Microsoft Windows version history
Despite this, Windows Vista was critically panned for its poor performance on older hardware and its at-the-time high system requirements.
In the development of Windows 1.0, Microsoft intentionally limited its borrowing of certain GUI elements from the Macintosh user interface, to comply with its license.
Judge William Schwarzer dropped all but 10 of Apple's 189 claims of copyright infringement, and ruled that most of the remaining 10 were over uncopyrightable ideas.
It also allowed users to better multitask older MS-DOS based software compared to Windows/386, thanks to the introduction of virtual memory.
PCs had improved graphics by this time, due to VGA video cards, and the protected/enhanced mode allowed Windows applications to use more memory in a more painless manner than their DOS counterparts could.
The features listed above and growing market support from application software developers made Windows 3.0 wildly successful, selling around 10 million copies in the two years before the release of version 3.1.
[19] In response to the impending release of OS/2 2.0, Microsoft developed Windows 3.1 (first released in April 1992), which included several improvements to Windows 3.0, such as display of TrueType scalable fonts (developed jointly with Apple), improved disk performance in 386 Enhanced Mode, multimedia support, and bugfixes.
One optional download for WfW was the "Wolverine" TCP/IP protocol stack, which allowed for easy access to the Internet through corporate networks.
Even though the 3.1x series still lacked most of the important features of OS/2, such as long file names, a desktop, or protection of the system against misbehaving applications, Microsoft quickly took over the OS and GUI markets for the IBM PC.
Driver support was lacking due to the increased programming difficulty in dealing with NT's superior hardware abstraction model.
Additionally, although allowing for good performance and fuller exploitation of system resources, it was also resource-intensive on limited hardware, and thus was only suitable for larger, more expensive machines.
However, these same features made Windows NT perfect for the LAN server market (which in 1993 was experiencing a rapid boom, as office networking was becoming common).
Windows NT version 3.51 was Microsoft's entry into this field, and took away market share from Novell (the dominant player) in the following years.
Thus Microsoft sought to ensure some degree of compatibility between the Chicago design and Windows NT, even though the two systems had radically different internal architectures.
Chicago was designed to have support for 32-bit preemptive multitasking like OS/2 and Windows NT, although a 16-bit kernel would remain for the sake of backward compatibility.
The Win32 API first introduced with Windows NT was adopted as the standard 32-bit programming interface, with Win16 compatibility being preserved through a technique known as "thunking".
Microsoft did not change all of the Windows code to 32-bit; parts of it remained 16-bit (albeit not directly using real mode) for reasons of compatibility, performance, and development time.
Responding to complaints about OS/2 2.0's high demands on computer hardware, version 3.0 was significantly optimized both for speed and size.
It included new hardware drivers and the FAT32 file system which supports disk partitions that are larger than 2 GB (first introduced in Windows 95 OSR2).
Many minor problems that existed in the first edition were fixed making it, according to many, the most stable release of the Windows 9x family.
Windows Me was criticized for stability issues, as well as for lacking real mode DOS support, to the point of being referred to as the "Mistake Edition".
Service Pack 2 provided significant improvements and encouraged widespread adoption of XP among both home and business users.
The aim of WinFLP is to give companies a viable upgrade option for older PCs that are running Windows 95, 98, and Me that will be supported with patches and updates for the next several years.
Vista was the target of much criticism and negative press, and in general was not well regarded, this was seen as leading to the relatively swift release of Windows 7.
[58] Both versions received some criticism due to the removal of the Start menu and some difficulties to perform tasks and commands.
Like its successor, the operating system was announced as a service OS that would receive constant performance and stability updates.
On October 6, 2018, distribution of Windows version 1809 (build 17763) was paused while Microsoft investigated an issue with user data being deleted during an in-place upgrade.
The system incorporates a renewed interface called "Mica", which includes translucent backgrounds, rounded edges and color combinations.
However, some features and programs such as Cortana, Internet Explorer (replaced by Microsoft Edge as the default web browser) and Paint 3D were removed.
While it was praised for its redesigned interface, and increased security and productivity, it was criticized for its high system requirements (which includes an installed TPM 2.0 chip, enabling the Secure Boot protocol, and UEFI firmware) and various UI changes and regressions (such as requiring a Microsoft account for first-time setup, preventing users from changing default browsers, and inconsistent dark theme) compared to Windows 10.
