Microsoft Windows

Microsoft Windows is a commerical software product manufactured by the Microsoft Corporation that functions as an operating system (OS), which most people use to operate Intel based personal computers.

The term Windows is used as a collective term for several versions of the Windows operating system and there are dozen versions of Windows to date, including Windows XP and Windows 98. Before Microsoft Windows 95, Windows denoted the program that implements the graphical user interface rather than the combined operating system and desktop.

The main feature of modern MS Windows is the desktop (a Microsoft version of the Presentation Manager used in the IBM OS/2 release of 1992), which isolates the user from the increased complexities of MS Windows. The introducing of MS Windows changes the user interface from human readable command-line interface and configuration files to graphical system reliant upon binary databases and immense dynamic software libraries interdependant upon each other. Before the development of Windows, the main PCs were usually built with the MS-DOS.

Because the term windows is merely an English noun and also has been used in graphical user interface, the term might be ambiguous to some people.

Virtually all Intel based personal computers are sold with MS Windows already installed to the PC. Though MS Windows is the dominant operating system for Intel based PCs today and is assumed to be used by over 90% of personal computers as of 2003, estimates are difficult as 'non-Wondows' users typically purchase a PC and delete MS Windows before then installing one of the free open source operating systems. Other efforts to gauge the market by logging the web browsers used to visit web sites are also thawrted as non-Windows users must inveiabily set their web browsers to identify themselves as Microsoft Windows browsers.

The current version of Windows is called Windows XP, and is based on Windows 2000 (which was based on a previous product Windows NT which was the Microsoft version of OS/2 version 1). Windoes XP comes in two different versions: Windows XP Pro and Windows XP Home. XP Pro is aimed at professionals and technical users. XP Home is targeted at private users and it lacks some of the more powerful features of XP Pro.

Windows is Microsoft's attempt to provide graphical user interface for AT&T-compatible personal computers. In 1985, Microsoft corporation released Microsoft Windows 1.0, an enhanced user interface and set of applications for its MS-DOS operating system. This was seen at the time as a response to the popular Apple Macintosh computer released in 1984. See History of the graphical user interface.

Windows is also known for being overwhelmingly the most widespread and controversial series of operating systems the world has ever known. Since the release of Windows NT and Windows 95, Microsoft has sold current versions of Windows as stand-alone operating systems for computers based on Intel microprocessors. At one time, Microsoft produced versions for other processors such as the DEC Alpha, PowerPC and MIPS; as of the release of Windows 2000, Microsoft no longer develops these versions. See History of Microsoft Windows.

Some technically adept computer users rather prefer other operating systems including Linux, Unix, Mac OS X, saying the quality, stability, and security of them is suitable for business and Internet use. See OS Advocacy.

Versions for particular devices

Pocket PC for PDAs.
Smartphone for mobile phones
Tablet PC for notebooks and desknotes with touch screen.

Retiring Windows in favour of .NET?

Microsoft has a number of new initiatives: .NET, Palladium and the "Longhorn" operating system.

As of 2003, there is speculation that Microsoft may be using .NET and Longhorn as a way of dumping the Windows operating system. Microsoft has retired its flagship operating system before, by retiring MS-DOS in favour of Windows. It is argued that doing this will allow Microsoft to avoid the consequences of any antitrust settlement, by being able to claim that its new operating system is an entirely new product, and not subject to any regulation that may be applied to its Windows operating system.

For other operating systems please see this list.