Misplaced Pages

Windows 2.0

Version of the Microsoft Windows operating system
Screenshot of Windows 2.0
Developer	Microsoft
OS family	Microsoft Windows
Source model	Closed source
Released to manufacturing	December 9, 1987; 37 years ago (1987-12-09)
Latest release	2.03 / December 9, 1987; 37 years ago (1987-12-09)
License	Commercial software
Preceded by	Windows 1.0 (1985)
Succeeded by	Windows 2.1 (1988)
Support status
Unsupported as of December 31, 2001

Windows 2.0 is a major release of Microsoft Windows, a family of graphical operating systems for personal computers developed by Microsoft. It was released to manufacturing on December 9, 1987, as a successor to Windows 1.0.

The product includes two different variants: a base edition for 8086 real mode, and Windows/386, an enhanced edition for i386 protected mode. Windows 2.0 differs from its predecessor by allowing users to overlap and resize application windows, while the operating environment also introduced desktop icons, keyboard shortcuts, and support for 16-color VGA graphics. It also introduced Microsoft Word and Excel.

Noted as an improvement of its predecessor, Microsoft Windows gained more sales and popularity after the release of the operating environment, although it is also considered to be the incarnation that remained a work in progress. Due to the introduction of overlapping windows, Apple Inc. had filed a lawsuit against Microsoft in March 1988 after accusing them of violating copyrights Apple held; in the end, however, the judge ruled in favor of Microsoft. The operating environment was succeeded by Windows 2.1 in May 1988, while Microsoft ended its support on December 31, 2001.

Release versions

The operating environment came in two different variants with different names and CPU support. The basic edition supported the virtual 8086 mode of the 80386 microprocessor. Despite its configuration, the variant was fully operational on an 8088 or 8086 processor, although the high memory area would not be available on an 8086-class processor; however, expanded memory could still be used. IBM's PS/2 Model 25, which had an option to ship with a "DOS 4.00 and Windows kit" for educational markets, shipped Windows with 8086 hardware. The basic edition would be later renamed to Windows/286 with the release of Windows 2.1 in 1988.

The other variant, named Windows/386, was available as early as September 1987, pre-dating the release of Windows 2.0 in December 1987. It was much more advanced than its other sibling. It introduced a protected mode kernel, above which the GUI and applications run as a virtual 8086 mode task. The variant had fully preemptive multitasking, and allowed several MS-DOS programs to run in parallel in "virtual 8086" CPU mode, rather than always suspending background applications. With the exception of a few kilobytes of overhead, each DOS application could use any available low memory before Windows was started. Windows/386 also provided EMS emulation, using the memory management features of the i386 to make RAM beyond 640k behave like the banked memory previously only supplied by add-in cards and used by popular DOS applications. There was no support for disk-based virtual memory, so multiple DOS programs had to fit inside the available physical memory. Users could run more applications on the 386 version.

Neither of these versions worked with DOS memory managers like CEMM or QEMM or with DOS extenders, which have their own extended memory management and run in protected mode as well. This was remedied in version 3.0, which is compatible with Virtual Control Program Interface (VCPI) in "standard mode" and with DOS Protected Mode Interface (DPMI) in "386 enhanced" mode. Microsoft ended its support for Windows 2.0 on December 31, 2001.

Features

Unlike its predecessor, Windows 2.0 allows the user to overlap and resize application windows. It has also introduced desktop icons, keyboard shortcuts, and the terminology "minimize" and "maximize", as opposed to "iconize" and "zoom" which was used in Windows 1.0. Support for 16-color VGA graphics, EMS memory, and new capabilities of the i386 CPU in some versions were also added. Windows 2.0 is the last version of Windows that ran solely on floppy disks.

The operating environment is shipped with fifteen programs, and it also introduced the GUI based programs Microsoft Word and Excel, to compete against the then-reigning competitors WordPerfect and Lotus 1-2-3. Software such as the Aldus Pagemaker and CorelDRAW were also developed for Windows 2.0.

The Windows API functions are largely handled by KERNEL.EXE, USER.EXE, and GDI.EXE. These files along with device drivers, printer drivers being the exception, are combined by the Windows setup program into WIN200.BIN and WIN200.OVL. The system files WINOLDAP.MOD and WINOLDAP.GRB are used to run MS-DOS programs.

IBM licensed Windows's GUI for OS/2 as Presentation Manager, and the two companies stated that it and Windows 2.0 would be almost identical.

System requirements

The official system requirements for Windows 2.0 include the following.

Windows 2.0 was dependent on the DOS system and random-access memory was restricted to a maximum of 1 MB due to running in real mode.

Reception

Windows 2.0 is considered to be an incremental improvement of its predecessor, but still a work in process. Due to its improvements, Microsoft Windows gained more popularity after its release and its interface was considered to be easier to manage. Stewart Alsop II predicted in January 1988 that "Any transition to a graphical environment on IBM-style machines is bound to be maddeningly slow and driven strictly by market forces", because the GUI had "serious deficiencies" and users had to switch to DOS for many tasks. CNET considered that Windows 2.0 "wasn't much better than Windows 1.0". BYTE magazine listed the variant as among the "distinction" winner of the BYTE Awards in 1989, describing it as a "serious competition for OS/2" as it "taps into the power of the 80386".

The operating environment cost $99. Sales of Microsoft Windows reached one million in 1988, and by January 1990, it had reached less than two million, although Windows 2.0 was not widely used. It was succeeded by Windows 2.1, which was released in the United States and Canada in May 1988.

Legal conflict with Apple

On March 17, 1988, Apple Inc. filed a lawsuit against Microsoft and Hewlett-Packard, accusing them of violating copyrights Apple held on the Macintosh System Software. Apple claimed the "look and feel" of the Macintosh operating system, taken as a whole, was protected by copyright and that Windows 2.0 violated this copyright by having the same icons. The judge ruled in favor of Hewlett-Packard and Microsoft on all but 10 of the 189 graphical user interface elements on which Apple sued, and the court found the remaining 10 GUI elements could not be copyrighted.

References

1. Byte. Vol. 15. McGraw-Hill. 1990. p. 131. Archived from the original on September 8, 2021. Retrieved July 2, 2022.
2. Miller, Michael (April 13, 1987). "First Look". InfoWorld. Vol. 9. InfoWorld Media Group, Inc. p. 46. ISSN 0199-6649. Archived from the original on September 22, 2022. Retrieved September 16, 2022.
3. ^ "Apple Takes on IBM". PC Magazine. Vol. 6, no. 20. Ziff Davis, Inc. November 24, 1987. p. 170. ISSN 0888-8507. Archived from the original on April 7, 2022. Retrieved April 18, 2022.
4. ^ "High-Impact Graphics". PC Magazine. Vol. 7, no. 16. Ziff Davis, Inc. September 27, 1988. p. 38. ISSN 0888-8507. Archived from the original on July 2, 2022. Retrieved April 18, 2022.
5. Patton, Carole; Mace, Scott (July 4, 1988). "Windows Gets More Memory With Upgrade". Info World. Vol. 10. InfoWorld Media Group, Inc. p. 1. ISSN 0199-6649. Archived from the original on September 22, 2022. Retrieved July 9, 2022.
6. Lendino, Jamie (November 20, 2015). "Microsoft Windows turns 30: A brief retrospective". ExtremeTech. Archived from the original on December 23, 2019. Retrieved July 9, 2022.
7. ^ Jones, Stephen (November 9, 1987). "Testers laud soon-to-ship Windows/386". Computerworld. Vol. 21. IDG Enterprise. p. 20. ISSN 0010-4841. Archived from the original on September 22, 2022. Retrieved July 10, 2022.
8. IBM Personal System 2 and IBM Personal Computer Product Reference. 4. New York: IBM. 1988. p. 78.
9. Miller, Michael (August 17, 1987). "First Look". Info World. Vol. 9. InfoWorld Media Group, Inc. p. 44. ISSN 0199-6649. Archived from the original on April 8, 2022. Retrieved July 9, 2022.
10. Keefe, Patricia (April 30, 1990). "For many, DOS can still do it". Computerworld. Vol. 24. IDG Enterprise. p. 13. ISSN 0010-4841. Archived from the original on September 22, 2022. Retrieved July 10, 2022.
11. "A History of Windows". Microsoft. 2012. Archived from the original on June 10, 2016.
12. Elliott, Susan S. (2011). Across the Divide: Navigating the Digital Revolution as a Woman, Entrepreneur and CEO. Images Publishing. p. 161. ISBN 978-1-86470-455-6. Archived from the original on September 22, 2022. Retrieved July 10, 2022.
13. Purcaru, Bogdan Ion (2014). Games vs. Hardware. The History of PC video games: The 80's. p. 415.
14. Pavlac, Ross (December 4, 1989). "Computer-Aided Software Engineering". Info World. Vol. 11. InfoWorld Media Group, Inc. p. 64. ISSN 0199-6649. Archived from the original on March 7, 2016. Retrieved July 10, 2022.
15. Chen, Raymond (April 7, 2004). "A very brief anecdote about Windows 3.0". Microsoft. Archived from the original on September 22, 2022. Retrieved July 10, 2022.
16. ^ Ray Duncan (September 1987). "Character-Oriented Display Services Using OS/2's VIO Subsystem". Microsoft Systems Journal. Microsoft. pp. 1–15.
17. Hall, William (June 26, 1990). "Windows". PC Magazine. Vol. 9. Ziff Davis, Inc. p. 427. ISSN 0888-8507. Archived from the original on September 22, 2022. Retrieved July 9, 2022.
18. Emery Davis, Frederic (1993). The Windows 3.1 Bible. Pennsylvania: Peachpit Press. p. 644. ISBN 978-1-56609-015-5.
19. ^ Rosch, Winn (May 30, 1989). "Multitasking Without OS/2". PC Magazine. Vol. 8. Ziff Davis, Inc. p. 340. ISSN 0888-8507. Archived from the original on July 2, 2022. Retrieved July 10, 2022.
20. Rosch, Winn (November 24, 1987). "The Taskmasters: Real 386 Operating Environments". PC Magazine. Vol. 6. Ziff Davis, Inc. p. 170. ISSN 0888-8507. Archived from the original on April 7, 2022. Retrieved July 10, 2022.
21. Compton, Jason (November 2005). "Happy Birthday, Windows!". Maximum PC. Future US, Inc. p. 36. ISSN 1522-4279. Archived from the original on September 22, 2022. Retrieved September 16, 2022.
22. Miller, Michael (March 26, 1990). "OS/2: The Right Stuff?". Info World. Vol. 12. InfoWorld Media Group, Inc. p. 54. ISSN 0199-6649. Archived from the original on September 22, 2022. Retrieved July 9, 2022.
23. "New EMM386.exe fixes problem receiving NMI in protected mode". Microsoft Support. November 15, 2006. Archived from the original on September 27, 2013. Retrieved August 15, 2013.
24. Schulman, Andrew (June 11, 1991). "Windows 3.0: All That Memory, All Those Modes". PC Magazine. Vol. 10. Ziff Davis, Inc. p. 352. ISSN 0888-8507. Archived from the original on September 22, 2022. Retrieved July 10, 2022.
25. "Obsolete Products". Support. Microsoft. July 25, 2011. Archived from the original on August 14, 2005.
26. Cowart, Robert (2005). Special edition using Microsoft Windows XP home. Brian Knittel (3 ed.). Indianapolis, Ind.: Que. p. 92. ISBN 978-0-7897-3279-8. OCLC 56647752. Archived from the original on June 4, 2022. Retrieved April 18, 2022.
27. ^ "A Brief History of Microsoft Windows". InformIT. August 3, 2009. p. 2. Archived from the original on March 19, 2022. Retrieved April 18, 2022.
28. Angus, Jeff; Mace, Scott (April 6, 1987). "IBM Introduces OS/2, DOS 3.3 as New Operating Systems". Info World. Vol. 9. InfoWorld Media Group, Inc. p. 2. ISSN 0199-6649. Archived from the original on September 22, 2022. Retrieved July 10, 2022.
29. Mahesh Dabade (September 1, 2015). "History of Windows Operating System". TechTrickle. Archived from the original on November 4, 2015. Retrieved November 21, 2015.
30. Molina, Brett (June 24, 2021). "From Windows 1.0 to Windows 10: A history of Microsoft's signature PC software". USA Today. Archived from the original on April 18, 2022. Retrieved April 18, 2022.
31. Apple Vs. Microsoft. BookCaps Study Guides. 2012. p. 20. ISBN 978-1-62107-320-8.
32. "Windows 2.03". Toasty Tech. Archived from the original on February 7, 2013. Retrieved August 7, 2013.
33. Shinder, Thomas W. (2003). MCSA/MCSE managing and maintaining a Windows server 2003 environment: exam 70-290 study guide and DVD training. Debra Shinder Littlejohn, Jeffrey A. Martin. : Syngress. p. 5. ISBN 978-0-08-047925-5. OCLC 55664320. Archived from the original on June 4, 2022. Retrieved April 18, 2022.
34. ^ Duncan, Ray (1988). The MS-DOS Encyclopedia. Microsoft Press.
35. ^ Alsop, Stewart II (January 18, 1988). "Microsoft Windows: Eclectism in UI" (PDF). P.C. Letter. 4 (2): 6–7. Archived (PDF) from the original on March 8, 2021. Retrieved November 23, 2017.
36. ^ "Windows: what's next". PC Magazine. Vol. 24. Ziff Davis, Inc. November 8, 2005. p. 136. ISSN 0888-8507. Archived from the original on May 13, 2022. Retrieved April 18, 2022.
37. "Windows Version History". Support (4.0 ed.). Microsoft. September 23, 2011. Archived from the original on November 7, 2006.
38. "Windows 1.0 to 10: The changing face of Microsoft's landmark OS". ZDNet. November 19, 2015. Archived from the original on April 22, 2022. Retrieved April 18, 2022.
39. Martin, James (November 20, 2013). "Microsoft Windows 1.0, where it all began". CNET. Archived from the original on April 18, 2022. Retrieved April 18, 2022.
40. O'Regan, Gerard (2016). Introduction to the history of computing: a computing history primer. Switzerland. p. 220. ISBN 978-3-319-33138-6. OCLC 953036113. Archived from the original on June 4, 2022. Retrieved April 18, 2022.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
41. Cooper, Charles. "Windows 1.0: The flop that created an empire". CNET. Archived from the original on April 16, 2022. Retrieved April 18, 2022.
42. "The BYTE Awards". BYTE. January 1989. p. 327. Retrieved April 18, 2022.
43. Rosenthal, Morton (January 11, 1988). "The raging battle between the spreadsheets". Computerworld. Vol. 22. IDG Enterprise. p. 33. ISSN 0010-4841. Archived from the original on July 2, 2022. Retrieved April 18, 2022.
44. McCracken, Harry (May 7, 2013). "A Brief History of Windows Sales Figures, 1985-Present". Time. ISSN 0040-781X. Archived from the original on April 18, 2022. Retrieved April 18, 2022.
45. "Definition of Windows 2.0". PC Magazine. Archived from the original on October 6, 2021. Retrieved April 18, 2022.
46. The Facts on File dictionary of computer science. John Daintith, Edmund Wright, Inc Facts on File. New York: Facts On File. 2006. p. 240. ISBN 978-1-4381-0939-8. OCLC 234235258. Archived from the original on July 2, 2022. Retrieved April 18, 2022.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: others (link)
47. "March 17: Apple Sues Microsoft for Copyright Infringement". Computer History Museum. Archived from the original on July 26, 2021. Retrieved September 16, 2022.
48. Keefe, Patricia (February 5, 1990). "Precedents may aid Lotus case". Computerworld. Vol. 24. IDG Enterprise. p. 144. ISSN 0010-4841. Archived from the original on September 22, 2022. Retrieved September 16, 2022.
49. "Tech Giant Showdown: Microsoft vs. Apple". NewMac. November 5, 2013. Archived from the original on November 5, 2013. Retrieved September 16, 2022.
50. Pollack, Andrew; Times, Special To the New York (March 18, 1988). "Apple Sues Microsoft And Hewlett-Packard". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Archived from the original on January 27, 2022. Retrieved September 16, 2022.
51. O'Regan, Gerard (2008). A Brief History of Computing. Cork, Ireland: Springer Science & Business Media. p. 87. doi:10.1007/978-1-4471-2359-0. ISBN 978-1-84800-084-1. S2CID 11516909. Archived from the original on March 20, 2022. Retrieved September 16, 2022.
52. Birkinbine, Benjamin J. (2020). Incorporating the digital commons: corporate involvement in free and open source software. London: University of Westminster Press. p. 56. ISBN 978-1-912656-43-1. OCLC 1155440332.

External links

• GUIdebook: Windows 2.0 Gallery – A website dedicated to preserving and showcasing graphical user interfaces
• ComputerHope.com: Microsoft Windows history
• Microsoft article with details about the different versions of Windows

• 1987 software
• Products and services discontinued in 2001
• Microsoft Windows
• History of Microsoft
• History of software
• DOS software
• Products introduced in 1987