Summary of History of Windows CE: A Diminutive System for Microsoft’s Grand Ambitions
- Windows CE was Microsoft’s first commercial mobile operating system. The company initially positioned it as a separate member of the Windows family, complete with its own logo and branding.
- Most Windows CE devices released until 2000 used a subset of the desktop metaphor. Ideas for a different, document-centric user interface were dropped after a focus test among early Windows 95 users.
- Harel Kodesh, who oversaw Microsoft’s early consumer appliances, described the system’s reliance on Windows concepts as “both an asset and the liability.”
- Microsoft eventually turned the Windows CE into an underlying technology for its other mobile platform and a white-label system for embedded hardware makers.
