Visual tour: 25 years of Windows

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    Visual tour: 25 years of Windows


    Posted: 20 Nov 2010

    Twenty-five years ago, on Nov. 20, 1985, Microsoft introduced its first version of Windows to the world. Not many people outside the technical press or the tech industry took notice. Product launch events that cost hundreds of millions of dollars were still years away.

    What's changed in Windows in the last 25 years? Plenty. In this image gallery, we take a look at the various faces of Windows over the past couple of decades and clue you in to what happened at every stage of the operating system's development.

    1985: Windows 1.0


    Windows started in 1981 as a project called Interface Manager and experienced a series of delays getting out of the gate. When it was finally released in late 1985 as
    Windows 1.0, it made a ripple, not a splash. It had to be run on top of DOS, few applications were written for it, and application windows couldn't be overlapped (they had to be tiled).

    Still, the OS allowed for multitasking of Windows apps (not DOS ones) and, even though few knew it at the time, it would eventually become the foundation for the Microsoft empire.

    Windows 1.0 shipped with a handful of apps, including the Notepad text editor, a rudimentary calendar and the long-lived graphics painting program Paint. The operating system required MS-DOS Version 2.0, 256KB of memory and a graphics adapter. It could be run either from a hard disk or on two floppy disks running simultaneously -- in other words, you couldn't swap the disks in and out of a single drive.
    Visual tour: 25 years of Windows - Computerworld
    Posted By: JMH
    20 Nov 2010



  1. Posts : 304
    Windows 7 Ultimate 64 bit
       #1

    Interesting. Computers have come a long way in 25 years.
      My Computer


  2. Posts : 212
    Windows 7 Home Premium 64bit
       #2

    Some nice memories there
      My Computer


  3. Posts : 12,177
    Windows 7 Ult x64 - SP1/ Windows 8 Pro x64
       #3

    Nice article, they were all good OS in their day.

    I didn't have problems with any of the so called bad/unpopular versions they were talking about.
    Last edited by Dave76; 21 Nov 2010 at 13:23.
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  4. Posts : 8,398
    ultimate 64 sp1
       #4

    si8mon said:
    Interesting. Computers have come a long way in 25 years.
    try to imagine where they'll be in another 25 years...
      My Computer


  5. Posts : 6,292
    Windows 7 64 Bit Home Premium SP1
       #5

    I've still got a copy of Dos 6.0 and Windows 3 on floppy disks.
    I wonder what would happen if you tried to install them on an i7 computer?
      My Computer


  6. Posts : 2,164
    Windows 7 Ultimate 64bit
       #6

    TVeblen said:
    I've still got a copy of Dos 6.0 and Windows 3 on floppy disks.
    I wonder what would happen if you tried to install them on an i7 computer?
    try it and let us know. I am curious as well.

    I ran Windows ME for 1 day. Had BSOD's all day long so I went back to Win 2000.
      My Computer


  7. Posts : 1,252
    Windows 8 Professional 64-bit
       #7

    TVeblen said:
    I've still got a copy of Dos 6.0 and Windows 3 on floppy disks.
    I wonder what would happen if you tried to install them on an i7 computer?
    The very fabric and balance of the universe will shatter, and existence as we know it will end.
      My Computer


  8. Posts : 6,292
    Windows 7 64 Bit Home Premium SP1
       #8

    I'm curious and tempted. Maybe one rainy day.....

    I've got a feeling the installer will just quit.
    I recall trying to install and old CAD program I had, GenericCAD (1994), on my brand new Pentium II computer with a 6GB hard drive. The installer started and stopped with an error message (paraphrased):
    "GenericCAD requires 550 KB of disk space to install. Your hard drive has only 5,500,000 KB free. Please delete some files and try to install again"!
    Last edited by TVeblen; 21 Nov 2010 at 15:24. Reason: Wrong processor - bad memory!
      My Computer


  9. Posts : 6,292
    Windows 7 64 Bit Home Premium SP1
       #9

    Skulblaka said:
    The very fabric and balance of the universe will shatter, and existence as we know it will end.
    That too.
    Last edited by TVeblen; 21 Nov 2010 at 15:25.
      My Computer


 
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