Windows 2.0, released in 1987, was a version of Microsoft Windowsgraphical user interface that was said to look similar to the Mac OS, but was somewhat more primitive in comparison. The user interface was similar to the more recent Windows 3.0, and it had much more functionality than Windows 1.0. Specifically, version 2.0 allowed for windows to overlap each other, as Windows 1.0 required all windows to be tiled on screen. File management tasks in Windows 2 were still managed by use of the MS-DOS Executive program introduced in Windows 1, which was more list-driven than icon oriented.
A year later, Windows/286 2.1 and Windows/386 2.1 were released, which could take advantage of the protected mode of the Intel 80286 and Intel 80386 processors.
Windows/286 could take advantage of the HMA to increase the memory available to Windows programs. It also included support for several EMS boards for this same purpose. The segmented nature of Windows programs was quite suited to the usage of EMS, as portions of code and data could be made visible in the first megabyte of memory accessible to real-mode programs only when a program was given control. Microsoft encouraged users to setup the computer in such a way as to have only 256 kilo-bytes of main memory, the address space from 256 till 640 kilo-bytes remaining available for dynamic mapping of EMS memory. It is uncertain whether Windows could also use swapping to extended memory.
Windows/386 allowed to run several MS-DOS programs in parallel. Each one could use as much memory as were available before Windows was started, minus a few kilo-bytes of overhead. It also provided EMS emulation by simply using the memory management features of the Intel 80386 processor. With a little trick, consisting in overwriting the WIN200.BIN file with COMMAND.COM, it was possible to use the EMS emulation without starting the GUI. There was no swapping or swap file yet, so multiple MS-DOS programs had to fit inside the available physical memory; Microsoft suggested buying additional memory cards if necessary.
Versions 2.x have been superseded by Windows 3.0 in May 1990.
Windows 2.0, released in