Windows 3.0

Before Windows 3.0, a partnership bundled IBM's personal computers with Microsoft's MS-DOS since 1981. Microsoft had previously attempted to develop a successful operating environment called Windows, In a few months, Weise and Sargent cobbled together a rough prototype to run Windows versions of Word, Excel, and PowerPoint, then presented it to company executives, who were impressed enough to approve it as an official project. When IBM learned of Microsoft's upcoming project, their relationship was damaged, but Microsoft asserted that it would cancel Windows after its launch and that it would continue to develop OS/2. Windows 3.0 was officially announced worldwide on May 22, 1990, in the New York City Center Theater. The event had 6,000 attendees, and it was broadcast live in the Microsoft social fairs of seven other North American cities and twelve major cities outside. Microsoft spent to host the festivities, which co-founder Bill Gates referred to as the "most extravagant, extensive, and expensive software introduction ever". Microsoft did not offer free runtime licenses of the software to applications vendors, because runtime versions of Windows lack multitasking. Instead, the company offered upgrades for both full and runtime previous versions of Windows at a cost of —considerably lower than the full license's suggested retail price of . Microsoft's "Entry Team" was assigned to make Windows 3.0 generally appealing to the public, and was concerned that the public might perceive it as no more than a tool for large enterprises, due to high system requirements. Major game publishers did not see it as a potential game platform, instead sticking to MS-DOS. Microsoft's product manager Bruce Ryan compiled games that the Windows team had designed in its spare time to create Microsoft Entertainment Pack, which includes Tetris and Minesweeper. There was little budget, none spent on quality testing. Nevertheless, the Entertainment Pack was sold as a separate product, and it became so popular that it was followed by three other Entertainment Packs. On December 31, 2001, Microsoft dropped support for Windows 3.0, along with previous versions of Windows and Windows 95, Windows for Workgroups, and MS-DOS versions up to 6.22. ==Features==

Windows 3.0 features a significantly revamped graphical user interface (GUI), which was described as having a three-dimensional look similar to the Presentation Manager, rather than the flat look of its predecessor, Windows 2.1. though the operating environment itself supports graphics adapters that offer resolutions and the number of colors greater than VGA. Windows 3.0 also introduced the Palette Manager, a set of functions that allow applications to change the lookup palette of graphics cards displaying up to 256 colors to use needed colors. When multiple displayed windows exceed the 256-color limit, Windows 3.0 prioritizes the active window to use that application's colors, without resorting to dithering and then filling in areas. Windows 3.0 retains many of the simple applications from its predecessors, such as the text editor Notepad, the word processor Write, and the improved paint program Paintbrush. Calculator is expanded to include scientific calculations. Another notable program is Help. Unlike DOS applications, which may have help functions as part of them, Windows Help is a separate and readily accessible application that accompanies all Windows programs that support it. ==Memory modes==

Windows 3.0 was the only version of Windows that could be run in three different memory modes: • Real mode, intended for older computers with a CPU below Intel 80286, and corresponding to its real mode; • Standard mode, intended for computers with an 80286 processor, and corresponding to its protected mode; • 386 Enhanced mode, intended for newer computers with an Intel 80386 processor or above, and corresponding to its protected mode and virtual 8086 mode. Real mode primarily existed as a way to run Windows 2.x applications. It was removed in Windows 3.1. Almost all applications designed for Windows 3.0 had to be run in standard or 386 enhanced mode (Microsoft Word 1.x and Excel 2.x would work in real mode as they were actually designed for Windows 2.x). However, it was necessary to load Windows 3.0 in real mode to run SWAPFILE.EXE, which allowed users to change virtual memory settings. Officially, Microsoft stated that an 8 MHz turbo 8086 was the minimum CPU needed to run Windows 3.0. It could be run on 4.77 MHz 8088 machines, but performance was so slow as to render the OS almost unusable. Up to 4 MB of expanded memory (EMS) is supported in real mode. Standard mode was used most often as its requirements were more in-line with an average PC of that era — an 80286 processor with at least 1 MB of memory. Since some PCs (notably Compaqs) did not place extended memory (XMS) at the 1MB line and instead left a hole between the end of conventional memory and the start of XMS, Windows could not work on them except in real mode. 386 Enhanced mode was a 32-bit virtual machine that ran a copy of 16-bit Standard mode, and multiple copies of MS-DOS in virtual 8086 mode. 386 enhanced mode uses virtual 8086 mode to allow multiple DOS programs to run (each DOS session takes 1MB of memory) along with being windowed and allowing multitasking to continue. Virtual memory support allows the user to employ the hard disk as a temporary storage space if applications use more memory than exists in the system. Normally, Windows will start in the highest operating mode the computer can use, but the user may force it into lower modes by typing WIN /R or WIN /S at the DOS command prompt. If the user selects an operating mode that cannot be used due to lack of RAM or CPU support, Windows merely boots into the next lower one. ==Updates==

There are two updates known to have been published for Windows 3.0. One of them is Windows 3.0a, released in December 1990. It modified Windows' DOS extender—a program that enables DOS applications to access extended memory—to prevent errors caused by software calling into real-mode code when Windows is loaded in standard mode. It also simplified the installation process and alleviated crashes associated with networking, printing, and low-memory conditions. Windows 3.0 with Multimedia Extensions Windows 3.0 with Multimedia Extensions 1.0 (MME) was released to third-party manufacturers in October 1991. The application programming interface introduced Media Control Interface, designed for any media-related device such as graphics and audio cards, scanners, and videotape players. It also supported recording and playing digital audio, MIDI devices, screensavers and analog joysticks, as well as CD-ROM drives, which were then becoming increasingly available. Other features included additional applets such as an alarm clock and Media Player, used to run media files. MME supports stereo sound and 16-bit audio bit depth and sampling rates of up to 44.1 kHz. Later, Windows 3.1 and Windows NT 3.1 integrated the MME. ==System requirements==

The official system requirements for Windows 3.0 and its substantial update, Windows 3.0 with Multimedia Extensions: The processor and memory minimum requirements for the original version are those needed to run Windows in real mode, the lowest of the three operating modes. This mode severely limits the multitasking capabilities of Windows, although it can still use expanded memory, which is memory that is added by installing expanded memory boards or memory managers. However, it also provides backward compatibility with as many hardware and software designed for DOS as possible, and it may be used to run DOS applications and older Windows applications not optimized for Windows 3.0 if running them in higher operating modes is not possible. Standard mode requires at least an 80286 processor, and although the memory required is unchanged, the mode does allow the processor to use extended memory for running applications. 386 enhanced mode requires at least an 80386 processor and two megabytes of memory. While the other modes can run DOS applications in full-screen only and must suspend DOS applications to run Windows programs and vice versa, the DOS applications in 386 enhanced mode can be run windowed and concurrently with the Windows applications. Unlike the other modes, this one cannot be used to run DOS applications that use DOS extenders incompatible with DPMI specifications. Normally, Windows will start in the highest operating mode the computer can use, but the user may force it into lower modes by typing WIN /R or WIN /S at the DOS command prompt. If the user selects an operating mode that cannot be used due to lack of RAM or CPU support, Windows merely boots into the next lowest one. ==Reception==

Windows 3.0 is considered to be the first version of Windows to receive critical acclaim. Users and critics universally lauded its icon-based interface and the ensuing ease of performing operations, Computerworld considered the software to share the same benefits as OS/2 and Unix. One critical aspect of Windows 3.0 is how it managed memory. Before its release, users of previous versions of Windows were burdened with trying to circumvent memory constraints to use those versions' touted capabilities. The Windows software occupied a large amount of memory, and users regularly experienced system slowdowns and often exceeded memory limits. Windows 3.0 also had relatively high memory requirements by 1990's standards, but with the three memory modes, it was praised for using memory more efficiently, removing the 640–kilobyte limit that had existed in computers running on Microsoft software since DOS, and supporting more powerful CPUs. However, in February 1991, PC Magazine noted a vast array of applications designed specifically for Windows 3.0, including many that had yet to be available for OS/2. It also cited two other factors leading to the operating environment's success: one of them was the inexpensive cost of the hardware needed to run it compared to the Macintosh, and the other was its focus on fully utilizing hardware components that were relatively powerful by its time's standards. Amid the unprecedented success of Windows 3.0, Microsoft came under attack by critics as well as the United States Federal Trade Commission, who alleged that the company had attempted to dominate the applications market by luring its competitors into developing software for IBM's OS/2 while it was developing its own for Windows. At the time of Windows 3.0's release, Microsoft had only 10 and 15 percent of the market shares on spreadsheets and word processors, respectively, but those figures had risen to over 60 percent in 1995, overtaking previously dominant competitors such as Lotus Development Corporation and WordPerfect. Microsoft did indeed suggest developers to write applications for the OS/2, but it also intended Windows 3.0 to be a "low-end" alternative to the latter, with Gates referring to the OS/2 as the operating system of the 1990s. The Windows brand was also intended to be canceled after this version's release. The investigations into—and the eventual subsequent suing of—Microsoft led to a settlement on July 15, 1994, where Microsoft agreed not to bundle separate software packages with its operating products. It marked the first time that the company had ever been investigated for anticompetitive practices. Sales Windows 3.0 is also considered the first Windows to see commercial success. After six months, two million copies were sold. Its success was interdependent with the PC industry, exemplified by an explosion of demand for and subsequent production of Intel's more powerful microprocessor, the 80486. Windows became so widely used in businesses that Brian Livingston of InfoWorld wrote in October 1991 that "a company with no PCs that run Windows is almost like a company without a fax machine." Microsoft had spent a total of $10 million in its marketing campaign for the software, including the $3 million for its release. When its successor, Windows 3.1, was released, sales totaled about 10 million copies, Windows 3.0 is regarded in retrospect as a turning point in the future of Microsoft, being attributed to its later dominance in the operating system market and to the company's improved applications market share. The company used to have close ties with IBM since the former's inception, but the unexpected success of its new product would lead to the two companies recasting their relationship, where they would continue to sell each other's operating products until 1993. After the fiscal year of 1990, Microsoft reported revenues of US$1.18 billion, with $337 million appearing in the fourth quarter. This annual statistic is up from $803.5 million in fiscal 1989, and it made Microsoft the first microcomputer software company to reach the $1 billion mark in one year. Microsoft officials attributed the results to the sales of Windows 3.0. ==References==