Over the past 35 years, Microsoft has released at least 30 major versions of the Windows operating system. But they weren’t all created equal, so we thought it would be fun to rank the 10 greatest desktop versions of this essential OS.
The Ranking Criteria
When someone says that something was the “greatest,” it suggests that it had a combination of legacy, impact, innovation, and capability for its time. That’s the recipe at play here in this ranking, which is not (and never could be) a definitive list to objectively prove which version of Windows is “the best.”
In fact, if you wanted a list of the “best” versions of Windows, you might get a list of Windows versions with the most features, the least bugs, and the most up-to-date security—in other words, a list of Windows versions in chronological order (with a couple of hiccups). No, this list will be far more fun than that.
