On this day in 1985 Windows 1.0 was officially released. Announced two years prior, Windows 1.0 was Microsoft’s first version of their Microsoft Windows line of OS’s. It was meant to compete with Apple’s operating system, but gained little popularity. The OS was considerably slow, and technically was not even a complete operating system; rather, it was an extension of MS-DOS that provided an environment to run graphical programs designed for Windows, as well as MS-DOS software.
Windows 1.0 included components like Calendar, Calculator, Clock, Control Panel, Notepad, Paint, Reversi and Terminal. Windows 2.0 was released two years later with several improvements, and was more popular than the first. However, it wasn’t until Windows 3.0 that the operating system began to generate significant sales.