Win95

In 1995 Windows95 was released.
It was the first Windows without the need to install MS-DOS first.
I started to use the first available Beta version and had it installed until Windows 2000 was for sale.

Windows 98

In 1998, Microsoft replaced Win95 with Windows 98. One of the great advantages to Windows 98 was that it required relatively low system requirements making it easier to gain its full potential even on older machines. This version of Windows gave full support to DOS applications because it could be switched between DOS mode and Windows mode. Being able to do this allowed the user to fix certain system errors manually.

Initially Windows 98 was never as stable as regular computer users needed. This was due to many reasons. Often the software developers of drivers and applications had insufficient experience with the creation of programs for the new system. This caused many errors generally described as system errors by the user even if the error was not caused by Windows or DOS.

Windows NT
Windows NT (New Technology) was released by Microsoft Corporation in 1993 as a successor to the previous versions of Windows. It was designed to be a powerful, high-level language based processor independent operating system with features compatible to Unix systems. This version of Windows complemented work station versions running on MS-DOS.

A main design goal of Windows NT was hardware and software portability. Versions of this operating system were available for a variety of processor architectures. Broad software compatibility was achieved for various platforms.

Windows NT was the first fully 32-bit version of Windows where its consumer-oriented counterparts Windows 3x and 9x were hybrids of 16-bit and 32-bit technology. Windows NT utilized 32-bit “flat” virtual memory addressing on 32-bit processors. Its companion product, Windows 3.1, used segmented addressing and switches from 16-bit to 32-bit addressing in pages.

On October 25, 2001, Microsoft Corporation released its latest update of its Windows operating system. They called it Windows XP as a way to distance themselves from the previous versions of Windows that were named after the years they were released. The letters XP stand for experience and this operating system was designed for both home and business use.

Windows XP is known for its improved stability and efficiency over previous versions of Windows. It presents a significantly redesigned graphical user interface (GUI) and was a change that Microsoft promoted as more user-friendly than previous versions of Windows.

New software management capabilities were introduced to avoid the “DLL Hell” that plagues older consumer versions of Windows. It is also the first version of Windows to use product activation to combat software piracy – a restriction that did not sit well with some users and privacy advocated. Basically, installation of Windows XP required user to input a product key and then activate that product key to insure that the specific version of XP did, indeed, belong to the computer user instead of having it being shared between several computers.

The latest operating system to be released by the Microsoft Corporation in their Windows line is Windows Vista. This new operating system has been hailed as the next great wave of an Advanced Operating System with new, improved features and a user interface like no other. What can you expect to see new in Windows Vista?

Most significant in Windows Vista is the way it looks. It has brighter colors, more graphics, and capabilities for keeping multiple windows open on the same screen. Think of it as a computer version of picture in picture. This is referred to as Windows Aero and is a completely new graphical user interface.