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Before Windows (technically 3.1, the breakthrough mainstream version), getting your computer to print something to a printer required the software (e.g. WordPerfect) to handle the printer driver itself.

Before Windows 95, to connect to the internet you had to do a fair bit of config.sys and network driver tweaking and use Peter Tattam’s Trumpet Winsock. Windows 95 incorporated TCP/IP into the operating system, paving the way for Netscape Navigator to reach quick adoption.

Standardization helped accelerate the growth of personal computing. While they were not necessarily open standards or the best standards, not having to worry about custom printer drivers freed up companies and software developers to write more apps...

Which brings us to Microsoft Visual Basic. The JavaScript of its time. Before VB 4, you had to know and understand Charles Petzold’s WinAPI books to make a Windows app. Arguably, some apps were poorly designed or implemented but it bulldozed the way to wide usage of applications for business.