Hard as it is to believe, Windows was once a marginal product, starved of application support and due to be replaced by OS/2. That was in the early days, and it was only by chance that things turned out differently.

Windows 1.0 was launched in November 1983, as a graphical extension to DOS. It sold badly - less well, in fact, than its main competitor, Digital Research's GEM. It had none of the now-familiar features such as File Manager or Explorer; not even the overlapping screen windows which were later the subject of a fierce lawsuit with Apple. Indeed this was such an unfamiliar concept that the UK launch was gatecrashed by a group of double-glazing salesmen.

Windows' biggest problem, however, was memory. As a DOS-based program it was constrained by the PC's infamous 1Mb RAM limit, so although it supported multitasking, there was never enough memory to actually do it. Even the 1987 release of a 386-specific version, able to run multiple 'virtual 8086s', didn't solve the problem entirely, as Windows applications were still unable to stretch out into extended memory above 1Mb.

At that time most people - including then partners IBM and Microsoft - thought the PC's graphical future lay with OS/2's Presentation Manager, with Windows providing a stopgap until it arrived.

On the way out

At the end of 1989, Windows was at its lowest ebb, with just half-a-million users and very few applications. Microsoft had moved most of its developers across to OS/2, leaving a reduced team to work on Windows 3.0, then scheduled to be the last release.

Things might have stayed that way but for a chance meeting in the Microsoft canteen. A visiting programmer told a Windows developer about the new DOS extender technology he was building into Microsoft's CodeView debugger. Both saw that this could solve Windows' memory problems, but didn't see much chance of getting development approval. So they worked at night for three months, in order to build an extended Windows as a private project.

Bill Gates didn't hear about it until it was almost finished, but he didn't waste any time in authorising its completion. OS/2 development was proving tougher than Microsoft had expected and a backup product like this was ideal - even if it wasn't part of the official joint strategy with IBM.

With its applications now able to use extended memory, 1990's Windows 3.0 was no longer a marginal product and, unlike OS/2, it ran successfully on relatively low-power hardware. It was a huge success and the all-important applications bandwagon began to roll in earnest.

For all its popularity, Windows 3.0 was still unfinished, plagued by bugs, inconsistencies and bad design. It also featured the UAE (Unrecoverable Application Error), its system-halting reaction to even the smallest application error.

Windows 3.1 was launched in April 1992 as a largely successful tidying up operation. The hated UAE was replaced by the GPF (General Protection Fault), which in theory closed only the offending application, leaving the rest of the system running.

A new lease of life

A surprise launch in October 1992 was Windows for Workgroups 3.1, which took Windows into the peer-to-peer networking market. Cynics said that Microsoft was settling for second best after failing to dent Novell's server supremacy with its LAN Manager product. Nevertheless, Windows for Workgroups proved to be an easy, reliable, high-performance peer-to-peer system and incorporated good client integration with Windows NT server.

October 1993 saw the last of the old Windows releases, Windows for Workgroups 3.11. In retrospect it was clearly a prototype for Windows 95, with its 32-bit file management, dial-up networking support and DOS box toolbars. However as the pre-95 hype began to build, it became the 'forgotten' Windows, as Microsoft preferred to draw performance and feature comparisons with the less advanced Windows 3.1.

Since the launch of Windows 95 (August 24, 1995 - the OS received 10/10 in the PC Plus review in issue 108, fact fans) Microsoft has ballooned into the software giant we know today. After Windows 95 quickly gained dominance, OS/2 was quickly marginalised and is now (almost) forgotten on the desktop. The road for the 32-bit OS has been less than smooth though, and like all software the original release had problems with bugs. Over time Microsoft has launched patches and then a Service Release to solve many of them. These patches and additional support for new hardware, like Infrared devices, ISDN and the like were released on Microsoft's WWW site and then included in later releases of the Windows 95 setup.

Microsoft also released a Plus! pack that added a few new features to the operating system, including Desktop themes (for changing the whole look of the screen) and screen displays.

The Internet Explorer program was originally part of Windows 95, then removed because of the complexity of setup and bundled in the Plus! pack, then hastily re-bundled with the OS from version 2 onwards (part of a heated legal dispute still in progress). It has been constantly improved, and the last release version 4.01 for Windows 95 forms the backbone of the visual improvements of Windows 98. The legal dispute that surrounds the bundling (not integration) of IE4 with the operating system brings back to mind the problems Microsoft had concerning the inclusion of their MSN Internet connection software, that was concluded by the inclusion of several other ISP's connection software, requiring a new version of Windows 95 to be supplied to OEMs and retail. If the Department of Justice has its way, who can foresee how that will affect Windows 98?

The Road ahead

The most notable update to the operating system though came in the form of Windows 95 OSR2 which was only ever made available to OEMs (PC manufacturers) for installation on new machines, not as an upgrade. Not only did it include all the updates to date, it also trialled Microsoft's new 32-bit file system, FAT32. There was no way to upgrade existing hard drives to FAT32, except through third party software like Partition Magic 3.

Windows 98 brings together all of the updates produced for Windows 95 and fully integrated support for the hardware released since Windows 95's launch. Infrared support, for example, is greatly enhanced from the version supplied by the Windows 95 patch. It also includes the Internet Explorer 4.01 interface, a new converter to take drives to FAT32 and various improvements from the Windows 95 Plus pack, including the Desktop themes and display improvements. The PC Plus Windows 98 Companion CD covers all of these bundled features as well as the new ones only available in Windows 98. To see how the features are categorised, refer to the Help Guide, and see the Introduction for an overview of the sections.

The future?

So surely there's no news of what happens after Windows 98? Well, updates to the system are already in the pipeline, even before the OS gets released. For example, the ASF file format which is introduced as the new default file format for multimedia in Windows 98 is already behind the times and support for ASF2.0 will be added by an update. Internet Explorer 5 is rumoured to be near completion, though no official details are available. DirectX 5 may ship within Windows 98, but DirectX 6 is well under way and rumoured for release later this year. Confirmed additions are two new texture mapping algorithms that Microsoft has licensed from third parties (one from S3). These new algorithms should allow textures to be better compressed which will allow better quality visuals in texture mapped games. A new technology, codenamed Chrome will be developed for Windows 98 to add to the integrated DVD support.

Last, for now, is the Windows 98 Plus! pack. Microsoft has already announced its contents and it combines applications (McAfee VirusScan and Picture It! Express - a special version of Microsoft's own image manipulation software) and OS additions. There are compressed folders and a Start menu cleaner, which can integrate with the Maintenance Wizard for regular cleanups. There is also a File Cleaner that integrates with the Cleanup feature and shows you what files are infrequently accessed and advises on files that are required by the system. New Desktop themes and a Deluxe CD player are also to be included. See also Tweaking Windows 98

History taken from "Windows: the system that nearly died", PC Plus Issue 108