Windows

Windows may refer to any of the following:

1. Microsoft Windows (also referred to as Windows or Win) is a graphical operating system developed and published by Microsoft. It provides a way to store files, run software, play games, watch videos, and connect to the Internet.

Microsoft Windows was first introduced with version 1.0 on November 10, 1983. Over a dozen versions of Windows were released after that, including the current version, Windows 10.

Editions of Windows

Starting with Windows XP, Microsoft has published various editions of Windows. Each of these Windows editions has the same core operating system, but some editions have additional features, at an additional cost.

The two most common editions of Windows for home computers are Windows Home and Windows Professional.

Windows Home

Windows Home (also called Win Home) is the basic edition of Windows. It provides all the fundamental functions of Windows, such as connecting to the Internet, browsing the web, watching videos, using office software, and playing video games. It is the least expensive edition of Windows, and it comes preinstalled on many new computers.

Windows Pro

Windows Professional (also called Windows Pro, or Win Pro) is an enhanced Windows edition, for power users, and small to medium sized businesses. It includes all the features of Windows Home, plus the following:

• Remote Desktop — allows you to remotely control another Windows computer connected to the Internet.
• Bitlocker — Microsoft’s integrated file encryption.
• Trusted Boot — provides encryption of the boot loader, protecting the computer against rootkits.
• Hyper-V — a Windows hypervisor for running virtual machines, equivalent to third-party software, such as VirtualBox.
• Windows Sandbox — provides a lightweight, sandboxed Windows 10 instance. You can use this isolated «Windows within Windows» environment to safely run suspicious or untrusted software. Windows Sandbox requires a Windows Insider build of Windows 10 Pro or Enterprise.
• Group policy management — Administrators can define group policies, for managing multiple Windows users in a business or organization.
• Support for more than 128 GB of RAM.
• Greater Windows Update installation options, including more flexible scheduling and postponement for up to 35 days.

Business editions

Windows Professional for Workstations and Windows Enterprise provide advanced features for professional studios and large businesses. For more information, refer to the side-by-side comparison in the official Microsoft Windows business edition comparison chart.

Why is Microsoft Windows called Windows?

Before the release of Microsoft Windows, Microsoft users were used to the single task command line operating system MS-DOS. Because Microsoft names most of its products with one word, it needed a word that best described its new GUI operating system. Microsoft chose «Windows» because of the multiple windows that allow different tasks and programs to run at the same time. Because you cannot trademark a common name like «Windows,» it’s officially known as «Microsoft Windows». The first version of Microsoft Windows was version 1.0, released in 1985.

Microsoft Windows help pages

Related pages

2. In general, a window is a fundamental part of a computer GUI (graphical user interface). A window is an area of the display containing a single running application. The window can be moved, resized, hidden, or maximized as desired by the user. The Microsoft Windows operating system is named after this UI element.

3. Regarding Unix-like operating systems, such as Linux or BSD, Windows may refer to the X Window System.

Windows is named Windows : But Why?

Описание

Microsoft is full of oddities and little known answers to mysterious questions. The purpose of this series is to seek out those answers and offer them to you. Please comment with other questions you’d like to get answered!

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Обсуждение

Imagine all the products today with the name Interface Manager in front of it. Interface Manager Live Messenger, Interface Manager Phone 7, etc. I should stop imagine or I’d have a nightmare

Interesting short video, but can you redo it without the sound effects? This isn’t TruTV and I don’t like feeling like I’m losing 10 IQ points by simply watching a video.

@W3bbo, that was a bit harsh. I like that Laura puts creativity into her videos, rock on girl!

«Windows,» eh? . don’t know about you, but with a name like that this «GUI» thingamajig could catch on one day.

Windows is the name that makes the most sense on many levels. Microsoft Desktop 7 Ultimate SP1 just doesn’t roll off the tongue and Interface Manager Home Edition is a tad too clinical for general purpose consumption.

Thanks for the answers Laura!
C

PS: What was the code name for Windows 1.0?

Rowland Hanson, mentioned in the piece as the one who suggested the names, is an old friend. I just passed this link onto him and perhaps he’ll log-in and add more color to the story. I’ve heard parts of it and there is some interesting background. Great to see him getting the appropriate credit here in the corporate re-telling.

When I joined Microsoft as Vice President of Corporate Communications, I came from the cosmetics / skin care industry where perception (branding) was far more important than reality. The branding strategy for Microsoft Corporation & the specific names for the products (which was part of the company branding strategy) came from the original branding strategy developed & executed at Neutrogena Corporation. Along with identifying & nurturing the support of industry opinion leaders, pithy, generic-like, names were selected in order to force the usage of the company name in editorial etc. For example, prior to being well known as a word processing program, the name «Word» could not stand alone in editorial. the editors felt compelled to put the company name in front of the name «Word» in order to identify the company origin (unlike a word processor called WordStar which never required the company identity). With regard to WINDOWS, we were actually fortunate to be late with our GUI introduction. Other GUIs had been launched so we were able to review how the opinion leading editors were describing them. The common description of GUIs @ that point of time was that they were «windowing systems» for your desktop. Therefore, if all these GUIs already launched ahead of the Microsoft GUI were being described as «windowing systems», the most logical & most generic-like name we could call our GUI was «Windows». Post reaching agreement on this name internally, the challenge was to successfully introduce it at Comdex. This was achieved by a fantastic team of individuals. Pam Edstrom, Tricia McGinnis (now Tricia Raikes), Eileen Gunn, to name a few. Today «Windows» is a dominant stand alone brand name but back in the early 80s it was normally referred to as Microsoft Windows, not just Windows, because the editorial community felt a need to be clear that they were writing about Microsoft Windows & not one of the other «windowing systems».

Rowland! Thanks for watching and thanks for chiming in. It’s so helpful and illuminating to hear it from you first hand. Welcome to Channel 9

Was not even aware of Channel 9. I was truly blessed to have an incredible team @ Microsoft. As a result, Microsoft reaped the benefits of their efforts.

Nice to know how the orgin of Windows and Word came. Hats off to the brainstorming team because now these names are a commericial household name and there is no way to change it or refine it .

Here is a little more insight into why the names Windows & Word were selected and the overall impact.

In the early 80s, our goal was to establish Microsoft as the quality brand / the trusted brand in software. Establishing trust / confidence in a company brand makes every new product introduction from a company more efficient & more effective. Think of classic examples in major categories like cars (ie Mercedes) or even skin care (ie Neutrogena). Regardless of the new car Mercedes or new skin care item Neutrogena may introduce, most consumers already believe the claims the company makes about the new product because of the trust factor they have with these brands.
In the early 80s we knew if we could establish the «trust factor» for Microsoft in software, it would go a long way to helping us dominate the category (even if we were not always first in with an application and / or even required multiple updates).

To achieve this, we executed three primary communication strategies:
1) Thru research, we identified the essential things software buyers needed to know / believe about Microsoft in order for them to position Microsoft in their mind as the quality brand / trusted brand in the category. We then highlighted these things about the company in all communications. from product brochures to press releases to instruction manuals. they all delivered the company mantra.
2) We identified the opinion leaders within the software industry (ie key editors, user groups, heavy software users, etc.) & then we devoted a disproportionate amount of resources to influencing these opinion leaders. Once the opinion leaders in a category trust a brand, it is only a matter of time for the consumers in a category to do the same.
3) And, last but not least, we executed the naming strategy that resulted in the company brand, Microsoft, being essential in all communications on all products. As I mentioned in a previous post, individual product names like Windows & Word were designed to have the company name, Microsoft, proceed them.

We always said internally that we would know our branding strategy was successful when consumers started asking for the Microsoft brand regardless of application and that began happening in the late 80s.

in video sill not cleared how Windows poped up as a name all emhpasis put on Mr Interface Manager.

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where was Windows in it .

The name, Interface Manager or at times Interface Office Manager, was actually a code name that got some initial internal traction in absence of a «final name» that took a little time to determine in parallel to the actual GUI development process.

How you «name» a product needs to take into account both your company branding strategy & your desired category positioning of the product. It should never be a random decision but many times it is because the broader implications are not considered

Why can’t I name a folder or file ‘CON’ in Windows?

In all versions of Windows, we are unable to rename a file or a folder name as CON without third-party file renaming software. Trying to do this in Windows 7 results in an error:

The specified device name is invalid.

Trying to save a file as con.txt in Notepad leads to a similar error:

This file name is reserved for use by Windows.
Choose another name and try again.

Why can’t we name a file or folder CON in Windows?

9 Answers 9

«con» is the name of a system I/O device, the console.

And a couple others, I think.

In the old days it was common in DOS to create a file (and I still do this occasionally) with:

I gave this answer to a duplicate, and thought I’d post it here for your reference:

As previously stated. It’s a reserved word from back in MS-DOS, for the CONsole device (as far as I can remember). But, you can force Windows/dos to create the folder for you. For devices, it uses the format \\.\[RESERVED_WORD] to access the «file» (these devices used files for communication). To force Windows to create your folder, instead of doing mkdir [RESERVED_WORD] , do the following:

For example, to create CON folder on my desktop,

To delete the folder, you have to reference it the same way, or else it won’t work.

My advice though is to just use a different name. It would be very difficult to always refer to it via its absolute path, especially if you are developing an app you plan on deploying.

Why Is It Called «Windows?»

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Microsoft has inconsistently followed a marketing strategy of using basic, descriptive, one-word names. Word is an excellent example. So are Money and Office.

The name Windows fits into that philosophy. At the time of its original release late in 1985, most operating systems were single-tasking, text-only, and ran from a command line—like DOS if you remember that. Graphic user interfaces (GUIs) were still new. The Mac, less than two years old at that time, was the only GUI-based system enjoying commercial success. The word windows simply described one of the most obvious differences between a GUI and a command-line interface.

Of course, the name was never officially Windows, but Microsoft Windows. From the company’s point of view, that’s important. You can’t trademark a common word like windows all by itself. (I suppose they could have trademarked Slow and Buggy Windows, but I guess that didn’t get passed the Marketing Department.)

These one-word Microsoft names can cause some interesting mind associations. During that brief, pre-Internet time when everyone was publishing reference books on CD-ROM, the folks in Redmond released a CD called Microsoft Dogs. I thought it was a bundle of Microsoft Money and Microsoft Bob.