Microsoft, the developer of Windows, has registered several trademarks, each of which denotes a family of Windows operating systems that target a specific sector of the computing industry. Īs of September 2022, the most recent version of Windows is Windows 11 for consumer PCs and tablets, Windows 11 Enterprise for corporations, and Windows Server 2022 for servers. However, Windows is not the most used operating system when including both mobile and desktop OSes, due to Android's massive growth. Windows is the most popular desktop operating system in the world, with 75% market share as of April 2022, according to StatCounter.

The first version of Windows was released on November 20, 1985, as a graphical operating system shell for MS-DOS in response to the growing interest in graphical user interfaces (GUIs). Defunct Windows families include Windows 9x, Windows Mobile, and Windows Phone. For example, Windows NT for consumers, Windows Server for servers, and Windows IoT for embedded systems. Each family caters to a certain sector of the computing industry. Microsoft Windows is a group of several proprietary graphical operating system families developed and marketed by Microsoft.

Windows 9x and earlier: Monolithic ( MS-DOS).

Windows Embedded Compact/Windows CE: Hybrid.

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