Releases of Windows

1975–1981: Microsoft boots up

1982–1985: Introducing Windows 1.0

Note: Geek trivia: Remember floppy disks and kilobytes? Windows 1.0 requires a minimum of 256 kilobytes (KB), two double-sided floppy disk drives, and a graphics adapter card. A hard disk and 512 KB memory is recommended for running multiple programs or when using DOS 3.0 or higher.

1987–1992: Windows 2.0–2.11—More windows, more speed

Windows 2.0

Note: Control Panel makes its first appearance in Windows 2.0

1990–1994: Windows 3.0–Windows NT—Getting the graphics 

  

Note: The group that develops Windows NT was originally called the "Portable Systems" team. 

1995–2001: Windows 95—the PC comes of age (and don't forget the Internet) 

 

Note: In 1996, Microsoft releases Flight Simulator for Windows 95—the first time in its 14-year history that it’s available for Windows. 

1998–2000: Windows 98, Windows 2000, Windows Me

 

Note: Windows 98 is the last version based on MS‑DOS.

Notepad: Technically speaking, Windows Me was the last Microsoft operating system to be based on the Windows 95 code base. Microsoft announced that all future operating system products would be based on the Windows NT and Windows 2000 kernel. 

2001–2005: Windows XP—Stable, usable, and fast 

  

Note:  Windows XP is compiled from 45 million lines of code. 

2006–2008: Windows Vista—Smart on security

 

Note:  More than 1.5 million devices are compatible with Windows Vista at launch. 

 2009–Today: Windows 7 and counting

 

 

 

 

Note:  Windows 7 is evaluated by 8 million beta testers worldwide before it's released.