A Brief History of Microsoft Windows

Microsoft has announced that Windows 10 will be the final named version of Windows. Future updates will come, but they will still carry the Windows 10 label. This means that Windows 10 can legitimately be called the latest version of Windows.

From its initial release in 1985 to its continued active development in 2021 and beyond, Windows has been a major player in the consumer and business PC ecosystem.

01 - Windows 1.0

Released: November 20, 1985

Replaces: MS-DOS (Microsoft Disk Operating System), although Windows up until Windows 95 actually ran on top of MS-DOS rather than completely replacing it.

Innovative/Notable: Windows. This was the first version of an operating system from Microsoft that didn't require you to type commands to use it. Instead, you can point the mouse at a box, a window, and click. Bill Gates, then a young CEO, said of Windows, "It's unique software designed for the serious PC user." Two years passed from the announcement to the final delivery.

Dark fact: what we call Windows today was almost called "Interface Manager". Interface Manager was the code name for the product and was a finalist for the official name. It doesn't have the same ringtone as "Windows", does it?

02 - Windows 2.0

Released: December 9, 1987

Replaces: Windows 1.0. Windows 1.0 was not well received by critics, who felt it was slow and too mouse-centric. The mouse was relatively new to the computer world at the time.

Innovative/Remarkable: Graphics have been greatly improved, including the ability to overlap windows (in Windows 1.0, separate windows could only be tiled). Desktop icons were introduced, as were keyboard shortcuts.

Dark fact: Numerous applications made their debut in Windows 2.0, including Control Panel, Paint, Notepad, and two mainstays of Microsoft Office: Microsoft Word and Microsoft Excel.

03 - Windows 3.0/3.1

Released: May 22, 1990. Windows 3.1: March 1, 1992.

Replaces: Windows 2.0. It was more popular than Windows 1.0. Its overlapping windows led to a lawsuit from Apple alleging that the new style infringes Apple's GUI (graphical user interface) copyright.

Innovative/Remarkable: Speed. Windows 3.0/3.1 ran faster than ever on the new Intel 386 chips. The GUI has been improved with more colors and better icons. This version is also Microsoft's first best-selling operating system with over 10 million copies sold. It also included new management features such as Print Manager, File Manager, and Program Manager.

Dark fact: Windows 3.0 costs $149; Upgrades from previous versions cost $50.

04 - Windows 95

Released: August 24, 1995

Replaces: Windows 3.1 and MS-DOS

Innovative/Remarkable: Windows 95 really cemented Microsoft's dominance in the computer industry. It boasted a great marketing campaign that captured the public imagination in a way that computers had never done before. More importantly, it introduced the Start menu, which eventually became so popular that its absence in Windows 8 caused quite a stir among consumers some 17 years later. It also had Internet support and plug-and-play capabilities that made it easy to install software and hardware.

Windows 95 was a huge success from the start, selling a staggering seven million copies in its first five weeks on sale.

Dark fact: Microsoft paid the Rolling Stones $3 million for the rights to Start Me Up, which was the subject of the reveal.

05 - Windows 98/Windows ME (Millennium Edition)/Windows 2000

Release: These were released in a flurry between 1998 and 2000 and are grouped together because they don't differ much from Windows 95. They were essentially placeholders along the lines of Microsoft, and while popular, they didn't match the record-breaking success of Windows 95. they were built on top of Windows 95 and basically offer incremental updates.

Dark Fact: Windows ME was an absolute disaster. However, while Windows 2000 was not very popular with home users, it reflected a major behind-the-scenes technological change that made it more in line with Microsoft's server solutions. Parts of the Windows 2000 technology are still in active use more than 20 years later.

06 - Windows XP

Released: October 25, 2001

Replaces: Windows 2000

Innovative/Remarkable: Windows XP is the superstar of this series: the Michael Jordan among Microsoft operating systems. Its most innovative feature is that it refuses to die and remains on a significant number of PCs, even several years after its official end of life by Microsoft. Despite its age, it is still Microsoft's second most popular operating system after Windows 7. This is an elusive statistic.

Dark Fact: By one estimate, Windows XP has sold more than a billion units over the years.

07 - Windows Vista

Released: January 30, 2007

Replaced: Tried and failed spectacularly to replace Windows XP.

Innovative/Remarkable: Vista is the anti-XP. His name is synonymous with failure and inability. When Vista was released, it required much better hardware to run than XP (which most people didn't have) and relatively few devices like printers and monitors would work with it due to the woeful lack of hardware drivers at launch. It wasn't a terrible operating system like Windows ME, but it suffered so much that for most people it was dead on arrival and they stuck with XP.

Dark fact: Vista is number 2 on Info World's list of the greatest tech flops of all time.

08 - Windows 7

Released: October 22, 2009

Replaced: Windows Vista, and not a moment too soon.

Innovative/Remarkable: Windows 7 was a huge hit with the public, capturing a huge market share of nearly 60 percent. It improved on Vista in every way and helped the public finally forget about the Titanic OS version. It is stable, secure, graphically friendly and easy to use.

Dark fact: In just eight hours, Windows 7 pre-orders surpassed total Vista sales after 17 weeks.

09 - Windows 8

Released: October 26, 2012

Replaced - Tried and failed spectacularly to replace Windows 7.

Innovative/Remarkable: Microsoft knew it needed to enter the mobile world, including phones and tablets, but didn't want to give up on traditional desktop and laptop users. So they tried to create a hybrid operating system that would work equally well on touch and non-touch devices. It didn't work for the most part. Users missed the Start menu and continued to express confusion about using Windows 8.

Microsoft released a major update to Windows 8, dubbed Windows 8.1, which addressed many consumer concerns about desktop tiles, but for many users, the damage had already been done.

Dark fact: Microsoft called the Windows 8 user interface "Metro," but had to drop that name after threats of lawsuits from a European company. Later, Microsoft called the interface "Modern", but that was not well received either.

10 - Windows 10

Released: July 28, 2015

Replaces: Windows 8, Windows 8.1, Windows 7 and Windows XP

Innovative/Remarkable: Two important things: First, the return of the Start menu. Second, it is reported that Windows 10 will be the latest version of Windows. Future updates will be provided in semi-annual update packages rather than individual new releases. There will be no Windows 11.

Dark fact: Despite Microsoft's insistence that bypassing Windows 9 should emphasize that Windows 10 is the "latest version of Windows," speculation abounds, and Microsoft engineers have indirectly confirmed, that many older programs fail to check the Windows versions. So these programs would have misread Windows 9 as much older than it was.