Windows 1.0

Windows 1.0 is the first version of Microsoft Windows, announced on 10 November 1983. The retail release was originally going to be held in April 1984, but was later pushed back to June 1985, and was then eventually released to retail stores on 20 November 1985.

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
The development of Windows started in early 1983 when Bill Gates felt the danger of rival companies like VisiCorp, which started to make their graphical systems to handle multitasking apps. The first build of Windows known to exist was Microsoft Window Manager Demonstration 0.01, shown off on BYTE Magazine in December 1983. At first, it was intended to be called Interface Manager, then Microsoft Desktop, but the name was changed to Microsoft Windows before the official announcement.

Startup sound myth
There are misconceptions that Windows 1.0, along with 2.x and 3.0 included this startup sound, which was first posted to YouTube on 25 January 2014. But in reality, Windows 3.0 with Multimedia Extensions 1.0 was the first to include full audio files, with Windows 3.1 standardizing the format throughout the system.

Trivia
Did you know...


 * Windows 1.0 was the longest supported version of Windows by Microsoft? It was supported for 16 years until 31 December 2001.
 * 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 design of the overlapping windows.