Windows Celebrates 25 Years As A New Era Dawns

Windows celebrated its quarter centenary at the weekend. Since its release on November 20, 1985, a generation of digital kids has been born and raised and Windows has become the overwhelming choice for desktops and laptops around the world.

Back in 1985, Microsoft was a relatively small but influential ten-year old company just considering going public with an IPO planned for the following year. It had been successful with its disk operating system (MS-DOS) and had a close relationship with IBM, the inventor of the PC as most of us know it. It was also just starting to feel the financial benefit of a mushrooming clone market led by Compaq, now part of the HP empire.

In the UK, the company had around 40 employees based in the since-demolished Excel House by the river in Reading.

The Birth Panes Of Windows

Long before the launch of the Apple Macintosh in 1984, Microsoft had been concerned that the windowing environment of the Mac would be a potential threat. Both Microsoft’s co-founder Bill Gates and his Apple counterpart Steve Jobs had seen the prototype windowing  environment at Xerox Parc (Palo Alto Research Centre). Jobs had jumped on it first while Microsoft was developing Windows 1.0.

The only memorable landmark other than the dawn of the Windows era was an internal promotion performed by Steve Ballmer dressed as a second-hand car salesman. In a very convincing spoof of American local TV advertising Ballmer, dressed in a loud checked jacket, blustered his way through a bullet-pointed harangue on the benefits of the new Windows.