Microsoft Windows is 25: The history of Windows in pictures

It was 25 years ago that Microsoft Windows was unleashed on the world -- there are England footballers younger than that. 25 years of windows, menus and anthropomorphic paper clips began on 20 November 1985 when Bill Gates' baby first went on sale, before taking over the offices, schools and homes of almost every computer user in the world and making Bill Gates the richest man in the world.

The world was a very different place in 1985: a conservative government was in power and Back To The Future was in cinemas. Ah, maybe not then. Right, come with us on a trip through time as we explore the history of the operating system that powers the world.

The Windows story began in 1975 when Seattle schoolfriends Bill Gates and Paul Allen formed Microsoft. In 1980, IBM approached Microsoft about creating an operating system for its personal computers. Never having written an OS before, Microsoft bought an operating system called QDOS -- or "Quick and Dirty Operating System" -- changed the name to MS Disk Operating System, and licensed it to IBM.

MS-DOS required you to type in arcane commands, so Microsoft set to work on making a new OS with a more accessible user interface. Codenamed 'Interface Manager', the OS used a mouse and onscreen drop-down menus, scroll bars, and icons in boxes to control your computing. These 'windows' gave a name to the software. Microsoft Windows was announced in 1983 and version 1.0 launched two years later.

Windows is born

To run Windows 1.0, you needed a minimum of 256 kilobytes, two double-sided floppy disk drives, and a graphics adaptor card. Here's Microsoft's business brain Steve Ballmer telling you how it works.

Windows 2.0 followed on 9 December 1987. Version 3.0 came along on 22 May 1990, by which time Windows was well on the way to taking over the world. 3.0 and its successor 3.1 sold 10 million copies, driven by the rise of computers packing an Intel 386 processor. That, and the fact that it had a screensaver that made it look as if you were flying through space! By then, it looked like the Windows we know and love -- or love to hate.

Windows NT was a 32-bit operating system built from scratch that arrived on 27 July 1993. It was intended to complement the MS-DOS based consumer versions of Windows, although most subsequent versions of the OS were based on NT. NT originally stood for the N-Ten Intel i860 XR processor, but marketing later created the backronym New Technology.

Start me up

Windows 95 added the Start button, taskbar and those pesky little minimise, maximise and close buttons on 24 August 1995. It came with built-in Internet support and dial-up networking, so you could surf cyberspace and cruise the Information Superhighway with the Internet Explorer Web browser. On 25 June 1998, Windows 98 added supports for USB and DVDs. It was the last version of the OS based on MS-DOS.

Windows XP emerged into the light on 25 October 2001, and was the first iteration to offer a 64-bit version as well as Media Center and Tablet PC editions.

Windows on the future

It's hard to give an exact birth date for Windows Vista in 2006, and Windows 7 in 2009, as both were rolled out in stages to developers and manufacturers before hitting shops. Both featured all kinds of flashy new graphical interface tweaks, but both launches were also marred by confusion over upgrades, price changes, and disjointed versions of the software.

Still, we can't deny the importance and success of Windows over the last 25 years. We've come a long way from the basic features of 1985 to the 3D graphics and touchscreen polish of 2010. Click through our gallery to see the many changes, and share your memories of Windows in the comments.

Images: toastytech.com, User:Norm, Microsoft