Microsoft Windows
| Desktop OS market share as of May, 2009[1] |
|---|
| Microsoft Windows - 87.75% |
| Mac OS X and Mac OS - 9.81% |
| Linux - 0.99% |
| Solaris - 0.01% |
| Other - 1.44% |
Microsoft Windows is an operating system made by Microsoft. It is used by almost 90% of computer users but not everyone agrees it is the best. Almost all new personal computers come installed with Windows 7, some weaker computers may come with an older version.
Microsoft Windows was first made in 1985. The most recent change is Windows 7 which was made in 2009. Bill Gates helped make Windows. He was vice chief executive officer and co-founder of Microsoft, and he was the chief software architect, but now has left the company.
Windows lets people run programs and sort their files. It has many programs that come with it, these can read and write documents and pictures. The program Internet Explorer lets people use the internet, look at web pages and read e-mail. The application Windows Media Player lets users listen to music and watch videos. A user is also able to download and install many other applications. These applications can be anything from video games to software like Microsoft Office.
Contents |
[change] Popular Windows versions
| Release date | Product name | Notes | Last IE |
|---|---|---|---|
| May 1990 | Windows 3.x | Unsupported | 5 |
| July 1993 | Windows NT | Unsupported | 5 |
| August 1995 | Windows 95 | Unsupported | 5.5 |
| June 1998 | Windows 98 | Unsupported | 6 |
| February 2000 | Windows 2000 | Unsupported[2] | 6 |
| September 2000 | Windows Me | Unsupported | 6 |
| October 2001 | Windows XP | Current for SP2 and SP3 (RTM and SP1 unsupported). | 7 |
| November 2006 (volume licensing) January 2007 (retail) |
Windows Vista | Current. Version Changed to NT 6.0.6001 with SP1 (February 4 08) | 9 |
| July 2007 | Windows Home Server | Current | 8 |
| February 2008 | Windows Server 2008 | Current | 9 |
| October 22, 2009 | Windows 7 | Current | 9 |
[change] Criticism
Many users have complained that Windows operating systems are buggy or have many security holes, and can slow down over time. Because of its popularity, most computer viruses are written to infect computers running Windows.
[change] References
- ↑ Operating System Market Share, Feburary 2009, courtesy of Net Applications, a marketing company which obtains its data from the Alexa Toolbar or related products. Because people who install these products on their computers are not always aware that the product reports web browsing habits back to the marketers at Alexa some security software considers the Alexa Toolbar spyware and removes it. Both the automated removal-as-spyware and the self-selecting nature of those who install software that reports on personal web browsing habits raises questions as to whether the resulting data represents a unbiased statistical sample of Internet users.
- ↑ "Microsoft Support Lifecycle". Microsoft. May 4, 2005. http://support.microsoft.com/lifecycle/?p1=3071. Retrieved 2007-03-25.
[change] Other websites
- The Microsoft Windows website
- The Windows Team Blog — Official blog of the Windows Team at Microsoft
- Windows for Beginners - a site that explains Windows for beginners
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| Common Operating systems |
|---|
| Linux • Mac OS • Microsoft Windows • Solaris • UNIX • BSD |
