31 Facts About Windows

Windows is a group of several proprietary graphical operating system families developed and marketed by Microsoft.

However, Windows is not the most used operating system when including both mobile and desktop OSes, due to Android's massive growth.

Microsoft, the developer of Windows, has registered several trademarks, each of which denotes a family of Windows operating systems that target a specific sector of the computing industry.

Term Windows collectively describes any or all of several generations of Microsoft operating system products.

Early versions of Windows are often thought of as graphical shells, mostly because they ran on top of MS-DOS and use it for file system services.

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Unlike MS-DOS, Windows allowed users to execute multiple graphical applications at the same time, through cooperative multitasking.

Windows implemented an elaborate, segment-based, software virtual memory scheme, which allows it to run applications larger than available memory: code segments and resources are swapped in and thrown away when memory became scarce; data segments moved in memory when a given application had relinquished processor control.

Windows 95 introduced a redesigned, object oriented user interface, replacing the previous Program Manager with the Start menu, taskbar, and Windows Explorer shell.

The first OSR of Windows 95 was the first version of Windows to be bundled with Microsoft's web browser, Internet Explorer.

Mainstream support for Windows 95 ended on December 31,2000, and extended support for Windows 95 ended on December 31,2001.

Windows 98 included integration with Internet Explorer 4 through Active Desktop and other aspects of the Windows Desktop Update.

Mainstream support for Windows 98 ended on June 30,2002, and extended support for Windows 98 ended on July 11,2006.

However, Windows Me was faced with criticism for its speed and instability, along with hardware compatibility issues and its removal of real mode DOS support.

Windows NT was the first Windows operating system based on a hybrid kernel.

At retail, Windows XP was now marketed in two main editions: the "Home" edition was targeted towards consumers, while the "Professional" edition was targeted towards business environments and power users, and included additional security and networking features.

Windows 7 has multi-touch support, a redesigned Windows shell with an updated taskbar with revealable jump lists that contain shortcuts to files frequently used with specific applications and shortcuts to tasks within the application, a home networking system called HomeGroup, and performance improvements.

The new Windows version required a minimum resolution of 1024×768 pixels, effectively making it unfit for netbooks with 800×600-pixel screens.

On June 24,2021, Windows 11 was announced as the successor to Windows 10 during a livestream.

Windows NT included support for several platforms before the x86-based personal computer became dominant in the professional world.

Windows 2000 dropped support for all platforms, except the third generation x86 or newer in 32-bit mode.

Windows Vista was the first client version of Windows NT to be released simultaneously in IA-32 and x64 editions.

Windows 11 is the first version to drop support for 32-bit hardware.

Windows CE, is an edition of Windows that runs on minimalistic computers, like satellite navigation systems and some mobile phones.

Windows Embedded Compact is based on its own dedicated kernel, dubbed Windows CE kernel.

Windows CE was used in the Dreamcast along with Sega's own proprietary OS for the console.

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Shortly after Windows 2000 was released, Microsoft switched to a fork of Perforce named Source Depot.

The Windows code was divided among 65 different repositories with a kind of virtualization layer to produce unified view of all of the code.

Early versions of Windows were designed at a time where malware and networking were less common, and had few built-in security features; they did not provide access privileges to allow a user to prevent other users from accessing their files, and they did not provide memory protection to prevent one process from reading or writing another process's address space or to prevent a process from code or data used by privileged-mode code.

Windows NT was far more secure, implementing access privileges and full memory protection, and, while 32-bit programs meeting the DoD's C2 security rating, yet these advantages were nullified by the fact that, prior to Windows Vista, the default user account created during the setup process was an administrator account; the user, and any program the user launched, had full access to the machine.

Windows Vista introduced a privilege elevation system called User Account Control.

User applications, including the Windows shell, are then started with the restricted token, resulting in a reduced privilege environment even under an Administrator account.