When RML IT Consultants was launched way back in 2004, to provide IT support to businesses in Cambridge and the wider South East, the current versions of Microsoft Windows was Windows XP and Windows Server 2003, though many customers were still using earlier versions.

As RML’s owner has himself been providing IT support since the 1980s, we thought in this month’s blog post it would be interesting to take a walk down memory lane, remembering some of the earlier versions of Microsoft Windows, many of which RML has provided the support for.

For those with very long memories, you’ll recall Windows was predated by MS-DOS, indeed the first versions of Windows required MS-DOS to be installed prior to Windows, in the case of Windows 1.0 launched in 1985 this was MS-DOS 3.x. Windows 2.0 followed in 1987, and 1990 saw Windows 3.0 launched with the network version of Windows, the highly adopted NT 3.x launched in 1993 which replaced Windows for Workgroups.

1995 witnessed the much heralded Windows 95 launched which represented a big leap forward for Windows, followed in 1998 by Windows 98. In the year 2000 NT4 was replaced by Windows 2000, and NT4 Server by NT5 though it now carried the name Windows 2000 Server. At home, Windows 98 was replaced by Windows Millennium Edition which was often referred to as Windows ME. The year 2000 also saw Microsoft first enter the mobile arena with Pocket PC 2000.

2001 marked another evolutionary shift for Windows, with the launch of Windows XP, and notably also an end to the development of MS-DOS which had reached in 7th version. Windows XP arguably became the most successful version of Windows, indeed it was almost six year before XP found itself replaced by the short-lived Windows Vista.
During the same period, Windows Server 2003 (NT 5.2) was launched, then in 2008 Windows Server 2008 (NT 6.0). 2009 brought another forward step in the client version of Windows technology, to the present family of Windows with the launch of Windows 7, followed by Windows 8 in 2012 and to the current version of Windows which is version 10 in 2015.

Windows 10 represented a sea-change for Microsoft, with a move away from a cycle of new operating system launches, toward a process of continuous updates and upgrades. That said, looking forward there is currently much speculation surrounding the launch of Windows Polaris, rumoured to be the PC component based on Windows Core OS that will act as the base for all future Windows iterations.

In terms of Window Server, in 2012 and then 2016 saw new versions launched, 2016 being the current edition (NT 10.0) which is shipped in 3 versions; Essentials, Standard and Datacenter. Looking forward, the next edition slated for Windows Server is Windows Server 2019.