Definition: Windows 2.0

An upgrade to Windows 1.0, introduced in 1987. Supporting overlapping, resizable windows and more color options, it was later renamed Windows/286 after Windows/386 was released. Windows 2.0 was still an overlay onto DOS.

PCs of that era were too slow to run a graphical interface with reasonable performance, and all display elements remained two dimensional. The startup "MS-DOS Executive" window displayed files like the Dir command in DOS (see below).

Although a bit more popular than Version 1.0, Windows 2.0 was barely used. In addition, it did not solve the inability for DOS to handle more than 1MB of memory. With a minimum of four thousand times more RAM in computers today, that may seem very crude. See Windows, Windows 1.0 and Windows 3.0.

Windows 2.0

The second version of Windows supported resizable windows that could overlap each other, which made it look a bit more appealing. (Image courtesy of Ian Albert.)