The Rectangular Display Area

On November 10, 1983, at the Plaza Hotel in New York City, Microsoft Corporation formally announced Microsoft Windows, a next-generation operating system that would provide a graphical user interface (GUI) and a multitasking environment for IBM computers.

How did Windows get its name? Why did Bill Gates settele to name its first GUI operating system as windows, in english which means "an opening that admits light and air". The operating system doesnot carry light nor air to a PC!

Digging the history, 'windows', in computer science, was first used by the inventor of GUI, Douglas Engelbart in his prototype GUI in 1964. Incidently Engelbart is the man who invented the Computer Mouse, hypertext, networked computers, Groupware, Interactive Computing to name a few. Though Engelbart got patent for his Mouse (wooden shell with two metal wheels) in 1970 describing it in the patent application as an X-Y position indicator for a display system. , his version of 'windows' was not considered patentable as no software patents were issued at that time. Engelbart's GUI was consists of "enclosed, rectangular areas on the display screen" which he called "window".

The 'windows' were used in many GUI that follow, like Xerox Star of Xerox PARC (1970s), Lisa(1983) and MacOS of Apple, and VisiOn (1983) of VisiCorp, GEM (Graphics Environment Manager) 1985 to name a few.

"At the Fall 1982 Comdex convention in Las Vegas, Bill Gates saw a demo of a new integrated software system called VisiOn, from VisiCorp of VisiCalc fame, which featured a primitive graphical user interface, displayed applications in windows, used a mouse for navigation, and it was running on an IBM PC. Fearing that VisiOn might easily supersede DOS and VisiCorp could potentially replace Microsoft as IBM's partner, Gates learned as much about VisiOn as he could and proceeded to oversee the development of a competing operating system product he dubbed Interface Manager." [Quotes :TechRepublic].

Microsoft promised that the new product would be on the shelf by April 1984. Microsoft finally shipped Windows 1.0 on November 20, 1985, almost two years after the promised release date.

Windows might have been released under the original name of Interface Manager if marketing whiz, Rowland Hanson had not convinced Bill Gates that Windows was the far better name. When Hanson saw Interface Manager and was tasked with developing a marketing campaign, he immediately recognized that the main feature of the product were the windows, the rectangular display area on the screen that is used, as the tool to perform the tasks, by the user. As such, to Hanson the logical name for the product was "Windows" and the rest is history.

• Windows is a registered trademark of Microsoft Corporation in the United States and other countries.