Microsoft Windows

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Jump to: navigation, search Microsoft Windows Windows logo introduced in 2012 Windows 8, showing the start screen Company / developer Microsoft Programmed in C, C++ and Assembly language OS family Windows 9x, Windows CE and Windows NT Working state Publicly released Source model Closed source / Shared source Initial release November 20, 1985; 27 years ago (1985-11-20) (as Windows 1.0) Latest stable release

Windows 8 NT 6.2 (Build 9200) (October 26, 2012; 7 months ago (2012-10-26))

Windows Server 2012 NT 6.2 (Build 9200) (September 4, 2012; 9 months ago (2012-09-04)) Latest unstable release NT 6.3 (Build 9364) Marketing target Personal computing Available language(s) 137 languages Update method Windows Update, Windows Anytime Upgrade Supported platforms ARM, IA-32, x86-64 and Itanium Kernel type Windows NT family: Hybrid Windows 9x and earlier: Monolithic (MS-DOS) Default user interface Graphical (Windows Shell) License Proprietary commercial software Official website windows.microsoft.com

Microsoft Windows is a series of graphical interface operating systems developed, marketed, and sold by Microsoft.

Microsoft introduced an operating environment named Windows on November 20, 1985 as a graphical operating system shell for MS-DOS in response to the growing interest in graphical user interfaces (GUI). Microsoft Windows came to dominate the world's personal computer market with over 90% market share, overtaking Mac OS, which had been introduced in 1984.

As of April 2013, the most recent versions of Windows for personal computers, mobile devices, server computers and embedded devices are respectively Windows 8, Windows Phone 8, Windows Server 2012 and Windows Embedded 8.