Draft:Windows 1.0 1983 demos

The Windows 1.0 1983 demos are a series of early pre-release builds of Windows 1.0, which were shown in various demos and magazine issues from 1983 and 1984.

These builds demonstrate what appear to be a fully-functioning windowing system and some level of device independence. However, they all include many of the same applications, most of which are believed to be nonfunctional.

PC Mag 1984-01-24 build
The Windows 1.0 PC Mag 1984-01-24 build is a very early pre-release build of Windows 1.0, originally shown in the 24 January 1984 issue of PC Mag. The photo is of somewhat poor quality, though the observable UI details suggest this build is likely earlier than the one shown at Fall COMDEX 1983, and probably related to the build shown in the third photo in the 21 November 1983 issue of InfoWorld.

The same photo was also featured in the December 1983 issue of Personal Computer News, January 1984 issue of Data Processing, February 1984 issues of Creative Computing and Practical Computing, and the April 1984 issue of InfoWorld. Additional photos of very similar or even exact same build(s) were featured in the January 1984 issue of PC World.

InfoWorld 1983-11-21 build
The Windows 1.0 InfoWorld 1983-11-21 build is a very early pre-release build of Windows 1.0, originally shown in an article about Microsoft Windows in the 21 November 1983 issue of the InfoWorld magazine. The article mentions that the build was demonstrated for InfoWorld at Microsoft's offices in Bellevue, Washington. The system date in the photos is 14 November 1983, presumably the day the demo took place.

This build was likely compiled later than the PC Mag 1984-01-24 build because the commands in the menu bar of the MS-DOS shell changed to the ones found in later builds.

Fall COMDEX build
The Windows 1.0 Fall COMDEX build is a very early pre-release build of Windows 1.0, demonstrated on 29 November 1983 at Fall COMDEX 1983, although an earlier demo was shown in BYTE Magazine the following month. Additionally, builds that are visually very similar to this COMDEX build have been featured in various computer magazine issues from November 1983 onwards.

This build was likely compiled later than the InfoWorld 1983-11-21 build because the vertical positions of the help and iconize buttons are the same, unlike the two prior builds.

Windows was also demonstrated by Wang, Zenith Data Systems, Honeywell, and possibly by other OEMs as well, though it's unknown if these are the exact same build or not.