We all know the iconic Windows XP and 98 but we don’t really
hear much about Bill Gate’s first GUI development, Windows 1.0. Released in
1985, despite the reputation of Windows they were not the first operating
system which had a GUI. GUI stands for Graphical User Interface which is a type
of operating system that features graphical components such as icons. Nowadays,
this is what the common user has in their system as it’s easier to understand
than the opposite Command Line Interfaces. You can still access command lines
if you sport an operating system with a GUI so it makes owning strictly command
line operating systems quite limiting.
Windows 1.0 Release
As briefly mentioned, Windows 1.0 was released on November 20th, 1985. This was the first initial released, in 1986 Windows 1.0 finally became available internationally resulting in the version 1.02. A total of two further releases followed, one in 1986 with additional imporvements made for the drivers of hardware components. Finalised by Windows 1.04 in 1987 which added some support in particular for the IBM PS/2 computers.
Windows 1.0 Features
One of the features that stood out when Windows 1.0 was
released was its new colour display, introducing 256 colour display. Naturally,
users would have to have a monitor which supported this option. Another
surprising addition to Windows 1.0 was the control panel option which has been
seen in most if not all Windows graphical user interfaces. It allowed users to
change and customize the appearance of their Windows, particularly the
background, colours as well as text options. A revolutionary feature in Windows 1.0 was the task bar which is now a
standard in most operating systems. It allows the user to minimise an
application and easily return to it without closing it down.
Windows 1.0 Issues
Despite it's amazing potential and promised features, the first Window's GUI was not well received amongst common users. Turns out the innovative features produced demanding system requirements with average users being unable to use Windows 1.0. The idea of using a mouse for navigation in 1985 was not as normal as it is today, this feature whilst great meant that a lot of keyboard users were unable to navigate Windows 1.0. The trackbar created was new and exciting, allowed for easier management of multilpe applications and the no longer tracking whether you were finally done with the command line. As expected, along came the memory issues which naturally affected the performance of the highly-demanding Windows 1.0 GUI. It turned out the running multiple applications at once consumed large amounts of memory and left systems slow and overall performing poorly.
Conclusion
So Windows 1.0 wasn't that great. However, we can agree that the features of the GUI were smart, innovative and were setting standards past the capabilities of the era. It was the first time Windows and Bill Gates had stepped into the Graphical User Interface pool and unfortunately didn't do too well. Windows 1.0 alongside other operating systems was a landmark in Windows history, it gave the company future ideas and features to include in better executed operating systems.
By Aurora Fernandes
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