{"id":10531,"date":"2022-02-07T12:42:08","date_gmt":"2022-02-07T12:42:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mailinvest.blog\/index.php\/2022\/02\/07\/why-is-windows-called-windows\/"},"modified":"2022-02-07T12:42:08","modified_gmt":"2022-02-07T12:42:08","slug":"why-is-windows-called-windows","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mailinvest.blog\/index.php\/2022\/02\/07\/why-is-windows-called-windows\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Is Windows Called Windows?"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\"A<\/p>\n

You\u2019ve probably heard the name a million times: \u201cMicrosoft Windows.\u201d But how did the operating system get that way, and why isn\u2019t it named after something else\u2014like doors or ceilings? We\u2019ll explain.<\/p>\n

Microsoft Interface Manager<\/h2>\n

In 1981, Microsoft began developing the rudiments of what would later become Windows. Originally called Interface Manager, it would add a graphical overlay to MS-DOS, allowing visual program control using a mouse (instead of typing keyboard commands). It would also allow multitasking by showing different applications within boxes placed in different areas of the screen simultaneously\u2014a concept pioneered at Xerox PARC with its Alto<\/a> and Star<\/a> computers and later refined at Apple<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In the computer industry at the time, these simultaneous on-screen program boxes were called \u201cwindows,\u201d and software that managed them were usually called \u201cwindowing systems.\u201d<\/a> In the early 1980s, many vendors developed their own windowing systems for PCs, including IBM with TopView<\/a>, Digital Research with GEM<\/a>, and VisiCorp with Visi On<\/a>. Microsoft\u2019s \u201cInterface Manager\u201d would be one of many when it finally launched several years later, and Microsoft knew it.<\/p>\n

Enter \u201cWindows\u201d<\/h2>\n

In 1982, Microsoft hired a new marketing VP named Rowland Hanson, who was a veteran of the cosmetics industry. Hanson brought a new angle for defining Microsoft\u2019s brand<\/a> that involved placing the \u201cMicrosoft\u201d name in front of its products with a generic or simple word after it, such as Microsoft Word and Microsoft Excel.<\/p>\n

While researching a new name for Interface Manager, Hanson reviewed trade articles<\/a> about this wave of PC multitasking systems and pointed out what they had in common. He noticed the term \u201cwindow\u201d used a lot in the context of terms like \u201cwindowing system\u201d and \u201cwindowing manager,\u201d so he latched onto \u201cWindows\u201d as a generic term that would help Microsoft own the entire product category. Every time someone referred to windowing systems from then on, they would tangentially be promoting the \u201cWindows\u201d brand.<\/p>\n

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A boxed copy of Windows 1.01, released in 1985. Microsoft<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

According to the book Barbarians Led by Bill Gates<\/a><\/em>, Interface Manager\u2019s developers were reticent to switch the name to Windows, and the decision to finally do so came down to Bill Gates. Once Gates was behind the name, the developers fell in line\u2014and Microsoft Windows was born.<\/p>\n

The Windows Legacy<\/h2>\n

Microsoft announced Microsoft Windows publicly on November 10, 1983<\/a>\u2014far before the product was ready to ship\u2014in an attempt to get hardware and software vendors on board with the \u201coperating environment,\u201d as Microsoft called it. It had its intended effect, since several competitors were working on PC windowing systems in the early 1980s.<\/p>\n

When Windows 1.01 launched<\/a> in 1985, it wasn\u2019t a breakthrough product, but it evolved over time<\/a> from a MS-DOS shell to a standalone operating system<\/a>, then into the mammoth brand we all know today. Windows is a multi-billion dollar business<\/a>, and as long as there\u2019s billions of dollars attached to the \u201cWindows\u201d name, Microsoft will probably keep using it for years to come.<\/p>\n

RELATED:<\/strong> The 10 Greatest Versions of Windows, Ranked<\/em><\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n