History of Windows: Windows 95

Welcome back to another blog post in our series of History of Windows posts. Today, we will be taking a look at Windows 95. Which, aside from being the first OS I ever used, was the biggest update for Windows yet.

Arguably the best operating system of the time, and still a good one to this day, Windows 95 solidified the desktop computer for personal users. So without any further ado, lets get started.

We now move to Thursday, August 24th, 1995. Microsoft releases Windows 95. A operating system that allowed Windows as a whole to turn into what it is today with some improvements and changes.

The first notable improvement of Windows 95 as opposed to Windows 3.0 was the introduction of Plug and Play. Which helped a few users because whenever you plugged in a new device, Windows would go ahead and look for a driver itself without the user doing anything.

In some later versions, Windows 95 also came with Internet Explorer. So you had the ability to browse the internet. Windows 95 also introduced the Microsoft Network (what we now know as MSN.) The Microsoft Network was a dial-up ISP from Microsoft, and it is worth noting that MSN still has a dial-up service.

Windows 95 also had very low minimum requirements to run it. 4 MB of system RAM, and a Intel 8386 processor. Now Microsoft did mean minimal when they announced this. Because not a lot of stuff worked if you ran it using that. And the low requirements was meant to entice Windows 3.x users to upgrade.

Some later versions of Windows 95 also included USB support, which was the first time Windows offered said support. And later, Microsoft introduced an add-on pack for Windows 95 called Microsoft Plus!

At release, Windows 95 was accompanied by an extensive ad campaign ran by Microsoft.

This included, but was not limited to, paying for 1.5 million copies of The Times, a popular newspaper in the United Kingdom.

Many features used in Windows today were introduced in Windows 95. This included the iconic taskbar and start menu.

The successor to Windows 95 was released on Friday, May 15th, 1998. It was called Windows 98.

Microsoft discontinued support for Windows 95 on December 31st, 2001. Upgrades to a newer operating system were slow going, as Windows 95 had become a fixture on personal computers around the world.

Thank you for reading. I invite readers to comment with any questions or comments. And to share your stories of Windows 95.

History of Windows: Windows 3.0.

Welcome to another post in our ever growing History of Windows series of posts.

Today for the last post in our "Part 1" of our three part voyage, we will be looking at Windows 3.0. So without any further ado, I give you History of Windows: Windows 3.0. Hope you enjoy it.

On May 22nd, 1990, Microsoft released a new version of Windows called Windows 3.0.

This version of Windows was received very well by the general public at large. This was mainly because of several new features added to Windows that really made it more of a competitor to Apple's Macintosh.

The most notable new feature were the icons above file names. So now you would be able to somewhat discern what something was without having to read a cryptic file name.

And another new feature which quite a few people enjoyed and still do to this day was the inclusion of games such as Minesweeper and Solitaire.

Now about Solitaire. For computer users who want to waste time do something while waiting for something, this piece of software allowed you to play a card game called Solitaire. But the main idea behind including this game in Windows 3.0 was to teach people how to use a mouse. Fast foreword 23 years, and we still have Solitaire, albeit updated. And I would wager anything that to this day, Solitaire is the most used program in the workplace.

Another reason why Windows 3.0 was well received was that with Windows 3.0, Microsoft started to move away from MS-DOS. While the DOS prompt was still in Windows, an average user really did not have to use it that much.

On April 6th, 1992, Microsoft released an update to Windows 3.0 called (what else?) Windows 3.1.

The main improvement over Windows 3.0 was that you could now browse the internet with Windows 3.1. You could use Internet Explorer up to version 5 of it.

Windows 3.1 soon branched out into a consumer product and a separate business product called Windows 3.1 for Workgroups.

On August 11th, 1993, Microsoft released Windows 3.11 for Workgroups. And while this update did not bring much in the way of new features, Retail marketplaces upgraded to Windows 3.11 for Workgroups from the older DOS 6.02.

All versions of Windows 3.0 and 3.1 had their support ended on December 31st, 2001.

Even though the operating system has been unsupported for over 10 years, we still see the imprints that Windows 3.1 left on the world and ourselves.

Windows 3.1 found a niche market as an embedded operating system after becoming obsolete in the PC world. As of November 2008, Virgin Atlantic and Qantas Airways Limited still used it for some of the onboard entertainment on long flights.

It also sees continued use as an embedded operating system in retail cash tills. And on July 14th, 2013, Linux 3.11 was officially named "Linux for Workgroups" as a nod to Windows 3.11 for Workgroups.

From over 20 years ago to today, Microsoft made a hit with Windows 3.0 and with Windows 3.1. But this was not the end of Windows. Far from it. Windows would evolve into a better product.

Windows 9x laid some of the Windows groundwork that is still in use today. And we will discuss each operating system in detail in Part 2 of our Windows voyage.

History of Windows: Windows 2.0

Before I begin this post, I would like to say something about this series of posts that I am planning.

Windows XP is the star of this whole thing. And as such, the "History of Windows: Windows XP" blog post will be published on the day that support for Windows XP ends. Which if some of you have forgotten, is on April 8th, 2014. So. I am going to be spacing this series out to accommodate that. And there are actually going to be three "parts" to the whole series.

Part 1: The beginning of Windows. This part includes Windows 1.0 to Windows 3.0.

Part 2: Windows 9x. This will include Windows 95 to Windows 2000.

Part 3: The post DOS Windows: This will include everything from Windows XP to Windows 8 (Or whatever Microsoft's newest offering is)

So, without any further ado, I give you History of Windows: Windows 2.0:

The year is 1987. Microsoft releases the succsessor to Windows 1.0: Windows 2.0.

Like with its predesessor, Windows 2.0 was not given high regard in the market. And there were quite a few features introduced with Windows 2.0.

The features included the ability to minimize and maximize windows. With this feature, you could switch between applications more easily then you could with Windows 1.0.

But one thing that Microsoft did that captured the attention of software developers was the introduction of Microsoft Office for Windows 2.0. This helped Microsoft speed up the process of becoming a player in the market, but not by very much.

One year later, Windows 2.1 was released. This version of Windows brought support for Intel processors. Under the hood, this was a very good change. But for regular computer users of the time, support for Intel processors would not change how they used computers.

Windows 2.0 was released December 9th, 1987.

Windows 2.1 was released May 27th, 1988.

The latest version of Windows 2.0/2.1 is Windows 2.11.

Support for both of these versions ended on December 31st, 2001.

So that will be it for this- Wait, we still have to talk about the lawsuit.

On March 17th, 1988, Apple Inc filed a copyright infringement lawsuit against Microsoft and HP in a attempt to prevent them from using a Graphical User Interface like those in Macintosh operating systems.

In the midst of all this, Xerox filed a lawsuit against Apple Inc, claiming that the Macintosh GUI was heavily based on Xerox's.

On September 19th, 1994, the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit ruled in favor of Microsoft and HP. Xerox's lawsuit was dismissed for a verity of legal reasons.

So, now this is really the end of the post.

Thank you for reading. I invite readers to comment with any questions or comments.

History of Windows: Windows 1.0

This post marks the kickoff of a new series of posts I am planning on doing. The name is self explanatory, but I am going to explain the reason behind this.

I have wanted to do a series of posts regarding the history of Microsoft Windows for the longest time. And as I type, I recognize this idea for what it was: An idea that was waylaid by something else more important. An idea that never grew legs as a result of my actions.

Now as I see that this old idea is still in my drafts, destined to stay that way unless I do something about it, I find that it is time. So without any further ado, I present to you "History of Windows: Windows 1.0"

The year is 1981, Microsoft is working on a new user interface for MS-DOS. This interface, called "Interface Manager" kept its name until 1983 when its name was changed to Microsoft Windows. This change was announced at the same time that Windows 1.0 was unveiled to the public.

Windows 1.0 suffered a delay of two years before it was finally released to the public on September 20th, 1985. When it was released, Windows 1.0 was not seen as that interesting. Apple already had a GUI for their Macintosh, and so Windows was seen as more of a copy then anything else.

But one key feature that kept Microsoft Windows viable was the ability to multitask. This was a feature that Apple had not employed at that time, the ability to open an application, go back to the main menu, open another application, then go back to the other application without losing anything or having to reopen the application.

The latest stable release of Windows 1.0 is Windows 1.04 which was released in April of 1987.

It was succeeded by Windows 2.0 on December 9th, 1987.

Windows 1.0 reached the end of its support life on December 31st, 2001.

Thank you for reading. I invite users to comment with any questions or comments.