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2010 marks the 25th anniversary of the ubiquitous Microsoft Windows operating system. The first version of the software, Windows 1.0, was released in November 1985.
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Windows was a shift from the command line to a much simpler to use graphical user interface. According to the latest stats from StatCounter, an overwhelming 92.49 per cent of users are on a Windows OS compared to 5.66 per cent on Mac.
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Microsoft launched its second major Windows version in October 1987. Windows 2.0 had an improved user interface and allowed keyboard shortcuts.
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Windows 3.0 was released in 1990 and was more successful than its predecessors. It also posed a serious challenge to the Mac. Multimedia features were added subsequently.
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In 1993 Microsoft released a new operating system Windows NT (NT stood for "new technology") that it had built from scratch. Instead of the usual version 1.0 release, Windows NT began with version 3.1 for the sake of consistency with the already popular Windows 3.1.
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Windows 95 (originally codenamed Chicago) released on August 24, 1995. It came with the new plug and play feature that made hardware installation easier.
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With Windows 95, Microsoft started branding the Windows OS with the year of its release.
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Windows 98 was released in (you guessed it right!) 1998. 25 June 1998, to be precise. Windows 98 came with Internet Explorer Web browser pre-installed. It was earlier released as part of an add-on package for Windows 95.
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Microsoft, in 1999, released an upgraded version called Windows 98 Second Edition.
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In the year 2000, came Windows 2000 that was available in six different edition to suit different requirements.
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Also released in 2000, was one of Microsoft's biggest blunders Windows Millennium Edition, also referred to as Windows Me. Users complained about it being slow, unsteady and buggy.
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Soon after Windows Me failed to ignite the imagination of users, in 2001 Microsft came up with what is its most successful operating system of all time, Windows XP (the XP represents "experience").
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While even Windows XP was not free from its share of hiccups, it went on to become the world's most used OS with three service packs in tow.
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After a gap of over five years Microsoft released another OS for personal computers. Windows Vista had its retail launch on 30 January 2007.
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Vista was also the most criticised Windows OS since Windows Me.
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To tide over the negative publicity that Vista got for Microsoft, the company launched its latest version of desktop OS, Windows 7, in 2009.
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There are rumours floating around about the next Microsoft OS, Windows 8, making an appearance in 2011.
