History of Windows: Windows 1.0

This post marks the kickoff of a new series of posts I am planning on doing. The name is self explanatory, but I am going to explain the reason behind this.

I have wanted to do a series of posts regarding the history of Microsoft Windows for the longest time. And as I type, I recognize this idea for what it was: An idea that was waylaid by something else more important. An idea that never grew legs as a result of my actions.

Now as I see that this old idea is still in my drafts, destined to stay that way unless I do something about it, I find that it is time. So without any further ado, I present to you "History of Windows: Windows 1.0"

The year is 1981, Microsoft is working on a new user interface for MS-DOS. This interface, called "Interface Manager" kept its name until 1983 when its name was changed to Microsoft Windows. This change was announced at the same time that Windows 1.0 was unveiled to the public.

Windows 1.0 suffered a delay of two years before it was finally released to the public on September 20th, 1985. When it was released, Windows 1.0 was not seen as that interesting. Apple already had a GUI for their Macintosh, and so Windows was seen as more of a copy then anything else.

But one key feature that kept Microsoft Windows viable was the ability to multitask. This was a feature that Apple had not employed at that time, the ability to open an application, go back to the main menu, open another application, then go back to the other application without losing anything or having to reopen the application.

The latest stable release of Windows 1.0 is Windows 1.04 which was released in April of 1987.

It was succeeded by Windows 2.0 on December 9th, 1987.

Windows 1.0 reached the end of its support life on December 31st, 2001.

Thank you for reading. I invite users to comment with any questions or comments.