WINDOWS

A windowing (Mac-like) extended DOS operating system from Microsoft Corporation that allows users to have more than one application running at the same time. Because Windows ran on lower-capacity 386 and 486 chips, it captured huge market shares and had over 40 million adopters by the end of 1993. This has severely clouded the future of Apple Corporation whose graphical operating system lost its uniqueness and popularity as Windows operating systems spread across the world. Windows applications can be stacked in succeeding "windows" that have menu lines and, unlike Mac processors, have an ability to "minimize" multiple operating programs. Users can then dart back and forth between windows (applications) without having to reload. Popular windows programs include those on Macintosh computers and on PCs using Microsoft Windows, Works, and Enable. Finder is another windows program. It has become common for the word "Windows" in computer lore to refer to Microsoft Windows built upon the DOS foundation. Newer OS/2 and Windows 2000 (New Technology) shed the DOS foundation but require considerably greater hardware capacity than the older Microsoft Windows. (See also Operating system , OS/2 , Windows Chicago , and Windows 2000 )