 5, Windows 11 incorporates a redesigned user interface, including a new Start menu, a visual style featuring rounded corners, and a new layout for the Microsoft Store, [13] and also included Microsoft Edge by default.
The first independent version of Microsoft Windows, version 1. The project was briefly codenamed "Interface Manager" before the windowing system was implemented—contrary to popular belief that it was the original name for Windows and Rowland Hanson , the head of marketing at Microsoft, convinced the company that the name Windows would be more appealing to customers.
Windows 1. The first version of Microsoft Windows included a simple graphics painting program called Windows Paint ; Windows Write , a simple word processor ; an appointment calendar; a card-filer; a notepad ; a clock; a control panel ; a computer terminal ; Clipboard ; and RAM driver. Microsoft had worked with Apple Computer to develop applications for Apple's new Macintosh computer, which featured a graphical user interface.
As part of the related business negotiations, Microsoft had licensed certain aspects of the Macintosh user interface from Apple; in later litigation, a district court summarized these aspects as "screen displays". In the development of Windows 1. For example, windows were only displayed "tiled" on the screen; that is, they could not overlap or overlie one another.
On December 31, , Microsoft declared Windows 1. Microsoft Windows version 2. Much of the popularity for Windows 2. Microsoft Windows received a major boost around this time when Aldus PageMaker appeared in a Windows version, having previously run only on Macintosh. Some computer historians [ who? Like prior versions of Windows, version 2. In such a configuration, it could run under another multitasker like DESQview , which used the protected mode.
It was also the first version to support the High Memory Area when running on an Intel compatible processor. Version 2. In Apple Computer, Inc.
Microsoft Corp. Judge William Schwarzer dropped all but 10 of Apple's claims of copyright infringement, and ruled that most of the remaining 10 were over uncopyrightable ideas. On December 31, , Microsoft declared Windows 2. Windows 3. A few months after introduction, Windows 3. A "multimedia" version, Windows 3.
This version was the precursor to the multimedia features available in Windows 3. The features listed above and growing market support from application software developers made Windows 3.
Support was discontinued on December 31, Its API was incompatible with Windows. Version 1. They cooperated with each other in developing their PC operating systems, and had access to each other's code.
After an interim 1. Microsoft would later imitate much of it in Windows Still, much of the system had bit code internally which required, among other things, device drivers to be bit code as well. It also removed Real Mode, and only ran on an or better processor.
Later Microsoft also released Windows 3. In and , Microsoft released Windows for Workgroups WfW , which was available both as an add-on for existing Windows 3.
Windows for Workgroups included improved network drivers and protocol stacks, and support for peer-to-peer networking. There were two versions of Windows for Workgroups, WfW 3. Unlike prior versions, Windows for Workgroups 3. All these versions continued version 3. Even though the 3. The Windows API became the de facto standard for consumer software.
On December 31, , Microsoft declared Windows 3. Meanwhile, Microsoft continued to develop Windows NT. This successor was codenamed Cairo. In hindsight, Cairo was a much more difficult project than Microsoft had anticipated and, as a result, NT and Chicago would not be unified until Windows XP —albeit Windows , oriented to business, had already unified most of the system's bolts and gears, it was XP that was sold to home consumers like Windows 95 and came to be viewed as the final unified OS.
Driver support was lacking due to the increased programming difficulty in dealing with NT's superior hardware abstraction model. This problem plagued the NT line all the way through Windows Programmers complained that it was too hard to write drivers for NT, and hardware developers were not going to go through the trouble of developing drivers for a small segment of the market.
Additionally, although allowing for good performance and fuller exploitation of system resources, it was also resource-intensive on limited hardware, and thus was only suitable for larger, more expensive machines. However, these same features made Windows NT perfect for the LAN server market which in was experiencing a rapid boom, as office networking was becoming common.
Windows NT version 3. The Win32 API had three levels of implementation: the complete one for Windows NT, a subset for Chicago originally called Win32c missing features primarily of interest to enterprise customers at the time such as security and Unicode support, and a more limited subset called Win32s which could be used on Windows 3. Thus Microsoft sought to ensure some degree of compatibility between the Chicago design and Windows NT, even though the two systems had radically different internal architectures.
Windows NT was the first Windows operating system based on a hybrid kernel. The hybrid kernel was designed as a modified microkernel , influenced by the Mach microkernel developed by Richard Rashid at Carnegie Mellon University, but without meeting all of the criteria of a pure microkernel.
As released, Windows NT 3. The 3. Support for Windows NT 3. After Windows 3. The Win32 API first introduced with Windows NT was adopted as the standard bit programming interface, with Win16 compatibility being preserved through a technique known as " thunking ". A new object-oriented GUI was not originally planned as part of the release, although elements of the Cairo user interface were borrowed and added as other aspects of the release notably Plug and Play slipped.
Microsoft did not change all of the Windows code to bit; parts of it remained bit albeit not directly using real mode for reasons of compatibility, performance, and development time. Additionally it was necessary to carry over design decisions from earlier versions of Windows for reasons of backwards compatibility, even if these design decisions no longer matched a more modern computing environment.
These factors eventually began to impact the operating system's efficiency and stability. Microsoft marketing adopted Windows 95 as the product name for Chicago when it was released on August 24, Microsoft had a double gain from its release: first, it made it impossible for consumers to run Windows 95 on a cheaper, non-Microsoft DOS, secondly, although traces of DOS were never completely removed from the system and MS DOS 7 would be loaded briefly as a part of the booting process, Windows 95 applications ran solely in enhanced mode, with a flat bit address space and virtual memory.
These features make it possible for Win32 applications to address up to 2 gigabytes of virtual RAM with another 2 GB reserved for the operating system , and in theory prevented them from inadvertently corrupting the memory space of other Win32 applications. Three years after its introduction, Windows 95 was succeeded by Windows Unlike with Windows 3. Microsoft case, blaming unfair marketing tactics on Microsoft's part.
Some companies sold new hard drives with OSR2 preinstalled officially justifying this as needed due to the hard drive's capacity.
The first Microsoft Plus! Microsoft ended extended support for Windows 95 on December 31, Microsoft released the successor to NT 3. It was Microsoft's primary business-oriented operating system until the introduction of Windows Microsoft ended mainstream support for Windows NT 4. Both editions were succeeded by Windows Professional and the Windows Server Family, respectively. This edition was succeeded by Windows XP Embedded.
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