They filled up this weekend 40 years since the first Windows was announcedwhen Microsoft unveiled its launch plans at a press event in New York brand new PC operating system. Windows 1.0 was slow in coming as it wasn’t released until November 1985 and had very little success at the time, but the first stone to dominate desktop computing had been laid.

There were different times. November 10, 1983 Microsoft was not the software giant it is today, although little by little he began to assert himself in world technology. Two years earlier, in 1981, its MS-DOS operating system reached the first IBM PC, and in 1993 it launched its first word processor, Word, which, like Windows, was key to the dominance of client computers. In the same year, it started in hardware, with the introduction of the first mouse

The first Windows

Bill Gates knew that text systems were doomed and that graphical interfaces They will dominate the world’s technology. In early 1983, Apple released the Lisa computer with its own Mac OS graphical interface, although its price, approaching $10,000, put it out of the reach of mere mortals. The mortals Gates wanted to reach. A demonstration of another early GUI operating system, Visi On, completed his interest in launching a new GUI system.

Work on Windows 1.0 began a few years before its publication with the so-called “Interface Manager” 1981. In fact It wasn’t a real operating system. but an environment designed to complement MS-DOS (a system marketed by Microsoft for the IBM-PC) in response to the market’s interest in graphical user interfaces and in competition with Mac OS, which had a graphical interface consisting of an interactive mouse with windows, icons and menus.

Compared to Mac OS, Windows 1.0 lacked many features since then It was essentially a graphical extension of MS-DOS. Even yours shell It was called MS-DOS Executive. In the tiled approach, the screen was divided into columns, and the columns were divided into built-in windows “automatic window layout” it resized when you resized any of them so they didn’t overlap, which was the original idea.

As a true GUI, the first Windows didn’t go much further… The Windows 1.0 launch press release signed by Gates abounded in the mosaic idea: “Microsoft Windows extends the functionality of the DOS operating system, but is compatible with most existing applications that run under DOS. Windows allows users to integrate the tasks they perform with their computer, providing the ability to work with multiple programs at the same time and easily switch between them without having to quit and restart individual applications..

However, it had other advantages, such as being intended to be very affordable (for the time) in price (reported to be between $100 and $250) and having about reduced hardware requirements, an IBM-based computer with two floppy disk drives and 192 KB of RAM to run it. In addition, Windows would be compatible with many companies that worked with personal computers, such as HP, Compaq, Texas Instruments, and others. Curiously, IBM itself decided not to support Windows at the time of its official announcement and later released the failed TopView system. He later worked with Microsoft to release OS/2 at the end of the decade.

Although Microsoft had hoped to release the first Windows in April 1984, the system was discontinued two years after its announcement and was a commercial failure with only 500,000 units sold in two years. But the first step has been taken and also the concept of pre-installs on third-party devices that would later be key to Microsoft’s dominance, with software that was affordable and compatible with the dominant hardware it would later use with the alliance with Intel: “Wintel”.

Windows from here

Windows 1.0 hardly achieved commercial popularity, although it laid the foundations for subsequent success. Gates anticipated this when, in the original note found by former chief software architect Ray Ozzie in his office, he stated: “…Windows 1.0 provides a solid foundation for a new generation of applications. “Windows provides today’s users with unprecedented performance and a foundation for hardware and software advancements for years to come.”.

And that’s where Microsoft headed. Progress came mainly with Windows 3.0 in 1990, with improvements to the user interface, multitasking, virtual memory, running applications in protected mode, and other features. Windows 3.0 was the first commercially successful Windowswith two million copies sold in the first six months.

From there, the story is better known with the launch of Windows 95 in August 1995. Developed under the code name “Chicago”, its real user interface, multitasking, virtual memory, running applications in protected mode and other features, It was before and after at Microsoft and in the world of personal computers, a key part of the evolution and subsequent development of consumer computers and the beginning of the desktop operating system monopoly that continues to this day.

After Windows 95 came 98 and Me in the consumer branch, and at the same time the NT family of systems reached Windows 2000, in addition to the foray of Windows CE for GPS, mobile phones, consoles or embedded systems. Later, Windows XP, Vista and 7 in consumption, Windows Mobile/Phone and a branch for servers with Windows Server 2003 and Windows Server 2008. Outside of mobility, Windows 8, 8.1, 10 and 11 arrived for client environments and more Server for servers, more variants like is the IoT version.

A small story of resounding successes (95-2000-XP-7) as well as notorious failures like ME, Vista or Windows 8, always amid accusations of using monopolistic practices and abuse of market position, but with a fundamental role in the history of modern computing and in the arrival of personal computers to every consumer. It all started with the first Windows, the announcement of which is celebrating its 40th anniversary.