'Every Microsoft engineer got a stopwatch,' says Windows veteran reminiscing about company's past focus on speed — asserts that 'everything' was timed to ensure acceptable performance in the 1980s

‘every Microsoft engineer got a stopwatch’.

A former president of Microsoft’s Windows Division has been reminiscing about the lean and efficient coding regime at Microsoft in the 1980s. Steven Sinofsky surprised some commenters, who were talking about modern software’s RAM and resource use, by recalling that from 1980 to 1990 “every Microsoft eng got a stop watch,” adding that “Extras were in the supply room.” Stopwatches were used for “everything,” Sinofsky went on to explain. “Scroll speed. Boot. Exit. Save. Compilation. Print.”

From 1980-2000 half of software engineering was managing resource (clock time, disk, and ram) usage.For the first ten years every Microsoft eng got a stop watch. Extras were in the supply room.Tough to express just how much effort went into this. All of us have stories. https://t.co/kVGtjS4zwYMarch 30, 2026