Essential Guide to Computing: The Story of Information Technology, The

Windows

Since Microsoft's Windows family has some 90 percent of the market, it will be discussed in some depth.

Key Characteristics of the Windows OS Series

As noted earlier, there are really three distinct types of Windows. All three share the following characteristics:

• A graphical user interface, much like that of the Mac, including functions such as a standard menu structure, overlapping windows, a clipboard, and a trash can (recycle bin).

• Backwards compatibility—the ability to run older MS-DOS programs.

Two of the types of Windows, v1.0–3.1 and Windows 95–98, share many common characteristics:

• They are limited to the Intel series of CPUs.

• They retain some elements of MS-DOS.

Windows v1.0–3.1 differs from Windows 95–98 largely in that:

• Windows ...