Microsoft Windows is a group of several proprietary graphical operating system families developed and marketed by Microsoft. Each family caters 💸 to a certain sector of the computing industry. For instance, Windows NT for consumer and corporate desktops, Windows Server for 💸 servers, and Windows IoT for embedded systems. Defunct Windows families include Windows 9x, Windows Mobile, Windows Phone, and Windows Embedded 💸 Compact.
The history of Windows dates back to 1981 when Microsoft started work on a program called "Interface Manager". It was 💸 announced in November 1983 (after the Apple Lisa, but before the Macintosh) under the name "Windows", but Windows 1.0 was 💸 not released until November 1985.[17] Windows 1.0 was to compete with Apple's operating system, but achieved little popularity. Windows 1.0 💸 is not a complete operating system; rather, it extends MS-DOS. The shell of Windows 1.0 is a program known as 💸 the MS-DOS Executive. Components included Calculator, Calendar, Cardfile, Clipboard Viewer, Clock, Control Panel, Notepad, Paint, Reversi, Terminal and Write. Windows 💸 1.0 does not allow overlapping windows. Instead, all windows are tiled. Only modal dialog boxes may appear over other windows. 💸 Microsoft sold as included Windows Development libraries with the C development environment, which included numerous windows samples.[18]
Windows 3.0, released in 💸 1990, improved the design, mostly because of virtual memory and loadable virtual device drivers (VxDs) that allow Windows to share 💸 arbitrary devices between multi-tasked DOS applications.[citation needed] Windows 3.0 applications can run in protected mode, which gives them access to 💸 several megabytes of memory without the obligation to participate in the software virtual memory scheme. They run inside the same 💸 address space, where the segmented memory provides a degree of protection. Windows 3.0 also featured improvements to the user interface. 💸 Microsoft rewrote critical operations from C into assembly. Windows 3.0 was the first version of Windows to achieve broad commercial 💸 success, selling 2 million copies in the first six months.[23][24]
The Windows family tree
Furthermore, although Windows NT and its successors are 💸 designed for security (including on a network) and multi-user PCs, they were not initially designed with Internet security in mind 💸 as much, since, when it was first developed in the early 1990s, Internet use was less prevalent.[100]
