Why Microsoft given name of their OS - Windows

Why Microsoft Name Their OS “Windows” ?

Almost every computer user has used Microsoft Windows. The first version of Microsoft Windows was released in the year 1985 and after the launch, it has been present in most of the people’s digital lives as an OS.

However, have you ever thought why Microsoft named its operating system Windows? Why not something else? Let me tell you the reason behind it, it’s because of the operating system display several screens in different windows.

Early computer OS had the minimalistic command line-styled interface like DOS where users needed to operate computers by typing different command lines. The Mac, which was less than two years old at that time was the only GUI (Graphic user interfaces) based system enjoying commercial success.

The need for graphical desktop was felt at that time and Xerox was one of the first adopters of the Windows, Icons, Menu and pointing device idea on a desktop metaphor. The GUI lets users operate programs in the different window and at the same time, it promoted Multitasking and other functionalities in OS.

Xerox Star and Xerox Alto are the company who featured the earliest graphical user interfaces that can be controlled using Mouse. However, the company failed to make it prominent. The Graphical user interface on Xerox computers later inspired Microsoft and the first GUI-based version of its OS was launched in 1985 which was called Windows 1.0

The name was never officially Windows it was Microsoft Windows because you can’t trademark a common word like Windows all by itself. Therefore Microsoft decided to name their OS Microsoft Windows which used to display content on the screen. Later the trend was supported by some other Microsoft products like Microsoft Office, Microsoft Excel etc.