Windows 1.0 didn't exactly blow the industry away, but it laid the groundwork for Microsoft's future success.

Editor’s note: After this article was published, Microsoft issued a statement clarifying that cmd.exe will not be going away after all. Read Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols’ follow-up column. My very first ...

First developed in 1981 by computer scientist Chase Bishop, the software project that would eventually become Windows actually started life under a far wonkier name: "Interface ...