Klik this link and fill int the blank in that google page.
and try to search your web with google search to see your rank...
Friday, March 5, 2010
Tuesday, March 2, 2010
Windows 7
Windows 7 is, as of February 2010, the latest public release version of Microsoft Windows, a series of operating systems produced by Microsoft for use on personal computers, including home and business desktops, laptops, netbooks, tablet PCs, and media center PCs. Windows 7 was released to manufacturing on July 22, 2009, and reached general retail availability on October 22, 2009, less than three years after the release of its predecessor, Windows Vista. Windows 7's server counterpart, Windows Server 2008 R2, was released at the same time.
Unlike its predecessor, which introduced a large number of new features, Windows 7 was intended to be a more focused, incremental upgrade to the Windows line, with the goal of being fully compatible with applications and hardware with which Windows Vista is already compatible. Presentations given by Microsoft in 2008 focused on multi-touch support, a redesigned Windows Shell with a new taskbar, referred to as the Superbar, a home networking system called HomeGroup, and performance improvements. Some applications that have been included with prior releases of Microsoft Windows, including Windows Calendar, Windows Mail, Windows Movie Maker, and Windows Photo Gallery, are not included in Windows 7; most are instead offered separately as part of the free Windows Live Essentials suite.
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Windows 7 includes a number of new features, such as advances in touch and handwriting recognition, support for virtual hard disks, improved performance on multi-core processors, improved boot performance, DirectAccess, and kernel improvements. Windows 7 adds support for systems using multiple heterogeneous graphics cards from different vendors (Heterogeneous Multi-adapter), a new version of Windows Media Center, a Gadget for Windows Media Center, improved media features, the XPS Essentials Pack and Windows PowerShell being included, and a redesigned Calculator with multiline capabilities including Programmer and Statistics modes along with unit conversion. Many new items have been added to the Control Panel, including ClearType Text Tuner, Display Color Calibration Wizard, Gadgets, Recovery, Troubleshooting, Workspaces Center, Location and Other Sensors, Credential Manager, Biometric Devices, System Icons, and Display. Windows Security Center has been renamed to Windows Action Center (Windows Health Center and Windows Solution Center in earlier builds), which encompasses both security and maintenance of the computer. The default setting for User Account Control in Windows 7 has been criticized for allowing untrusted software to be launched with elevated privileges by exploiting a trusted application. Microsoft's Windows kernel engineer Mark Russinovich acknowledged the problem, but noted that there are other vulnerabilities that do not rely on the new setting. Windows 7 also supports Mac-like RAW image viewing through the addition of WIC-enabled image decoders, which enables raw image thumbnails, previewing and metadata display in Windows Explorer, plus full-size viewing and slideshows in Windows Photo Viewer and Window Media Center.
The taskbar has seen the biggest visual changes, where the Quick Launch toolbar has been replaced with pinning applications to the taskbar. Buttons for pinned applications are integrated with the task buttons. These buttons also enable the Jump Lists feature to allow easy access to common tasks. The revamped taskbar also allows the reordering of taskbar buttons. To the far right of the system clock is a small rectangular button that serves as the Show desktop icon. This button is part of the new feature in Windows 7 called Aero Peek. Hovering over this button makes all visible windows transparent for a quick look at the desktop. In touch-enabled displays such as touch screens, tablet PCs, etc., this button is slightly wider to accommodate being pressed with a finger. Clicking this button minimizes all windows, and clicking it a second time restores them. Additionally, there is a feature named Aero Snap, that automatically maximizes a window when it is dragged to either the top or left/right edges of the screen. This also allows users to snap documents or files on either side of the screen to compare them. When a user moves windows that are maximized, the system restores their previous state automatically. This functionality is also accomplished with keyboard shortcuts. Unlike in Windows Vista, window borders and the taskbar do not turn opaque when a window is maximized with Windows Aero applied. Instead, they remain translucent.
The Windows 7 taskbar.
For developers, Windows 7 includes a new networking API with support for building SOAP-based web services in native code (as opposed to .NET-based WCF web services), new features to shorten application install times, reduced UAC prompts, simplified development of installation packages, and improved globalization support through a new Extended Linguistic Services API. At WinHEC 2008 Microsoft announced that color depths of 30-bit and 48-bit would be supported in Windows 7 along with the wide color gamut scRGB (which for HDMI 1.3 can be converted and output as xvYCC). The video modes supported in Windows 7 are 16-bit sRGB, 24-bit sRGB, 30-bit sRGB, 30-bit with extended color gamut sRGB, and 48-bit scRGB. Microsoft has also implemented better support for solid-state drives, including the new TRIM command, and Windows 7 is able to identify a solid-state drive uniquely. Microsoft is planning to support USB 3.0 in a subsequent patch, support not being included in the initial release due to delays in the finalization of the standard.
Internet Spades, Internet Backgammon and Internet Checkers, which were removed from Windows Vista, were restored in Windows 7. Windows 7 includes Internet Explorer 8 and Windows Media Player 12.
Users are also able to disable many more Windows components than was possible in Windows Vista. New additions to this list of components include Internet Explorer, Windows Media Player, Windows Media Center, Windows Search, and the Windows Gadget Platform. Windows 7 includes 13 additional sound schemes, titled Afternoon, Calligraphy, Characters, Cityscape, Delta, Festival, Garden, Heritage, Landscape, Quirky, Raga, Savanna, and Sonata. A new version of Microsoft Virtual PC, newly renamed as Windows Virtual PC was made available for Windows 7 Professional, Enterprise, and Ultimate editions. It allows multiple Windows environments, including Windows XP Mode, to run on the same machine, requiring the use of Intel VT-x or AMD-V. Windows XP Mode runs Windows XP in a virtual machine and redirects displayed applications running in Windows XP to the Windows 7 desktop. Furthermore Windows 7 supports the mounting of a virtual hard disk (VHD) as a normal data storage, and the bootloader delivered with Windows 7 can boot the Windows system from a VHD. The Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) of Windows 7 is also enhanced to support real-time multimedia application including video playback and 3D games, thus allowing use of DirectX 10 in remote desktop environments. The three application limit, previously present in the Windows Vista Starter Edition, has been removed from Windows 7.
Windows Vista
Windows Vista is a line of operating systems developed by Microsoft for use on personal computers, including home and business desktops, laptops, tablet PCs, and media center PCs. Prior to its announcement on July 22, 2005, Windows Vista was known by its codename "Longhorn." Development was completed on November 8, 2006; over the following three months it was released in stages to computer hardware and software manufacturers, business customers, and retail channels. On January 30, 2007, it was released worldwide, and was made available for purchase and download from Microsoft's website. The release of Windows Vista came more than five years after the introduction of its predecessor, Windows XP, the longest time span between successive releases of Microsoft Windows desktop operating systems. It was succeeded by Windows 7 which was released to manufacturing on July 22, 2009, and for the general public on October 22, 2009.
Windows Vista contains many changes and new features, including an updated graphical user interface and visual style dubbed Windows Aero, a redesigned search function, multimedia tools including Windows DVD Maker, and redesigned networking, audio, print, and display sub-systems. Vista aims to increase the level of communication between machines on a home network, using peer-to-peer technology to simplify sharing files and digital media between computers and devices. Windows Vista includes version 3.0 of the .NET Framework, allowing software developers to write applications without traditional Windows APIs.
Microsoft's primary stated objective with Windows Vista has been to improve the state of security in the Windows operating system. One common criticism of Windows XP and its predecessors is their commonly exploited security vulnerabilities and overall susceptibility to malware, viruses and buffer overflows. In light of this, Microsoft chairman Bill Gates announced in early 2002 a company-wide "Trustworthy Computing initiative" which aims to incorporate security work into every aspect of software development at the company. Microsoft stated that it prioritized improving the security of Windows XP and Windows Server 2003 above finishing Windows Vista, thus delaying its completion.
While these new features and security improvements have garnered positive reviews, Vista has also been the target of much criticism and negative press. Criticism of Windows Vista has targeted its high system requirements, its more restrictive licensing terms, the inclusion of a number of new digital rights management technologies aimed at restricting the copying of protected digital media, lack of compatibility with some pre-Vista hardware and software, and the number of authorization prompts for User Account Control. As a result of these and other issues, Windows Vista had seen initial adoption and satisfaction rates lower than Windows XP. However, with an estimated 330 million Internet users as of January 2009, it had been announced that Vista usage had surpassed Microsoft’s pre-launch two-year-out expectations of achieving 200 million users. At the release of Windows 7 (October 2009), Windows Vista (with approximately 400 million Internet users) was the second most widely used operating system on the Internet with an approximately 23.6% market share, the most widely used being Windows XP with an approximately 58% market share.
Windows XP
Windows XP is an operating system produced by Microsoft for use on personal computers, including home and business desktops, laptops, and media centers. It was released in 2001. The name "XP" is short for "eXPerience."
Windows XP is the successor to both Windows 2000 Professional and Windows Me, and is the first consumer-oriented operating system produced by Microsoft to be built on the Windows NT kernel and architecture. Windows XP was first released on October 25, 2001, and over 400 million copies were in use in January 2006, according to an estimate in that month by an IDC analyst. It was succeeded by Windows Vista, which was released to volume license customers on November 8, 2006, and worldwide to the general public on January 30, 2007. Direct OEM and retail sales of Windows XP ceased on June 30, 2008. Microsoft continued to sell XP through their System Builders (smaller OEMs who sell assembled computers) program until January 31, 2009. XP may continue to be available as these sources run through their inventory or by purchasing Windows Vista Ultimate or Business and then downgrading to Windows XP.
The most common editions of the operating system are Windows XP Home Edition, which is targeted at home users, and Windows XP Professional, which offers additional features such as support for Windows Server domains and two physical processors, and is targeted at power users, business and enterprise clients. Windows XP Media Center Edition has additional multimedia features enhancing the ability to record and watch TV shows, view DVD movies, and listen to music. Windows XP Tablet PC Edition is designed to run stylus applications built using the Tablet PC platform.
Windows XP was eventually released for two additional architectures, Windows XP 64-bit Edition for IA-64 (Itanium) processors and Windows XP Professional x64 Edition for x86-64. There is also Windows XP Embedded, a component version of the Windows XP Professional, and editions for specific markets such as Windows XP Starter Edition. By mid 2009, a manufacturer revealed the first Windows XP powered cellular telephone.
The NT-based versions of Windows are known for their improved stability and efficiency over the 9x versions of Microsoft Windows. Windows XP presents a significantly redesigned graphical user interface, a change Microsoft promoted as more user-friendly than previous versions of Windows. A new software management facility called Side-by-Side Assembly was introduced to ameliorate the "DLL hell" that plagues 9x versions of Windows. It is also the first version of Windows to use product activation to combat illegal copying, a restriction that did not sit well with some users and privacy advocates. Windows XP has also been criticized by some users for security vulnerabilities, tight integration of applications such as Internet Explorer 6 and Windows Media Player, and for aspects of its default user interface. Later versions with Service Pack 2, Service Pack 3, and Internet Explorer 8 addressed some of these concerns.
During development, the project was codenamed "Whistler", after Whistler, British Columbia, as many Microsoft employees skied at the Whistler-Blackcomb ski resort.
As of the end of January 2010, Windows XP is the most widely used operating system in the world with a 59.4% market share, having peaked at 76.1% in January 2007.
Windows 2.1x
Windows 2.1x is a family of Microsoft Windows graphical user interface-based operating environments.
Less than a year after the release of Windows 2.0, Windows/286 2.10 and Windows/386 2.10 were released on 27 May 1988. These versions can take advantage of the specific features of the Intel 80286 and Intel 80386 processors.
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Edition
Two editions of Windows 2.10 were released, both of which could take advantage of the Intel processor for which they were designed.
Windows/286
Windows/286 takes advantage of the HMA to increase the memory available to Windows programs. It introduced the himem.sys DOS driver for this purpose. It also includes support for several EMS boards, although this support is not related to the 80286 processor. The segmented nature of Windows programs is quite suited to the usage of EMS, as portions of code and data can be made visible in the first megabyte of memory accessible to real-mode programs only when the program using them is given control. Microsoft encouraged users to configure their computers with only 256KB of main memory, leaving the address space from 256-640KB available for dynamic mapping of EMS memory.
Despite its name, Windows/286 was fully operational on an 8088 or 8086 processor. Windows/286 would simply not use the high memory area since none exist on an 8086-class processor; however, EMS could still be used, if present. A few PC vendors shipped Windows/286 with 8086 hardware; an example was IBM's PS/2 Model 25, which had an option to ship with a "DOS 4.00 and Windows kit" for educational markets, which included word processing and presentation software useful for students, which resulted in some confusion when purchasers of this system received a box labeled Windows/286 with a machine that was definitely less than an 80286.
Windows/386
Windows/386 is much more advanced. It introduced a protected mode kernel, above which the GUI and applications run as a virtual 8086 mode task. It allows several MS-DOS programs to run in parallel in "virtual 8086" CPU mode, rather than always suspending background applications. (Windows applications could already run in parallel through cooperative multitasking.) Each DOS application can use as much low memory as is available before Windows is started, minus a few kilobytes of overhead. Windows/386 also provides EMS emulation, using the memory management features of the 80386 to make RAM beyond 640K behave like the banked memory previously only supplied by add-in cards and used by popular DOS applications. (By overwriting the WIN200.BIN file with COMMAND.COM, it is possible to use the EMS emulation in DOS without starting the Windows GUI.) There is no disk-based virtual memory, so multiple DOS programs have to fit inside the available physical memory; therefore, Microsoft suggested buying additional memory and cards if necessary.
Neither of these versions work with DOS memory managers like CEMM or QEMM or with DOS extenders, which have their own extended memory management and run in protected mode as well. This was remedied in version 3.0, which is compatible with VCPI in "standard mode" and with DPMI in "386 enhanced" mode. Windows 3.0 also has the capability of using the DWEMM Direct Write Enhanced Memory Module. This is what enables the far faster and sleek graphical user interface.
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Windows 2.11
In March 1989, Windows 2.11 was released in Windows/286 and Windows/386 editions, with some minor changes in memory management, AppleTalk support and faster printing and updated printer drivers.
Windows 2.11 was superseded by Windows 3.0 in May 1990.
Less than a year after the release of Windows 2.0, Windows/286 2.10 and Windows/386 2.10 were released on 27 May 1988. These versions can take advantage of the specific features of the Intel 80286 and Intel 80386 processors.
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Edition
Two editions of Windows 2.10 were released, both of which could take advantage of the Intel processor for which they were designed.
Windows/286
Windows/286 takes advantage of the HMA to increase the memory available to Windows programs. It introduced the himem.sys DOS driver for this purpose. It also includes support for several EMS boards, although this support is not related to the 80286 processor. The segmented nature of Windows programs is quite suited to the usage of EMS, as portions of code and data can be made visible in the first megabyte of memory accessible to real-mode programs only when the program using them is given control. Microsoft encouraged users to configure their computers with only 256KB of main memory, leaving the address space from 256-640KB available for dynamic mapping of EMS memory.
Despite its name, Windows/286 was fully operational on an 8088 or 8086 processor. Windows/286 would simply not use the high memory area since none exist on an 8086-class processor; however, EMS could still be used, if present. A few PC vendors shipped Windows/286 with 8086 hardware; an example was IBM's PS/2 Model 25, which had an option to ship with a "DOS 4.00 and Windows kit" for educational markets, which included word processing and presentation software useful for students, which resulted in some confusion when purchasers of this system received a box labeled Windows/286 with a machine that was definitely less than an 80286.
Windows/386
Windows/386 is much more advanced. It introduced a protected mode kernel, above which the GUI and applications run as a virtual 8086 mode task. It allows several MS-DOS programs to run in parallel in "virtual 8086" CPU mode, rather than always suspending background applications. (Windows applications could already run in parallel through cooperative multitasking.) Each DOS application can use as much low memory as is available before Windows is started, minus a few kilobytes of overhead. Windows/386 also provides EMS emulation, using the memory management features of the 80386 to make RAM beyond 640K behave like the banked memory previously only supplied by add-in cards and used by popular DOS applications. (By overwriting the WIN200.BIN file with COMMAND.COM, it is possible to use the EMS emulation in DOS without starting the Windows GUI.) There is no disk-based virtual memory, so multiple DOS programs have to fit inside the available physical memory; therefore, Microsoft suggested buying additional memory and cards if necessary.
Neither of these versions work with DOS memory managers like CEMM or QEMM or with DOS extenders, which have their own extended memory management and run in protected mode as well. This was remedied in version 3.0, which is compatible with VCPI in "standard mode" and with DPMI in "386 enhanced" mode. Windows 3.0 also has the capability of using the DWEMM Direct Write Enhanced Memory Module. This is what enables the far faster and sleek graphical user interface.
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Windows 2.11
In March 1989, Windows 2.11 was released in Windows/286 and Windows/386 editions, with some minor changes in memory management, AppleTalk support and faster printing and updated printer drivers.
Windows 2.11 was superseded by Windows 3.0 in May 1990.
Windows 2.0
Windows 2.0 was a 16-bit Microsoft Windows graphical user interface-based operating environment that superseded Windows 1.0. Windows 2.0 was supplemented by Windows/286 and Windows/386 in 1988. Windows 2.0, Windows/286 and Windows/386 were superseded by Windows 3.0 in May 1990.
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History
Application support
The first Windows versions of Microsoft Word and Microsoft Excel ran on Windows 2.0. Third-party developer support for Windows increased substantially with this version (some shipped the Windows Runtime software with their applications, for customers who had not purchased the full version of Windows). However, most developers still maintained DOS versions of their applications, as Windows users were still a distinct minority of their market.
Applications shipping with Windows 2.0:
* CALC.EXE
* CALENDAR.EXE
* CARDFILE.EXE
* CLIPBRD.EXE
* CLOCK.EXE
* CONTROL.EXE
* CVTPAINT.EXE
* MSDOS.EXE
* MSDOSD.EXE
* NOTEPAD.EXE
* PAINT.EXE
* REVERSI.EXE
* TERMINAL.EXE
* WRITE.EXE
Legal conflict with Apple
On 17 March 1988, Apple filed suit against Microsoft and Hewlett-Packard, accusing them of violating copyrights Apple held on the Macintosh System Software.[1] Apple claimed the "look and feel" of the Macintosh operating system, taken as a whole, was protected by copyright and that Windows 2.0 violated this copyright by looking extremely similar to it.
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Features
Windows 2.0 allowed application windows to overlap each other unlike its predecessor Windows 1.0, which could display only tiled windows. Windows 2.0 also introduced more sophisticated keyboard-shortcuts and the terminology of "Minimize" and "Maximize", as opposed to "Iconize" and "Zoom" in Windows 1.0.
Windows 1.0
Windows 1.0 is a 16-bit graphical operating environment that was released on November 20th 1985. It was Microsoft's first attempt to implement a multi-tasking graphical user interface-based operating environment on the PC platform. Windows 1.0 was the first version of Windows launched. It was succeeded by Windows 2.0.
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History
The first release version of Windows 1.0 is actually numbered 1.01.
Version 1.02, released in May 1986, was international and had editions in several European languages. Version 1.03, released in August 1986, was for the US- and international market, with enhancements making it consistent with the international release. It included drivers for European keyboards and additional screen and printer drivers. Version 1.04, released in April 1987, added support for the VGA graphics adapters of the new IBM PS/2 computers. At the same time, Microsoft and IBM announced the introduction of OS/2 and its graphical OS/2 Presentation Manager, which were supposed to ultimately replace both MS-DOS and Windows.
Windows 1.0 was superseded in November 1987, with the release of Windows 2.0. Windows 1.0 was supported by Microsoft for sixteen years, until 31 December 2001. Windows 1.0 was one of the longest supported operating systems of the Microsoft Windows family of operating systems.
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Installation Media
Windows 1.0 was available only on floppy disks. The user had to have DOS to install it. The same was true with all versions of Windows up to and including Windows 3.1x.
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Competition
The history of Windows dates back to September 1981, when the project named "Interface Manager" was started. It was first presented to the public on 10 November 1983, renamed to "Microsoft Windows"; the two years of delay before release led to charges that it was "vaporware". The initially announced version of Windows had features so much resembling the Macintosh interface that Microsoft had to change many of them: overlapping windows, although supported by the GUI engine, weren't allowed for exactly this reason. The announcement of Windows' imminent arrival in 1985 probably did not help the sales of VisiCorp's VisiOn environment which debuted at the same time. However, even when finally released, Windows 1.0 aroused little interest.
Another GUI for the PC platform at the time was GEM. It used more aspects from the Macintosh GUI, for example the trash can concept (which Microsoft would later employ in future Windows releases) and more generally the desktop interaction. GEM was eventually used as the standard GUI for the Atari's ST range of 68k-based computers, which were sometimes referred to as Jackintoshes (the company being run by Jack Tramiel). GEM was also included in the Amstrad PC1512, probably the first 8086 based PC targetted at the home consumer and sold alongside TV's and washine machines at appliance stores. GEM's resemblance to the Mac OS later caused legal trouble for the manufacturer, Digital Research, who was obliged to seriously cripple the desktop's appearance and functionality (applications were not affected).
GEM was not multitasking, so users had to close one program in order to run another one. Collections of related programs, like GEM Draw, had tricky File menu items like Close (to Edit) to facilitate switching.
An alternative multitasker released shortly before was DESQview, a successor of IBM's failed TopView from 1984. It did not have graphical capabilities initially, but is able to multitask DOS applications in windows as long as they are well-behaved or have a specially written "loader" to fix them on the fly.
Windows 1.0 market share grew very slowly, as there was no killer app (market-dominating software) that required the graphical shell. The killer apps at the time were generally only available on the Apple Macintosh platform (this statement was true even of Microsoft's Mac-OS-only Microsoft Office).
The Macintosh remained the platform of choice especially for high-end graphics and desktop publishing (DTP). Although Aldus PageMaker shipped in January 1987 with a Windows executable, it remained a curiosity due to poor support relative to the Mac version, and a steep $795 price tag.
PC-based DTP remained out of the reach of most Windows users until the release of $99 Serif PagePlus 1.0 in 1991. PagePlus won considerable praise from the prestigious Seybold Reports, not only for being the first sub-$100 DTP package capable of CMYK color separations but also because Serif backed up their customers with free 24-hour support. Nearly every desktop publishing magazine shootout review would include both programs side by side despite the price differences. In the real world however, the lack of a Mac version meant few prepress service bureaus would accept PC data or PC PostScript files. Corel Draw 1.0, Micrografx Picture Publisher, Paint Shop Pro, and Cool Edit also provided a Windows-only focus and provided capabilities previously only found in expensive applications.
Other shell programs for MS-DOS include Norton Commander, PC Tools, XTree. DOS Shell, and DOS Menu (in MS-DOS version 4.0). These applications attempted to be organizational and menu-driven tools, and did not try at all to be a 'desktop' shell.
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Features
Windows 1.0 offers limited multitasking of existing MS-DOS programs and concentrates on creating an interaction paradigm (cf. message loop), an execution model and a stable API for native programs for the future. Due to Microsoft's extensive support for backward compatibility, it is not only possible to execute Windows 1.0 binary programs on current versions of Windows to a large extent, but also to recompile their source code into an equally functional "modern" application with just limited modifications.
Windows 1.0 is often regarded as a "front-end to the MS-DOS operating system", a description which has also been applied to subsequent versions of Windows. Windows 1.0 is an MS-DOS program. Windows 1.0 programs can call MS-DOS functions, and GUI programs are run from .exe files just like MS-DOS programs. However, Windows .exe files had their own "new executable" (NE) file format, which only Windows could process and which, for example, allowed demand-loading of code and data. Applications were supposed to handle memory only through Windows' own memory management system, which implemented a software-based virtual memory scheme allowing for applications larger than available RAM.
Because graphics support in MS-DOS is extremely limited, MS-DOS applications have to go to the bare hardware (or sometimes just to the BIOS) to get work done. Therefore, Windows 1.0 included original device drivers for video cards, a mouse, keyboards, printers and serial communications, and applications were supposed to only invoke APIs built upon these drivers. However, this extended to other APIs such as file system management functions. In this sense, Windows 1.0 was designed to be extended into a full-fledged operating system, rather than being just a graphics environment used by applications. Indeed, Windows 1.0 is a "DOS front-end" and cannot operate without a DOS environment (it uses, for example, the file-handling functions provided by DOS.) The level of replacement increases in subsequent versions.
The system requirements for Windows 1.01 constituted CGA/Hercules/EGA (listed as "Monochrome or color monitor"), MS-DOS 2.0, 256K of memory or greater, and 2 double-sided disk drives or a hard drive.
Windows 1.0 runs a shell program known as MS-DOS Executive. Other supplied programs are Calculator, Calendar, Cardfile, Clipboard viewer, Clock, Control Panel, Notepad, Paint, Reversi, Terminal, and Write.
Windows 1.0 does not allow overlapping windows. Instead all windows are tiled. Only dialog boxes can appear over other windows.
Windows 1.0 executables, while having the same .exe extension and initial file header as MS-DOS programs, do not contain the so-called MS-DOS stub which prints the "This program requires Microsoft Windows" message and exits when the program is run outside of Windows. Instead, the file header was formatted in such a way as to make DOS reject the executable with a "program too large to fit in memory" error message.
From the beginning, Windows was intended to multitask programs (although this originally only applied to native applications and for many versions the multitasking was co-operative, rather than preemptive).
Originally Windows was designed to have the pull-up menus at the bottom of windows, as it was common with the DOS programs of the time; however, this was changed before the first release.
Windows Mobile
Windows Mobile, is a compact mobile operating system developed by Microsoft, and designed for use in smartphones and mobile devices.
The current version is called 'Windows Mobile 6.5'. It is based on the Windows CE 5.2 kernel, and features a suite of basic applications developed using the Microsoft Windows API. It is designed to be somewhat similar to desktop versions of Windows, feature-wise and aesthetically. Additionally, third-party software development is available for Windows Mobile, and software can be purchased via the Windows Marketplace for Mobile.
Originally appearing as the Pocket PC 2000 operating system, most Windows Mobile devices come with a stylus pen, which is used to enter commands by tapping it on the screen. Microsoft announced a completely new phone platform, Windows Phone 7 Series, at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona on February 15, 2010. Phones running Windows Mobile 6.x will not be upgradeable to version 7.
Windows Mobile's share of the Smartphone market has fallen year-on-year, decreasing 20% in Q3 2009. In the United States, it is the 3rd most popular smartphone operating system for business use (after BlackBerry OS and iPhone OS), with a 24% share among enterprise users. In overall sales, it is the 4th most popular smartphone operating system, with a 7.9% share of the worldwide smartphone market.
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The current version is called 'Windows Mobile 6.5'. It is based on the Windows CE 5.2 kernel, and features a suite of basic applications developed using the Microsoft Windows API. It is designed to be somewhat similar to desktop versions of Windows, feature-wise and aesthetically. Additionally, third-party software development is available for Windows Mobile, and software can be purchased via the Windows Marketplace for Mobile.
Originally appearing as the Pocket PC 2000 operating system, most Windows Mobile devices come with a stylus pen, which is used to enter commands by tapping it on the screen. Microsoft announced a completely new phone platform, Windows Phone 7 Series, at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona on February 15, 2010. Phones running Windows Mobile 6.x will not be upgradeable to version 7.
Windows Mobile's share of the Smartphone market has fallen year-on-year, decreasing 20% in Q3 2009. In the United States, it is the 3rd most popular smartphone operating system for business use (after BlackBerry OS and iPhone OS), with a 24% share among enterprise users. In overall sales, it is the 4th most popular smartphone operating system, with a 7.9% share of the worldwide smartphone market.
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Windows Embedded CE 6.0
Windows Embedded CE 6.0 (codenamed "Yamazaki") is the sixth major release of Windows Embedded Operating System targeted to enterprise specific tools such as industrial controllers and consumer electronics devices like digital cameras. Windows Embedded CE 6.0 features a completely redesigned kernel, which supports over 32,768 processes, up from 32 process support of the previous versions. Each process receives 2GB of virtual address space, up from 32MB.
Windows Embedded CE 6.0 was released on November 1, 2006, and includes partial source code.
Windows Embedded CE 6.0 is currently unused by the Windows Mobile platform; however, it serves as the basis for the Zune HD. Windows Phone 7, the next major release of the Windows Mobile operating system, will likely be powered by the same version of Windows Embedded CE as the Zune HD, which uses 6.0 R3.
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Features
* Some System components (such as filesystem, gwes, device driver manager) have been moved to the kernel space.
* The system components which now run in kernel have been converted from EXEs to DLLs, which get loaded into kernel space.
* New Virtual Memory Model. The lower 2GB is the process VM space and is private per process. The upper 2GB is the kernel VM space.
* New Device Driver Model that supports both User Mode and Kernel Mode Drivers.
* The 32 process limit has been raised to 32,768 processes.
* The 32 megabyte virtual memory limit has been raised to the total virtual memory (Up to 2GB of private VM is available per process).
* The Platform Builder IDE is integrated into Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 as plugin (thus forcing the client to obtain Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 as well), allowing a single development environment for both platform and application development.
* Read-only support for UDF 2.5 filesystem.
* Support for Microsoft's upcoming exFAT filesystem.
* 802.11i (WPA2) and 802.11e (QoS) wireless standards, and multiple radio support.
* CE 6.0 works with x86, ARM, SH4 and MIPS based processor architectures.
* New Cellcore components to enable devices to easily make data connections and initiate voice calls through cellular networks.
Windows Embedded CE 6.0 was released on November 1, 2006, and includes partial source code.
Windows Embedded CE 6.0 is currently unused by the Windows Mobile platform; however, it serves as the basis for the Zune HD. Windows Phone 7, the next major release of the Windows Mobile operating system, will likely be powered by the same version of Windows Embedded CE as the Zune HD, which uses 6.0 R3.
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Features
* Some System components (such as filesystem, gwes, device driver manager) have been moved to the kernel space.
* The system components which now run in kernel have been converted from EXEs to DLLs, which get loaded into kernel space.
* New Virtual Memory Model. The lower 2GB is the process VM space and is private per process. The upper 2GB is the kernel VM space.
* New Device Driver Model that supports both User Mode and Kernel Mode Drivers.
* The 32 process limit has been raised to 32,768 processes.
* The 32 megabyte virtual memory limit has been raised to the total virtual memory (Up to 2GB of private VM is available per process).
* The Platform Builder IDE is integrated into Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 as plugin (thus forcing the client to obtain Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 as well), allowing a single development environment for both platform and application development.
* Read-only support for UDF 2.5 filesystem.
* Support for Microsoft's upcoming exFAT filesystem.
* 802.11i (WPA2) and 802.11e (QoS) wireless standards, and multiple radio support.
* CE 6.0 works with x86, ARM, SH4 and MIPS based processor architectures.
* New Cellcore components to enable devices to easily make data connections and initiate voice calls through cellular networks.
Windows CE 5.0
Windows CE 5.0 (codenamed "Macallan") is a successor to Windows CE 4.2, the third release in the Windows CE .NET family. It was first released on July 09, 2004. Like its predecessors Windows CE 5.0 is marketed towards the embedded device market and independent device vendors. Windows CE 5.0 is billed as a low-cost, compact, fast-to-market, real-time operating system available for x86, ARM, MIPS, and SuperH microprocessor-based systems. Windows CE 5.0 builds on previous Windows CE releases in its adoption of shared source. Since 2001, Microsoft has been steadily expanding the available Windows CE source tree with embedded system developers. Windows CE 5.0 is the most open Microsoft Operating System to date, though not all of the system is available under shared source agreements. Developers have the freedom to modify down to the kernel level, without the need to share their changes with Microsoft or competitors.
On the x86 platform, Windows CE 5.0 competes against Microsoft's other embedded Operating Systems, Windows XP Embedded and its predecessor Windows NT Embedded.
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Windows CE vs. Windows XP Embedded
According to Microsoft, Windows CE is a preferable choice to Windows XP Embedded in situations where demanding wireless and multimedia requirements need to be met. The following are the primary considerations for “choosing the right version”:
* CPU architecture: Windows CE supports an extensive array of architectures, including x86, whereas Windows XP Embedded only supports the x86 architecture.
* Real-time applications: Windows CE is a real-time operating system, while Windows XP Embedded is not by default.
* Existing Win32 applications: Windows CE cannot use Win32 binaries, libraries, and drivers without modification.
* Memory footprint: The minimum footprint of Windows CE is 350 kilobytes. The minimum footprint of Windows XP Embedded is 8 megabytes, making it over 23 times larger.
Also consider that Windows CE licensing starts at $3 or €1.25 per device for the Core SKU, while XP Embedded is $90 or €59 per unit shipped.
On the x86 platform, Windows CE 5.0 competes against Microsoft's other embedded Operating Systems, Windows XP Embedded and its predecessor Windows NT Embedded.
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Windows CE vs. Windows XP Embedded
According to Microsoft, Windows CE is a preferable choice to Windows XP Embedded in situations where demanding wireless and multimedia requirements need to be met. The following are the primary considerations for “choosing the right version”:
* CPU architecture: Windows CE supports an extensive array of architectures, including x86, whereas Windows XP Embedded only supports the x86 architecture.
* Real-time applications: Windows CE is a real-time operating system, while Windows XP Embedded is not by default.
* Existing Win32 applications: Windows CE cannot use Win32 binaries, libraries, and drivers without modification.
* Memory footprint: The minimum footprint of Windows CE is 350 kilobytes. The minimum footprint of Windows XP Embedded is 8 megabytes, making it over 23 times larger.
Also consider that Windows CE licensing starts at $3 or €1.25 per device for the Core SKU, while XP Embedded is $90 or €59 per unit shipped.
Windows CE 3.0
Microsoft Windows CE 3.0 is an operating system (OS) designed for embedded systems including PDAs and mobile phones, working within the constraints of the slow processors and reduced amount of memory available on these devices. It can run on several different types of processor and has support for real time programming.
The successor to Windows CE 3.0 is Windows CE 4.0.
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Features
Windows CE 3.0 offers several new features compared to its predecessors. New enhancements and features include partial PowerPC support, dual-core support, Kerberos authentication and personalized menus, a feature inherited from Windows 2000 and Office 2000. distinctive feature of Windows CE compared to other Microsoft software is that parts of it are offered in source code form. In 3.0, the source for several device drivers is available, including those for USB, the display and PCMCIA. They are offered mainly through the Platform Builder OS image integrator, but also through other initiatives.
Microsoft offered several platforms based on Windows CE 3.0, including Microsoft Windows for Pocket PC 2000, designed for handheld PDAs without keyboard.
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The successor to Windows CE 3.0 is Windows CE 4.0.
______________
Features
Windows CE 3.0 offers several new features compared to its predecessors. New enhancements and features include partial PowerPC support, dual-core support, Kerberos authentication and personalized menus, a feature inherited from Windows 2000 and Office 2000. distinctive feature of Windows CE compared to other Microsoft software is that parts of it are offered in source code form. In 3.0, the source for several device drivers is available, including those for USB, the display and PCMCIA. They are offered mainly through the Platform Builder OS image integrator, but also through other initiatives.
Microsoft offered several platforms based on Windows CE 3.0, including Microsoft Windows for Pocket PC 2000, designed for handheld PDAs without keyboard.
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Windows 2000
Windows 2000 is a line of operating systems produced by Microsoft for use on business desktops, notebook computers, and servers. Released on 17 February 2000, it was the successor to Windows NT 4.0, and is the final release of Microsoft Windows to display the "Windows NT" designation. It was succeeded by Windows XP for desktop systems in October 2001 and Windows Server 2003 for servers in April 2003.
Four editions of Windows 2000 were released: Professional, Server, Advanced Server, and Datacenter Server. Additionally, Microsoft sold Windows 2000 Advanced Server Limited Edition and Windows 2000 Datacenter Server Limited Edition, which were released in 2001 and run on 64-bit Intel Itanium microprocessors. While each edition of Windows 2000 was targeted to a different market, they share a core set of features, including many system utilities such as the Microsoft Management Console and standard system administration applications. Support for people with disabilities has been improved over Windows NT 4.0 with a number of new assistive technologies, and Microsoft increased support for different languages and locale information. All versions of the operating system support the Windows NT file system, NTFS 3.0, the Encrypting File System, as well as basic and dynamic disk storage. The Windows 2000 Server family has additional features, including the ability to provide Active Directory services (a hierarchical framework of resources), Distributed File System (a file system that supports sharing of files) and fault-redundant storage volumes. Windows 2000 can be installed through either a manual or unattended installation. Unattended installations rely on the use of answer files to fill in installation information, and can be performed through a bootable CD using Microsoft Systems Management Server, by the System Preparation Tool.
Microsoft marketed Windows 2000 as the most secure Windows version ever, but it became the target of a number of high-profile virus attacks such as Code Red and Nimda. Over ten years after its release, it continues to receive patches for security vulnerabilities nearly every month and will continue to do so until 13 July 2010.
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History
Windows 2000 is a continuation of the Microsoft Windows NT family of operating systems, replacing Windows NT 4.0. Originally called Windows NT 5.0, then Windows NT 2000, Microsoft changed the name to Windows 2000 on 27 October 1998. It is also the first Windows version that has been released without a code name, though Windows 2000 Service Pack 1 was codenamed "Asteroid" and Windows 2000 64-bit was codenamed "Janus" (not to be confused with Windows 3.1, which had the same codename). The first beta for Windows 2000 was released in September 1997 and several further betas followed until Beta 3 which was released on 29 April 1999. During development, there was a build for the Alpha which was abandoned some time after RC1 after Compaq announced they had dropped support for Windows NT on Alpha. From here, Microsoft issued three release candidates between July and November 1999, and finally released the operating system to partners on 12 December 1999. The public could buy the full version of Windows 2000 on 17 February 2000. Three days before this event, which Microsoft advertised as "a standard in reliability", a leaked memo from Microsoft reported on by Mary Jo Foley revealed that Windows 2000 had "over 63,000 potential known defects". After Foley's article was published, Microsoft blacklisted her for a considerable time: InformationWeek summarized the release "our tests show the successor to NT 4.0 is everything we hoped it would be. Of course, it isn't perfect either." Wired News later described the results of the February launch as "lackluster". Novell criticized Microsoft's Active Directory, the new directory service architecture as less scalable or reliable than its own Novell Directory Services (NDS) alternative.
Windows 2000 was first planned to replace both Windows 98 and Windows NT 4.0. However, that changed later. Instead, an updated version of Windows 98 called Windows 98 Second Edition was released in 1999 and Windows Me was released in late 2000. Close to the release of Windows 2000 Service Pack 1, Microsoft released Windows 2000 Datacenter Server, targeted at large-scale computing systems with support for 32 processors, on 29 September 2000.
On or shortly before 12 February 2004, "portions of the Microsoft Windows 2000 and Windows NT 4.0 source code were illegally made available on the Internet". The source of the leak remains unannounced. Microsoft issued the following statement:
"Microsoft source code is both copyrighted and protected as a trade secret. As such, it is illegal to post it, make it available to others, download it or use it."
Despite the warnings, the archive containing the leaked code spread widely on the file-sharing networks. On 16 February 2004, an exploit "allegedly discovered by an individual studying the leaked source code" for certain versions of Microsoft Internet Explorer was reported.
______________
Features
Windows 2000 introduced many of the new features of Windows 98 and Windows 98 SE into the NT line, such as the Windows Desktop Update, Internet Explorer 5, Outlook Express, NetMeeting, FAT32 support, Windows Driver Model, Internet Connection Sharing, Windows Media Player, WebDAV support etc. Certain new features are common across all editions of Windows 2000, among them NTFS 3.0, the Microsoft Management Console (MMC), Automated System Recovery, UDF support, the Encrypting File System (EFS), Logical Disk Manager, Image Color Management 2.0, support for PostScript 3-based printers, OpenType (.OTF) and Type 1 PostScript (.PFB) font support, the Data protection API (DPAPI), an LDAP/Active Directory-enabled Address Book, usability enhancements and multi-language and locale support. Windows 2000 also introduced USB device class drivers for USB hubs, human interface devices, Mass storage class devices, and USB communication devices.
A new capability designed to protect critical system files called Windows File Protection was introduced. This protects critical Windows system files by preventing programs other than Microsoft's operating system update mechanisms such as the Package Installer, Windows Installer and other update components from modifying them. The System File Checker utility provides users the ability to perform a manual scan the integrity of all protected system files, and optionally repair them, either by restoring from a cache stored in a separate "DLLCACHE" directory, or from the original install media.
Microsoft recognized that a serious error or a stop error could cause problems for servers that needed to be constantly running and so provided a system setting that would allow the server to automatically reboot when a stop error occurred. Also included is an option to dump any of the first 64 KB of memory to disk (the smallest amount of memory that is useful for debugging purposes, also known as a minidump), a dump of only the kernel's memory, or a dump of the entire contents of memory to disk, as well as write that this event happened to the Windows 2000 event log. In order to improve performance on servers running Windows 2000, Microsoft gave administrators the choice of optimizing the operating system's memory and processor usage patterns for background services or for applications. Windows 2000 also introduced core system administration and management features as the Windows Installer, Windows Management Instrumentation and Event Tracing for Windows (ETW)
into the operating system.
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Security
During the Windows 2000 period, the nature of attacks on Windows servers changed: more attacks came from remote sources via the internet. This has led to an overwhelming number of malicious programs exploiting the IIS services - specifically a notorious buffer overflow tendency. A tendency that is not operating system version specific, but rather configuration specific: being dependent on the services that are enabled. Following this, a common complaint is that "by default, Windows 2000 installations contain numerous potential security problems. Many unneeded services are installed and enabled, and there is no active local security policy". In addition to insecure defaults, according to the SANS Institute, the most common flaws discovered are remotely exploitable buffer overflow vulnerabilities. Other criticized flaws include the use of vulnerable encryption techniques.
Code Red and Code Red II were famous (and much discussed) worms that exploited vulnerabilities of the Windows Indexing Service of Windows 2000's Internet Information Services (IIS). In August 2003, two major worms called Sobig and Blaster began to attack millions of Microsoft Windows computers, resulting in the largest downtime and clean-up cost to that date[citation needed]. The 2005 Zotob worm was blamed for security compromises on Windows 2000 machines at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, the New York Times Company, ABC and CNN.
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Four editions of Windows 2000 were released: Professional, Server, Advanced Server, and Datacenter Server. Additionally, Microsoft sold Windows 2000 Advanced Server Limited Edition and Windows 2000 Datacenter Server Limited Edition, which were released in 2001 and run on 64-bit Intel Itanium microprocessors. While each edition of Windows 2000 was targeted to a different market, they share a core set of features, including many system utilities such as the Microsoft Management Console and standard system administration applications. Support for people with disabilities has been improved over Windows NT 4.0 with a number of new assistive technologies, and Microsoft increased support for different languages and locale information. All versions of the operating system support the Windows NT file system, NTFS 3.0, the Encrypting File System, as well as basic and dynamic disk storage. The Windows 2000 Server family has additional features, including the ability to provide Active Directory services (a hierarchical framework of resources), Distributed File System (a file system that supports sharing of files) and fault-redundant storage volumes. Windows 2000 can be installed through either a manual or unattended installation. Unattended installations rely on the use of answer files to fill in installation information, and can be performed through a bootable CD using Microsoft Systems Management Server, by the System Preparation Tool.
Microsoft marketed Windows 2000 as the most secure Windows version ever, but it became the target of a number of high-profile virus attacks such as Code Red and Nimda. Over ten years after its release, it continues to receive patches for security vulnerabilities nearly every month and will continue to do so until 13 July 2010.
______________
History
Windows 2000 is a continuation of the Microsoft Windows NT family of operating systems, replacing Windows NT 4.0. Originally called Windows NT 5.0, then Windows NT 2000, Microsoft changed the name to Windows 2000 on 27 October 1998. It is also the first Windows version that has been released without a code name, though Windows 2000 Service Pack 1 was codenamed "Asteroid" and Windows 2000 64-bit was codenamed "Janus" (not to be confused with Windows 3.1, which had the same codename). The first beta for Windows 2000 was released in September 1997 and several further betas followed until Beta 3 which was released on 29 April 1999. During development, there was a build for the Alpha which was abandoned some time after RC1 after Compaq announced they had dropped support for Windows NT on Alpha. From here, Microsoft issued three release candidates between July and November 1999, and finally released the operating system to partners on 12 December 1999. The public could buy the full version of Windows 2000 on 17 February 2000. Three days before this event, which Microsoft advertised as "a standard in reliability", a leaked memo from Microsoft reported on by Mary Jo Foley revealed that Windows 2000 had "over 63,000 potential known defects". After Foley's article was published, Microsoft blacklisted her for a considerable time: InformationWeek summarized the release "our tests show the successor to NT 4.0 is everything we hoped it would be. Of course, it isn't perfect either." Wired News later described the results of the February launch as "lackluster". Novell criticized Microsoft's Active Directory, the new directory service architecture as less scalable or reliable than its own Novell Directory Services (NDS) alternative.
Windows 2000 was first planned to replace both Windows 98 and Windows NT 4.0. However, that changed later. Instead, an updated version of Windows 98 called Windows 98 Second Edition was released in 1999 and Windows Me was released in late 2000. Close to the release of Windows 2000 Service Pack 1, Microsoft released Windows 2000 Datacenter Server, targeted at large-scale computing systems with support for 32 processors, on 29 September 2000.
On or shortly before 12 February 2004, "portions of the Microsoft Windows 2000 and Windows NT 4.0 source code were illegally made available on the Internet". The source of the leak remains unannounced. Microsoft issued the following statement:
"Microsoft source code is both copyrighted and protected as a trade secret. As such, it is illegal to post it, make it available to others, download it or use it."
Despite the warnings, the archive containing the leaked code spread widely on the file-sharing networks. On 16 February 2004, an exploit "allegedly discovered by an individual studying the leaked source code" for certain versions of Microsoft Internet Explorer was reported.
______________
Features
Windows 2000 introduced many of the new features of Windows 98 and Windows 98 SE into the NT line, such as the Windows Desktop Update, Internet Explorer 5, Outlook Express, NetMeeting, FAT32 support, Windows Driver Model, Internet Connection Sharing, Windows Media Player, WebDAV support etc. Certain new features are common across all editions of Windows 2000, among them NTFS 3.0, the Microsoft Management Console (MMC), Automated System Recovery, UDF support, the Encrypting File System (EFS), Logical Disk Manager, Image Color Management 2.0, support for PostScript 3-based printers, OpenType (.OTF) and Type 1 PostScript (.PFB) font support, the Data protection API (DPAPI), an LDAP/Active Directory-enabled Address Book, usability enhancements and multi-language and locale support. Windows 2000 also introduced USB device class drivers for USB hubs, human interface devices, Mass storage class devices, and USB communication devices.
A new capability designed to protect critical system files called Windows File Protection was introduced. This protects critical Windows system files by preventing programs other than Microsoft's operating system update mechanisms such as the Package Installer, Windows Installer and other update components from modifying them. The System File Checker utility provides users the ability to perform a manual scan the integrity of all protected system files, and optionally repair them, either by restoring from a cache stored in a separate "DLLCACHE" directory, or from the original install media.
Microsoft recognized that a serious error or a stop error could cause problems for servers that needed to be constantly running and so provided a system setting that would allow the server to automatically reboot when a stop error occurred. Also included is an option to dump any of the first 64 KB of memory to disk (the smallest amount of memory that is useful for debugging purposes, also known as a minidump), a dump of only the kernel's memory, or a dump of the entire contents of memory to disk, as well as write that this event happened to the Windows 2000 event log. In order to improve performance on servers running Windows 2000, Microsoft gave administrators the choice of optimizing the operating system's memory and processor usage patterns for background services or for applications. Windows 2000 also introduced core system administration and management features as the Windows Installer, Windows Management Instrumentation and Event Tracing for Windows (ETW)
into the operating system.
______________
Security
During the Windows 2000 period, the nature of attacks on Windows servers changed: more attacks came from remote sources via the internet. This has led to an overwhelming number of malicious programs exploiting the IIS services - specifically a notorious buffer overflow tendency. A tendency that is not operating system version specific, but rather configuration specific: being dependent on the services that are enabled. Following this, a common complaint is that "by default, Windows 2000 installations contain numerous potential security problems. Many unneeded services are installed and enabled, and there is no active local security policy". In addition to insecure defaults, according to the SANS Institute, the most common flaws discovered are remotely exploitable buffer overflow vulnerabilities. Other criticized flaws include the use of vulnerable encryption techniques.
Code Red and Code Red II were famous (and much discussed) worms that exploited vulnerabilities of the Windows Indexing Service of Windows 2000's Internet Information Services (IIS). In August 2003, two major worms called Sobig and Blaster began to attack millions of Microsoft Windows computers, resulting in the largest downtime and clean-up cost to that date[citation needed]. The 2005 Zotob worm was blamed for security compromises on Windows 2000 machines at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, the New York Times Company, ABC and CNN.
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Windows CE
Windows CE (also known officially as Windows Embedded Compact or Windows Embedded CE post version 6.0, and sometimes abbreviated WinCE) is an operating system developed by Microsoft for minimalistic computers and embedded systems. Windows CE is a distinctly different operating system[citation needed] and kernel, rather than a trimmed-down version of desktop Windows. It is not to be confused with Windows XP Embedded which is NT-based. Windows CE is supported on Intel x86 and compatibles, MIPS, ARM, and Hitachi SuperH processors.
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Features
Windows CE is optimized for devices that have minimal storage—a Windows CE kernel may run in under a megabyte of memory. Devices are often configured without disk storage, and may be configured as a “closed” system that does not allow for end-user extension (for instance, it can be burned into ROM). Windows CE conforms to the definition of a real-time operating system, with a deterministic interrupt latency. From version 3 and onward, the system supports 256 priority levels and uses priority inheritance for dealing with priority inversion. The fundamental unit of execution is the thread. This helps to simplify the interface and improve execution time.
Microsoft has stated that the ‘CE’ is not an intentional initialism, but many people believe CE stands for ‘Consumer Electronics’ or ‘Compact Edition’. Microsoft says it implies a number of Windows CE design precepts, including “Compact, Connectable, Compatible, Companion, and Efficient.” The first version, known during development under the code name “Pegasus”, featured a Windows-like GUI and a number of Microsoft's popular applications, all trimmed down for smaller storage, memory, and speed of the palmtops of the day.
Since then, Windows CE has evolved into a component-based, embedded, real-time operating system. It is no longer targeted solely at hand-held computers[6]. Many platforms have been based on the core Windows CE operating system, including Microsoft's AutoPC, Pocket PC 2000, Pocket PC 2002, Windows Mobile 2003, Windows Mobile 2003 SE, Windows Mobile 5.0, Windows Mobile 6, Smartphone 2002, Smartphone 2003, Portable Media Center and many industrial devices and embedded systems. Windows CE even powered select games for the Dreamcast, was the operating system of the Gizmondo handheld, and can partially run on modified Xbox game consoles.
A distinctive feature of Windows CE compared to other Microsoft operating systems is that large parts of it are offered in source code form. First, source code was offered to several vendors, so they could adjust it to their hardware. Then products like Platform Builder (an integrated environment for Windows CE OS image creation and integration, or customized operating system designs based on CE) offered several components in source code form to the general public. However, a number of core components that do not need adaptation to specific hardware environments (other than the CPU family) are still distributed in binary only form.
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Features
Windows CE is optimized for devices that have minimal storage—a Windows CE kernel may run in under a megabyte of memory. Devices are often configured without disk storage, and may be configured as a “closed” system that does not allow for end-user extension (for instance, it can be burned into ROM). Windows CE conforms to the definition of a real-time operating system, with a deterministic interrupt latency. From version 3 and onward, the system supports 256 priority levels and uses priority inheritance for dealing with priority inversion. The fundamental unit of execution is the thread. This helps to simplify the interface and improve execution time.
Microsoft has stated that the ‘CE’ is not an intentional initialism, but many people believe CE stands for ‘Consumer Electronics’ or ‘Compact Edition’. Microsoft says it implies a number of Windows CE design precepts, including “Compact, Connectable, Compatible, Companion, and Efficient.” The first version, known during development under the code name “Pegasus”, featured a Windows-like GUI and a number of Microsoft's popular applications, all trimmed down for smaller storage, memory, and speed of the palmtops of the day.
Since then, Windows CE has evolved into a component-based, embedded, real-time operating system. It is no longer targeted solely at hand-held computers[6]. Many platforms have been based on the core Windows CE operating system, including Microsoft's AutoPC, Pocket PC 2000, Pocket PC 2002, Windows Mobile 2003, Windows Mobile 2003 SE, Windows Mobile 5.0, Windows Mobile 6, Smartphone 2002, Smartphone 2003, Portable Media Center and many industrial devices and embedded systems. Windows CE even powered select games for the Dreamcast, was the operating system of the Gizmondo handheld, and can partially run on modified Xbox game consoles.
A distinctive feature of Windows CE compared to other Microsoft operating systems is that large parts of it are offered in source code form. First, source code was offered to several vendors, so they could adjust it to their hardware. Then products like Platform Builder (an integrated environment for Windows CE OS image creation and integration, or customized operating system designs based on CE) offered several components in source code form to the general public. However, a number of core components that do not need adaptation to specific hardware environments (other than the CPU family) are still distributed in binary only form.
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Windows NT 4.0
Windows NT 4.0 is a preemptive, graphical and business-oriented operating system designed to work with either uniprocessor or symmetric multi-processor computers. It was the next release of Microsoft's Windows NT line of operating systems and was released to manufacturing on 31 July 1996 (public release on 24 August 1996). It is a 32-bit Windows system available in both workstation and server editions with a graphical environment similar to that of Windows 95. The "NT" designation in the product's title initially stood for "New Technology" according to Microsoft's then-CEO Bill Gates, but now no longer has any specific meaning. Windows NT 4.0 was succeeded by Windows 2000 in February 2000. Windows NT 4.0 is classified as a hybrid kernel operating system.
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Overview
While providing much greater stability than Windows 95, it was also less flexible from a desktop perspective. Much of the stability is gained by the use of protected memory and the hardware abstraction layer. Direct hardware access was disallowed and "misbehaving" applications were terminated without needing the computer to be restarted. The trade-off was that NT required an excessive amount of memory in comparison to consumer targeted products such as Windows 95.
While nearly all programs written for Windows 95 will run on Windows NT, the majority of 3D games will not, due in part to NT 4.0 having limited support for DirectX. Third party device drivers were in fact allowed to access the hardware directly and poorly written drivers were a frequent source of "stop errors". Such failures began to be referred to as the "blue screen of death" or BSOD and would require the system to be restarted in such cases. These errors were rare and it was not uncommon for NT servers or workstations to run for months at a time without failure. By comparison Windows consumer versions at the time were much less stable and popularized the belief that all Windows versions were unreliable.[citation needed]
Windows NT 4.0 is also less user-friendly than Windows 95 when it comes to certain maintenance and management tasks; for instance, by default there is no Plug and Play support (although limited support could be installed later) which greatly simplifies installation of hardware devices or support for USB devices. Many basic DOS applications would run, however graphical DOS applications would not run due to the way they accessed graphics hardware.
The difference between the NT and "9x" lines of Windows ended with the arrival of Windows XP, by which time the gaming APIs—such as OpenGL and DirectX—had matured sufficiently to be more efficient to write for than common PC hardware and the hardware itself had become powerful enough to handle the API processing overhead acceptably.
Windows NT 4.0 is the last major release of Microsoft Windows to support the Alpha, MIPS or PowerPC CPU architectures. It remained in use by businesses for a number of years, despite Microsoft's many efforts to get customers to upgrade to Windows 2000 and newer versions. It was also the last release in the Windows NT line to be branded as Windows NT.
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Features
The most noticeable difference from Windows NT 3.51 is that Windows NT 4.0 has the user interface of Windows 95, including the Windows Shell, Windows Explorer (known as Windows NT Explorer), and the use of "My" nomenclature (e.g. My Computer). It also includes most applications introduced with Windows 95.
The server editions of Windows NT 4.0 include a built-in web server, Internet Information Services version 2.0. It also natively supported plug-ins and extensions of Microsoft FrontPage, a web site creation and management application.
Other important features included with this release were Microsoft Transaction Server for network applications, and Microsoft Message Queuing (MSMQ), which improved communication.
One significant difference from previous versions of Windows NT is that the Graphics Device Interface (GDI) is incorporated into the kernel[5] to speed up the graphical user interface (GUI), resulting in a significant performance improvement over Windows NT 3.51 and also creating the requirement to have graphics drivers located in the kernel, resulting in potential stability issues. It was the first release of Microsoft Windows to include DirectX as standard—version 2 shipped with the initial release of NT 4.0, and version 3 was included with the release of Service Pack 3 in mid-1997. Unlike Windows 95 (which didn't include DirectX until the OSR2 release in August 1996), Windows NT 4.0 does not support Direct3D, and hardware-accelerated graphics were not available. Later versions of DirectX were not released for NT 4.0, but various hacks to provide DirectX 5 and 6 support in NT 4.0 have circulated around the Internet.
Windows NT 4.0 also included a new Windows Task Manager application. Previous versions of Windows NT included the Task List application, but it only shows applications currently in memory. To monitor how much CPU and memory resources are being used, users were forced to use Performance Monitor. The task manager offers a more convenient way of getting a snapshot of all the applications running on the system at any given time.
Microsoft offered up to Internet Explorer 6.0 SP1 for NT 4.0 with Service Pack 6.
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______________
Overview
While providing much greater stability than Windows 95, it was also less flexible from a desktop perspective. Much of the stability is gained by the use of protected memory and the hardware abstraction layer. Direct hardware access was disallowed and "misbehaving" applications were terminated without needing the computer to be restarted. The trade-off was that NT required an excessive amount of memory in comparison to consumer targeted products such as Windows 95.
While nearly all programs written for Windows 95 will run on Windows NT, the majority of 3D games will not, due in part to NT 4.0 having limited support for DirectX. Third party device drivers were in fact allowed to access the hardware directly and poorly written drivers were a frequent source of "stop errors". Such failures began to be referred to as the "blue screen of death" or BSOD and would require the system to be restarted in such cases. These errors were rare and it was not uncommon for NT servers or workstations to run for months at a time without failure. By comparison Windows consumer versions at the time were much less stable and popularized the belief that all Windows versions were unreliable.[citation needed]
Windows NT 4.0 is also less user-friendly than Windows 95 when it comes to certain maintenance and management tasks; for instance, by default there is no Plug and Play support (although limited support could be installed later) which greatly simplifies installation of hardware devices or support for USB devices. Many basic DOS applications would run, however graphical DOS applications would not run due to the way they accessed graphics hardware.
The difference between the NT and "9x" lines of Windows ended with the arrival of Windows XP, by which time the gaming APIs—such as OpenGL and DirectX—had matured sufficiently to be more efficient to write for than common PC hardware and the hardware itself had become powerful enough to handle the API processing overhead acceptably.
Windows NT 4.0 is the last major release of Microsoft Windows to support the Alpha, MIPS or PowerPC CPU architectures. It remained in use by businesses for a number of years, despite Microsoft's many efforts to get customers to upgrade to Windows 2000 and newer versions. It was also the last release in the Windows NT line to be branded as Windows NT.
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Features
The most noticeable difference from Windows NT 3.51 is that Windows NT 4.0 has the user interface of Windows 95, including the Windows Shell, Windows Explorer (known as Windows NT Explorer), and the use of "My" nomenclature (e.g. My Computer). It also includes most applications introduced with Windows 95.
The server editions of Windows NT 4.0 include a built-in web server, Internet Information Services version 2.0. It also natively supported plug-ins and extensions of Microsoft FrontPage, a web site creation and management application.
Other important features included with this release were Microsoft Transaction Server for network applications, and Microsoft Message Queuing (MSMQ), which improved communication.
One significant difference from previous versions of Windows NT is that the Graphics Device Interface (GDI) is incorporated into the kernel[5] to speed up the graphical user interface (GUI), resulting in a significant performance improvement over Windows NT 3.51 and also creating the requirement to have graphics drivers located in the kernel, resulting in potential stability issues. It was the first release of Microsoft Windows to include DirectX as standard—version 2 shipped with the initial release of NT 4.0, and version 3 was included with the release of Service Pack 3 in mid-1997. Unlike Windows 95 (which didn't include DirectX until the OSR2 release in August 1996), Windows NT 4.0 does not support Direct3D, and hardware-accelerated graphics were not available. Later versions of DirectX were not released for NT 4.0, but various hacks to provide DirectX 5 and 6 support in NT 4.0 have circulated around the Internet.
Windows NT 4.0 also included a new Windows Task Manager application. Previous versions of Windows NT included the Task List application, but it only shows applications currently in memory. To monitor how much CPU and memory resources are being used, users were forced to use Performance Monitor. The task manager offers a more convenient way of getting a snapshot of all the applications running on the system at any given time.
Microsoft offered up to Internet Explorer 6.0 SP1 for NT 4.0 with Service Pack 6.
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Windows NT 3.51
Windows NT 3.51 is the third release of Microsoft's Windows NT line of operating systems. It was released on 30 May 1995, nine months after Windows NT 3.5. The release provided two notable feature improvements; firstly NT 3.51 was the first of a short-lived outing of Microsoft Windows on the PowerPC architecture. The second most significant enhancement offered through the release was that it provides client/server support for interoperating with Windows 95, which was released three months after NT 3.51. Windows NT 4.0 became its successor a year later; Microsoft continued to support 3.51 until 31 December 2001.
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Overview
The release of Windows NT 3.51 was dubbed "the PowerPC release" at Microsoft. The original intention was to release a PowerPC edition of NT 3.5, but according to Microsoft's David Thompson, "we basically sat around for 9 months fixing bugs while we waited for IBM to finish the Power PC hardware". Editions of NT 3.51 were also released for the x86, MIPS, and Alpha architectures.
Despite the significant difference in the kernel base, Windows NT 3.51 is readily able to run a large number of Win32 applications designed for Windows 95. Most recent 32-bit applications will not work as the developers have prevented their application from working with any Windows version earlier than Windows 98, also because some applications do not work properly with the older Windows NT 3.51 interface. Despite this, Microsoft in their application releases muddied the issue, releasing 32-bit versions of Microsoft Office right up to Office 97 SR2b, but relying upon 16-bit versions of Internet Explorer technology. This is probably because 32-bit versions of Internet Explorer 4.0 and later integrated with the Windows 95 desktop, and NT 3.51 still used the Windows 3.1 desktop. Later on, up to IE 5.0, but not later 5.x versions, were offered.
Microsoft also released test versions of a shell refresh, named the Shell Technology Preview, and often referred to informally as "NewShell". The update was designed to replace the Windows 3.x Program Manager/File Manager based shell with a Windows Explorer-based graphical user interface. The release provided capabilities quite similar to that of the Windows "Chicago" (codename for Windows 95) shell during its late beta phases, however was intended to be nothing more than a test release. There were two public releases of the Shell Technology Preview, made available to MSDN and CompuServe users: 26 May 1995 and 8 August 1995. Both held Windows Explorer builds of 3.51.1053.1. The Shell Technology Preview program never saw a final release under NT 3.51. The entire program was moved across to the Cairo development group who finally integrated the new shell design into the NT code with the release of NT 4.0 in July 1996.
Five Service Packs were released for NT 3.51, which introduced both bug fixes and new features. Service Pack 5, for example, fixed issues related to the Year 2000 problem.
NT 3.51 was the last of the series to run on a Intel 80386 processor. This, its ability to use HPFS partitions (which Windows 2000 and later could not), and its ability to run at least some of the common control API, means that it still finds a place for occasional use on older machines.
______________
Overview
The release of Windows NT 3.51 was dubbed "the PowerPC release" at Microsoft. The original intention was to release a PowerPC edition of NT 3.5, but according to Microsoft's David Thompson, "we basically sat around for 9 months fixing bugs while we waited for IBM to finish the Power PC hardware". Editions of NT 3.51 were also released for the x86, MIPS, and Alpha architectures.
Despite the significant difference in the kernel base, Windows NT 3.51 is readily able to run a large number of Win32 applications designed for Windows 95. Most recent 32-bit applications will not work as the developers have prevented their application from working with any Windows version earlier than Windows 98, also because some applications do not work properly with the older Windows NT 3.51 interface. Despite this, Microsoft in their application releases muddied the issue, releasing 32-bit versions of Microsoft Office right up to Office 97 SR2b, but relying upon 16-bit versions of Internet Explorer technology. This is probably because 32-bit versions of Internet Explorer 4.0 and later integrated with the Windows 95 desktop, and NT 3.51 still used the Windows 3.1 desktop. Later on, up to IE 5.0, but not later 5.x versions, were offered.
Microsoft also released test versions of a shell refresh, named the Shell Technology Preview, and often referred to informally as "NewShell". The update was designed to replace the Windows 3.x Program Manager/File Manager based shell with a Windows Explorer-based graphical user interface. The release provided capabilities quite similar to that of the Windows "Chicago" (codename for Windows 95) shell during its late beta phases, however was intended to be nothing more than a test release. There were two public releases of the Shell Technology Preview, made available to MSDN and CompuServe users: 26 May 1995 and 8 August 1995. Both held Windows Explorer builds of 3.51.1053.1. The Shell Technology Preview program never saw a final release under NT 3.51. The entire program was moved across to the Cairo development group who finally integrated the new shell design into the NT code with the release of NT 4.0 in July 1996.
Five Service Packs were released for NT 3.51, which introduced both bug fixes and new features. Service Pack 5, for example, fixed issues related to the Year 2000 problem.
NT 3.51 was the last of the series to run on a Intel 80386 processor. This, its ability to use HPFS partitions (which Windows 2000 and later could not), and its ability to run at least some of the common control API, means that it still finds a place for occasional use on older machines.
Windows NT 3.5
Windows NT 3.5 is the second release of the Microsoft Windows NT operating system. It was released on 21 September 1994.
One of the primary goals during Windows NT 3.5's development was to increase the speed of the operating system; as a result, the project was given the codename "Daytona" in reference to the Daytona International Speedway in Daytona Beach, Florida.
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Overview
This is the first Windows NT to adopt the names Windows NT Workstation and Windows NT Server for its editions. The editions of the previous Windows NT release, Windows NT 3.1, were named Windows NT and Windows NT Advanced Server.
New features in Windows NT 3.5 include VFAT, support for I/O completion ports and the Microsoft DHCP and WINS clients and DHCP and WINS server It featured a new startup screen. The interface was updated to be consistent with the Windows for Workgroups 3.xx. It also upgraded Object Linking and Embedding (OLE) support from version 1.0 to version 2.0 and is more efficient - performance is higher and it requires less memory than Windows NT 3.1.
In July 1995, Windows NT 3.5 with Service Pack 3 was rated by the National Security Agency as complying with TCSEC C2 criteria.
Windows NT 3.5 refuses to install on a processor newer than the original Pentium (P5 core). Windows NT 3.51 fixed this. It is however possible to modify files on the install CD which will allow it to install.
One of the primary goals during Windows NT 3.5's development was to increase the speed of the operating system; as a result, the project was given the codename "Daytona" in reference to the Daytona International Speedway in Daytona Beach, Florida.
______________
Overview
This is the first Windows NT to adopt the names Windows NT Workstation and Windows NT Server for its editions. The editions of the previous Windows NT release, Windows NT 3.1, were named Windows NT and Windows NT Advanced Server.
New features in Windows NT 3.5 include VFAT, support for I/O completion ports and the Microsoft DHCP and WINS clients and DHCP and WINS server It featured a new startup screen. The interface was updated to be consistent with the Windows for Workgroups 3.xx. It also upgraded Object Linking and Embedding (OLE) support from version 1.0 to version 2.0 and is more efficient - performance is higher and it requires less memory than Windows NT 3.1.
In July 1995, Windows NT 3.5 with Service Pack 3 was rated by the National Security Agency as complying with TCSEC C2 criteria.
Windows NT 3.5 refuses to install on a processor newer than the original Pentium (P5 core). Windows NT 3.51 fixed this. It is however possible to modify files on the install CD which will allow it to install.
Windows NT 3.1
Windows NT 3.1 is the first release of Microsoft's Windows NT line of server and business desktop operating systems, and was released to manufacturing on 27 July 1993. The version number was chosen to match the one of Windows 3.1, the then-latest operating environment from Microsoft, on account of the similar visual appearance of the user interface. Two editions of NT 3.1 were made available, Windows NT 3.1 and Windows NT Advanced Server. It was succeeded by Windows NT 3.5 in September 1994.
It could run on Intel x86, DEC Alpha, and MIPS R4000 CPUs.
Windows NT
Windows NT is a family of operating systems produced by Microsoft, the first version of which was released in July 1993. It was originally designed to be a powerful high-level-language-based, processor-independent, multiprocessing, multiuser operating system with features comparable to Unix. It was intended to complement consumer versions of Windows that were based on MS-DOS. NT was the first fully 32-bit version of Windows, whereas its consumer-oriented counterparts, Windows 3.1x and Windows 9x, were 16-bit/32-bit hybrids. Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows Server 2003, Windows Vista, Windows Home Server, Windows Server 2008 and Windows 7 are based on Windows NT, although they are not branded as Windows NT.
Although various Microsoft publications, including a 1998 question-and-answer session with Bill Gates, reveal that the letters 'NT' were expanded to 'New Technology' for marketing purposes, they originally stood for 'N-Ten', the emulator that NT was developed under. However, they no longer carry any specific meaning.
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Features
A main design goal of NT was hardware and software portability. Versions of NT family operating systems have been released for a variety of processor architectures, initially Intel IA-32, MIPS R3000/R4000 and Alpha, with PowerPC, Itanium and AMD64 supported in later releases. The idea was to have a common code base with a custom Hardware Abstraction Layer (HAL) for each platform. However, support for MIPS, Alpha and PowerPC was later dropped after version 4. Broad software compatibility was achieved with support for several API "personalities", including Win32, POSIX and OS/2 APIs - the latter was phased out starting with Windows XP. Partial MS-DOS compatibility was achieved via an integrated DOS Virtual Machine - although this feature is being phased out in the x86-64 architecture. NT supported per-object (file, function, and role) access control lists allowing a rich set of security permissions to be applied to systems and services. NT supported Windows network protocols, inheriting the previous OS/2 LAN Manager networking, as well as TCP/IP networking (for which Microsoft would implement a TCP/IP stack derived from the BSD Unix stack).
Windows NT 3.1 was the first version of Windows to utilize 32-bit "flat" virtual memory addressing on 32-bit processors. Its companion product, Windows 3.1, used segmented addressing and switches from 16-bit to 32-bit addressing in pages.
Windows NT 3.1 featured a core kernel providing a system API, running in supervisor mode, and a set of user-space environments with their own APIs which included the new Win32 environment, an OS/2 1.3 text-mode environment and a POSIX environment. The full preemptive multitasking kernel could interrupt running tasks to schedule other tasks, without relying on user programs to voluntarily give up control of the CPU, as in Windows 3.1 Windows applications (although MS-DOS applications were preemptively multitasked in Windows starting with Windows 1.0).
Notably, in Windows NT 3.x, several I/O driver subsystems, such as video and printing, were user-mode subsystems. In Windows NT 4, the video, server and printer spooler subsystems were integrated into the kernel. Windows NT's first GUI was strongly influenced by (and programmatically compatible with) that from Windows 3.1; Windows NT 4's interface was redesigned to match that of the brand new Windows 95, moving from the Program Manager to the Start Menu/Taskbar design.
NTFS, a journaled, secure file system, was created for NT. Windows NT also allows for other installable file systems, and with versions 3.1 and 3.51, NT could also be installed on DOS's FAT or OS/2's HPFS file systems. Later versions could be installed on a FAT32 partition, in select cases, gaining speed at the expense of security,[9] but this option is no longer present since Windows Vista.
Although various Microsoft publications, including a 1998 question-and-answer session with Bill Gates, reveal that the letters 'NT' were expanded to 'New Technology' for marketing purposes, they originally stood for 'N-Ten', the emulator that NT was developed under. However, they no longer carry any specific meaning.
______________
Features
A main design goal of NT was hardware and software portability. Versions of NT family operating systems have been released for a variety of processor architectures, initially Intel IA-32, MIPS R3000/R4000 and Alpha, with PowerPC, Itanium and AMD64 supported in later releases. The idea was to have a common code base with a custom Hardware Abstraction Layer (HAL) for each platform. However, support for MIPS, Alpha and PowerPC was later dropped after version 4. Broad software compatibility was achieved with support for several API "personalities", including Win32, POSIX and OS/2 APIs - the latter was phased out starting with Windows XP. Partial MS-DOS compatibility was achieved via an integrated DOS Virtual Machine - although this feature is being phased out in the x86-64 architecture. NT supported per-object (file, function, and role) access control lists allowing a rich set of security permissions to be applied to systems and services. NT supported Windows network protocols, inheriting the previous OS/2 LAN Manager networking, as well as TCP/IP networking (for which Microsoft would implement a TCP/IP stack derived from the BSD Unix stack).
Windows NT 3.1 was the first version of Windows to utilize 32-bit "flat" virtual memory addressing on 32-bit processors. Its companion product, Windows 3.1, used segmented addressing and switches from 16-bit to 32-bit addressing in pages.
Windows NT 3.1 featured a core kernel providing a system API, running in supervisor mode, and a set of user-space environments with their own APIs which included the new Win32 environment, an OS/2 1.3 text-mode environment and a POSIX environment. The full preemptive multitasking kernel could interrupt running tasks to schedule other tasks, without relying on user programs to voluntarily give up control of the CPU, as in Windows 3.1 Windows applications (although MS-DOS applications were preemptively multitasked in Windows starting with Windows 1.0).
Notably, in Windows NT 3.x, several I/O driver subsystems, such as video and printing, were user-mode subsystems. In Windows NT 4, the video, server and printer spooler subsystems were integrated into the kernel. Windows NT's first GUI was strongly influenced by (and programmatically compatible with) that from Windows 3.1; Windows NT 4's interface was redesigned to match that of the brand new Windows 95, moving from the Program Manager to the Start Menu/Taskbar design.
NTFS, a journaled, secure file system, was created for NT. Windows NT also allows for other installable file systems, and with versions 3.1 and 3.51, NT could also be installed on DOS's FAT or OS/2's HPFS file systems. Later versions could be installed on a FAT32 partition, in select cases, gaining speed at the expense of security,[9] but this option is no longer present since Windows Vista.
Windows ME
Windows Millennium Edition, or Windows Me (pronounced either as a word, /miː/ me, or like an acronym, /ɛm iː/ em-ee), is a graphical operating system released on September 14, 2000 by Microsoft. Support for Windows Me ended on July 11, 2006.
Windows Me was the successor to Windows 98 and, just like Windows 98, was targeted specifically at home PC users. It included Internet Explorer 5.5, Windows Media Player 7, and the new Windows Movie Maker software, which provided basic video editing and was designed to be easy for home users. Microsoft also updated the graphical user interface and the shell features and Windows Explorer in Windows Me with some of those first introduced in Windows 2000, which had been released as a business oriented operating system seven months earlier. Windows Me could be upgraded to Internet Explorer 6 SP1, but not to SP2 (SV1) or Internet Explorer 7, and Windows Media Player 9 Series. Microsoft .NET Framework up to and including version 2.0 is supported, however versions 2.0 SP1, 3.x, and greater are not. Office XP was the last version of Microsoft Office to be compatible with Windows 9x.
Windows Me is a continuation of the Windows 9x model, but with access to real mode MS-DOS restricted in order to speed up system boot time.[3] This was one of the most publicized changes in Windows Me, because applications that needed real mode DOS to run, such as older disk utilities, did not run under Windows Me.
Compared with other releases of Windows, Windows Me had a short shelf-life of just over a year; it was soon replaced by the Windows NT-based Windows XP, which was launched on October 25, 2001.
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History
In 1998, Microsoft stated that there would be no version of Windows 9x after Windows 98. In 1999, however, Microsoft announced a new version of Windows 9x, that was later revealed to be codenamed Millennium. In 2000, this was released as Windows Millennium Edition (Windows Me).
At least 3 betas of Windows Me were available during its development phase. On 24 September 1999, Microsoft announced that Windows Millennium Beta 1 was released. Windows Millennium Beta 2 was released on 24 November 1999, and added a couple of new features such as System File Protection and Game Options Control Panel. Several interim builds were released between Beta 1 and 2, and added features such as automatic updates and personalized menus. Beta 3 was released on 11 April 2000. The general availability date was 31 December 2000. Microsoft ended mainstream support for Windows Millennium Edition on 31 December 2003. Extended support ended on 11 July 2006. Windows 98 Extended support ended the same day. Windows Me also contained the Microsoft Java Virtual Machine, which caused it and Windows 98 to be pulled from the Microsoft Developer Network at the end of 2003. At launch time, Microsoft announced a time-limited promotion from September 2000 to January 2001 which entitled Windows 95 or Windows 98 users to upgrade to Windows Me for $59.95 instead of the regular retail upgrade price of $109.
Shortly after Windows Me was released, Microsoft launched a campaign-initiative to promote Windows Me in the United States, which they dubbed the Meet Me Tour. A national partnered promotional program featured Windows Me, OEMs and other partners in an interactive multi-media attraction in 25 cities across the United States.
_______________
Digital media
* Sound Mixing: Windows Me provided drivers to allow multiple applications to play sound simultaneously, unlike Windows 98.[citation needed]
* Windows Image Acquisition: Windows Me also introduced the Windows Image Acquisition API for a standardized method of allowing Windows applications to transparently and more easily communicate with image acquisition devices, such as digital cameras and scanners. WIA intended to improve the configuration and the user interface for interacting with scanners and such devices, (which were previously supported by the TWAIN standard) and simplify writing device drivers for developers. WIA also includes support for USB still image capture device classes such as scanners and cameras through the Picture Transfer Protocol.
* Windows Movie Maker: This utility is based on DirectShow and Windows Media technologies to provide Microsoft Windows computer systems with basic video capture and edit capabilities. It provides users with the ability to capture, edit, and re-encode media content into the Windows Media format, a tightly compressed format which requires a minimal amount of storage space on the computer's hard disk, when compared to many other media formats.[12]
* Windows Media Player 7 offers many new features and capabilities compared to previous versions, including the WindowsMedia.com guide and radio tuner which are an integral part of the player, as well as integrated jukebox and player capabilities, and interactive skins to allow consumers to personalize the look, feel, and operation of the player by changing the user interface.
* Windows DVD Player: Microsoft has included a redesigned version of their DVD player in Windows Me. Unlike the Windows 98 version, the new Windows Me version supports software decoding for playback of DVD movies without a dedicated decoder card, as well as a completely revamped look and faster load times.
* Image Preview: In Windows Me, images can be viewed by using the Image Preview utility. It allows users to rotate an image, print or zoom in/out an image. Image Preview supports images with .BMP, .DIB, .EMF, .GIF, .JPEG, .PNG, .TIF and .WMF file formats.
* Games: Windows Me includes version 7.1 of the DirectX API, and also offers several new games: Internet Backgammon, Internet Checkers, Internet Hearts, Internet Reversi, Internet Spades, Spider Solitaire and Pinball. The last version of DirectX available for Windows Me is DirectX 9.0c, which was released on 7 April 2006.
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Networking technologies
* New TCP/IP Stack: Windows Me includes the Windows 2000 networking stack and architecture[13] which was known to be more reliable, full-featured, stable and offered better performance. Support for networking over FireWire, IrDA, a network diagnostic troubleshooter and a new Home Networking wizard are also included.
* The Home Networking Wizard is designed to help users to set up a computer that is running Windows Me for use on a small home network. This includes setting up Internet Connection Sharing (ICS) on a computer running Windows Me so the computer can share a connection to the Internet with other computers on the home network.
* Dial-up Networking component was updated in Windows Me, and provides several enhancements while maintaining the desired features of prior releases of the operating system. The user interface had been reworked to provide all configurable parameters in one convenient location. The user interface now included three new tabs: Networking, Security and Dialing. To improve dial-up networking, Windows Me includes built-in support for the Connection Manager dial-up client. Using the Connection Manager Administration Kit (an optional networking component in Windows 2000 Server), network administrators can pre-configure and deploy dial-up networking connections, by means of a Connection Manager service profile, to Windows Me–based client machines.
* Network Driver Interface Specification (NDIS) is both a software component and an interface-design specification. It is a core Windows component that manages network device drivers and their communication with network protocol stacks such as TCP/IP. NDIS version 5.0 for Windows Me was enhanced to provide programming interface parity with NDIS version 5.0 in Windows 2000. This means that the programming interfaces that the author of a network device driver uses are the same for both of these Windows platforms.
* Universal Plug and Play: Windows Me introduced support for Universal Plug and Play, often shortened to UPnP.
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System Utilities
* System Restore: Windows Me introduced the "System Restore" logging and reversion system, which was meant to simplify troubleshooting and solve problems. It was intended to work as a rollback and recovery feature so that if the installation of an application or a driver adversely affected the system, the user could undo the installation and return the system to a previously working state. It does this by monitoring changes to Windows system files and the registry. System Restore protects only the operating system files, not documents, and therefore is not a substitute for a backup program.
* System File Protection: First introduced with Windows 2000 (as Windows File Protection), and expanding on the capabilities introduced with System File Checker in Windows 98, System File Protection aimed to protect system files from modification and corruption silently and automatically. When the file protection is in effect, replacing or deleting a system file causes Windows Me to immediately and silently restore the original copy. The original is taken from a hard drive backup folder (%WinDir%\Options\Install) or from the Windows Me installation CD, if the cached copy of files on the hard disk has been deleted. If no installation CD is in the drive, a dialog box alerts the user about the problem and requests that the CD be inserted. System File Protection is a different technology from System Restore and should not be confused with the latter. System Restore maintains a broad set of changed files including added applications and user configuration data stored repeatedly at specific points in time restored by the user, whereas System File Protection protects operating system files with no user input.
* System Configuration Utility allows users to manually extract and restore individual system files from the Windows Me setup files. It has also been updated with three new tabs called "Static VxDs", "Environment" and "International". The Static VxDs tab allows users to enable or disable static virtual device drivers to be loaded at startup, the Environment tab allows users to enable or disable environment variables, and the International tab allows users to set international language keyboard layout settings that were formerly set via the real-mode MS-DOS configuration files. A Cleanup button on the Startup tab allows cleaning up invalid or deleted startup entries.
* System Monitor has been updated with a Dial-Up Adapter section. Users can now monitor items such as Connection Speeds, Bytes Received or Transmitted / Second.
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Other
* Graphical User Interface: Windows Me featured many updated graphics (most of them were just change of theme and other tweaks). The standard background was changed from an emerald color to a light blue, with a drawing in the upper left corner saying "Windows ME". The title bar was slightly tweaked, giving it a fading look. The title bar that came standard on Windows ME was a dark shade of blue on the left, fading into a light blue color on the right. This gave it a modern feel. Most other graphical changes were very minor.
* Automatic Updates: The Automatic Updates utility automatically downloads and installs critical updates from the Windows Update Web site with little user interaction. It is set up to check Windows Update once every 24 hours by default. Users can choose to download which update they want, although high-priority updates must be downloaded and installed.
* Improved power management and suspend/resume operations: Windows Me features significant improvements for improving cold boot time, pre and post-logon boot times and time required for resuming from hibernation. It also supports OS-controlled ACPI S4 sleep state (hibernation) and other power management features without manufacturer-supplied drivers.[15]
* Compressed Folders: Windows Me includes support for ZIP files through a shell extension known as Compressed Folders. Originally introduced in the Plus! 98 pack for Windows 98, this feature allows users to create, access and extract files from ZIP archives similar to a regular folder in Windows. The user can also restrict access to files with a password.
* On-Screen Keyboard: Originally introduced with Windows 3.1, a program called On-screen Keyboard has been added, which makes it possible to input characters using the mouse instead of the keyboard. This feature is useful for computers that use a tablet as the primary pointing device or for accessibility purposes.
* A new Help and Support program has also been added, replacing HTML Help in Windows 2000 and Windows 98. The Help and Support Center is entirely HTML-based and takes advantage of a technology called Support Automation Framework (SAF), that can show support information from the internet, allows collecting data for troubleshooting via WMI and scripting and for third parties to plug into Windows Help and Support. Several other support tools also shipped with Windows Me.
* USB mass storage drivers: Windows Me is the only operating system in the Windows 9x series that includes generic drivers for USB mass storage devices.
* Windows Me also includes Internet Explorer 5.5 and various changes to the Windows Explorer shell, inherited from Windows 2000. For example, Search was now integrated into Windows Explorer, rather than being a stand-alone application, and IE 5.5 supported a new Print Preview feature. It also shipped with the MSN Messenger Service.
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System Requirements
Minimum system specifications
* Processor: Pentium 150MHz
* Hard drive space: 320MB
* RAM: 32MB
Recommended system specifications
* Processor: Pentium II 300MHz
* Hard drive space: 2GB
* RAM: 64MB
Windows Me was the successor to Windows 98 and, just like Windows 98, was targeted specifically at home PC users. It included Internet Explorer 5.5, Windows Media Player 7, and the new Windows Movie Maker software, which provided basic video editing and was designed to be easy for home users. Microsoft also updated the graphical user interface and the shell features and Windows Explorer in Windows Me with some of those first introduced in Windows 2000, which had been released as a business oriented operating system seven months earlier. Windows Me could be upgraded to Internet Explorer 6 SP1, but not to SP2 (SV1) or Internet Explorer 7, and Windows Media Player 9 Series. Microsoft .NET Framework up to and including version 2.0 is supported, however versions 2.0 SP1, 3.x, and greater are not. Office XP was the last version of Microsoft Office to be compatible with Windows 9x.
Windows Me is a continuation of the Windows 9x model, but with access to real mode MS-DOS restricted in order to speed up system boot time.[3] This was one of the most publicized changes in Windows Me, because applications that needed real mode DOS to run, such as older disk utilities, did not run under Windows Me.
Compared with other releases of Windows, Windows Me had a short shelf-life of just over a year; it was soon replaced by the Windows NT-based Windows XP, which was launched on October 25, 2001.
_____________
History
In 1998, Microsoft stated that there would be no version of Windows 9x after Windows 98. In 1999, however, Microsoft announced a new version of Windows 9x, that was later revealed to be codenamed Millennium. In 2000, this was released as Windows Millennium Edition (Windows Me).
At least 3 betas of Windows Me were available during its development phase. On 24 September 1999, Microsoft announced that Windows Millennium Beta 1 was released. Windows Millennium Beta 2 was released on 24 November 1999, and added a couple of new features such as System File Protection and Game Options Control Panel. Several interim builds were released between Beta 1 and 2, and added features such as automatic updates and personalized menus. Beta 3 was released on 11 April 2000. The general availability date was 31 December 2000. Microsoft ended mainstream support for Windows Millennium Edition on 31 December 2003. Extended support ended on 11 July 2006. Windows 98 Extended support ended the same day. Windows Me also contained the Microsoft Java Virtual Machine, which caused it and Windows 98 to be pulled from the Microsoft Developer Network at the end of 2003. At launch time, Microsoft announced a time-limited promotion from September 2000 to January 2001 which entitled Windows 95 or Windows 98 users to upgrade to Windows Me for $59.95 instead of the regular retail upgrade price of $109.
Shortly after Windows Me was released, Microsoft launched a campaign-initiative to promote Windows Me in the United States, which they dubbed the Meet Me Tour. A national partnered promotional program featured Windows Me, OEMs and other partners in an interactive multi-media attraction in 25 cities across the United States.
_______________
Digital media
* Sound Mixing: Windows Me provided drivers to allow multiple applications to play sound simultaneously, unlike Windows 98.[citation needed]
* Windows Image Acquisition: Windows Me also introduced the Windows Image Acquisition API for a standardized method of allowing Windows applications to transparently and more easily communicate with image acquisition devices, such as digital cameras and scanners. WIA intended to improve the configuration and the user interface for interacting with scanners and such devices, (which were previously supported by the TWAIN standard) and simplify writing device drivers for developers. WIA also includes support for USB still image capture device classes such as scanners and cameras through the Picture Transfer Protocol.
* Windows Movie Maker: This utility is based on DirectShow and Windows Media technologies to provide Microsoft Windows computer systems with basic video capture and edit capabilities. It provides users with the ability to capture, edit, and re-encode media content into the Windows Media format, a tightly compressed format which requires a minimal amount of storage space on the computer's hard disk, when compared to many other media formats.[12]
* Windows Media Player 7 offers many new features and capabilities compared to previous versions, including the WindowsMedia.com guide and radio tuner which are an integral part of the player, as well as integrated jukebox and player capabilities, and interactive skins to allow consumers to personalize the look, feel, and operation of the player by changing the user interface.
* Windows DVD Player: Microsoft has included a redesigned version of their DVD player in Windows Me. Unlike the Windows 98 version, the new Windows Me version supports software decoding for playback of DVD movies without a dedicated decoder card, as well as a completely revamped look and faster load times.
* Image Preview: In Windows Me, images can be viewed by using the Image Preview utility. It allows users to rotate an image, print or zoom in/out an image. Image Preview supports images with .BMP, .DIB, .EMF, .GIF, .JPEG, .PNG, .TIF and .WMF file formats.
* Games: Windows Me includes version 7.1 of the DirectX API, and also offers several new games: Internet Backgammon, Internet Checkers, Internet Hearts, Internet Reversi, Internet Spades, Spider Solitaire and Pinball. The last version of DirectX available for Windows Me is DirectX 9.0c, which was released on 7 April 2006.
______________
Networking technologies
* New TCP/IP Stack: Windows Me includes the Windows 2000 networking stack and architecture[13] which was known to be more reliable, full-featured, stable and offered better performance. Support for networking over FireWire, IrDA, a network diagnostic troubleshooter and a new Home Networking wizard are also included.
* The Home Networking Wizard is designed to help users to set up a computer that is running Windows Me for use on a small home network. This includes setting up Internet Connection Sharing (ICS) on a computer running Windows Me so the computer can share a connection to the Internet with other computers on the home network.
* Dial-up Networking component was updated in Windows Me, and provides several enhancements while maintaining the desired features of prior releases of the operating system. The user interface had been reworked to provide all configurable parameters in one convenient location. The user interface now included three new tabs: Networking, Security and Dialing. To improve dial-up networking, Windows Me includes built-in support for the Connection Manager dial-up client. Using the Connection Manager Administration Kit (an optional networking component in Windows 2000 Server), network administrators can pre-configure and deploy dial-up networking connections, by means of a Connection Manager service profile, to Windows Me–based client machines.
* Network Driver Interface Specification (NDIS) is both a software component and an interface-design specification. It is a core Windows component that manages network device drivers and their communication with network protocol stacks such as TCP/IP. NDIS version 5.0 for Windows Me was enhanced to provide programming interface parity with NDIS version 5.0 in Windows 2000. This means that the programming interfaces that the author of a network device driver uses are the same for both of these Windows platforms.
* Universal Plug and Play: Windows Me introduced support for Universal Plug and Play, often shortened to UPnP.
______________
System Utilities
* System Restore: Windows Me introduced the "System Restore" logging and reversion system, which was meant to simplify troubleshooting and solve problems. It was intended to work as a rollback and recovery feature so that if the installation of an application or a driver adversely affected the system, the user could undo the installation and return the system to a previously working state. It does this by monitoring changes to Windows system files and the registry. System Restore protects only the operating system files, not documents, and therefore is not a substitute for a backup program.
* System File Protection: First introduced with Windows 2000 (as Windows File Protection), and expanding on the capabilities introduced with System File Checker in Windows 98, System File Protection aimed to protect system files from modification and corruption silently and automatically. When the file protection is in effect, replacing or deleting a system file causes Windows Me to immediately and silently restore the original copy. The original is taken from a hard drive backup folder (%WinDir%\Options\Install) or from the Windows Me installation CD, if the cached copy of files on the hard disk has been deleted. If no installation CD is in the drive, a dialog box alerts the user about the problem and requests that the CD be inserted. System File Protection is a different technology from System Restore and should not be confused with the latter. System Restore maintains a broad set of changed files including added applications and user configuration data stored repeatedly at specific points in time restored by the user, whereas System File Protection protects operating system files with no user input.
* System Configuration Utility allows users to manually extract and restore individual system files from the Windows Me setup files. It has also been updated with three new tabs called "Static VxDs", "Environment" and "International". The Static VxDs tab allows users to enable or disable static virtual device drivers to be loaded at startup, the Environment tab allows users to enable or disable environment variables, and the International tab allows users to set international language keyboard layout settings that were formerly set via the real-mode MS-DOS configuration files. A Cleanup button on the Startup tab allows cleaning up invalid or deleted startup entries.
* System Monitor has been updated with a Dial-Up Adapter section. Users can now monitor items such as Connection Speeds, Bytes Received or Transmitted / Second.
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Other
* Graphical User Interface: Windows Me featured many updated graphics (most of them were just change of theme and other tweaks). The standard background was changed from an emerald color to a light blue, with a drawing in the upper left corner saying "Windows ME". The title bar was slightly tweaked, giving it a fading look. The title bar that came standard on Windows ME was a dark shade of blue on the left, fading into a light blue color on the right. This gave it a modern feel. Most other graphical changes were very minor.
* Automatic Updates: The Automatic Updates utility automatically downloads and installs critical updates from the Windows Update Web site with little user interaction. It is set up to check Windows Update once every 24 hours by default. Users can choose to download which update they want, although high-priority updates must be downloaded and installed.
* Improved power management and suspend/resume operations: Windows Me features significant improvements for improving cold boot time, pre and post-logon boot times and time required for resuming from hibernation. It also supports OS-controlled ACPI S4 sleep state (hibernation) and other power management features without manufacturer-supplied drivers.[15]
* Compressed Folders: Windows Me includes support for ZIP files through a shell extension known as Compressed Folders. Originally introduced in the Plus! 98 pack for Windows 98, this feature allows users to create, access and extract files from ZIP archives similar to a regular folder in Windows. The user can also restrict access to files with a password.
* On-Screen Keyboard: Originally introduced with Windows 3.1, a program called On-screen Keyboard has been added, which makes it possible to input characters using the mouse instead of the keyboard. This feature is useful for computers that use a tablet as the primary pointing device or for accessibility purposes.
* A new Help and Support program has also been added, replacing HTML Help in Windows 2000 and Windows 98. The Help and Support Center is entirely HTML-based and takes advantage of a technology called Support Automation Framework (SAF), that can show support information from the internet, allows collecting data for troubleshooting via WMI and scripting and for third parties to plug into Windows Help and Support. Several other support tools also shipped with Windows Me.
* USB mass storage drivers: Windows Me is the only operating system in the Windows 9x series that includes generic drivers for USB mass storage devices.
* Windows Me also includes Internet Explorer 5.5 and various changes to the Windows Explorer shell, inherited from Windows 2000. For example, Search was now integrated into Windows Explorer, rather than being a stand-alone application, and IE 5.5 supported a new Print Preview feature. It also shipped with the MSN Messenger Service.
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System Requirements
Minimum system specifications
* Processor: Pentium 150MHz
* Hard drive space: 320MB
* RAM: 32MB
Recommended system specifications
* Processor: Pentium II 300MHz
* Hard drive space: 2GB
* RAM: 64MB
Windows 98
Windows 98 (codenamed Memphis) is a graphical operating system by Microsoft. It was released to manufacturing on 15 May 1998 and to retail on 25 June 1998. Windows 98 is the successor to Windows 95. Like its predecessor, it is a hybrid 16-bit/32-bit monolithic product with an MS-DOS based boot loader. Windows 98 was succeeded by Windows Me on 14 September 2000. Microsoft support for Windows 98 ended on 11 July 2006.
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New driver standards
Windows 98 was the first operating system to use the Windows Driver Model (WDM). This fact was not well published when Windows 98 was released and most hardware producers continued to develop drivers for the older driver standard, VxD. The WDM standard spread years after its release, mostly through Windows 2000 and Windows XP, because these systems are not compatible with the older VxD standard.[2] Today, even if hardware producers are not developing drivers optimized for Windows 98, the drivers written to WDM standards are compatible with Windows 98 based systems.
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System requirements
* 486DX-2/66 MHz or higher processor (Pentium processor recommended)
* 16 MB of RAM (24 MB recommended, it's possible to run on 8 MB machines with /im option used during the installation process)
* At least 500 MB of space available on HDD. The amount of space required depends on the installation method and the components selected, but virtual memory and system utilities as well as drivers should be taken into consideration.
* Upgrading from Windows 95 (FAT16) or 3.1 (FAT): 140-400 MB (typically 205 MB).
* New installation (FAT32): 190-305 MB (typically 210 MB).
* Note 1: Both Windows 98 and Windows 98 SE can have significant problems associated with hard drives that are over 32 Gigabytes (GB) in size. This issue only occurs with certain Phoenix BIOS settings. A software update has been made available to fix this shortcoming.
* Note 2: Also, both Windows 98 and Windows 98 SE are unable to handle hard drives that are over 137 Gigabytes (GB) in size with the default drivers, because of missing 48 Bit LBA support. Data corruption is possible. An experimental third party software update is available to fix this shortcoming.
* VGA or higher resolution monitor
* CD-ROM or DVD-ROM drive
* Microsoft Mouse or compatible pointing device (optional).
Like its predecessor, Windows 95, and its successor, Windows Millennium Edition (Me), users can bypass hardware requirement checks with the undocumented /im setup switch. This allows installation on computers with processors as old as the 80386.
___________
System Tools
* ScanDisk - System utility used to maintain the file system. It offers a DOS and a GUI version. Used to check the integrity of the file system and files stored within.
* Disk Defragmenter - Used to counter the negative effects of filesystem fragmentation. It collects fragmented file parts, reconnects them and rearranges all files in optimal order, thus speeding up file access and allowing faster boot times.
* Scanreg - Used to restore the System registry. It tests the registry's integrity and saves a backup copy each time. The maximum amount of copies could be customized by the user through "scanreg.ini" file. Due to a bug the oldest registry copy available cannot be restored (before restoration, the current configuration is backed up and it erases the oldest registry backup listed). The restoration of a faulty registry can only be done in DOS mode. Important DOS commands: scanreg/opt - optimizes the registry by deleting dead entries; scanreg/fix - repairs registry settings.
* Msconfig - A system utility used to disable programs and services which are not required to run the computer. It is a very powerful tool that can greatly enhance the system's stability and speed, but is also capable of rendering the system non-functional if used incorrectly.
* Regedit - Allows manual editing of the registry.
Windows 95
Windows 95 is a consumer-oriented graphical user interface-based operating system. It was released on August 24, 1995 by Microsoft, and was a significant progression from the company's previous Windows products. During development it was referred to as Windows 4.0 or by the internal codename Chicago.
Windows 95 was intended to integrate Microsoft's formerly separate MS-DOS and Windows products. It features significant improvements over its predecessor, Windows 3.1, most visibly in the graphical user interface (GUI). There were also major changes made at lower levels of the operating system.
In the marketplace, Windows 95 was a major success, and within a year or two of its release had become the most successful operating system ever produced. It also had the effect of driving other major players in the DOS-compatible operating system out of business, something which would later be used in court against Microsoft. Some three years after introduction, Windows 95 was succeeded by Windows 98.
____________
Development
The initial design and planning of Windows 95 can be traced back to around May 1992, just after the release of Windows 3.1. At this time Windows for Workgroups 3.1 and Windows NT 3.1 were still in development and Microsoft's plan for the future was focused on Cairo. Cairo would be Microsoft's next-generation operating system based on Windows NT and featuring a new user interface and an object-based file system, but it was not planned to be shipped before 1994 (Cairo would eventually partially ship in July 1996 in the form Windows NT 4.0, without the object-base file system however, which would later evolve into WinFS).
Simultaneously with Windows 3.1's release, IBM started shipping OS/2 2.0. Microsoft realized they were in need of an updated version of Windows that could support 32-bit applications and preemptive multitasking, but could still run on low-end hardware (Windows NT did not.) So the development of Windows "Chicago" was started and, as it was planned for a late 1993 release, became known as Windows 93. Initially the decision was made not to include a new user interface, as this was planned for Cairo, and only focus on making installation, configuration, and networking easier. Windows 93 would ship together with MS-DOS 7.0 offering a more integrated experience to the user and making it pointless for other companies to create DOS clones. MS-DOS 7.0 was at that time under development under the code name "Jaguar" and could optionally run on top of a Windows 3.1-based 32-bit protected mode kernel called "Cougar" in order to better compete with DR-DOS.
The first version of Chicago's feature specification was finished on 30 September 1992. Cougar was to become Chicago's kernel.
______________
Architecture
Windows 95 was designed to be maximally compatible with existing MS-DOS and 16-bit Windows applications and device drivers, while under this constraint offering a more stable and better performing system. Architecturally, Windows 95 can be considered an evolution of Windows for Workgroups' 386 enhanced mode. The lowest level of the operating system is formed by a large number of virtual device drivers (VxDs) running in 32-bit protected mode and one or more virtual DOS machines running in virtual 8086 mode. The virtual device drivers can be responsible for handling physical devices (such as video and network cards), emulating virtual devices used by the virtual machines, or providing various system services. The three most important virtual device drivers are:
Virtual Machine Manager
The Virtual Machine Manager (VMM32.VXD) can be considered the kernel of Windows 95 and is responsible for tasks such as memory management, event and interrupt handling, loading and initialization of all other virtual device drivers, the creation of new virtual machines, and scheduling of threads.
Configuration Manager
The Configuration Manager (CONFIGMG) is responsible for implementing Plug and Play functionality. It detects all devices in the system using several bus enumerators, monitors the system for changes to the hardware configuration. It is responsible for assigning various resources (I/O ports, IRQs, DMA channels, and memory) to the devices in a conflict free fashion.
Installable File System Manager (Input/Output Subsystem)
The Installable File System Manager coordinates the access to various file systems. Windows 95 ships with support for FAT16, and in later releases FAT32, file systems (VFAT), ISO 9660 (CDFS), and several network redirectors. A dynamically sized disk buffer is provided by VCACHE. In the Block I/O Subsystem, requests are scheduled by the Input/Output Supervisor. Access to the disk is performed by a port driver, or in the case of a SCSI device, by a miniport driver working atop the SCSI layer.
Like Windows for Workgroups running with 32-bit file and disk access enabled, I/O operations can be handled entirely in 32-bit protected mode, bypassing MS-DOS and the BIOS, giving a significant performance improvement. In case there is no native Windows driver for a certain storage device, or if a device is forced to run in compatibility mode, the Real Mode Mapper port driver can access it through MS-DOS.
The Win32 API is implemented by three modules, each consisting of a 16-bit and a 32-bit component:
Kernel
Kernel (KRNL386.EXE, KERNEL32.DLL, and VWIN32.VXD) provides high level access to functions such as memory and process management, and access to the file system.
User
User (USER.EXE and USER32.DLL) is responsible for managing and drawing the various user interface components, such as windows, menus, and buttons.
GDI
The Graphics Device Interface (GDI.EXE and GDI32.DLL) is responsible for drawing graphics in a device-independent way.
_____________
Uses of MS-DOS
MS-DOS was an underlying component of Windows 95. It was possible to prevent loading the graphical user interface and boot the system into a real-mode MS-DOS environment. This sparked an intense debate[by whom?] over the question of to what extent Windows 95 was a "real" operating system, as opposed to merely being a graphical shell running on top of MS-DOS.
The GUI, when started, took over all functionality from MS-DOS, which itself was demoted to a compatibility layer for 16-bit device drivers. This contrasted with earlier versions of Windows which relied on MS-DOS to perform file and disk access. (Windows for Workgroups 3.11 could also largely bypass MS-DOS when 32-bit file access and 32-bit disk access was enabled.) Keeping MS-DOS running allowed Windows 95 to use DOS device drivers if suitable Windows drivers were unavailable. MS-DOS also still handled some requests for allocating memory and parsing file names, issued by legacy Win16 applications, as Microsoft saw little benefit in replacing these helper functions with newly written 32-bit code.[citation needed]
A negative consequence of keeping MS-DOS around was that Windows had to do some work to keep DOS's internal data structures synchronized with those of Windows itself. When starting an application, even a native 32-bit Windows application, MS-DOS would momentarily execute to create a data structure (the program segment prefix) and it was even theoretically possible for MS-DOS to run out of conventional memory while doing so, preventing the application from launching.
____________
system requirements
Official system requirements were an Intel 80386 DX CPU of any speed, 4 MB of system RAM, and 120 MB of hard drive space. These minimal claims were made in order to maximize the available market of Windows 3.1 converts. This configuration was distinctly suboptimal for any productive use on anything but single tasking dedicated workstations due to the heavy reliance on virtual memory. Also, in some cases, if any networking or similar components were installed the system would refuse to boot with 4 megabytes of RAM. It was possible to run Windows 95 on a 386 SX but this led to even less acceptable performance due to its 16-bit external data bus. To achieve optimal performance, Microsoft recommends an Intel 80486 or compatible microprocessor with at least 8 MB of RAM.
Windows 95 was superseded by Windows 98 and could still be directly upgraded by both Windows 2000 and Windows Me. On 31 December 2001, Microsoft ended its support for Windows 95, making it an "obsolete" product according to the Microsoft Lifecycle Policy. Even though support for Windows 95 has ended, the software still remains in use on some home and school computers because of budget issues, a lack of knowledge or lack of desire to upgrade to newer editions of Windows. In addition, some video game enthusiasts choose to use Windows 95 for their legacy system to play old DOS games, although some other versions of Windows such as Windows 98 can also be used for this purpose.
Windows 95 has been released on both floppy disks and on CD-ROM, as some computer systems at the time did not include a CD-ROM drive. The retail floppy disk version of Windows 95 came on 13 DMF formatted floppy disks, while OSR 2.1 doubled the floppy count to 26. Both versions exclude additional software that CD-ROM might have featured. Microsoft Plus! for Windows 95 was also available on floppy disks.
Windows 95 was intended to integrate Microsoft's formerly separate MS-DOS and Windows products. It features significant improvements over its predecessor, Windows 3.1, most visibly in the graphical user interface (GUI). There were also major changes made at lower levels of the operating system.
In the marketplace, Windows 95 was a major success, and within a year or two of its release had become the most successful operating system ever produced. It also had the effect of driving other major players in the DOS-compatible operating system out of business, something which would later be used in court against Microsoft. Some three years after introduction, Windows 95 was succeeded by Windows 98.
____________
Development
The initial design and planning of Windows 95 can be traced back to around May 1992, just after the release of Windows 3.1. At this time Windows for Workgroups 3.1 and Windows NT 3.1 were still in development and Microsoft's plan for the future was focused on Cairo. Cairo would be Microsoft's next-generation operating system based on Windows NT and featuring a new user interface and an object-based file system, but it was not planned to be shipped before 1994 (Cairo would eventually partially ship in July 1996 in the form Windows NT 4.0, without the object-base file system however, which would later evolve into WinFS).
Simultaneously with Windows 3.1's release, IBM started shipping OS/2 2.0. Microsoft realized they were in need of an updated version of Windows that could support 32-bit applications and preemptive multitasking, but could still run on low-end hardware (Windows NT did not.) So the development of Windows "Chicago" was started and, as it was planned for a late 1993 release, became known as Windows 93. Initially the decision was made not to include a new user interface, as this was planned for Cairo, and only focus on making installation, configuration, and networking easier. Windows 93 would ship together with MS-DOS 7.0 offering a more integrated experience to the user and making it pointless for other companies to create DOS clones. MS-DOS 7.0 was at that time under development under the code name "Jaguar" and could optionally run on top of a Windows 3.1-based 32-bit protected mode kernel called "Cougar" in order to better compete with DR-DOS.
The first version of Chicago's feature specification was finished on 30 September 1992. Cougar was to become Chicago's kernel.
______________
Architecture
Windows 95 was designed to be maximally compatible with existing MS-DOS and 16-bit Windows applications and device drivers, while under this constraint offering a more stable and better performing system. Architecturally, Windows 95 can be considered an evolution of Windows for Workgroups' 386 enhanced mode. The lowest level of the operating system is formed by a large number of virtual device drivers (VxDs) running in 32-bit protected mode and one or more virtual DOS machines running in virtual 8086 mode. The virtual device drivers can be responsible for handling physical devices (such as video and network cards), emulating virtual devices used by the virtual machines, or providing various system services. The three most important virtual device drivers are:
Virtual Machine Manager
The Virtual Machine Manager (VMM32.VXD) can be considered the kernel of Windows 95 and is responsible for tasks such as memory management, event and interrupt handling, loading and initialization of all other virtual device drivers, the creation of new virtual machines, and scheduling of threads.
Configuration Manager
The Configuration Manager (CONFIGMG) is responsible for implementing Plug and Play functionality. It detects all devices in the system using several bus enumerators, monitors the system for changes to the hardware configuration. It is responsible for assigning various resources (I/O ports, IRQs, DMA channels, and memory) to the devices in a conflict free fashion.
Installable File System Manager (Input/Output Subsystem)
The Installable File System Manager coordinates the access to various file systems. Windows 95 ships with support for FAT16, and in later releases FAT32, file systems (VFAT), ISO 9660 (CDFS), and several network redirectors. A dynamically sized disk buffer is provided by VCACHE. In the Block I/O Subsystem, requests are scheduled by the Input/Output Supervisor. Access to the disk is performed by a port driver, or in the case of a SCSI device, by a miniport driver working atop the SCSI layer.
Like Windows for Workgroups running with 32-bit file and disk access enabled, I/O operations can be handled entirely in 32-bit protected mode, bypassing MS-DOS and the BIOS, giving a significant performance improvement. In case there is no native Windows driver for a certain storage device, or if a device is forced to run in compatibility mode, the Real Mode Mapper port driver can access it through MS-DOS.
The Win32 API is implemented by three modules, each consisting of a 16-bit and a 32-bit component:
Kernel
Kernel (KRNL386.EXE, KERNEL32.DLL, and VWIN32.VXD) provides high level access to functions such as memory and process management, and access to the file system.
User
User (USER.EXE and USER32.DLL) is responsible for managing and drawing the various user interface components, such as windows, menus, and buttons.
GDI
The Graphics Device Interface (GDI.EXE and GDI32.DLL) is responsible for drawing graphics in a device-independent way.
_____________
Uses of MS-DOS
MS-DOS was an underlying component of Windows 95. It was possible to prevent loading the graphical user interface and boot the system into a real-mode MS-DOS environment. This sparked an intense debate[by whom?] over the question of to what extent Windows 95 was a "real" operating system, as opposed to merely being a graphical shell running on top of MS-DOS.
The GUI, when started, took over all functionality from MS-DOS, which itself was demoted to a compatibility layer for 16-bit device drivers. This contrasted with earlier versions of Windows which relied on MS-DOS to perform file and disk access. (Windows for Workgroups 3.11 could also largely bypass MS-DOS when 32-bit file access and 32-bit disk access was enabled.) Keeping MS-DOS running allowed Windows 95 to use DOS device drivers if suitable Windows drivers were unavailable. MS-DOS also still handled some requests for allocating memory and parsing file names, issued by legacy Win16 applications, as Microsoft saw little benefit in replacing these helper functions with newly written 32-bit code.[citation needed]
A negative consequence of keeping MS-DOS around was that Windows had to do some work to keep DOS's internal data structures synchronized with those of Windows itself. When starting an application, even a native 32-bit Windows application, MS-DOS would momentarily execute to create a data structure (the program segment prefix) and it was even theoretically possible for MS-DOS to run out of conventional memory while doing so, preventing the application from launching.
____________
system requirements
Official system requirements were an Intel 80386 DX CPU of any speed, 4 MB of system RAM, and 120 MB of hard drive space. These minimal claims were made in order to maximize the available market of Windows 3.1 converts. This configuration was distinctly suboptimal for any productive use on anything but single tasking dedicated workstations due to the heavy reliance on virtual memory. Also, in some cases, if any networking or similar components were installed the system would refuse to boot with 4 megabytes of RAM. It was possible to run Windows 95 on a 386 SX but this led to even less acceptable performance due to its 16-bit external data bus. To achieve optimal performance, Microsoft recommends an Intel 80486 or compatible microprocessor with at least 8 MB of RAM.
Windows 95 was superseded by Windows 98 and could still be directly upgraded by both Windows 2000 and Windows Me. On 31 December 2001, Microsoft ended its support for Windows 95, making it an "obsolete" product according to the Microsoft Lifecycle Policy. Even though support for Windows 95 has ended, the software still remains in use on some home and school computers because of budget issues, a lack of knowledge or lack of desire to upgrade to newer editions of Windows. In addition, some video game enthusiasts choose to use Windows 95 for their legacy system to play old DOS games, although some other versions of Windows such as Windows 98 can also be used for this purpose.
Windows 95 has been released on both floppy disks and on CD-ROM, as some computer systems at the time did not include a CD-ROM drive. The retail floppy disk version of Windows 95 came on 13 DMF formatted floppy disks, while OSR 2.1 doubled the floppy count to 26. Both versions exclude additional software that CD-ROM might have featured. Microsoft Plus! for Windows 95 was also available on floppy disks.
Windows 3.2
Windows 3.2 was first released in Simplified Chinese
In 1994, Microsoft released a Simplified Chinese version of Windows for the Chinese market. The updated system identified itself as Windows 3.2. Thus, Windows 3.2 is Windows 3.11 Chinese version. The update was limited to this language version, as it fixed only issues related to the complex writing system of the Chinese language.
Windows 3.2 was generally sold by computer manufacturers with a ten-disk version of MS-DOS that also had Simplified Chinese characters in basic output and some translated utilities.
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