History

The Windows Calculator application was introduced as part of the Windows 1.0 and has been present in every version of windows there after. In Windows 3.0 the scientific mode was introduced. In Windows 7 the Calculator was completely redone with a slightly different look and a host of new features.

Windows 7

In Windows 7 the View menu now includes Basic,Unit Conversion,Data Calculations and Worksheets. All options, except for the Basic, will expand a panel on the right that allows input for the selected task.
 

Standard

The standard mode is the older mode, and it's a simple calculator. As you enter number and operators it's calculate the result and display it. An important note for the standard mode of the calculator is that it does not follow the order of operations, it calculates each operation as entered. Because on top of where the result is displayed it shows the history of operations it tends to make one believe that it evaluates the entries as a formula; it does no. 4 + 4 * 3 following the Order of Operations rule should be 16, however in the basic mode the result is 24.

Scientific

The scientific mode ads a lot of functions for various wave analyses operations and logarithmic function, etc. The scientific mode does follow order of operations. Enter 4 + 4 * 3 does return a result of 16.

Programmer

This mode has saved many programmers the trouble of trying to calculate Hexadecimal and Binary conversions. When entering number in any of the different modes (Hex/Dec/Oct/Bin) a binary representation of the numbers always appears in the panel below the display. This mode does follow order of operations. Enter 4 + 4 * 3 does return a result of 16.

Staticstics

Note: This section is currently a stub. Add information as you can.

Community Resources

Calculator - Wikipidia Article
 

Credits

This article was originally written by Pantelis44999 .