1. Windows Evolution Windows 1.0 in 1985,achieved little popularity and was to compete with Apple's OS released in 1984 Then Windows 2.0 in 1987 ,popular than windows 1.0. Windows 3, first os that required a hard drive launched in 1990. Windows 3 was the first version to see more widespread success and be considered a challenger to Apples Macintosh. Windows 95 arrived in August 1995 and with it brought the first ever Start button and Start menu Afterwards Windows 98 was released in June 1998. 2. Windows 2000 was released in February 2000. Arguably one of the best Windows versions, Windows XP was released in October 2001 Windows XP was replaced by Windows Vista in January 2007. Windows 7 was first released in October 2009. Released in October 2012, Windows 8 was Microsofts most radical overhaul of the Windows interface. Announced on 30 September 2014, Windows 10 has only been released as a test version for keen users to try. 3. Windows 7 Windows 7 is a personal computer operating system developed by Microsoft, a version of Windows NT. Development of Windows 7 occurred as early as 2006 under the codename "Blackcomb." Windows 7 was released to manufacturing on July 22, 2009, and became generally available on October 22, 2009, less than three years after the release of its predecessor, Windows Vista. 4. Features of Windows 7 1. Home group 2. Windows Live Essentials 3. Jump Lists 4. Improved gadgets 5. Performance Improvements 5. Windows 8 Windows 8 is a personal computer operating system developed by Microsoft as part of the Windows NT family of operating systems. Development of Windows 8 started before the release of its predecessor, Windows 7, in 2009. The operating system was released to manufacturing on August 1, 2012, and was released for general availability on October 26, 2012. Windows 8 is a totally new version of Windows that, in addition to the traditional desktop, also includes a new-style interface for use with touch screens. 6. Features of Windows 8 1. Windows 8 touch 2. Windows 8 Start screen 3. Windows 8 charms 4. Windows 8 Search and Social 5. Windows Store 6. Windows 8 cloud integration 7. Differences between Windows 7 & Windows 8 8. Differences between Windows 7 & Windows 8 1. Hardware Requirements 9. 2. Structure Different from Windows 7, which was intended to be a more focused and have a desktop similar to the previous versions of windows, Windows 8 has been "restructured from the chipset to the user experience" to relate more with the user. It features the Metro interface which gives users a brand-news experience. 10. The most immediate and fundamental difference between Windows 7 and Windows 8 is the main interface. The Metro interface is the default home screen for Windows 8, and features a series of colorful tiles, each offering access to a discrete application. Each offers live information, so you can see how many emails are in your inbox, for example, without having to open an application. 11. 4. Search o In Windows 8, available through Search charm + Start Screen o Start typing and the results are on screen for programs and files. o In Windows 7, we were required to first click on Start button and then click on search bar. o Afterwards we can search what we require. 12. 5.Windows Store and Apps Windows 8 is an online shop front that is stuffed with full Windows apps - each designed to run on x86 Windows PCs, laptops and tablets, as well as ARM tablets and smart phones. Native apps included with Windows 8 include the Mail email app, a calendar app and much improved contacts app called People. There's Photos, Music, IE, Weather, Finance, Sports and so on. On the other hand, Windows 7 OS is missing all these features. 13. 6. Core Upgrades Windows 8 boots up faster and the OS itself consumes less RAM and CPU cycles than Windows 7. For mobile users this means more battery life and snappier performance but for Desktop users, this means Windows 8 is simply faster than Windows 7. 14. 7. Speed and Performance There are number of speed and performance tests so as to compare Windows 8 with Windows 7.Some of them are as follows :- 7.1. Startup Time Windows 8 Starts Up faster than Windows 7. Windows 8 took 18 seconds while windows 7 took 27 seconds. Calculated difference is 8 seconds. 15. 7.2. Shutdown Time A similar improvement is seen when measuring shutdown time. Windows 8 took 8 seconds versus the 12 seconds in windows 7. Calculated difference is 4 seconds. 7.3. Wake-up From Sleep Windows 8 shows a marked improvement here as well. However we still thought 10 seconds was too long. We then tested Windows 8 using our SSD and the exact same 10 second window was repeated. While windows 7 took 13 seconds. 7.4. 3D Graphics Performance 3Dmark 11 is used primarily to measure 3D graphics performance meaning graphics card drivers play a vital role here. Still, the performance was very similar on both operating systems, though the more mature Windows 7 was slightly faster. 16. 7.5. Microsoft Excel Comparing Windows 8 armed with the new Office 2013 suite we found that it was 10% faster when running our Excel test against Windows 7 using Office 2010. 7.6. Transferring Multiple Files Together When transferring thousands of files we found that Windows 7 and Windows 8 offer the same performance. 7.7. Different Browsers with Windows 7 and Windows 8 As you can see, the desktop version of the IE10 browsers on Windows 8 delivered virtually the same performance as IE9 on Windows 7. Chrome works better in Windows 8 in comparison with Firefox running on identical Windows 8 computer. Also both Mozilla Firefox and Google Chrome perform faster in Windows 8 than Windows 7. Internet Explorer works very slowly in all versions of windows. 17. Due to the inclusion of UEFI (which is basically like a very light-weight operating system that then loads Windows), there is also a boot-level malware scanner that will prevent your computer from booting if a USB thumb drive is infected. Theres also Secure Boot, which stops the system from loading if any core system files have been altered. So, Windows 8 is more secure in comparison to windows 7. 18. Improved power management in Windows 8 takes a three-pronged approach. The introduction of the Metro app model; idle hygiene; and runtime device power management. Windows 7 requires more power consumption in comparison to windows 8. 19. Only lists currently running applications. Doesnt prompt users to confirm when ending a task For advanced users, a more in-depth task manager can be opened by clicking on more details. 20. Windows 8, Windows Defender (a standard service in Windows 7) takes a step up from just an anti-spyware package and becomes a full an means that every Windows 8 machine ships with Microsoft Security Essentials. So, Windows 8 is more protected in comparison to Windows 7. 21. When Windows 8 gets corrupted, users now have two options: refresh and reset. Refresh: Retains your customizations and re-installs window in- place. Reset: Resets your installation to its initial state. It deletes all your personal data and software. In Windows 7, the cpu restores all the default contents on restarting. 12. System Recovery 22. Windows 7 (x64) introduce new operating system support for User-Mode Scheduling. User-mode scheduling (UMS) is a light-weight mechanism with system APIs that applications can use to schedule their own threads.. Windows 8 uses round robin CPU scheduling algorithm. Thus, windows 7 has a user mode scheduling in comparison to round robin scheduling of windows 8. 23. 14. Memory Consumption The comparison was made when memory was used to install both operating systems on a 1GB RAM machine (minimum OS RAM requirement) and their comparison when they've been rebooted multiple times, and then idled for a while. It was found that windows 8 consumes less memory in comparison to windows 7. 24. 15. Cloud Integration Earlier, it was not possible to store large amount of data on servers but cloud computing have made it possible. Windows 7 is not representing cloud based services but Windows 8 does. 25. 16. Supported File Systems Windows 7 supports NTFS, FAT16, FAT32, HPFS, along with network file systems. Windows 8 introduced a new ReFS (Resilient File System), which replaces the traditional NTFS file system. Less prone to crash and errors. 26. 17. Network Differences Windows 8 allows us the feature of managing the amount of internet data used by the system which is not available in case of windows 7. Windows 8 does not allow to create ad-hoc networks but still able to connect to such networks while in case of Windows 7, we can both create and connect to ad-hoc networks. 27. Why use Windows 8 1. The Start screen 2. Snap Apps 3. Picture Password 4. Reset and Refresh 5. Windows Store 6. Secure Boot, trusted Boot 7. Skype 8. ARM 9. Sky Drive 10. Multiple Monitor Options 28. Conclusion Windows 8 is actually a significant upgrade to Windows 7. Windows 8, through various low-level changes, could improve the speed of productivity apps (Office, Photoshop, etc.) significantly. We may have some concerns about the clunky integration between the new (Metro) and old (Desktop), but really, over time, these concerns should fade. From time to time we will experience the brutal cross- paradigm UI train wreck head-on some settings can only be tweaked in the Metro-style Control Panel, for example but these cases are fairly few and far between, once weve got system fully set up. The fact that Microsoft isnt making a version of Windows 8 specifically for non-touch screen devices, without Metro, is a bitter pill to swallow from an ideological standpoint, and I suspect many consumers will hold out for this reason.