In the event that you were still feeling youthful and spring-chicken like. Windows CE 1.0 aka Handheld PC 1.0 is now officially 25 years old.

Yes, one quarter of a century ago, The NEC MobilePro 200 as well as the Casio A-10 were officially unveiled as the launch devices for the new, "revolutionary" embedded device version of Microsoft Windows.

While Windows CE 1.0 may not have proved to be revolutionary... and in fact was consigned to the history books as being little more than an unfinished and rather lacking beta release. It is true to say that it produced a legacy that held-on well into the mid 2010's with Microsoft's eventual abandonment of the CE kernel at the release of the NT based Windows Phone.

Despite its limitations, Windows CE 1.0 came only 15 months after the initial release of Windows 95 and only 3.5 months after the enterprise release of Windows NT 4.0, its more closely modelled, truly 32-bit cousin - one which many do not realise was also released for Alpha, MIPS and PowerPC along with the more ubiquitous x86 incarnation. While NT would ultimately win the day, serving as the core of Windows right up to version 11. The number of major Microsoft releases made in such a short period of time highlights the feverish pace of development activity within Redmond. This shows the level of experimentation that was actively being encouraged during the era to attempt to open the company up to new opportunities in the face of uncertain direction.

If you are not familiar with the history of Windows CE, do check-out the HPC:Factor "History of Windows CE" article linked below to find out more about how it all started and - in case you missed them - what those early years were all about.

Happy birthday Windows CE!

View: The History of Windows CE