<div align="justify"><p>Looking at Windows today it's hard to believe that this operating system barely excited interest when first released. </p><p>In fact, what is now an essential piece of software for most PC users took three versions before it saw success and its developer, Microsoft, has seemed bent on further reinventing it at every turn. Indeed, during the 20 years from its conception, the company has barely allowed a year to pass without declaring an intention to update its best-known product. </p><p>Even Windows XP, the most successful version of the operating system to date, was expected to be replaced by now. XP's flagship status in Microsoft's flotilla of Windows products, however, will remain unchallenged for another couple of years. While late 2003 had originally been pencilled in as the launch date for Longhorn - the codename of the next major version of Windows - Microsoft now appears content to sit on its hands and allow XP's healthy sales to continue without the distraction of a replacement pitching up. Well, almost. </p><p>You see, Microsoft plans an interim operating system release called Windows XP Media Center Edition. Although the company won't reveal the UK launch date of this update, industry insiders expect it to arrive before the end of the year. Regardless of whether this version turns up on time - and you can be sure we'll be the first to cover the launch - the situation has led us to wonder what Microsoft has planned for Windows over the next few years. Readers often write to Computeractive to ask whether they should upgrade to the latest version of Windows or wait until they find they need the functions offered by the newest version. Indeed, many of you simply want to know what advantages, if any, upgrading brings. </p><p>With all this in mind, we thought it high time we looked at the past, present and future of Windows. How did Microsoft manage to turn what was in essence a niche-interest plaything into an all-controlling graphical interface that today is the driving force behind nine out of 10 of the world's personal computers? </p><p>Will the company continue to enjoy this kind of success in the future? Moreover, should you help it out by buying the upgrades? What can you, the users, expect from future versions of Windows? We know you rely on us to provide the answers to these and many other questions about the whys, wherefores and ways forward for Windows, and we would never let you down. </p><p><b>Why Windows?</b> </p><p>Love or loathe it, there's no doubt that Windows has gained considerable mastery of the PC platform. It started life as a humble application that offered just a handful of graphical control panels designed to present a simpler way for users to perform otherwise arcane computer operations. </p><p>Windows has now matured into an operating system that can cope with the near infinite variety of personal computer configurations. Regardless of your computer's processor, memory, hard disk capacity, graphics capabilities or array of peripherals, Microsoft Windows is able to tame them all. Making such complicated electronic wizardry work harmoniously is no mean feat but Windows XP manages the task with apparent aplomb - at least, most of the time. Of course, it wasn't always so. Windows began life as a simple extension of DOS, Microsoft's text-based operating system of the early 1980s. </p><p>Depending on who you choose to believe, Microsoft's marketing department or any of the company's detractors, Windows was born either of the desire to make PCs more accessible to the masses or to compete with the other user interfaces of the day, which were then enjoying burgeoning popularity. Whatever the truth, Microsoft's graphical operating system was announced in 1983, although it would be another two years before the completed effort first hit the shelves. </p><p><b>Third time lucky</b> </p><p>When Windows 1 first went on sale on 20 November 1985, industry movers and shakers regarded it as little more than a nice-looking novelty; a bolt-on interface to mask the ugliness of MS-DOS, which lay hidden underneath doing all the necessary digital dirty work. </p><p>Two years later, Windows 2 suffered a similar fate. The commercial fortunes of both these attempts at marketing a graphical user interface mirrored the critical indifference they aroused: they sold, but not in significant numbers. </p><p>With the launch of Windows 3 in 1990, however, Microsoft found it had an enormous success on its hands. It now looks primitive - Windows 3 initially displayed only 16 colours - but this version struck a chord in the marketplace. </p><p>Even the stick-in-the-mud devotees of DOS were attracted by the refined look and feel of the interface and, importantly, other software and hardware companies deemed it worthy of their development dollars. </p><p>With fancy third-party software applications for Windows 3 appearing left, right and centre, more PC users were being tempted to upgrade to Microsoft's graphical operating system in order to benefit from them. A snowball effect had begun to gather momentum. </p><p><b>Truly graphical</b> </p><p>In terms of domination of the desktop computer operating system market, Microsoft reached critical mass in August 1995. </p><p>That was when the company launched Windows 95, the first version of Windows to dispense with the need to have DOS running underneath. To all intents and purposes, Microsoft had created a true graphical operating system. With few serious competitors to Windows, Microsoft rode the crest of a popularity wave, releasing Windows 98 and then Windows Millennium Edition (Me). </p><p>Most recently, of course, the company launched Windows XP. Inevitably, this has been the most successful release to date and, while it continues to propagate, Microsoft appears in no hurry to issue a wholesale replacement. </p><p>Some cross-fertilisation, however, is going on. Windows XP Media Center Edition will be released in the UK soon. It is already on sale in the US, where Microsoft is trying to woo customers into buying so-called 'digital media hubs' - PCs that have features designed specifically for home entertainment. <b>After XP</b> </p><p>Further down the line is Longhorn, the intended replacement for Windows XP that is still in development. Longhorn had originally been rumoured to be ready for release in the second half of 2003 but evidently that's not going to happen. </p><p>Over the past few months there have been many supposed leaks of Longhorn, apparently stemming from computer users involved in the testing of the product. Many of these, however, have been exposed as fakes, with the hoaxers having a wry old time at the expense of the wider world. Indeed, in January we published screenshots purporting to be from an 'alpha' version of Longhorn. We said they might be fakes and they proved to be made-up montages. Similarly, many of the features displayed in these images are nothing more than creations of fertile minds. </p><p><b>Missing details</b> </p><p>When it comes to the question of what new and fancy functions are likely to appear in Longhorn, there's only one certainty: Microsoft won't tell. While the nooks and crannies of the company's corporate website are littered with references to Longhorn (and Blackcomb, a related development of Windows for server use), detail is notable only by its absence. </p><p>We contacted Microsoft and asked if it would like to tell us more about Longhorn. While the response was not the point-blank refusal we expected, the initial answer from its representative - who did not wish to be named - was an object lesson in waffle. Asked what users could expect from Longhorn, the impenetrable response was: "The next version of Windows will continue to deliver on the Windows vision of making personal computing more convenient, connected and simple. </p><p>"It will be a significant release that we believe customers and industry partners will see great value in." </p><p>Fortunately, the representative was a little more forthcoming on the issue of availability, saying that Longhorn "is an ambitious release and therefore several years away from availability". </p><p>"Our number one priority is shipping the best possible software that exceeds the needs of our customers. It is too early to confirm a specific shipping date, [but] we can confirm that the current timeline is 2005." </p><p><b>Future features</b> </p><p>So is there any sure way of knowing what features will be in Longhorn? Well, second-guessing Microsoft's intentions is a game for fools. </p><p>Just a few years ago, the company announced that the way forward for Windows was smiley-faced. 'Bob' was the name Microsoft gave to a grinning cartoon goon that, it said at the time, would act as a "social interface". </p><p>Running on top of Windows, Bob's graphical metaphor of a typical living space was designed as a "super-application" intended to make it easy for novices to launch and use "the essential tools for home computing". In fact, users detested Bob and he was quickly brushed under the carpet. </p><p>However, it is possible to predict, with some certainty, those features that will appear in Longhorn. Windows XP is unable to do many things as standard, some of which are just screaming out to be fixed. </p><p>No version of Windows, for example, has yet had the built-in ability to write to recordable DVDs, an inability that, if not remedied, would seriously inhibit the attractiveness of any future version of the operating system. </p><p>In other words, it's a dead cert that Microsoft will include support for DVD-writing in Longhorn. </p><p>Similarly, although Microsoft supplies a data back-up utility as standard with Windows XP, it cannot write data files to CD - a patently ludicrous situation, as recordable CD is the ideal medium for storing data. </p><p>At the moment, anyone who wishes to span large amounts of data over many CD-Rs must invest in third-party software. Again, this is something that Microsoft is sure to sort out for future versions of Windows. </p></div>