History of Computers: Microsoft Windows :: Computers Software Technology Essays

History of Computers: Microsoft Windows Every time I turn on my Dell computer the screen pops up that says loading Windows XP software. My roommate turns on her computer and it says the same thing, as with most people on my floor. Today this seems to be the trend with most computers no matter what brand of hardware. This was not always the case though, Windows software is actually a fairly new technology that has grown much over the years and continues to develop and change even today. I wouldn know where I would be without my Windows software, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, etc. This software is important in so many lives and companies today that it would be hard to imagine a time without it. Windows software was not always as popular as it is today. It took a lot of work to develop this complex software. Let start by taking a brief look back on the major software before Windows, to fully understand why Microsoft Windows gradually became a total hit. Before Microsoft Windows there was MS-DOS. MS-DOS was a highly complicated operating system that often frustrated its users and was difficult to learn. Interaction with the operating system was by command line interference. Every command had to be typed in exactly right and the system was case sensitive (Campbell-Kelly 264). If anything was incorrect in the command line, then the whole command had to be retyped (264). Not only did this prove to be frustrating, but once you got the hang of this type of command typing, you would go use another program and the command set would be totally different. There were not standard interference commands and therefore every company made theirs different (265). With the hope of inventing something better than MS-DOS, in 1985 Windows 1.0 was finally released after a preemptive marketing announcement three years earlier (Rojas 828). Windows 1.0 was not well received and was no where near the capabilities of the Macintosh software which offered clear graphics and fonts. Windows 1.0 still had many of the same type of problems encountered with MS-DOS (History of Microsoft Windows).