Windows OS:

Windows OS, computer OS (OS) developed by Microsoft Corporation to run personal computers (PCs). Featuring the primary graphical interface (GUI) for IBM-compatible PCs, the Windows OS soon dominated the PC market. Approximately 90 percent of PCs run some version of Windows.
The first version of Windows, released in 1985, was simply a GUI offered as an extension of Microsoft’s existing disk OS , or MS-DOS. Based partially on licensed concepts that Apple Inc. had used for its Macintosh System Software, Windows for the primary time allowed DOS users to visually navigate a virtual desktop, opening graphical “windows” displaying the contents of electronic folders and files with the press of a push button , instead of typing commands and directory paths at a text prompt.

Subsequent versions introduced greater functionality, including native Windows File Manager, Program Manager, and Print Manager programs, and a more dynamic interface. Microsoft also developed specialized Windows packages, including the networkable Windows for Workgroups and therefore the high-powered Windows NT, aimed toward businesses. The 1995 consumer release Windows 95 fully integrated Windows and DOS and offered built-in Internet support, including the world Wide browser Internet Explorer.

With the 2001 release of Windows XP, Microsoft united its various Windows packages under one banner, offering multiple editions for consumers, businesses, multimedia developers, et al. . Windows XP abandoned the long-used Windows 95 kernel (core software code) for a more powerful code base and offered a more practical interface and improved application and memory management. The highly successful XP standard was succeeded in late 2006 by Windows Vista, which experienced a troubled rollout and met with considerable marketplace resistance, quickly acquiring a reputation for being an outsized , slow, and resource-consuming system. Responding to Vista’s disappointing adoption rate, Microsoft in 2009 released Windows 7, an OS whose interface was almost like that of Vista but was met with enthusiasm for its noticeable speed improvement and its modest system requirements.

Windows 8 in 2012 offered a start screen with applications appearing as tiles on a grid and therefore the ability to synchronize settings so users could go online to a different Windows 8 machine and use their preferred settings. In 2015 Microsoft released Windows 10, which came with Cortana, a digital personal assistant like Apple’s Siri, and therefore the browser Microsoft Edge, which replaced Internet Explorer. Microsoft also announced that Windows 10 would be the last version of Windows, meaning that users would receive regular updates to the OS but that no more large-scale revisions would be done.