Special Anniversary May 22’nd. – Microsoft Windows 3.0.

Windows 3.0

Released on May 22’nd of 1990- Microsoft Windows 3.0

Windows 3.0 released on May 22’nd of 1991.

Windows 3.0Marking an enormous step forward for the Windows platform. Microsoft Windows 3.0 came out with some major improvements over the previous DOS entries, Windows 1.0 and 2.0 respectively.

Microsoft knew it had to get ahead in the PC game. Otherwise, it could have lost to Apple with its graphical interface and processing power. Therefore Windows 3.0 went against the grain, displaying large “3D” objects and drag and drop support for files. The OS also allowed the use of MS-DOS in a windowed mode. This marked some trouble for DOS based games of the time, however. Due to the fact they required full RAW MS-DOSĀ support.

Windows 3.0 was also the first version of the Windows OS to be pre-installed in computer hardware, as most PC manufacturers simply included versions of 2.0 or 1.0 on diskettes with their hardware. This lead to a slightly underpowered version of the OS appearing on Zenith hardware, who were in direct competition with Apple Computers at the time.

The system came with plenty of pre-installed programs such as a Text editor and the famous “MS-Paint” which also seen great improvements over the previous iterations. Additionally, it came with a couple of games. Including the very first version of Solitaire, the world’s numberĀ one productivity killer.

As sad as it is, Microsoft released Windows 3.1 just one year later marking the system obsolete. Windows 3.1 added more features and software that were incompatible with 3.0 and also included Soundblaster support.

This is the announcement video by Bill Gates in 1990!

 

 

Follow Me