27 Years and Microsoft Legacy Continues In Its Windows Launches
Bangalore: From the time Microsoft first launched its first OS Version Windows 0.x, in 1985 to the present Windows 8, it kept up with the aura and an underlying assurance to bring some change in computing world. Here’s a sojourn in to the 27 years of Microsoft’s Windows launches as compiled by readwrite.com.
Windows 0.x, 1985
During 1985, there had already been a few decent efforts at graphical task switchers with “high-resolution” VGA graphics, the highest mode was supported by IBM PC ATs and 80836 based machines at the time.
The Microsoft logo was first seen on National Computer Conference in Chicago, which was held in July 1985. Columbia 386 PC’s blue screen lit up with special effects which in a blocky white characters converged in the middle to form “O” in the Microsoft logo, the name “Microsoft Windows” was than public. People took it to be weird, not so tech like name.
The task switchers required to be in the memory while the task was launched, so that they could resume when task was suspended. Since the most systems at that time only had 640kb of total memory, the best task switchers left only 512kb free. Here the Windows 0.x left about 400kb, so there was no possibility of its use in an average machine of that time.
But this Columbian 386 computer had extension board that offered add up memory. The problem with Microsoft OS was that it did not recognize every one-meg memory board available. This caused system to froze after little “O” animation. But the problem was fixed from the third party memory managers from CONFIG.SYS file. Though it did not have great start, people were expecting Microsoft to bring something big next time.
