Microsoft Windows
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| Developer | Microsoft |
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| Written in | C, C++, Assembly |
| Working state | Publicly released |
| Source model | Closed / shared source |
| Initial release | November 20, 1985, as Windows 1.0 |
| Latest release | 1607 (10.0.14393.693) (January 10, 2017) |
| Latest preview | 1607 (10.0.15014.1000) (January 19, 2017) |
| Marketing target | Personal computing |
| Available in | 137 languages |
| Update method | |
| Package manager | Windows Installer (.msi), Windows Store (.appx) |
| Platforms | ARM, IA-32, Itanium, x86-64, DEC Alpha, MIPS, PowerPC |
| Kernel type |
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| Default user interface | Windows shell |
| License | Proprietary commercial software |
| Official website | windows |
Microsoft Windows (or simply Windows) is a metafamily of graphical operating systems developed, marketed, and sold by Microsoft. It consists of several families of operating systems, each of which cater to a certain sector of the computing industry with the OS typically associated with IBM PC compatible architecture. Active Windows families include Windows NT, Windows Embedded and Windows Phone; these may encompass subfamilies, e.g. Windows Embedded Compact (Windows CE) or Windows Server. Defunct Windows families include Windows 9x; Windows 10 Mobile is an active product, unrelated to the defunct family Windows Mobile.
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 (GUIs). Microsoft Windows came to dominate the world's personal computer (PC) market with over 90% market share, overtaking Mac OS, which had been introduced in 1984. Apple came to see Windows as an unfair encroachment on their innovation in GUI development as implemented on products such as the Lisa and Macintosh (eventually settled in court in Microsoft's favor in 1993). On PCs, Windows is still the most popular operating system. However, in 2014, Microsoft admitted losing the majority of the overall operating system market to Android, because of the massive growth in sales of Android smartphones. In 2014, the number of Windows devices sold were less than 25% of Android devices sold. This comparisons, however, may not be fully relevant as the two operating systems traditionally targeted different platforms.
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