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Windows (Operating System)

Microsoft Windows
Windows darkblue 2012 svg.svg
Windows 10 build 14393 (Redstone).png
Screenshot of Windows 10 (Anniversary Update), showing the Action Center and Start Menu
Developer Microsoft
Written in C, C++, Assembly
Working state Publicly released
Source model Closed / shared source
Initial release November 20, 1985; 31 years ago (1985-11-20), as Windows 1.0
Latest release 1607 (10.0.14393.729) (January 30, 2017; 41 days ago (2017-01-30))
Latest preview 1704 (10.0.15046.0) (February 28, 2017; 12 days ago (2017-02-28))
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
Default user interface Windows shell
License Proprietary commercial software
Official website windows.microsoft.com

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 was less than 25% that of Android devices sold. This comparison however may not be fully relevant, as the two operating systems traditionally target different platforms.


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