History Of Microsoft Windows
In 1983, Microsoft announced the development of Windows, a graphical user interface (GUI) for its own operating system (MS-DOS), which had shipped for IBM PC and compatible computers since 1981. The product line has changed from a GUI product to a modern operating system over two families of design, each with its own codebase and default file system.
The 3.x and 4.x family includes Windows 3.0, Windows 3.1x, Windows 95, Windows 98, and Windows Me. Windows for Workgroups 3.11 added 32-bit networking and 32-bit disk access. Windows 95 added additional 32-bit capabilities (however, MS-DOS, some of the kernel, and supplementary utilities such as Disk Defragment remained 16-bit) and implemented a new object oriented user interface, elements of which are still used today.
The Windows NT family started with Windows NT 3.1 in 1993. Modern Windows operating system versions are based on the newer Windows NT kernel that was originally intended for OS/2. Windows runs on IA-32, x86-64, and Itanium processors. Microsoft is also working to bring Windows NT onto ARM in the next release of Windows. Earlier versions also ran on the i860, Alpha, MIPS, Fairchild Clipper, and PowerPC architectures. Some work was done to port it to the SPARC architecture.
With Windows NT 4.0 in 1996, the shell changed from Program Manager to Windows Explorer.
Read more about History Of Microsoft Windows: Windows 1.0 and Windows 2.0, Success With Windows 3.0, A Step Sideways: OS/2, Windows 3.1 and NT 3.x, Windows 95, Windows NT 4.0, Windows 98, Windows 2000, Windows Millennium Edition (Me), Windows XP, Windows Server 2003, Windows XP X64 and Server 2003 X64 Editions, Windows Server 2003 R2, Windows Fundamentals For Legacy PCs, Windows Home Server, Windows Vista, Windows Server 2008, Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2, Windows Home Server 2011, Windows Thin PC, Windows 8 and Windows Server 2012
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