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An open encyclopedia of software history
Did you know...
- ...that Windows XP has been supported in various forms for almost 18 years, which is the longest compared to any other version of Microsoft Windows?
- ...that Windows NT 3.5 build 612 has a debug flag for
winnt.exe
,/I_am_TedM
, in order to bypass the error to run the DOS-based setup in NTVDM? - ...that the Gizmo theme that was present in Mac OS 8.5b6 originates from Copland as "Z Theme" and was intended for testing the theming service for both versions?
- ...that the United States government once filed an antitrust lawsuit against Microsoft over its decision to bundle the Internet Explorer web browser with the Windows operating system?
- ...that Windows Longhorn build 4088 includes an early version of the .NET Managed rewrite of Desktop Window Manager that is not installed by default?
- ...that versions of Microsoft Windows for DEC Alpha and ARMv7 platforms continued to be maintained internally even after official end of support, as the systems proved valuable for specific projects?
Featured article
MS-DOS (Microsoft Disk Operating System) is a monolithic singletasking operating system developed by Microsoft between 1980 and 2000 for x86-based personal computers. It was the de facto industry standard environment on the IBM PC and its clones, although it also shipped with other x86-based computers that were incompatible with IBM.By default, MS-DOS is driven by a command line interface – the A>
or C:\>
prompt shown when the command processor is ready to accept input ultimately became one of the unofficial symbols of DOS. Several software vendors have developed programs that add a more friendly user interface to manage files and launch other programs. Microsoft itself included such a program, the MS-DOS Shell, with some versions of MS-DOS.