A breakthrough is coming

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Windows XP, which everyone loved, was created. Initially it was irreplaceable, but what happened later? Today we present a further part of the giant’s story.

The whole world was evolving, the material situation of citizens was improving. Although this mainly applied to “Western” countries, things were better in Poland, too. Technology was becoming part of people’s private lives, and as a result, more and more households had computers. Installing on them various versions of Windows XP. The fact that for many it was the first, and quite reliable, operating system led to its huge popularity. The sales of about 500 million copies worldwide (and we know very well what the scale of “piracy” was, despite security measures through license activation) can speak of this. “XP” was in fact the first consumer system based on the NT code. “Service Pack” additions patched shortcomings and introduced new features.

A refreshed graphical interface, the ability to create accounts…. and that wallpaper! The many features that were introduced made operating a computer a sheer pleasure for many. A separate article could be written about Windows XP. It was supported for as many as 12 years, and even so, according to statistics, 0.38% of Windows users still use it on a daily basis. 

6 years after the release of XP, Microsoft decided to release another refreshed and modern system. Many people considered this an unnecessary move, especially since XP was still experiencing great years, and Service Pack 3 improved the system. Aside from a great graphics issue for the time, Windows Vista, as it is referred to here, was not as pleasant to use as its predecessor. Yes, the introduction of “widgets” along with the Aero overlay was something refreshing, but the instability and requirements for Vista computers meant that the pleasure of use was not much. Especially with the user control windows that appeared at every turn. Personally, I think Vista was not that bad  system, but indeed – it was far from XP. 

How to announce the next hero? Many systems have already been described, and I am well aware that there are still a few to come. Ahead of us is the BEST (and I know many of you will agree with me) system that has been released by Microsoft…. WINDOWS 7. 

Initially called an improved Vista, Windows 7 released in 2009 included many fixes that improved on the old features of its predecessor. Pinning items to the taskbar, arranging browser and file explorer windows, quick access lists, thumbnail previews, libraries, pinning windows to the sides of screens. Not enough? Of course, this is only a snippet that is beneficial to the user. The system was modern, easy to use and, above all, stable. It had as many as 6 editions – seemingly as many as Vista, but they were much more tailored to users using them. Click on the Windows symbol on the keyboard, type in the name of the program and a moment later it’s running. Additional keyboard shortcuts also improved navigation through the system. And don’t forget about the very good backward compatibility for earlier versions of systems. If Windows 7 had continued to be supported and only adapted to the latest technologies, probably the vast majority of us would have continued to use it (according to statcounter, 12% of us continue to do so!).  

For the past 10 years or so, the world has been getting more complicated in various spaces, while in terms of symbols, presented graphics, it has been simplified. In this way, in 2012, the Windows “tile” 8 was passed for our use….

You will read about it in the next and final part of our series telling the story of the creation of Windows. See you there!

This post is also available in: Polski (Polish)