Microsoft Windows

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Microsoft Windows
Microsoft Windows logo
OS family Microsoft Windows
Kernel Type PopCorn
Latest release Windows 10
lead developing Noob Microsoft
Company/developer Microsoft Dumbaration
Source model Stinky Dinosaurs
Available language American English, British English, Canadian English, French English, German English, Ukrainian English, Gibberish, Cockney, LOLSpeak, Mumble, Nonsense l33t
Architectures Supported Officially confirmed to work correctly on i386, X86-64, ARM, IA64 (Server Only)- it crashes on all of them. Undesired productivity boost when run under VirtualBox on Ubuntu


Microsoft Windows, also known as "MacOSn't", or simply "Windows", is the collective name for a series of failures that began in 1983 as a means of reversing the stagnation of the computer hardware market. Copying features from other competing platforms, Windows began as an add-on piece of bloated code latched to Microsoft Disk Operating System (or "MS-DOS"), but a series turnings of event eventually allowed Windows saw the opportunity to dominate the desktop computer platform and become one of the most popular broken software products of all times.

History[edit | edit source]

Windows 45, an unreleased version of Windows
Windows 45, an unreleased version of Windows

In the year 1981, Microsoft and IBM took the first steps of a relationship that would eventually dominate the personal computer industry. The marriage of Microsoft's virtually bulletproof MS-DOS with IBM's premium hardware was an instant success, and soon gave birth to a host of clone manufacturers who later became industry giants in their own right: Zenith, Heathkit, and Tandy, to name a few. Unfortunately, the explosive growth had the side effect of completely saturating the slowly emerging market. While plenty of satisfied customers were happily number crunching with VisiCalc, many manufacturers including IBM itself were left with mountains of unsold inventory. It was until Rowland Hanson, the head of marketing at Microsoft, who inadvertently hit upon the answer when he pondered aloud at an executive meeting:


This view was vocally supported by then-business manager Steve Ballmer, who observed:


Without so much as another word spoken, it was understood by the whole room that Microsoft would begin the process of systematically removing all the improvements it had made to QDOS, the "Quick and Dirty Operating system" it had purchased from Seattle Computer Products in 1980, and proceeded to initiate the development of a new software product without the involvement of IBM. The then-CEO William Henry Gate III argued:


Early on, there were a number of critics who suggested that the name "Windows" was a reference to the product's fragility. Technology writer Dick Hertz observed:

This speculation was largely curbed when Mr Hertz was found stabbed, burned, electrocuted, strangled, shot, and floating in the East River. Gates refused to comment directly to the press about the incident, but though his press secretary he stated that the death appeared "accidental".

Culture shock[edit | edit source]

File:Startrek-BSoD.gif
A product placement by Microsoft in the popular sci-fi series Star Trek.

Tearing a page directly out of the Steve Jobs' Book of Corporate Culture Creation - or perhaps it was the Jim Jones' one, no matter - Bill Gates printed up a scores of T-shirts emblazoned with the slogan "style, not substance" and set his minions to work. Their mission, if they chose to accept it, was to dial up the eye-candy while systematically rebugging the software infrastructure. It was a punishing endeavour: writing bad software is easy, but writing software that runs like a gazelle but occasionally trips and falls and loses its memory, or collides in spectacular fashion with some unseen predator who devours it whole, lashes to limbs proved to be extremely difficult. Early efforts on test subjects also yielded poor results, with participants eager to throw their computer out of the nearest non-ground-floor opening but reluctant to visit ComputerLand for a replacement.

File:Windowsxd.PNG
In 2002, Windows XD was introduced.

The test code was subjected to ongoing in-house peer-reviews - "VFI", or "Vote For Inclusion" - with programmers choosing the bugs they liked best. Unexpectedly, it was not always the most clever or most well crafted coding that drew the most votes. Often, innocuous bits of writing that struck blindside by delivering an unforeseen playload walked hand-in-hand with obviously chaotic monsters of destructive programming, and with stupidly crafted pieces of clumsy kludge following in tow. As it turned out, this carefully selected blend of predictable error and random terror developed into something akin to the corporate secret sauce. By allowing test subjects to have an occasionally pleasant experience (provided that they took certain steps to avoid known pitfalls), they developed an increasing tolerance to the built-in mix of random hardware and software fault messages, and at times even blamed their own stupidity for the crash. Before the Environmental Protection Agency was able to substantiate their half-baked conspiracy theory about some causal link between Microsoft and the sharp increase in the volume of silicon waste accumulating in municipal landfills, people began to quit throwing their computers away and instead looked to Microsoft for answers. The name Windows was retained for marketing reasons, but also to remind programmers of the development imperative: make it look clear and easy to use, but easily breakable.

IBM, on the other hand, began their downward spiral into OS/2 and was eventual taken over by the Chinese. Bill has screwed people over before, as whatshisname from Seattle Computer Products insists; although he is currently under a legally-binding non-disclosure agreement to not divulge any further related details.

Marketing[edit | edit source]

File:Press any key.jpg
A keyboard layout designed by Microsoft marketing department features an "Any" key for responding certain system messages such as "press any key to continue".

Marketing Windows may seem pointless, since it is not what one pays for and has the right to receive. Even then, it is simply nuances.

  • Fetish marketing. People who used to go into San Francisco bathhouses, put a ball gag in their mouths, cover their heads in a hood, bend over a table, put a can of Crisco on their butt, handcuff their hands behind their back, and wait to feel who came in, were left high and dry for a while in the 1980s, until they found something better — surfing with Microsoft Internet Explorer! After dozens of years of development, Microsoft has managed to make a browser that in full security mode with all the latest updates to everything simply cannot find a cleavage picture of Rose McGowan on a Web search without installing two keyloggers in the process, and they are only the ones the unscrupulous "anti spyware" program developers have not been paid to not report. While this method of discouraging visits to any "subversive" or "non-standard" site is less efficient for the national economy than the Great Firewall of China, it nevertheless generates dozens of times more revenue for Microsoft.
  • License competitions. The International Olympic Committe is currently entertaining competitions for how many licenses for Windows a single person can accumulate for personal use. Every time the hard drive on a Windows machine gets irretrievably obliterated (per an average of approximately six months) the respective user gets tempted to spend another $500 or more on another computer with another Windows license. However, some people often outperform others as they are somewhat more careless than the latter. Plus, some actually pay to upgrade their software version, as though they would not be stuck doing it anyway the next time the computer crashed.

Development[edit | edit source]

File:Buglist.jpg
A computing magazine shows a purported image of a Microsoft staff member transporting the candidate bug lists for Windows 7 to the software development team in Osaka, Japan.

A longevity studies demonstrated that the error-tolerance and self-blaming observed in laboratory studies was short-term, and the development team were forced to reevaluate their strategies. After closely examining the implementation illustration created by the marketing department, their error was immediately apparent: software designers had created the rider and the stick, but had failed to produce the carrot for the donkey to follow.

The developers addressed the problem by by providing new software and a new service support plan:

Support type Translation
"Bug Fixes" Coͬde ́that w͢a͎s̬ ̝prͅe̠viou͢sl̬y v͖otͬed̄ f̉or ̴anͮd̋ ̅ap͙prov̾e͋d͈ ̪by͈ th͗e 'VͬFͅI ̎pǎnel̢ ̞ḫa̩s ͇beͫe̷n͚ s̫ubs̡ęq̿ueͪn͂tly̏ re̎mov̘e͛d̛ ͜by tḥe ͩVo͐te for̀ Rem͠oval ͞(VF̈́R) ͓p̺a̴ne͈l.͞
"Telephone support" Soak the customers for $3.99 per minute while reading chapters on "Reboot" or "Reinstall" verbatim from the book How to use Windows: New User Experience™. If that fails, direct them to "Bug Fixes" (q.v.) and hype the upcoming "New Version" (q.v.).
"New Versions" Creeping featurism has led to an otherwise not-dissimilar version of Windows that may seem both aesthetically and functionally superior to its predecessor but is in fact an introduction of a new set of VFI'd bugs along with some cherished favourites.
"Killer Apps" Notepad, Minesweeper, Calculator, 3D Text screensaver, Ms Paint, and the ubiquitous solitaire.

Internet[edit | edit source]

Believing the HP to be nothing more than a glorified Bulletin Board system (BBS) of use only to a handful of nerds, Gates and company were late-comers to the browser wars. Their lateness not only cost them the opportunity for software patents but also threatened them to return the product back to the dark days of stability. Worldwide communication meant virus and trojan alerts through newsgroups, file trading in illicit software (like patches and fixes), and worst of all, troubleshooting by expert users during their free time free of charge. In short, with the Internet it had never been easier to ensure that a copy of Windows was running in tip-top shape. Early versions of Internet Explorer proved unusable, but by installing it by default with every copy of Windows, it offered the hope of re-establishing imbalance towards the Windows line. The "Windows Update" website was eventually created to provide Template:C fast access to the latest patches and updatesTemplate:C.

Microsoft's masterstroke, yet, was its eventual integration of Internet Explorer as the operating system's file browser, and the wide scale use of "DirectX" technology. This not only provided users with direct access to the Internet from any window but also provided viruses and other malware with direct access to the user's computer. Combined with its own in-house "anti-virus" software, a truly attractive but sub-standard software package which developers used their extra time to carefully construct, Microsoft is guaranteed to foster the cycle of dependence for many years to come.

Outline of typical use[edit | edit source]

  1. Purchase a PC (or purchase a MacBook and then install Windows);
  2. Use it as normal;
  3. Develops faults or catches viruses;
  4. Reinstall Windows (or restore with Ghost);
  5. Use it as normal;
  6. Develops faults or catches viruses;
  7. Reinstall Windows (or restore with Ghost);
  8. Use it as normal;
  9. Develops faults or catches viruses;
  10. Reinstall Windows (or restore with Ghost);
  11. Use it as normal;
  12. Develops faults or catches viruses;
  13. Reinstall Windows (or restore with Ghost);
  14. Use it as normal;

... and so on.

Well.

Finally, exclaim in vain: "Microshit!"

Activation[edit | edit source]

With growth of the internet and p2p, software piracy became rife with versions of windows such as Windows XD: Pirate Edition that were stripped of its "New Versions" and VFI'd bugs. This had severe consequences for the company, who no longer had control over what bugs a user was entitled to keep and/or remove. Microsoft responded by releasing its activation system, along with propriety adware in the guise of "must-have" software such as Windows Movie Maker and Windows Live Messenger, among others.

Automatic software updates were also turned on automatically, so all the latest bugs were always available to the end user. This was in addition to a new killer-app for Windows Fiesta and beyond; the restart computer reminder. A user could no longer keep a Windows computer on for more than four hours without being reminded that their machine needs to be restarted. This is a testament to the amount of bugs created every minute by Microsoft Employees which need constant editing; however, a user can enjoy exactly the same behaviour from their computer by installing Windows 666 without activating it. Microsoft are working on this problem.

Reception[edit | edit source]

Windows was met with positiveTemplate:C reception when it came out. Critics cited that nobody was Template:C tossed into a loony bin upon catching a few glimpses of its incredibleTemplate:Cness. Its security features were Template:C praised by critics and users alike. Windows has influenced Template:C so many Template:Csecure operating systems today. Bill Gates is Template:C almightyTemplate:C!

Template:C Internet Explorer would also be praised for being totally inTemplate:C vulnerable to spyware, adware, and viruses. That, and it was Template:C fast Template:C and FirefoxTemplate:C is not Template:C. Also, IE's pop-up blocker Template:C works at stopping pop-ups Template:C completely Template:C.

Partnership with Fisher Price[edit | edit source]

Before Vista was released, when Bill Gates was still at Microsoft, Steve Ballmer had a brilliant idea. He told Gates: "Hey dude, look at this shit" pointing at a Fisher Price laptop. After an evil smile by Bill Gates, which sounded pretty much like this: "Hyeyeyeyeyey...*cough cough*...Hyeyeyeye", Microsoft established a partnership with Fisher Price.

Fisher price logo
Fisher price logo

From then, Fisher Price licensed their "Unique User Interface for Children with Mental Problems", the UUCMP, to Microsoft. And that's where the famous Aero interface came from. The similarities got even bigger when Fisher Price released "Kid OS X Snow Rabbit", which was adopted in Windows 7.

Yep, this is where Aero comes from.
Yep, this is where Aero comes from.

The Past[edit | edit source]

In werepretendingtodevelopit versions the different levels were called null, fail, craptastic, windows wtf edition and almost works. However the marketing team decided that this wasn't very user friendly so these were changed to the more comprehensible and accurate names student, home, professional, business, ultimate, and a new secret edition could be unlocked by typing "windows_is_so_awesome.exe -like bill.gates into a terminal window which could be unlocked by typing "windows_is_so_awesome.exe -like bill.gates into a terminal window which could be unlocked by typing "windows_is_so_awesome.exe -like bill.gates into a terminal window which could be unlocked by [[X] LOOP ERROR - ATTEMPT RECOVERY] This included some suggestions for improvements to be made by the user. unfortunately some bright spark noticed that releasing the source code would result in it being turned into something that worked by evil penguins. The bonus version can now only be activated by sending your bank account details to M****$** who will deal with them under the company privacy policy.

Versions[edit | edit source]

These are the major builds of Windows.

Windows 1.0[edit | edit source]

Just the first build. Nothing else. DOS is better so take a DOS instead of this FUCKING GARBAGE!!!!!

Windows 2.0[edit | edit source]

The second build. Also nothing. The same situation as in the previous version...

Windows 3.0[edit | edit source]

Yet another insignificant build of Windows (the third one!) but at least slighty better than the previous ones! It might be useful for using DOS but not all DOS games will run!

Windows 3.1[edit | edit source]

You can now organize the window thingies!

Windows 95[edit | edit source]

The fifth build of Windows! Now with Internet Explorer and uncomparitably better than the previous ones because it has a DirectX and supports to the 8.0 version, so finally a pretty good version of windows!

Windows 98[edit | edit source]

Just Windows 95, but rebranded. It's the sixth "build" of Windows. This version is even better than the previous version because it supports even never versions of DirectX to the 9.0c!!! WOW!

Windows 2000[edit | edit source]

The seventh build of Windows. It isn't based on the DOS, so it's worse than Windows 98 in the way but it runs newer games if you aren't a retrogamer.

Windows ME[edit | edit source]

The eighth build of Windows. The most unstable build. It blew up many computers. The only redeeming quality of this system is this is the first one to have Windows Movie Maker! GARBAGE!!!!!!

Windows XP[edit | edit source]

The ninth and best build of Windows. It partially supports DOS and also runs DOSBox + It has a compatibility mode for the programs and also supports DGVoodoo.

Windows Vista[edit | edit source]

The tenth build of Windows. Even worse than Windows ME because not only is unstable but also barely runs retro games. Also, it redesigned the taskbar. ANOTHER FUCKING GARBAGE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Windows 7[edit | edit source]

The eleventh build of Windows. The last good operating system and also one of the best! I feel sorry that newer operating systems suck.......

Windows 8[edit | edit source]

Oh no... The twelfth build... Quick! Forget about it removing the start menu! Forget! Forget! The true start of Microsoft Windows' downfall... EVEN WINDOWS VISTA AND WINDOWS ME ARE BETTER THAN THIS PIECE OF GARBAGE!!!!!!!

Windows 8.1[edit | edit source]

The thirteenth twelfth build of Windows. Redesigned Windows yet again. Also as bad as Windows 8.

Windows 10[edit | edit source]

The fourteenth and "last" build of Windows. This one redesigned the taskbar again. Also, it's still being developed! There was a cancelled version of Windows 10 called Windows 10X that was supposed to emulate Chrome OS and-Wait, there's a Windows 11 now? Really!? Also as bad as Windows 8 and Windows 8.1.

Windows 11[edit | edit source]

OMG THIS IS HUGE WINDOWS 11!?!?!? WE'VE BEEN WAITING FOREVER FOR THIS THANK YOU MICROSOFT!!!!! Wait...what if it's not real? What if it's a joke by Microsoft? Sadly, no, this is absolutely THE WORST MICROSOFT WINDOWS EVER MADE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Almost as bad as Linux...

Wait, my PC's not compatible!? AAAAAAA- Ohh thanks that I don't have to install this shit! (:

See also[edit | edit source]

External links[edit | edit source]

Template:Windows

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