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Simonyi was born in Budapest, Hungary on September 10, 1948. While in high school he worked part-time as a night watchman at a computer laboratory. He took an interest in computing and learned to program from one of the laboratory's engineers. By the time he graduated high school he had learned to develop compilers and sold one of these to a government department. He was hired by Denmark's A/S Regnecentralen in 1966 and moved to the United States in 1968 to attend the University of California at Berkeley, where he earned his bachelor's degree in 1972.

Simonyi continued to Stanford University for graduate studies and was hired by Xerox PARC during its most productive period, working alongside luminaries Alan KayAlan Kay is an American computer scientist. He joined Xerox Corporation's Palo Alto Research Center ( PARC) in 1970. In the seventies he was one of the key members there to develop prototypes of networked workstations using the programming language Smallt, Butler LampsonButler W. Lampson is a computer scientist, considered to be one of the most significant in the history of computer science. Lampson received his Bachelor's degree in Physics from Harvard University in 1964, and his Ph. in Electrical Engineering and Comput and Robert MetcalfeRobert Metcalfe (born 1946 in Brooklyn, New York) is an American technology pioneer who invented Ethernet, founded 3Com and formulated Metcalfe's Law. Bob Metcalfe was working at Xerox PARC in 1973 when he invented Ethernet, a standard for connecting comp. He and Lampson developed BravoBravo was the first WYSIWYG document preparation program. It provided multi-font capability using the bitmap displays on the Xerox Alto personal computer. It was produced at Xerox PARC by Butler Lampson, Charles Simonyi and colleagues in 1974. Bravo was a, the first WYSIWYGWYSIWYG (pronounced "wizzy-wig") is an acronym for W hat Y ou S ee I s W hat Y ou G et, and is used in computing to refer to the technology that makes sure the image seen on the screen corresponds to what is printed out on paper. Today this is expected fo document preparation program.

In 1981Events January-February January Sarawak Chamber found January 1 Greece enters the EEC January 1 Palau becomes self-governing January 4 Sheffield police arrests Peter Sutcliffe, the Yorkshire Ripper January 16 Protestant gunmen shoot and wound Bernadette D, at Metcalfe's suggestion, he applied directly to Bill GatesWilliam Henry Gates III KBE, (born October 28, 1955), commonly known as Bill Gates is the co-founder and current Chairman and Chief Software Architect of Microsoft. According to Forbes magazine in 2004, Gates is the wealthiest person in the world, a posit for a job at Microsoft. At Microsoft Simonyi oversaw the development of what became its most profitable products, Word and Excel, and Excel's predecessor Multiplan.

He introduced the techniques of object-oriented programming that he had learned at Xerox and developed the Hungarian notation for naming variables. Simonyi also tested a software management method that had been the subject of his dissertation, called metaprogramming. Metaprogramming placed all design decisions in a single "metaprogrammer," with other programmers focusing strictly on implementing the metaprogrammer's design. The technique did not succeed.

Simonyi remained at Microsoft during its meteoric rise in the software industry, becoming one of its highest-ranking developers. He left abruptly in 2002 to co-found, with business partner Gregor Kiczales, a company called Intentional Software. This company markets the intentional programming concepts Simonyi developed at Microsoft Research.

He donated funds to Oxford University to establish the Charles Simonyi Professor of the Public Understanding of Science, the first occupant of the position is Richard Dawkins.