Happy birthday! It's been 35 years since the launch of Windows 1.0

Gandalf_The_Grey

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Windows has come a long way over the last 35 years.

What you need to know
  • Today is the 35th anniversary of the launch of Window 1.0.
  • Windows 1.0 was the first graphical user interface for MS-DOS.
Windows 1.0 launched 35 years ago today. Two years after its announcement, Windows 1.0 started shipping on November 20, 1985. The world of Windows has changed quite a bit since then, but the operating system's launch was a major step in personal computing.

Windows 1.0 was the first graphical user interface for MS-DOS. In comparison to today's tech, Windows 1.0 doesn't look so user-friendly, but at the time, it was quite the accomplishment. Before Windows 1.0, using a PC was much more complex and was mostly left to experts.

When people talk about the start of Windows, they often refer to Windows 3.0 and 3.1. Combined, those versions of Windows sold ten million copies. These versions of Windows were also much more user-friendly. They were also the first versions of Windows that allowed hardware manufacturers to put Windows onto PCs. While Windows 3.0 and 3.1 were revolutionary, they wouldn't have come to be if it weren't for Windows 1.0.

At the time of publication, it's still early in Redmond, so we haven't seen anything about the birthday from Microsoft yet. We did find a birthday post from Microsoft in German from earlier this year. Steven Sinofsky, the former President of the Windows division at Microsoft, did share a tweet commemorating the occasion.

Happy Anniversary Windows 1.0
Two years after being announced, version 1 shipped on Nov 20, 1985. pic.twitter.com/F4XulYd0Hg
— Steven Sinofsky (@stevesi) November 20, 2020
Each version of Windows has a unique place in history, from the Start Menu of Windows 95 to the modern connectivity of Windows 10, but they all stem from Windows 1.0. For that, we wish Windows a happy birthday.
Happy birthday! It's been 35 years since the launch of Windows 1.0 | Windows Central
More posts:
35 Years of Microsoft Windows: Remembering Windows 1.0 (howtogeek.com)
Windows turns 35: a visual history - The Verge
 

upnorth

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celebrate happy birthday GIF
 

rndmblk

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Nov 18, 2020
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Windows for Workgroups 3.11 was the first version I used. Up until then I was purely DOS based and couldn't understand why anyone would even want a mouse

Windows 95 would obviously be around 25 years ago. That certainly paved the way for the basic way I'd work with computers for most of my working life
 

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