Journey of Windows Operating System from the Beginning

Windows Operating System Introduction:

First of all we have to know about Operating system, it is the most important software which runs on a computer. It manages the computer’s memory, processes and all of its software and hardware. Microsoft’s windows Operating system is the widely used operating system in the world. Windows operating system is Graphical User Interface (GUI) based Software which makes it easy to use and understand. Microsoft launches time to time its new versions with great upgrades like the latest windows operating system Windows 10, we will discus it further more.

Versions of Windows Operating System:

Microsoft created windows operating system in mid of 1980’s, over the years there have been many different versions of windows came but the most recent one are Windows 10, windows 8, windows 7. 

Evolution Begins with Windows 1, Windows 2 & Windows 3:

·         Windows 1 is the very first attempt in the field of operating system, released in November 1985. It comes with graphical user interface in 16-bit. Microsoft trusted heavily to use mouse and make the users to click on screen by this interface.

·         After two years of releasing window 1 Microsoft launched windows 2 in December 1987, with the ability of minimizing and maximizing. Control panel and Microsoft word and excel also made their first appearance in windows 2.

·         In 1990 Microsoft launched its first window OS which require a hard drive that was Windows 3. Microsoft enabled the ability to run MS-DOS programs in windows which created the multitasking environment for the programs. One more thing, Microsoft introduced in windows 3 was that it supported 256k colors, which gave a colorful look to windows.

Getting Graphical Windows NT:

·         The first operating system of Windows NT family was introduced on July 27, 1993. Windows NT 3.1 is a 32-bit operating system. The main goal of this operating system was portability, reliability, so that systems no more crash due to the fault of applications. Afterwards Microsoft launched the successors of Windows NT3.0 i.e. Windows NT 3.5 (September 21, 1994), Windows NT 3.51 (May 30, 1995) and then Windows NT 4.0 (July 31, 1996).

Plug and Play Windows 95 & Windows 98:

·         According to its name, Windows 95 launched in August 1995. It was the first Operating system of Microsoft which launched with its Start button and start menu. Windows 95 also introduced the concept of “plug and play”, according to this concept just connect your peripheral and operating system find the appropriate drivers for it, and make it work. Internet explorer also made its first impression in Windows 95.

·         Windows 98 OS released by Microsoft in 1998, which introduced with back and forward navigation buttons and an address bar in windows explorer. In this edition Microsoft brought IE 4, Outlook Express and window media player 6.2 also.

Window ME & Windows 2000:

·         Windows 2000 was released on February 17, 2000. Windows 2000’s all versions were released with support of NTFS 3.0 Encrypting File System, and supports basic and dynamic disk storage. Microsoft also increased the support for different languages.

·         Windows Millennium Edition or Windows ME is the successor to Windows 2000 and the last edition based on MS-DOS and also the last in Windows 9x series. Windows ME launched in September 2000. It introduced Windows Movie Maker including Internet Explorer 5.5 and window media player 7. Windows ME had some bugs like failing to install properly, being generally poor.

Stable, Fast & Usable- Windows XP:

·         Windows XP is one of the best Windows version released in October 25, 2001. Windows XP came in market with user friendly elements.

·         The familiar Green Start button, blue task bar with various shadows and many visual effects, and also introduced the grouping feature, showing both grouped and individual items.

·        Windows XP was the longest running Microsoft’s Operating system 2001 to 2014.

·         The biggest problem in Windows XP was security, the built in firewall was turned off by default. The popularity of Windows XP leads the boon of hackers. Afterwards Microsoft launched the updates of Windows XP time to time as Service pack 1 (September 9, 2002), Service Pack 2 (August 25, 2004), Service Pack 3 (April 21, 2008) with improvements.

Smart on Security- Windows Vista:

·         Windows Vista make its appearance on 30 January 2007 with lots of features like Windows aero (gives Vista a transparent look, live thumbnail, live icons etc.), Window media player 11, Window Defender (an antispyware program), Backup and restore center, Speech Recognition and many more features. Windows vista launched with DirectX 10 technology which generated a new boom in PC gaming. Vista has too many bugs like it wasn’t supported by older computers, ran slowly etc. So it could not get much popular between users.

Revolutionary change in Microsoft OS- Windows 7 & Windows 8

·         Microsoft Launched windows 7 on 22 October 2009, it was the major improvement on Windows Vista. Windows 7 came with lots of new features like hand writing recognition, support for virtual hard disk and many more. Windows 7 provides the virtual version of Windows XP so that XP-supported application can run on Windows 7. It also came in different versions Windows 7 starter, Windows 7 Home Basic, Windows 7 Home Premium, Windows 7 Professional, Windows 7 Enterprise & last but not the least Windows 7 Ultimate.

·         Windows 8 makes its first appearance on 1 August 2012 with major changes in Operating system in its looks and feel. Windows 8 was faster than its previous versions by the Hybrid Boot Feature where system uses only kernel session to boot, it ends up the traditional start menu it included support of USB 3.0. Windows 8 introduced a new security feature PINs and Picture passwords. Windows 8 has in-built Windows Defender which works like an antivirus. After almost a year on October 17, 2013 Windows 8.1 was released with some improvements on Windows 8.

Most Awaiting & Latest Windows Operating System Windows 10:

·         Microsoft announced Windows latest version i.e. Windows 10 on July 29, 2015. Windows 10 is the kind of mixture of Windows 7 and Windows 8. Windows 10 launched with the Windows 7 start menu style and windows 8 live tile.

·         Microsoft introduces a new feature named “Cortana”, which provides a voice assistant like to play songs, give you answers using Bing, send email and many more things it will do for a user.

·         Microsoft introduced a new web browser in windows 10 named “Edge Browser”. It provides safe and secure browsing on internet. Edge browser supports Cortana also.