30 years of Windows: stages of a long journey

In 1998, on June 25, the operating system "Windows 98" was officially released. And over the past thirty years, Windows has managed to go from an operating system understandable only to programmers to an OS accessible even to a child.

(13 photos in total)

1. Windows 1.0

Where are those golden days when MS-DOS was the only intermediary between the user and the computer? Not to say that MS-DOS was so bad. It was just that a) it was not clear to everyone and b) it was capable of solving a limited number of tasks.

The start of work on the graphical interface for MS-DOS was announced in 1983, and on November 20, 1985, Windows 1.0 OS appeared.

Users could run programs in multiple windows at the same time, which saved them from having to close one application to open another.

2. Windows 2.0

The next version appeared on December 9, 1987. The graphics were improved, icons appeared on the desktop, and the user was able to use hotkeys.

3. Windows 3.0

On May 22, 1990, Windows 3.0 began to be released with the Microsoft Office suite, which included Word, Excel and PowerPoint. And yes, the game "Minesweeper" appeared.

4. Windows NT 3.1

The next release, on July 27, 1993, was designed for corporate users and for a very long time was considered one of the most reliable OS of the family.

5. Windows 95

It's not entirely clear why, but the real success awaited Microsoft on August 24, 1995, when Windows 95 appeared. Users learned what the "Start" button, Plug and Play is, were able to name files almost as God wills (the file name could contain up to 256 characters) and got acquainted with the hitherto unseen phenomenon of the operating system — BSOD. Yes, that's him. Blue screen of death.

6. Windows 98

Windows 98 appeared on June 25, 1998. Users received the Windows Update utility and a couple of nice buns like DVD and USB support. However, almost exclusively frenzied experimenters and Microsoft fans switched to Windows 98: the rest were waiting for something special that would turn, if not the universe, then at least the idea of the OS. And it came. And it was called Windows Millennium.

7. Windows 2000 Professional

However, before that, the company rolled out Windows 2000 Professional, in which (remembering the successful Windows NT) many believed. For ten years on Windows 2000 Professional enthusiasts installed endless patches, but did not give up.

8. Windows Millennium

The long-awaited Windows Millennium turned out not to be completely rubbish, it's just that this OS is essentially the same Windows 95, only multimedia and beautiful.

9. Windows XP

It may seem strange, but Windows XP, released on October 25, 2001, according to Net Applications web analytics, was the most popular Windows operating system until 2011, when it was finally overtaken by Windows 7. It was not only understandable and relatively stable, but also combined the convenience for both the average user and the professional: after all, it was built on the basis of the NT family. Microsoft stopped supporting it only on April 8, 2014.

10. Windows Vista

This OS was developed, apparently, by a certain sabotage division of the company. Windows Vista was beautiful and... everything. That was where her virtues ended. In the memory of the people, Windows Vista remained as extremely unstable, buggy and slow.

11. Windows 7

There were practically no questions about Windows 7. She was as good as she could be. After Microsoft's focus on the Metro interface, those who haven't had time to upgrade yet are happy to stay with Windows 7.

12. Windows 8

Metro's tiled interface, as recognized by many, was more suitable for mobile devices with a touch screen than for a regular computer. And if the main feature of Windows 95 was the blue screen of death, then the most annoying feature of the "eight" is the absence of the "Start" button. The button was returned fairly quickly — in Windows 8.1. But the sediment, as they say, remained.

13. Windows 10

The first release of Windows 10 took place on July 29, 2015. The latest test version was released just a few days ago — on August 28, 2015. According to Microsoft, you can upgrade for free. However, not everyone has succeeded so far.