Windows Os

Windows Os

    • Windows is the operating system sold by the Seattle-based company Microsoft. Microsoft, originally christened "Traf-O-Data" in 1972, was renamed "Micro-soft" in November 1975, then "Microsoft" on November 26, 1976.
    • Microsoft entered the marketplace in August 1981 by releasing version 1.0 of the operating system Microsoft DOS (MS-DOS), a 16-bit command-line operating system
    • The first version of Microsoft Windows (Microsoft Windows 1.0) came out in November 1985. It had a graphical user interface, inspired by the user interface of the Apple computers of the time. Windows 1.0 was not succesful with the public, and Microsoft Windows 2.0, launched December 9, 1987, did not do much better.
    • It was on May 22, 1990 that Microsoft Windows became a success, with Windows 3.0, then Windows 3.1 in 1992, and finally Microsoft Windows for Workgroups, later renamed Windows 3.11, which included network capabilities. Windows 3.1 cannot be considered an entirely separate operating system because it was only a graphical user interface running on top of MS-DOS.
    • On August 24, 1995, Microsoft launched the operating system Microsoft Windows 95.
    • Windows 98 natively supported features other than those of MS-DOS but was still based upon it.
    • On September 14, 2000, Microsoft released Windows Me (for Millennium Edition), also called Windows Millennium. Windows Millennium was based largely on Windows 98 (and therefore on MS-DOS), but added additional multimedia and software capabilities.
    • On May 24, 1993, the first version of Windows NT was released. It was called Windows NT 3.1, and was followed by Windows NT 3.5 in September 1994 and Windows 3.51 in June 1995. With Windows NT 4.0, launched for sale on August 24, 1996, Windows NT finally became a true success.
    • In July 1998, Microsoft released Windows NT 4.0 TSE (Terminal Server Emulation), the first Windows system that allowed terminals to be plugged into a server, i.e. use thin clients to open a session on the server.
    • On February 17, 2000, the next version of NT 4.0 was renamed Windows 2000 (instead of Windows NT 5.0) in order to highlight the unification of "NT" with the "Windows 9x" systems. Windows 2000 is an entirely 32-bit system with caracteristics of Windows NT, as well as an improved task manager and full compatibility with USB and FireWire peripherals.
    • Then, on October 25, 2001, Windows XP arrived on the scene. This was a merger of the preceding operating systems.
    • Finally, on April 24, 2003, a server operating system was released by Microsoft: Windows Server 2003.
 

Last modified: Thursday, 12 January 2012, 6:45 PM