Microsoft Windows

Windows is a product line of proprietary graphical operating systems developed and marketed by Microsoft. It is grouped into families and subfamilies that cater to particular sectors of the computing industry – Windows (unqualified) for a consumer or corporate workstation, Windows Server for a server and Windows IoT for an embedded system. Windows is sold as either a consumer retail product or licensed to third-party hardware manufacturers who sell products bundled with Windows.

The first version of Windows, Windows 1.0, was released on November 20, 1985, as a graphical operating system shell for MS-DOS in response to the growing interest in graphical user interfaces (GUIs). The name "Windows" is a reference to the windowing system in GUIs. The 1990 release of Windows 3.0 catapulted its market success and led to various other product families, including the now-defunct Windows 9x, Windows Mobile, Windows Phone, and Windows CE/Embedded Compact. Windows is the most popular desktop operating system in the world, with a 70% market share as of March 2023, according to StatCounter; however when including mobile operating systems, it is in second place, behind Android.

The most recent version of Windows is Windows 11 for consumer PCs and tablets, Windows 11 Enterprise for corporations, and Windows Server 2025 for servers. Still supported are some editions of Windows 10, Windows Server 2016 or later (and exceptionally with paid support down to Windows Server 2008).