Microsoft Windows

Microsoft Windows is the name of several families of proprietary software operating systems by Microsoft. Microsoft first introduced an operating environment named Windows in November 1985 as an add-on to MS-DOS in response to the growing interest in graphical user interfaces (GUI). Microsoft Windows eventually came to dominate the world's personal computer market, overtaking OS/2 and Mac OS which had been introduced previously. At the 2004 IDC Directions conference, IDC Vice President Avneesh Saxena stated that Windows had approximately 90% of the client operating system market.