Windows 1.0

Windows 1.0 is the first version of Microsoft Windows, announced on 1983-11-10 and finally released to retail stores on 1985-11-20.

According to Microsoft, Windows 1.0 is a 16-bit "Operating Environment" designed to run on top of MS-DOS and is not a standalone operating system. This version was succeeded by Windows 2.x.

Development
Development of Windows started as early as 1983 when Bill Gates felt the danger of rival companies like VisiCorp, which started to make their own graphical systems to handle multi-tasking apps. The first compiled build of Windows known to exist was a build shown in the BYTE magazine. At first, it was intended to be called Interface Manager, but the name was changed to Microsoft Windows before the official announcement.

Trivia
Did you know... And... IT'S JUST NINETY-NINE DOLLARS!
 * It was the longest supported version of Windows by Microsoft? It was supported for 16 years until 2001-12-31
 * When Windows 1.0 tries to show a date with the year 2000, it actually shows it as 100? Similarly, 2024 →
 * This is the only version of Windows by Microsoft to not have overlapping windows on the desktop, this was due to Apple copyrighting the overlapping windows design.