The most widely used operating system for desktop and laptop computers worldwide. A creation of Microsoft, Windows was introduced in 1985 but rarely used until 1990 (see
Windows 3.0).
Windows primarily runs on x86-based computers and laptops (versions also ran on Itanium CPUs). Windows for ARM-based tablets became available with Windows 8 (see
Windows RT and
Windows on ARM). For a summary, see
Windows versions.
By 2020, there were 1.5 billion Windows 7, 10 and Server versions in use worldwide. While Windows dominates the desktop, it is only about a quarter to a third of Internet servers. Linux is the major datacenter server OS (see
Linux).
Although the Mac popularized the graphical user interface (GUI), Windows followed with major changes over the years (see
GUI). See
operating system,
smartphone operating system and
embedded OS.
Thin Windows Clients
In many organizations, Windows runs in a thin client environment, whereby the user's PC functions like a terminal to a central server. For more details, see
Remote Desktop Services.
Windows How to's
All the Windows "how to's" in this encyclopedia have a "Win" prefix in front of their name in order to group them together; for example,
Win Change Windows appearance and
Win Desktop search. For fundamentals on how to work with Windows, see
Win abc's and
Win10 abc's.