Microsoft Windows is a Graphical Operating System developed by Microsoft Corporation.
The Windows Operating System was introduced by Microsoft in the year 1985. Prior to that, Microsoft Disk Operating System (MS-DOS) for IBM compatible computers was introduced by Microsoft in 1981 which was a text-based operating system wherein the user had to type various commands/programs to execute them. The last version of MS-DOS was released in 1994. Even though MS-DOS is no longer used, it still remains as a part of the Windows OS in the form of Command Prompt wherein the user can perform tasks through a text-based interface. Although MS-DOS was a popular OS, it did not have all the features which other OSs like UNIX (Linux was inspired from UNIX) had.
Since its introduction in 1985, Windows has always been the leader in graphical OSs. At a point of time, Windows dominated the personal computer (PC) sector of computers and had about 90% of the share in PCs. Windows basically related to the boxes or windows that needed to be opened for viewing various files and other parts of the OS. With Windows, the users could use a mouse to click on the elements on the screen and interact with various applications. Later on Microsoft introduced various other softwares like Outlook, Microsoft Office and Internet Explorer which acted as utilities for the user to perform various actions.
Microsoft has introduced various versions of Windows – 95, 98, Me, CE, 2000, XP, Vista, 7, 8 and 10 wherein each version improved upon the previous version. Windows still is the leader in the Personal Computer section of computers due to its ease of use and availability of applications and games. Windows supports various languages. Another version of Windows called Windows Phone, the latest being Windows 10 Mobile, is used in smartphones also as an alternative to Android based phones.
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