Windows95

As huge an improvement as Windows 3 had been over what came before, Windows 5 represented a quantum leap forward - at least for users of IBM-compatible computers. With Win95 (as it was soon known by the public), Microsoft had finally - more than a decade after the introduction of the Lisa - given its users the kind of intuitive graphical environment that users of the Mac, Atari and Amiga had grown used to.

Within just a few years, Windows95 controlled more than 90 percent of the P.C. market - with sales eventually helping to make Gates among the richest men in the world.