Although Windows ended up supporting MS-DOS hosts only until the introduction of Windows NT, Microsoft also considered porting Windows to Xenix as well as the multitasking MS-DOS 4. Windows did indeed fully support overlapping windows, though in practice the ability was originally only used for popup windows and certain controls such as menus and dropdowns. Contrary to popular belief, the tiling was not a design nor legal limitation, but rather a conscious choice for main application windows backed by research at Xerox PARC, where some members of the Windows team had previously worked at.

Microsoft Windows debuted to the world during the Fall COMDEX 1983 computer expo as a cooperative multitasking desktop environment with a tiling window manager. Windows 1.01 was the first version of Windows released into retail. Since Windows 95, most Windows versions have used the same user interface that included the Start menu, a taskbar on the edge of the screen and a desktop, as well as overlapping or full screen windows with controls in their top right. In the past, the family also included Windows RT for ARM-based tablets, Windows Phone or Windows Mobile for smartphones, Windows Embedded Compact, or the MS-DOS based line. Internally, another variant called Windows Core OS is also currently in development, which is also based on the NT kernel, although it is not based on desktop Windows. The Windows family currently encompasses the main consumer version named simply Windows, as well as Windows Server for the server market and Windows IoT for the embedded market, although they are all based on the common desktop Windows codebase. Since Windows XP, all desktop versions of Windows use the portable NT hybrid kernel that does not rely on MS-DOS.

The original version of Windows was an operating environment that ran on top of MS-DOS, although later versions increasingly took on the characteristics of a full operating system. Microsoft Windows, commonly referred to as Windows, is a family of proprietary graphical operating systems developed by Microsoft, which includes various products for different markets and industries that use a similar user interface and feature set. X86, AMD64, ARM32, ARM64 see § Supported platforms for details

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