GRiD Microsoft Windows for Pen Computing 1.0 User’s Guide

This user's guide is the GRiD Systems edition of the documentation for Microsoft Windows for Pen Computing 1.0, the pen-extension release of Microsoft's Windows operating system.¹

Microsoft positioned Windows for Pen Computing as a set of extensions to the Windows environment for a new generation of pen computers, and by June 24, 1991 more than 100 independent software vendors had committed to building applications that exploited the pen, following earlier commitments from 21 hardware makers.² The same day, Microsoft and NCR announced that NCR's new pen notepad, the NCR 3125, would ship with Windows for Pens, and Microsoft began shipping the second beta of the Windows for Pens Software Development Kit to more than 3,000 developer sites.³

Microsoft shipped Windows for Pen Computing on April 7, 1992, with MicroSlate, Momenta, NCR, and NEC offering pen computers with the system pre-installed and more than 220 hardware and software companies announcing support.⁴ Built on Windows version 3.1, Windows for Pens added pen capabilities such as ink, gestures, and recognition of handwriting, shapes, and special symbols, providing more than 70 new pen functions while still running unmodified Windows applications.⁴ In June 1992, Microsoft released a version of the extensions that let desktop users of Windows 3.1 add pen capability through digitizing tablets and other peripherals, with 13 peripheral manufacturers committing to offer it.⁵

GRiD Systems Corporation, a wholly owned subsidiary of Tandy Corp. and the maker of the GRiDPAD pen computer, had committed to supporting Microsoft's Pen Windows as early as January 21, 1991, when it announced an open-systems architecture spanning its own MS-DOS-based GRiDPen interface, GO's PenPoint, and Microsoft's Pen Windows.⁶ On November 16, 1992, GRiD introduced the GRiD Convertible, a 25-megahertz Intel386 SL machine that converted between tablet and notebook form and shipped bundled with MS-DOS 5.0 and Microsoft Windows for Pens at a suggested retail price of $3,495.⁷ Each GRiD Convertible included a version of PenWare's PenCell spreadsheet running under Windows for Pen Computing, with a coupon to upgrade to the full version.⁸

Microsoft continued to extend the system, releasing a Japanese edition on November 9, 1992 that recognized Kanji, Katakana, and Hiragana characters and joined the existing English, French, and German versions.⁹ In late August 1993, Windows for Pen Computing won "Best of Show for Pen Operating Systems" at Pen Expo in Boston, in a poll of attendees that weighed it against GO's PenPoint, PenDOS, and IBM Pen for OS/2.¹⁰

AI generated using primary sources referenced in the footnotes