Windows

1) A PC based operating system by Microsoft.

2) An opening in a house, building, or other structure to provide view and ventilation.

3) A slang term for crystal meth (methamphetamine). Derived from the term "glass" which is also a word used to describe crystal meth. Windows as in def. 2 are often made of glass. In some tweaker's meth addled mind "glass" equaled "windows" and a new meaning for the word was born. In addition the term seems appropriate as many tweakers either work in the computer field or enjoy computing in their spare time (as relating to def. 1).

One of several pieces of software from Microsoft:

1. Windows 1.0 was a graphical shell that allowed the user of an IBM PC to have several MS-DOS programs running at the same time, sharing the screen through viewports called "windows," hence the name. It was released after the first Apple Macintosh computer, and most users did not install it because it required too much memory. MS-DOS was an operating system that could only have one application open at any given time, and those applications could only access up to 640 kilobytes of RAM. Files stored by it had names consisting of eight characters, a dot, and three more characters, and certain characters, such as spaces, were not allowed. TEXTFILE.TXT was a typical DOS filename.

2. ~ 3.0 was a graphical shell that also had dynamic library support, a feature normally built into an operating system. Applications had to be written "for" ~, almost as if it was an operating system. It did things on behalf of applications, like an operating system. It was started from DOS as an application, and exiting ~ returned the user to DOS. Instead of folders, there were program groups, where programs had to be explicitly placed. Placement of a program in the Program Groups typically involved telling ~ the complete path to the program executable (ie, "C:\\COREL\\WP.EXE")

3. ~ 95 was a graphical shell that was booted directly by DOS, so that it appeared to be the entire operating system. It imitated the look and feel of a Macintosh. It was capable of running most ~ NT binaries, and it implemented pre-emptive multitasking, a feature commonly found in operating systems, and added support for "long filenames" (LFN), which allowed files to have Macintosh-like names. The "Restart in DOS mode" feature is equivalent to the "Exit Windows" feature in older versions of ~.

4. Windows NT ("New" Technology) is a real operating system that was written completely independantly of the line of graphical shells that are also called Windows. Microsoft hired the employees of DEC that designed VMS to work on ~ NT. Unlike ~ versions that were already on the market, ~ NT took full advantage of the Intel 386's 32-bit capabilities. Its design was so closely tied to the Intel 32-bit architecture that it could not be ported to a 64-bit platform easily.

The "New" technology in ~ was new only to Windows. Features new to NT, such as true multitasking and virtual memory, had been available in other operating systems since the 1970s and even before that.

Microsoft eventually began to market Windows NT as an alternative to UNIX, but they did so at the same time that Linux was becoming ever more popular as a UNIX replacement. Windows NT had many bugs of its own, and its superficial similarities to Windows 95 caused users to expect Windows 95 bugs to be present in Windows NT. Its Internet server offerings were notably inferior to the UNIX programs they were meant to replace.

All current versions of Windows are descended from Windows NT, and not from the DOS shells that were also called Windows.

Though 64-bit Intel processors are already available in 2004, a 64-bit version of Windows is still years away.

1) Holes put in walls of buildings, often rectangular or square, which contain glass. They are there to both let in light and provide a nice view of the outside world.

2) The most popular Computer Operating System today, 'invented' by Microsoft Corporation. It has good ease of use and a wide range of commercial software available.

Many computer experts ('nerds') say that Windows is bloated, unstable, insecure and requires users to upgrade too often. However, Windows is a perfectly fine Desktop OS for non, semi computer literate people and gamers, provided they can install a firewall, virus scanner and spyware remover.

However, for people more experienced with computers or for business applications, other Operating Systems such as Linux or *BSD are faster, more stable and secure, cheaper (erm, free) and more customisable than Windows.

Unfortunately, most of these OSes are harder to use and cannot run Windows software, although there are good free alternatives to Windows software for OSes like Linux such as Open Office for MS Office and Mozilla for IE.

A lot harder to open than its glass counterpart.
Windows, which was copied, edited, then sold for billions by Bill Gates(see antichrist ), is just as good as Linux or Mac OS X, without the whole "Working" and "running" thing. To sum it up: The worst mistake of your life would be to buy it.

An operating system programmed by monkeys in a room with typewriters.

Air condtioning is like computers, as soon as you open windows it stops working.

The name of the operating systems made by Microsoft, which has developed from quite simple beginnings, into a more and more bloated and resource hungry OS. The reason 99% of people use it is because it's the only fucking thing available with good software/hardware support.

Each succesive release was designed to take advantage of the new and more powerful technologies available. Or in plain English, the extra bloat in the new version would require more powerful hardware, negating the extra processing power available and cancelling out the benefits of more powerful (not to mention expensive) hardware.