Earliest Microsoft Operating Systems - Coursework Example

Microsoft Windows The development of Windows a graphical user interface was announced in the year 1983 by Microsoft, for MS-DOS its own operating system, which was shipped for compatible computers and IBM PC since 1981. Many different versions of Windows have been exported by Microsoft since then and the product line has changed to a modern operating system from GUI. “It all began with the release of Windows 1.0. This was Microsoft’s first attempt at commercial windowed operating system, and it was pretty much a failure” (LaMothe, 2002, p. 49). In the year 1985 on the 20th of November the first version of Microsoft Windows version 1.0 was launched however, it was very less popular. Rowland Hanson, marketing head of Microsoft suggested that Windows would be a very appealing name to the customer when compared to “Interface Manager”, which was supposed to be its name. Windows 1.0 was rather an operating environment than a complete operating system; it extended MS-DOS and shared the intrinsic problems and flaws of the latter. It included a simple word processor called Windows Write, an appointment calendar, a simple graphics painting program called Windows Paint, a computer terminal, a clock, a control panel, a notepad, a card filer, and a RAM driver. The MS-DOS Executive and a game called Reversi were also included in the first version. On the 9th of December 1987 the second version of Microsoft Windows 2.0 was released, and gained more popularity than the first version. “Windows 2.0 supported the Video Graphics Array (VGA) display System, which allowed you to use 16 colors at 640x480” (Shinder, 2003, p. 5). It achieved more popularity than the first version because of the new Microsoft graphical applications namely Word and Excel for Windows, and because of its inclusion as a run-time version. Windows 3.0 version which was released in the year1990 was quite successful because apart from improved capabilities to the native applications it also allowed the users to a more advanced multitask based on older MS-DOS software when compared to Windows/386 due to the introduction of virtual memory. The third version of Windows gave strong competition to the user interface of the Macintosh computer. This version of Windows was compatible with any Intel processor from 8086/8088 to 80286 and 80386 and could run in Standard, Real and 386 Enhanced modes, and was the first version to run Windows program in protected mode, even though 386 enhanced mode kernel was an improved version of the kernel protected mode in Windows/386.Before the release of Windows 3.1 it sold more than 10 million copies within a span of two years. Windows NT first version was released in July 1993, which is a family of operating systems created by Microsoft, it was initially designed to be a processor independent, multi-user, high level language based operating system with features that were comparable to Unix. Windows 3.1x and Windows 9x were 16-bit/ 32-bit hybrids, whereas NT was the first fully 32-bit version of windows compared to its consumer oriented counterparts, and was intended to complement the consumer versions of Windows that were based on MS-DOS. Based on Windows NT, Microsoft produced Windows XP, Windows 2000, Windows Vista, Windows 7, Windows server 2003, Windows home server and Windows server 2008, even though they are not labeled under NT. On July 27th 1993 Microsoft released the first version of Microsoft Windows NT line of server and business desktop operating systems; this version was called the Windows NT 3.1.the number of the version was chosen to match the number of Windows 3.1 which was then the latest operating environment created by Microsoft. Microsoft started to build a new consumer based version which was code-named Chicago. Like Windows NT and OS/2, Chicago was developed to support a 32-bit preventative multitasking. Though a new GUI was not initially planned as part of the launch, some parts of the Cairo user interface were taken and added as other parts of the release. For some reasons like performance, compatibility, and development time, parts of the Windows code remained 16-bit, all of it was not changed to 32-bits. It was also necessary to repeat designs from earlier versions of the Windows operating systems for backward compatibility reasons. This trend was followed even if the designs did not match the modern environment of computers. In the long run, these were some of the factors that began to affect the stability and efficiency of the operating systems. On August 24, 1995, Windows 95 was released, this was the final product name given to Chicago on its release. Microsoft gained doubly from the release of Windows 95, first, it was impossible for consumers to run the new operating system on a non Microsoft and cheaper DOS, and second, as part of the booting procedure, a version of DOS was loaded briefly. The applications in Windows 95 ran only in 386 Enhanced Mode, with virtual memory and a flat 32-bit address space. These features made it possible for the applications in Win32 tackle about 2 gigabytes of RAM, which in return protected memory and prevented them from corrupting other applications of Win32. The functionality of Windows 95 brought it closer to Windows NT in its own unique way. Microsoft released its next version of operating systems, Windows 98 on June 25, 1998. Windows 98 included improved support for FAT32 file system which had the capability to support disk partitions that were bigger than 2 GB. It also had new kinds of hardware drivers. Additionally, the USB support that came with the Windows 98 was much better than the unreliable support that was given by the OEM versions of Windows 95. “Windows 98 also comes with a few tools and techniques that you can use to make your applications run faster and more reliably” (McFedries, 1999, p. 127). The Internet Explorer browser was also integrated in to the Windows GUI controversially. This led to the case, United States vs. Microsoft, which raised the question of whether Microsoft was exploiting its grasp on the market of operating systems in order to compete unfairly with competitors such as Netscape. The second edition of Windows 98 was released in the year 1998. The most prominent element of the latest edition was the addition of Internet Connection Sharing. This system was based on network address translation, which allowed several different machines on a single Local Area Network (LAN) to share the same internet connection. This version was addition to having great new features was also smoother and easier to use than the previous edition. Support for hardware drivers was also improved. In addition to this many minor fixes were also made. Many consider the Windows 98 version to be one of the most stable releases in the Windows 9x family. In February 2000, Windows 2000 was released. Windows 2000 was known as Windows NT 5.0 while it was being developed. Windows 2000 was successfully installed on both the workstation as well as server markets. Active Directory was one of the most important and notable new features of the Windows 2000 version. Active Directory was a close replacement of the NT 4.0 Windows Server Model, this model was built on industry standard technologies like Kerberos, DNS, and LDAP, which were used to connect machines to each other. All server versions now had Terminal Services which were previously only available with the special edition of NT 4. Many features from the Windows 98 OS were also adopted in the Window 2000 version, some of these include, DirectX, Windows Media Player, and Device Manager. With these updates it was possible for the first time for many modern games to work with the NT kernel. Windows 2000 also turned out to be the last NT kernel Windows operating system that lacked Product Activation. Windows 98 was upgraded by Windows Me that is the Millennium Edition by Microsoft and was launched in September 2000 which had advanced multimedia and Internet features. This version had the introduced the first System Restore version which enabled the users to go back to the old settings in case of a failure in the system. This Restore =System was a distinguished feature and was used in Windows XP as well; Microsoft released the first version of Windows Movie Maker. Microsoft released Windows XP; code named Whistler in 2001, this operating system was achieved by merging Windows 95/98/Me and Windows NT/2000 lines. To replace the aging 16/32 bit branch the Windows XP uses the Windows NT 5.1 kernel, pointing the entry of Windows NT core to the consumer market. Firstly when this was released it was questioned in the area of security and lead to the release of three major Service Packs namely the Windows XP SP1, SP2 and SP3 which were released in September 2002, August 2004 and April 2008 respectively. Both home and business users were encouraged to use the XP by the improvements provided by the Service Pack 2. “Windows XP is easily the most stable, most powerful and most seamless operating system ever to come from Microsoft” (Karp, 2005, p.1). Windows XP was succeeded by Windows Vista but until then it lasted much longer than any other version of Windows operating system, from 2001 to 30th of January 2007. On the 30th of November 2006 Microsoft released Windows Vista to the business customers and the consumer versions on 30th of January 2007. Replacing the administrator-by-default philosophy of Windows XP the Vista introduced an advanced security system called User Account Control which was a new restricted User mode. One of the major differences in the Vista and the earlier Windows operating systems was that the start button was replaced by just the windows icon. Featured in Vista are new graphics features, called Windows Aero GUI, new applications like Windows DVD Maker, Windows Calendar, Windows Media Player 11, games such as Mahjong, Chess, Purple Place, and a many other architectural changes. “Not only the Windows Vista have an all new look, complete with stylish visualizations, easier-to-navigate menus, and enhanced personalization capabilities, but the operating system is also the first version of Windows in which the user experience scales to the hardware capabilities of the computer on which Windows Vista is installed” (Stanek, 2006, p. 3). On February 27, 2008, the Windows Server 2008 was released. The Windows Server 2008 was first called Windows Server Codename ‘Longhorn.’ The security advances and technology which was first introduced with Windows Vista was used in Windows Server 2008. Windows Server 2008 is considered to be more modular than the Windows Server 2003. The server variant of Windows 7, Windows Server 2008 R2, was announced by Microsoft at the Professional Developers Conference in 2008. The Windows Server 2008 will be built to ship only 64-bit. The latest major release from Microsoft after Windows Vista is Windows 7, which was given a three year time period for development. Windows 7 was previously code named as Vienna and Blackcomb. Reference List -Karp , David A. 2005. Windows XP Annoyances for Geeks. USA: O’Reilly Media. -Stanek, William R. 2006. Introducing Microsoft Windows Vista. USA: Microsoft press. -LaMothe, André. 2002. Tricks of the Windows Game Programming Gurus. USA Sams Publishing. -Shinder, Thomas W. 2003. MCSA/MCSE Exam 70-290: Managing and Maintaining a Windows Server 2003. USA: Syngress Publishing. Inc. -McFedries, Paul. 1999. The Unauthorized Guide to Windows 98. USA: Que Publishing.   Read More