Summary

• Windows evolved from a CLI-based system to a GUI with Windows 1.0, setting the foundation for future versions like Windows 11.
• Windows 95 introduced the taskbar and Start menu, revolutionizing the desktop interface we still use today in Windows 11.
• Despite some missteps like Vista and Windows 8, Windows 10 and 11 have brought back familiar features while adding new elements for a modern user experience.

Like it or not, Windows is a staple of most modern computers, with Windows 11 being the predominant choice when buying a new laptop or PC. It's been that way for decades now, but Windows itself hasn't been the same in all that time. Ever since Windows 1.0 made its debut in 1985, Windows has changed with every major release, all the way up to Windows 11 back in 2021, which is what we're still using today.

So, just for fun, let's take a look at how far we've come with every release of Windows in the nearly 40 years since its inception.

Windows 1.0

The beginning of a new era

First announced in November 1983, WIndows 1.0 launched about two years later, and it was a major step for Microsoft, adding a graphical user interface (GUI) to what was, until then, a CLI-based operating system (MS-DOS). Indeed, Windows wasn't always an operating system by itself, but rather something that was built on top of MS-DOS, giving users a more intuitive way to use their computers.

Windows wasn't the first to implement a GUI on a computer, but it was still a big step for Microsoft. Windows 1.0 didn't feature overlapping windows like we know them today, and each window opened in a sort of tile setup, where every open app was shown next to each other. It also didn't have a desktop as we know it today, and it would just boot into MS-DOS Executive app so you could launch whatever apps you wanted. Open apps were shown at the bottom of the screen, similar to the taskbar we have today, but there was no way to pin apps there, either. You always had to use MS-DOS Executive.

Windows 1.0 included early versions of apps like Calculator, Paint (known as Paintbrush at this time), Notepad, Terminal, and more. All of these apps are still around today, though they look very different. Paintbrush didn't even support color drawings at the time!

Windows 2.x

Now things are getting interesting

Windows 2.0 released just a couple of years after the initial release, but it brought some big improvements to the table. Most notably, the windows we know the operating system for made their debut, meaning you could actually overlap apps on top of each other now, rather than being restricted to a tile setup. You were free to resize and move windows around at will, which is a big step closer to the Windows we know today.

Windows 2.0 also added the ability to move app icons and place them anywhere on the desktop, it added a lot of keyboard shortcuts, and it was the first version of Windows to support Microsoft Word and Excel, the first apps in Microsoft's Office suite. Windows 2.0 received updates to version 2.1 and later 2.11. These updates focused on improving performance and memory management, while also introducing the requirement for a hard disk drive. However, most of the functionality was the same.

Windows 3.x

The first big shakeup

Three years after Windows 2.0, Microsoft introduced Windows 3.0, and it was the first big shakeup for the operating system. It changed things significantly in terms of visuals, adopting a more 3D-like UI. Most important, though are the new features. While WIndows 3.0 was still built on top of MS-DOS, it replaced the MS-DOS Executive app with a handful of other apps. We had Program Manager, a more user-friendly way to view your programs since it used icons instead of plain text, File Manager for browsing your files (more similar to the Executive app it replaced), and Task List. The Control Panel also got a new UI with icons, making the OS in general feel a bit more friendly.

Windows 3.0 also added one of the most iconic games to be included with Windows, Solitaire, which joined Reversi. It also included updates for existing built-in apps, like Paintbrush adding support for colors and Calculator adding a scientific calculator mode.

Windows 3.1

The Windows 3.x family got even more interesting with Windows 3.1, which brought more significant changes and features. One very notable one was the introduction of TrueType fonts, a specific kind of font that's designed to be scalable to different sizes and with formats like bold or itallic text. These kinds of fonts are still in use today, so this was a very important change. What's more, there was Windows Media Player for playing audio and video, plus a Sound Recorder app. Windows 3.1 also replaced Reversi with the eternal classic Minesweeper, which is arguably the most iconic game to be included with WIndows.

Windows 3.1 also made improvements to the File Manager and Control Panel, and through add-ons, it received features like pen support.

Changes were even more significant in Windows 3.1 for Workgroups, which is what many remember as Windows 3.1. It was notable for the networking features it introduced, like the ability to share files, use print servers, and even support for TCP/IP with the Windows 3.11 for Workgroups update, which supported the Winsock package for network connectivity.

Windows NT 3.x

At this point, Windows was starting to outgrow MS-DOS, and Microsoft built a version of Windows that could look to the future and wasn't based on that old kernel. This was called Windows NT, and it made its debut with Windows NT 3.1. This was the first 32-bit Windows operating system, and it was almost completely different under the hood, though it was designed to look pretty much like Windows 3.1. It had most of the same software, though it had improvements like support for multiple network protocols, support for Unicode characters (which are still in use today), and some new apps specifically aimed at Windows NT users, like User Manager, Performance Monitor, and Disk Administrator. It also included drivers to ensure that peripherals could be used on it, since drivers for previous versions of Windows couldn't be used.

Microsoft later released Windows NT 3.5 as an update with some networking improvements, with fully built-in support for TCP/IP as well as the VFAT file system. It also improved performance.

Windows 9x - Windows ME

Welcome to the desktop

Throughout the first few years, Windows slowly introduced features that brought us closer to the Windows we have today, but the biggest leap, by far, happened in 1995 with the release of Windows 95. Windows 95 basically changed the entire paradigm of using Windows and introduced the general UI we have now. Under the hood, it was still based on MS-DOS, but it was a 32-bit operating system with features like preemptive multitasking.

But the big news is here is the desktop environment, starting with the introduction of the taskbar. Until now, minimized apps would appear as icons at the bottom of the screen, but the taskbar made it so that all open apps were shown in a dedicated area, and it also included things like the time, volume control, and a notification area in the bottom right.

Meanwhile, the bottom left housed the other big news here, the Start menu. Indeed, Windows 95 introduced one of the most central features of Windows, giving users quick access to all their programs and files without taking over the entire screen. Menus are presented as a suspended list, and you can also shut down your PC from here. The Start menu truly changed everything. Meanwhile, the desktop became the home for apps you wanted faster access to, with shortcuts placed directly on the screen after starting the computer. File Manager was replaced by the new WIndows Explorer, which the Control panel was now based on. This also introduced special folders like My Computer and Recycle Bin.

Beyond these more obvious additions, things like plug-and-play support for peripherals and long file names were also pretty big improvements in Windows 95, and it solidified Windows as a household name for computers.

It was followed by Windows 98, which had some big additions of its own, including Internet Explorer being bundled in for the first time, specifically version 4.01. There were also web-focused apps like Outlook Express, FrontPage Express, and Microsoft Chat. Windows 98 was a very web-focused release, but it also had smaller improvements, and it introduced the Windows Driver Model. Overall, it improved the performance and stability compared to Windows 95, making it a very solid release.

Windows ME released in 2000, and it added even more features, including faster boot times, improved support for USB mice out of the box (as well as USB storage and printers), and also support for external cameras and scanners. Windows ME also introduced Windows Movie Maker as a tool for capturing and editing video, as well as a new version of Windows Media Player and Windows DVD Player. Some important system features like System Restore and automatic updates were also added.

Windows NT 4.0 and 2000

While Windows 95, 98, and ME were still based on MS-DOS, Microsoft also kept developing its homegrown Windows NT kernel with new version. Windows NT 4.0 was essentially the Windows NT version of Windows 95, including the same modernized shell, and it was also a big performance improvement over the original NT release. In terms of new features, it added support for the Telephony API 2.0, file system defragmentation, and built-in DirectX support. It was also the first version to ship with the Task Manager utility, an advancement over the Task List in Windows NT 3.1 that gave users the ability to monitor resource usage. Windows NT 4.0 also included Internet Explorer before Windows 98 added it.

Windows 2000 then released in late 1999, and it introduced a ton of new features. Many of them were just versions of new features in Windows 98, but there were also wholly new capabilities, like a personalized Start menu with expandable special folders, which also included the ability to launch multiple programs at once. These features later made it into Windows ME. Additionally, Windows 2000 introduced the Microsoft Management Console, with one of the main tools to leverage it being the Computer Management console. This included a lot of features like Event Viewer, Task Scheduler, Disk Management, and even a disk defragmenter.

Windows XP

The one everyone loves

After the whole mess during the mid-to-late 90s, Microsoft finally got around to unifying the Windows platform with what's potentially the most beloved Windows version of all time. Windows XP was a monumental release, being the first one to finally do away with the MS-DOS kernel for good, being exclusively based on Windows NT. It's also the first version of Windows to support x86-64 processors.

Windows XP changed a lot in terms of looks, introducing different visual styles you could apply to the entire operating system, but the changes are very vast. It introduced ClearType, a new font rendering technology to help characters look more pleasant on LCD displays. The Start menu also changed a lot this time, with a two column design, where the primary column houses frequently opened and pinned programs for faster access, while the second column links to special folders on the computer, as well as the Control Panel. The taskbar also get some upgrades, with the ability to show multiple windows of the same app in a single button, saving screen space for more apps to be shown.

Windows XP also introduced faster startup and app launch times thanks to prefetching, and it included apps like Internet Explorer 6, Outlook Express 6, Windows Messenger, and more in the initial release, with newer versions being made available later. File Explorer got some upgrades with thumbnails for files and the ability to view photos as a slideshow, and various features were improved for an overall more stable and reliable experience. Subsequent Service Pack updates also added features like Bluetooth support and the Windows Firewall as a way to keep devices more secure online.

Windows Vista

The one everyone hates

After a home-run success with XP, Microsoft realized it had been a while since the last time it messed up, and from that realization we got Windows Vista. Vista was a major overhaul for Windows, introduced a completely new design language with Windows Aero, with glass-like effects and transpancies, plus numerous tweaks to the Windows Shell. Windows Explorer replaced Task Panes with a command bar, it introduced a breadcrumb navigation bar that made it easier to navigate between folders in the current hierarchy, and icons could scale dynamically depending on size, among many other changes.

Vista also introduced features like Windows Search as a new way to index and search files, the Windows Sidebar for all kinds of widgets, including RSS feeds, a clock, and sticky notes, Windows Defender, Windows Calendar, Mail, Photo Gallery, and Media Center. There were also a lot of new games in Windows Vista, like Chess Titans Mahjong Titans and Purble Place, plus all-new versions of games like Solitaire and Hearts, with fancy new graphics to leverage VIsta's capabilities. The additions in Vista are simply too vast to list here, but there was a lot, and a lot of it is still important in Windows today, while some things have been left behind.

The problem with all this is that Windows Vista raised the system requirements a lot, requiring 512MB of RAM after XP could run on as little as 64MB, on top of at least 15GB of free storage (coming from Windows XP's 1.5GB). It was a resource-heavy operating system that many considered slow, and it was annoying because of its persistent User Account Control prompts that made it hard to get anything done. This did improve with later Service Pack updates, though.

Windows 7

Redemption is here

Microsoft faced a ton of criticism with Windows Vista, and the next release, Windows 7 basically aimed to fix all of it. While system requirements were similar to Windows Vista (only slightly higher), Windows 7 features improved performance, with faster boot times and an overall smoother experience, especially on multi-core processors.

In terms of UI, Windows 7 refined the Windows Aero experience with new transparency effects, and the taskbar was changed so that it now supports pinning any app to the general taskbar, rather than using the Quick Launch toolbar that had been around for many years at that point. It also became possible to reorder items on the taskbar, and a button was added to the far right of the taskbar to show the desktop. Windows management was made easier with the Aero snap feature that made it easier to maximize a window by dragging it to the top of the screen, while dragging it to the sides would cause the app to take up half of the screen for easier multitasking.

Windows 7 also added support for handling things like XPS files and RAW images, and many new options were added to Control Panel, with a lot more customization options available compared to Windows Vista. There were also some new networking features, like HomeGroup, which was designed to help computers in the same network communicate with each other more easily.

Windows 8 (and 8.1)

The most drastic change yet

You might have thought Microsoft wouldn't make such a big blunder after Windows Vista was as poorly received as it was, but when 2012 came, we saw just how much worse things could get. Now, I personally like Windows 8, but it changed everything you expected from Windows. The desktop wasn't the main focus anymore, and instead, we had a Start screen that was supposed to be the launchpad for all your apps, which were shown as Live Tiles. This did away with the familiarity of the desktop, and apps would instead open by default in full-screen mode, with very little options for resizing them. It almost felt more like Windows 1.0 again in terms of window management. You were also expected to get apps from the Windows Store, but the app selection was extremely limited since apps had to use the newfangled WinRT runtime to be listed here.

The Windows desktop was still here, though, it was just relegated to looking like an app in itself, and because some apps opened on the desktop and others didn't the experience felt completely disjointed and incoherent. Even the Start button was removed from its usual place. There were two versions of Internet Explorer, one of which would open in desktop mode and the other in full screen mode, and they had to be accessed in different ways. It was a mess. That being said, there were some benefits, like the new Ribbon UI in File Explorer that had a lot more options readily available.

Most of the new features were designed with touchscreens in mind, like a new task switcher that could be opened by swiping in from the left of the screen, or the Charms bar, which included features like sharing content or accessing system settings. It worked for tablets, but most PCs at this time weren't tablets, or even touch-capable. which made Windows 8 a hated operating system by almost every Windows user.

Microsoft tried to rectify some of the shortcomings of Windows 8 with Windows 8.1, which allowed you to boot straight to the desktop environment (with a later update), brought back the Start button (though it still opened the Start screen), and added new capabilities to Windows Store apps, including the ability to resize them to different sizes rather than just wo preset options. Additionally, an All Apps list was added to the Start menu, and more options were added to the PC Settings app that were previously exclusive to Control Panel. Windows 8.1 also enabled BitLocker Drive encryption and tighter integration with OneDrive, making your cloud files appear as local files and having the ability to sync them on demand. However, this was too little too late to save Windows 8.

Windows 10

The best of both worlds

Windows 10 was announced in 2014, and it was basically meant to be the best of both worlds and unify the Windows platform, with free upgrades offered for both Windows 7 and 8.1. Windows 10 brought back the desktop as the primary interface for using the computer, but it also embraces more touch-friendly controls with larger targets and a Start menu that still featured Live Tiles, in addition to a standard app list. The Start menu was no longer full-screen on most devices, though if you had a tablet, you could still make it full screen for an experience more similar to Windows 8.1.

Apps all opened inside windows now, too, even those designed with WinRT. Apps could be optimized to run in a window, but even if they weren't optimized, they'd run inside a window with some general controls, making the experience feel far more uniform than on Windows 8.1. WinRT also became more capable and added new features that made these modern apps a bit more enticing, becoming the Universal Windows Platform (UWP). Developers could use it to create universal apps, meaning they could run on Windows PCs, phones, Xbox, and HoloLens.

There was a lot more to Windows 10, including a new Task View with multiple virtual desktops and a Timeline feature for bringing up previously-closed tasks. It introduced the new Microsoft Edge browser to replace Internet Explorer, it added Windows Hello as a standardized method for biometric authentication, and a notification center so you could see notifications sent by apps, even if you missed them initially. There's also a new Settings app to bring together the features of the PC Settings app with even more features from Control Panel. Of course, there was also Cortana, Microsoft's short-lived assistant that had begun life on Windows Phone.

Because Windows 10 was continuously supported with feature updates, many more capabilities were added throughout the years. These included dark mode, the Windows Subsystem for Linux, Windows Terminal, and much more. Windows 10 was also the first to be fully available for Arm processors with Windows on Arm, which could run almost every app available for the x86 version of Windows 10. These apps ran under emulation, though, and 64-bit apps couldn't be emulated, so there were still some limitations.

Windows 11

How far we've come

Finally, we have Windows 11, which is still the current version of Windows. Windows 11 was a breath of fresh air for Windows, introducing some new UI paradigms. For the first time, the Start button was moved to the center of the taskbar, though you can still move it back to the left. The Start menu also no longer features Live Tiles, with apps being represented by simple icons, while a pinned area shows recent files and apps.

Windows 11 changed significantly changed the UI by leaning more into transparency effects with a new material called Mica, and it also introduced rounded corners throughout the UI, as well as more colorful UI elements to make the UI more lively overall. System sounds were also changed to be softer and less jarring than on Windows 10.

System apps have been updated with numerous UI changes and new features, including through subsequent updates. These include the ability to record video with the Snipping Tool app (known as Snip and Sketch in Windows 10), support for transparent images and layers in Paint, and a more robust Settings app that greatly reduces the need for the Control Panel. Apps like Notepad and File Explorer now support tabs, and for the first time in years, context menus have been redone completely with a more streamlined design.

Windows 11 also introduced features like the Windows Subsystem for Android (which has since been removed), the Widgets panel, and the ability for pretty much any app to be distributed through the Microsoft Store, even if they're not hosted by Microsoft. For Arm devices, Windows 11 also introduced the ability to emulate 64-bit apps, making PCs nearly fully compatible with existing Windows apps, albeit at a performance cost. Windows 11 version 24H2 is expected to introduce a new emulator to improve performance when running these apps.

The future of Windows

For now, it looks like Windows 11 may be the last version of Windows for a while. We were expecting Windows 12 to launch in 2024 at one point, but those plans seem to have been canned, and there's no indication that Windows 12 is coming at all. However, new features will keep being added to Windows 11 through feature updates such as version 24H2, which is coming in the second half of this year. No matter what, Windows will continue evolving, and we'll be here to see how it does so.