Happy 30th birthday, Windows!

Windows 1.0 released on this day in 1985

The first version of Windows was released on this day in 1985.

Back then, Windows 1.0 came in a box with two 3.5-inch floppy disks and required 256-kilobytes (KB) of memory, a graphics card, MS-DOS 2.0 - and a lot of money (for the hardware to run it on) and patience. However, that set-up wouldn't actually run much: to run applications required at least 512KB and a hard-disk drive.

The operating system, though, didn't take off for a number of years, though, as the specifications required to run it required expensive PCs and users complained that it was crash prone. Although Apple had been first to offer a PC with a graphical user interface - the Lisa in 1984, followed by the Macintosh in 1985 - Microsoft's Disk Operating System (MS-DOS), on which Windows originally ran, remained the most popular operating system until version 3.0 in May 1990.

Indeed, Microsoft focused on developers in a bid to build up a volume of applications that could run on Windows, as well as putting together its own office suite - Office - and initially bundling it with Windows in order to drive sales of both. Rival software companies tended to focus on individual productivity applications - word processors or spreadsheets - and only recognised the popularity of full office suites until Microsoft already dominated the market.

At the time, though, Microsoft only sold about 500,000 copies of Windows and most PC users stuck with the command line of MS (or Digital Research) DOS and the primitive interface offered by DOS applications.

Windows 1.0 was Microsoft's hurried response to the Apple Lisa, launched in January 1983, and offered at the price of "just" $9,995. Although the Lisa had its own problems - it was equally resource hungry and slow - it had shown the way for the future of user interfaces. Apple persevered with the graphical user interface and followed up the Lisa, within a year, with the Macintosh.

Apple, though, was not able to fully capitalise on its lead as Apple Macs were still expensive - $2,495 - just at the time that manufacturers, such as Amstrad, were starting to slash to the cost of standard IBM-compatible PCs.

It wasn't until version 3.1, launched in April 1992, that Windows PCs started to supplant Atari STs, Commodore Amigas and Acorn Archimedes in the home.