In response to IBM’s OS/2 2.0 operating system software, which was originally a joint effort with Microsoft, 3.1 was published. In its first six months, Windows 3.0 sold 2 million copies, growing to 10 million in the following 18 months. ![]() The system was also configurable, meaning that if you wanted to provide apps with the security of running in a single block, you could automatically assign specified space for that as well. ![]() It meant that Windows could run multiple apps at the same time. Virtual memory was able to deceive applications into thinking they were using big blocks of address space when they were fragmented and spilled into the storage disk rather than being used in RAM. Critical operations had been rewritten in Assembly rather than C, making them lighter and faster, and the addition of virtual memory and VGA cards meant a more efficient, powerful, and graphically competent platform. In a highly competitive sector, this was Microsoft’s first success. The extremely popular desktop publishing software Aldus PageMaker which was eventually followed by Adobe InDesign, was introduced in a Windows variant, which gave the OS a tremendous boost. New keyboard shortcuts and the now-famous Excel and Word apps were introduced with the system. It meant more multitasking capability, and the design began to resemble the actual thing, with Microsoft sneaking overlapping windows into the design. Windows 2.0 made additional RAM available to programs, which was previously reserved for operating peripherals. ![]() Because there could be no overlapping windows, tiling was utilized to place them side by side instead, and there was no trash can like in the Apple OS.Īlthough the introduction of certain iconic features such as Calculator, Calendar, Cardfile, Clipboard Viewer, Clock, Control Panel, Notepad, Paint, Reversi, Terminal, and Word’s forerunner, Write, the system did not enjoy widespread adoption.Īfter two years, the second installment focused primarily on memory management and the user interface, two of the most critical aspects of any operating system. Before the Macs, Microsoft focused on desktop accessories for Apple computers, and much of the Windows look was licensed from Apple. Another moniker that was dropped was MS-DOS Executive, which more correctly characterized the user-friendly GUI element to computing. Initially, Windows was nothing more than a DOS add-on operating system.
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