Source: Winworldpc.com, (https://winworldpc.com/product/windows-20/windows-286)

Windows 2.1 was launched on May 27, 1889. This version is the first to require a hard disk drive. It can also take the use of Intel cores and processors. 2 variants were released with Windows 2.1. Windows/286 is the first and it has space for many EMS (expanded memory specification) boards. It ran on a 80286 processor even though it can not use high memory of the computer because the processor did not have it. It contained 512KB of memory, but Microsoft encourages the user to only use half of that so that the EMS can do its thing. It had a starting price of $$99. Windows/386 ran on a 80386 processor with 1MB of memory. It is superior to Windows/286 by far, as it outperforms in in performance and memory. Its system allowed it to run multiple things in the background without having to stop anything that is in the background at that moment. Although it has became more advanced, it does not have any virtual memory log so all programs had to go on the physical memory. Microsoft advised people to buy memory cards to increase the storage. 386 had a starting price of $195. This by far is better than Windows 1. Windows 2.1 is the start of sales hitting the millions. Windows 2.1 was listed as a top competitor for OS/2 by BYTE in 1989, and from then on, they only got better. Microsoft stopped updating Windows 2.1 on December 31, 2001.

Sources

• https://microsoft.fandom.com/wiki/Windows_2.1
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_2.1x