Windows' Rise to Domination

Windows Timeline -- The first 20 years.


1975 – Bill Gates and Paul Allen, under the tentative name of “Micro-Soft” write the first language program for personal computers, a modified BASIC code designed for the Altair

1980 – IBM hires Bill Gates and Paul Allen to write an operating system for IBM PCs. They develop versions of programming languages BASIC, COBOL, and PASCAL

1981 – After buying the rights to a simple operating system developed by Seattle Computer Products, Allen and Gates develop MS – DOS – Microsoft’s Disk Operating System.

1981 – August MS – DOS 1.0 is released

1983 – May 2 – Microsoft unveils the “mouse” a handheld device that allows the user of an IBM PC to quickly move a cursor across the screen.

1983 – September 29 – Microsoft Word for MS – DOS 1.0 is announced; a demo is packaged with PC World on a floppy disk. WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) is Word’s theme that sets it apart from competitors, allowing the user to see and view boldface, italics, and underlined text.

1983 – November 10 – Microsoft announces Microsoft Windows, the first operating system operating on a Graphical User Interface (GUI) an extension of MS - DOS, the highlight of which is the ability to switch through virtual “windows” and view unrelated programs simultaneously.

1985 – November 20 – Microsoft Windows 1.0 is released.
The following set of mini applications debuted with Windows
MS-DOS Executive
Calendar
Cardfile
Notepad
Terminal
Calculator
Clock
Reversi (a strategy game)
Control Panel
PIF (Program Information File) Editor
Print Spooler
Clipboard
RAMDrive
Windows Write
Windows Paint

1987 – April 2 – Microsoft announces the Microsoft Operating System/2 (MS OS/2) a new operating system, the first fruit of a partnership with IBM. Microsoft also announces Microsoft Windows 2.0, which is compatible with all existing Windows applications and is designed to work seamlessly with MS OS/2.

1987 – Microsoft reaches $100 per share

1990 – Microsoft releases Windows 3.0, which goes on to sell more than three million copies in the year.

1990 – Microsoft becomes the first company whose profits exceed $1 billion dollars.

1992 – Microsoft releases Windows 3.1, which sells over a million copies in two months.