Microsoft Windows

One of the first questions that someone who is new to computing might have is what is Microsoft Windows? While Microsoft gets poor reviews from time to time for being a huge and sometimes negative force in the computing universe, without Microsoft Windows, computing today would be incredibly different.

Microsoft Windows is a computer software operating system. Throughout the years, there have been many products with the Window’s name. Some of the more popular Windows operating systems are Windows 3.0, Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows XP, and the current version of Microsoft Windows, Windows Vista.

In the early computing days, a graphical user interface was extremely rare. Most computers offered visual output in the form of monochrome monitors that typically showed text (usually the color green). However, as more and more powerful computers emerged (during the early 1990s), a graphical user interface with a color monitor was the norm. Microsoft Windows ran on PCs, giving it a huge market share. So, most people who bought a PC made Microsoft Windows the operating system of their choice.

An operating system can be said to be the main software component responsible for managing activities, coordinating activities, and assigning computer resources. Today, most computers are pre-packaged with Microsoft Windows in order for these tasks to be done. The term “windows” comes from the ability to open and control a number of software programs simultaneously. Microsoft Windows’ graphical user interface allows users to easily see which programs are open and running and multi-task (work on several programs at the same time).

Microsoft Windows is the leading operating system today. However, other operating systems are popular including Apple’s OSX, which only runs on Apple computers and Linux, which is a free, open source software that is popular with tech enthusiasts.