30 years ago today, on November 20, 1985, Microsoft launched Windows 1.0 for IBM-based PCs. The 16-bit graphical user interface-based operating system was the first in the Windows line which continues to this day with this year's release of Windows 10 and this week's official launch of Windows 10 Mobile.
Looking back, the release of Windows 1.0 turned out to be a disappointment. Many reviewers at the time cited the poor performance on PCs, and others complained that it relied too much on the then-new mouse accessory to navigate. However, many of the UI elements in Windows 1.0 are still used in some fashion by Windows 10 today, including drop-down menus, scroll bars and more.
30 year later, the vast majority of PCs have some version of Windows installed and running on their hard drive or SSD. It's likely that will continue for the foreseeable future.
