• Windows is a graphical operating system developed by Microsoft.
• It allows users to view and store files, run the software, play games, watch videos, and provides a way to connect to the internet.
• It was released for both home computing and professional works.
• Microsoft introduced the first version as 1.0
• In 1993, the first business-oriented version of Windows was released, which is known as Windows NT 3.1.
• Then it introduced the next versions, Windows 3.5, 4/0, and Windows 2000.
• The XP Windows was released by Microsoft in 2001, the company designed its various versions for a personal and business environment.
• It was designed based on standard x86 hardware, like Intel and AMD processor.

Windows Home

• Windows Home is basic edition of Windows.
• It offers all the fundamental functions of Windows, such as browsing the web, connecting to the Internet, playing video games, using office software, watching videos.

Windows Professional

• Windows Professional is also known as Window Pro or win Pro.
• It is an enhanced edition of Windows, which is beneficial for power users and small to medium-size businesses.
• It contains all features of Windows Home plus advance features.
• Windows Professional editions allow users to create a remote desktop connection.
• It provides users the option to connect with another computer remotely, including share the control of its mouse, keyboard, and view display.
• It is mainly accessed with the help of port 3389.
• It provides security as encrypting to the boot loader and protects the computer from rootkits (Collection of software tools that allow users to enter another computer through an unauthorized way known as rootkits).
• It allows users to encrypt a storage drive by using AES (Advanced Encryption Standard) algorithm.
• This feature is present in Windows 7, and Windows Vista (Only ultimate and Enterprise versions), including Windows Server 2008.
• Business laptops or computers mainly use the Bitlocker feature to protect their data on the computer.
• It is very difficult to break the Bitlocker password.
• It can be unlocked by entering the correct password only. Furthermore, if you forget your Bitlocker password, it cannot be retrieved.
• A sandbox is located on a computer, network, or an online service enables users to experiment or test computer security without interrupting the system.
• Hypervisor developed by Microsoft Corporation on 26 June 2008.
• It is also called Windows Server Virtualization.
• Hyper-V is used for virtualization of x86-64 servers, running virtual machines and third party software like VirtualBox.
• An admin can specify group policies in an organization to manage different Windows users.

Features of Windows

• Its official name was Microsoft Windows, the first version 1.0 of Windows was introduced in 1995.
• On 29 July 2015, Microsoft introduced Windows 10.

Control Panel: Windows provides a Control Panel feature that includes many tools to configure and manage the resources on their computer. For example, users can change settings for audio, video, printers, mouse, keyboard, network connections, date and time, power saving options, user accounts, installed applications, etc.

Cortana: Windows 10 introduced a feature named Cortana, which is able to accept voice commands. It can perform various tasks such as it can answers your questions, search data on your computer, online purchases, set reminders, and appointments, etc. Furthermore, it acts like other voice-activated services such as Google Assistant, Alexa, or Siri, including one more benefit of searching the information on your computer. To open the Cortana in Windows 10, press Window key + S.

File Explorer: It is also known as Windows Explorer, which displays your files and folders on the computer. It allows users to browse the data on the hard drive, SSD and other inserted removable disks like pen drives and CDs, and you can manage the content according to the requirements such as delete, rename, search, and transfer the data.

Internet browser: As the internet browser is very important to search for anything, view pages, online shopping, play games, watch videos, etc. Windows come with a pre-installed internet browser. in Windows 10, the Edge internet browser is the default browser. Furthermore, Internet Explorer was the default browser in Microsoft Windows from the Windows edition 95 to 8.1 version.

Microsoft Paint: Since November 1985, Microsoft Windows comes with pre-installed Microsoft Paint. It is a simple software to create, view, and edit an image. It offers several tools to draw an image, crop, resize, and save an image with a different file extension.

Taskbar: Windows comes with a taskbar that displays currently opened programs, it also allows users to access any specific programs.

Additionally, it includes the notification area on the right side that shows date and time, battery, network, volume, and other background running applications.

Start menu: Microsoft Windows contains a start menu to the left side of the taskbar.

It displays programs and utilities that are installed on the computer.

It can be simply opened by clicking on the Start menu button or pressing the start key on the keyboard.

Task Manager: 

Windows includes the task manager feature that provides detail of the running applications or programs on the computer.

You can also check how much of the system resources, such as RAM, CPU, disk I/O, are being used by each of the applications.

Disk Cleanup: 

It is used to free up disk space with the help of deleting temporary or unnecessary files.

It also helps to enhance the performance of the computer, and boost storage space to download the programs and documents.

To open Disk Cleanup, follow the below steps:

Open the File Explorer by pressing Window + E.

Then, right-click on any disk drive and select Properties option from the drop-down list.

Now, click on the Disk Cleanup.

Difference between Linux and Windows OS

Command Line –

• Windows allows users to use the command line, but not as a Linux command line. To open the command line, click on the Run dialog box and type CMD in the run search bar and press Enter key.
• Although the Linux command-line offers more features for administration and daily tasks, it does not offer much to end-users.

Reliability –

• Windows has improved its reliability in the past few years, but still it is less reliable as compared to Linux.
• Linux is more reliable and secure then Windows OS. It mainly focuses on system security, process management, and up-time.

Usability –

• Windows is easier to use as it provides a simple user interface. But its installation process can take more time.
• Although Linux has the ability to perform complex tasks easier, its installation process is complicated.

Security –

• Microsoft has enhanced the security features in Windows over recent years. As it has a huge user base, mostly for new computer users, it can be easily targeted for malicious coders. Furthermore, among all of the operating systems, Microsoft Windows can be part of developing malware and viruses.
• Linux is a more secure operating system as compared to Microsoft Windows. Even attackers found difficulty in breaking the security with the help of Linux.

Support –

• It provides users the online and integrated help systems, as well as a large number of informative books, are available to provide help for people at all skill levels.
• A wide number of books are available to offer help about Linux, including online support.

Updates –

• Regular Windows update makes users frustrated by alerting the Windows update for inconvenient times. Additionally, it takes more time to get an update.
• Linux provides users full control over updates. They can update it accordingly, and it takes less time to get an update as well as without any reboot the system.

Licensing –

• Microsoft Windows with license does not allow to modify the software (don’t have access to the source code). It can be installed only on the systems with a Windows license key.
• Linux operating system with a license offers users the benefit to re-use the source code on any number of systems. It is also allowed the users to modify the software and sell its modified version.