It introduces a new graphical user interface (GUI) that represents applications as clickable icons, instead of the list of file names in its predecessors.

[1] Other praised features are the improved multitasking, customizability, and especially the utilitarian memory management that troubled the users of Windows 3.0's predecessors.

However, Microsoft was criticized by third-party developers for bundling its separate software with the operating environment, which they viewed as an anticompetitive practice.

Microsoft had previous attempted to develop a successful operating environment called Windows,[2] which IBM declined for its product line.

[3] As MS-DOS's fifth iteration approached, IBM demanded a version that could run in "protected mode", to allow multiple programs at once, among other benefits.

[6] In a few months, Weise and Sargent cobbled together a rough prototype to run Windows versions of Word, Excel, and PowerPoint, then presented it to company executives, who were impressed enough to approve it as an official project.

Microsoft spent US$3 million to host the festivities, which co-founder Bill Gates referred to as the "most extravagant, extensive, and expensive software introduction ever".

[24] Task List displays all running applications and may also be used to terminate them, select a different program, cascade or tile the windows, and arrange minimized desktop icons.

[29][30] Windows 3.0 retains many of the simple applications from its predecessors, such as the text editor Notepad, the word processor Write, and the improved paint program Paintbrush.

However, it was necessary to load Windows 3.0 in real mode to run SWAPFILE.EXE, which allowed users to change virtual memory settings.

If the user selects an operating mode that cannot be used due to lack of RAM or CPU support, Windows merely boots into the next lowest one.

[42][43] It also supported recording and playing digital audio,[44] MIDI devices, screensavers and analog joysticks,[42] as well as CD-ROM drives, which were then becoming increasingly available.

If the user selects an operating mode that cannot be used due to lack of RAM or CPU support, Windows merely boots into the next lowest one.

[2] Users and critics universally lauded its icon-based interface and the ensuing ease of performing operations,[15][16][27][56] as well as the improved multitasking and greater control over customizing their environments.

[15] Garry Ray of Lotus considered this version of Windows the first of the environment to bear "serious long-term consideration.

[56] The editor of InfoWorld, Michael J. Miller, had faith that PC users would fully transition from the preceding text-only environment to the GUI with Windows 3.0 as their primary choice.

[15][16][56][58] Ted Needleman of the computer magazine Modern Electronics called Windows 3.0's GUI "state-of-the-art" and compared Microsoft's previous attempts to produce such a GUI to Apple Lisa, Apple's early such attempt and the predecessor to its far more successful Macintosh.

[10] However, in February 1991, PC Magazine noted a vast array of applications designed specifically for Windows 3.0, including many that had yet to be available for OS/2.

[59] Amid the unprecedented success of Windows 3.0, Microsoft came under attack by critics as well as the United States Federal Trade Commission, who alleged that the company had attempted to dominate the applications market by luring its competitors into developing software for IBM's OS/2 while it was developing its own for Windows.

[62] Microsoft did indeed suggest developers to write applications for the OS/2, but it also intended Windows 3.0 to be a "low-end" alternative to the latter, with Gates referring to the OS/2 as the operating system of the 1990s.

[63] The investigations into—and the eventual subsequent suing of—Microsoft led to a settlement on July 15, 1994, where Microsoft agreed not to bundle separate software packages with its operating products.

[2] At the time of release, of the 40 million personal computers installed, only five percent used either previous version of Windows,[65] but within its first week of availability, it rose as the top-selling business software.

[60] Its success was interdependent with the PC industry, exemplified by an explosion of demand for and subsequent production of Intel's more powerful microprocessor, the 80486.

[70] After the fiscal year of 1990, Microsoft reported revenues of US$1.18 billion, with $337 million appearing in the fourth quarter.

This annual statistic is up from $803.5 million in fiscal 1989, and it made Microsoft the first microcomputer software company to reach the $1 billion mark in one year.