microsoft windows operating system developed by microsoft windows redirects here for the part of a building see window for other uses see windows disambiguation microsoft windows is a group of several graphical operating system families all of which are developed marketed and sold by microsoft each family caters to a certain sector of the computing industry active windows families include windows nt and windows embedded these may encompass subfamilies eg windows embedded compact windows ce or windows server defunct windows families include windows 9x windows mobile and windows phone microsoft introduced an operating environment named windows on november 20 1985 as a graphical operating system shell for msdos in response to the growing interest in graphical user interfaces guis because of the massive growth in sales of android smartphones in 2014 the number of windows devices sold was less than 25 that of android devices sold this comparison however may not be fully relevant as the two operating systems traditionally target different platforms still numbers for server use of windows that are comparable to competitors show one third market share similar to that for end user use as of october 2018 genealogy by marketing role microsoft the developer of windows has registered several trademarks each of which denote a family of windows operating systems that target a specific sector of the computing industry as of 2014 the following windows families are being actively developed windows nt started as a family of operating systems with windows nt 31 an operating system for server computers and workstations it now consists of three operating system subfamilies that are released almost at the same time and share the same kernel it is almost impossible for someone unfamiliar with the subject to identify the members of this family by name because they do not adhere to any specific rule eg windows 7 and windows 81 are members of this family but windows 31 is not windows the operating system for mainstream personal computers tablets and smartphones the latest version is windows 10 the main competitor of this family is macos by apple inc for personal computers and android for mobile devices cf usage share of operating systems market share by category windows server the operating system for server computers the latest version is windows server 2016 unlike its clients sibling it has adopted a strong naming scheme the main competitor of this family is linux cf usage share of operating systems market share by category windows pe a lightweight version of its windows sibling meant to operate as a live operating system used for installing windows on baremetal computers especially on many computers at once recovery or troubleshooting purposes the latest version is windows pe 10 windows iot previously windows embedded initially microsoft developed windows ce as a generalpurpose operating system for every device that was too resourcelimited to be called a fullfledged computer eventually however windows ce was renamed windows embedded compact and was folded under windows compact trademark which also consists of windows embedded industry windows embedded professional windows embedded standard windows embedded handheld and windows embedded automotive the following windows families are no longer being developed windows 9x an operating system that targeted consumers market discontinued because of suboptimal performance pc world called its last version windows me one of the worst products of all times microsoft now caters to the consumers market with windows nt windows mobile the predecessor to windows phone it was a mobile phone operating system the first version was called pocket pc 2000 the third version windows mobile 2003 is the first version to adopt the windows mobile trademark the last version is windows mobile 65 windows phone an operating system sold only to manufacturers of smartphones the first version was windows phone 7 followed by windows phone 8 and the last version windows phone 81 it was succeeded by windows 10 mobile version history history of microsoft windows see also list of microsoft windows versions the term windows collectively describes any or all of several generations of microsoft operating system products these products are generally categorized as follows early versions windows 10 windows 20 and windows 21x windows 10 the first version released in 1985 the history of windows dates back to 1981 when microsoft started work on a program called interface manager it was announced in november 1983 after the apple lisa but before the macintosh under the name windows but windows 10 was not released until november 1985 windows 10 was to compete with apples operating system but achieved little popularity windows 10 is not a complete operating system rather it extends msdos the shell of windows 10 is a program known as the msdos executive components included calculator calendar cardfile clipboard viewer clock control panel notepad paint reversi terminal and write windows 10 does not allow overlapping windows instead all windows are tiled only modal dialog boxes may appear over other windows windows 20 was released in december 1987 and was more popular than its predecessor it features several improvements to the user interface and memory management windows 20 also introduced more sophisticated keyboard shortcuts and could make use of expanded memory windows 21 was released in two different versions windows286 and windows386 windows386 uses the virtual 8086 mode of the intel 80386 to multitask several dos programs and the paged memory model to emulate expanded memory using available extended memory windows286 in spite of its name runs on both intel 8086 and intel 80286 processors it runs in real mode but can make use of the high memory area in addition to full windowspackages there were runtimeonly versions that shipped with early windows software from third parties and made it possible to run their windows software on msdos and without the full windows feature set the early versions of windows are often thought of as graphical shells mostly because they ran on top of msdos and use it for file system services however even the earliest windows versions already assumed many typical operating system functions notably having their own executable file format and providing their own device drivers timer graphics printer mouse keyboard and sound unlike msdos windows allowed users to execute multiple graphical applications at the same time through cooperative multitasking windows implemented an elaborate segmentbased software virtual memory scheme which allows it to run applications larger than available memory code segments and resources are swapped in and thrown away when memory became scarce data segments moved in memory when a given application had relinquished processor control windows 3x windows 30 and windows 31x windows 30 released in 1990 windows 30 released in 1990 improved the design mostly because of virtual memory and loadable virtual device drivers vxds that allow windows to share arbitrary devices between multitasked dos applications windows 31 made generally available on march 1 1992 featured a facelift in august 1993 windows for workgroups a special version with integrated peertopeer networking features and a version number of 311 was released it was sold along windows 31 support for windows 31 ended on december 31 2001 windows 32 released 1994 is an updated version of the chinese version of windows 31 windows 32 was generally sold by computer manufacturers with a tendisk version of msdos that also had simplified chinese characters in basic output and some translated utilities windows 9x windows 9x the next major consumeroriented release of windows windows 95 was released on august 24 1995 while still remaining msdosbased windows 95 introduced support for native 32bit applications plug and play hardware preemptive multitasking long file names of up to 255 characters and provided increased stability over its predecessors windows 95 also introduced a redesigned object oriented user interface replacing the previous program manager with the start menu taskbar and windows explorer shell windows 95 was a major commercial success for microsoft ina fried of cnet remarked that by the time windows 95 was finally ushered off the market in 2001 it had become a fixture on computer desktops around the world windows 95 was followed up with the release of windows 98 on june 25 1998 which introduced the windows driver model support for usb composite devices support for acpi hibernation and support for multimonitor configurations windows 98 also included integration with internet explorer 4 through active desktop and other aspects of the windows desktop update a series of enhancements to the explorer shell which were also made available for windows 95 in may 1999 microsoft released windows 98 second edition an updated version of windows 98 windows 98 se added internet explorer 50 and windows media player 62 amongst other upgrades mainstream support for windows 98 ended on june 30 2002 and extended support for windows 98 ended on july 11 2006 on september 14 2000 microsoft released windows me millennium edition the last dosbased version of windows windows me incorporated visual interface enhancements from its windows ntbased counterpart windows 2000 had faster boot times than previous versions which however required the removal of the ability to access a real mode dos environment removing compatibility with some older programs windows nt windows nt early versions in november 1988 a new development team within microsoft which included former digital equipment corporation developers dave cutler and mark lucovsky began work on a revamped version of ibm and microsofts os2 operating system known as nt os2 nt os2 was intended to be a secure multiuser operating system with posix compatibility and a modular portable kernel with preemptive multitasking and support for multiple processor architectures however following the successful release of windows 30 the nt development team decided to rework the project to use an extended 32bit port of the windows api known as win32 instead of those of os2 win32 maintained a similar structure to the windows apis allowing existing windows applications to easily be ported to the platform but also supported the capabilities of the existing nt kernel following its approval by microsofts staff development continued on what was now windows nt the first 32bit version of windows however ibm objected to the changes and ultimately continued os2 development on its own the first release of the resulting operating system windows nt 31 named to associate it with windows 31 was released in july 1993 with versions for desktop workstations and servers windows nt 35 was released in september 1994 focusing on performance improvements and support for novells netware and was followed up by windows nt 351 in may 1995 which included additional improvements and support for the powerpc architecture windows nt 40 was released in june 1996 introducing the redesigned interface of windows 95 to the nt series on february 17 2000 microsoft released windows 2000 a successor to nt 40 the windows nt name was dropped at this point in order to put a greater focus on the windows brand windows xp windows xp the next major version of windows nt windows xp was released on october 25 2001 the introduction of windows xp aimed to unify the consumeroriented windows 9x series with the architecture introduced by windows nt a change which microsoft promised would provide better performance over its dosbased predecessors windows xp would also introduce a redesigned user interface including an updated start menu and a taskoriented windows explorer streamlined multimedia and networking features internet explorer 6 integration with microsofts net passport services modes to help provide compatibility with software designed for previous versions of windows and remote assistance functionality at retail windows xp was now marketed in two main editions the home edition was targeted towards consumers while the professional edition was targeted towards business environments and power users and included additional security and networking features home and professional were later accompanied by the media center edition designed for home theater pcs with an emphasis on support for dvd playback tv tuner cards dvr functionality and remote controls and the tablet pc edition designed for mobile devices meeting its specifications for a tablet computer with support for stylus pen input and additional penenabled applications after windows 2000 microsoft also changed its release schedules for server operating systems the server counterpart of windows xp windows server 2003 was released in april 2003 it was followed in december 2005 by windows server 2003 r2 windows vista windows vista after a lengthy development process windows vista was released on november 30 2006 for volume licensing and january 30 2007 for consumers it contained a number of new features from a redesigned shell and user interface to significant technical changes with a particular focus on security features it was available in a number of different editions and has been subject to some criticism such as drop of performance longer boot time criticism of new uac and stricter license agreement vistas server counterpart windows server 2008 was released in early 2008 windows 7 windows 7 on july 22 2009 windows 7 and windows server 2008 r2 were released as rtm release to manufacturing while the former was released to the public 3 months later on october 22 2009 unlike its predecessor windows vista 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 compatible with applications and hardware with which windows vista was already compatible and performance improvements windows 8 and 81 windows 8 and windows 81 windows 8 the successor to windows 7 was released generally on october 26 2012 a number of significant changes were made on windows 8 including the introduction of a user interface based around microsofts metro design language with optimizations for touchbased devices such as tablets and allinone pcs these changes include the start screen which uses large tiles that are more convenient for touch interactions and allow for the display of continually updated information and a new class of apps which are designed primarily for use on touchbased devices other changes include increased integration with cloud services and other online platforms such as social networks and microsofts own onedrive formerly skydrive and xbox live services the windows store service for software distribution and a new variant known as windows rt for use on devices that utilize the arm architecture was released on october 17 2013 and includes features such as new live tile sizes deeper onedrive integration and many other revisions windows 8 and windows 81 have been subject to some criticism such as removal of the start menu windows 10 windows 10 on september 30 2014 microsoft announced windows 10 as the successor to windows 81 it was released on july 29 2015 and addresses shortcomings in the user interface first introduced with windows 8 changes include the return of the start menu a virtual desktop system and the ability to run windows store apps within windows on the desktop rather than in fullscreen mode windows 10 is said to be available to update from qualified windows 7 with sp1 and windows 81 computers from the get windows 10 application for windows 7 windows 81 or windows update windows 7 on november 12 2015 an update to windows 10 version 1511 was released this update can be activated with a windows 7 8 or 81 product key as well as windows 10 product keys in february 2017 microsoft announced the migration of its windows source code repository from perforce to git this migration involved 35 million separate files in a 300 gigabyte repository multilingual support multilingual support is built into windows since windows 3 the language for both the keyboard and the interface can be changed through the region and language control panel components for all supported input languages such as input method editors are automatically installed during windows installation in windows xp and earlier files for east asian languages such as chinese and righttoleft scripts such as arabic may need to be installed separately also from the said control panel thirdparty imes may also be installed if a user feels that the provided one is insufficient for their needs interface languages for the operating system are free for download but some languages are limited to certain editions of windows language interface packs lips are redistributable and may be downloaded from microsofts download center and installed for any edition of windows xp or later they translate most but not all of the windows interface and require a certain base language the language which windows originally shipped with this is used for most languages in emerging markets full language packs which translates the complete operating system are only available for specific editions of windows ultimate and enterprise editions of windows vista and 7 and all editions of windows 8 81 and rt except single language they do not require a specific base language and are commonly used for more popular languages such as french or chinese these languages cannot be downloaded through the download center but available as optional updates through the windows update service except windows 8 the interface language of installed applications are not affected by changes in the windows interface language availability of languages depends on the application developers themselves windows 8 and windows server 2012 introduces a new language control panel where both the interface and input languages can be simultaneously changed and language packs regardless of type can be downloaded from a central location the pc settings app in windows 81 and windows server 2012 r2 also includes a counterpart settings page for this changing the interface language also changes the language of preinstalled windows store apps such as mail maps and news and certain other microsoftdeveloped apps such as remote desktop the above limitations for language packs are however still in effect except that full language packs can be installed for any edition except single language which caters to emerging markets platform support windows nt included support for several different platforms before the x86based personal computer became dominant in the professional world windows nt 40 and its predecessors supported powerpc dec alpha and mips r4000 although some these platforms implement 64bit computing the operating system treated them as 32bit however windows 2000 the successor of windows nt 40 dropped support for all platforms except the third generation x86 known as ia32 or newer in 32bit mode the client line of windows nt family still runs on ia32 although the windows server line has ceased supporting this platform with the release of windows server 2008 r2 with the introduction of the intel itanium architecture ia64 microsoft released new versions of windows to support it itanium versions of windows xp and windows server 2003 were released at the same time as their mainstream x86 counterparts windows xp 64bit edition released in 2005 is the last windows client operating systems to support itanium windows server line continues to support this platform until windows server 2012 windows server 2008 r2 is the last windows operating system to support itanium architecture on april 25 2005 microsoft released windows xp professional x64 edition and windows server 2003 x64 editions to support the x8664 or simply x64 the eighth generation of x86 architecture windows vista was the first client version of windows nt to be released simultaneously in ia32 and x64 editions x64 is still supported an edition of windows 8 known as windows rt was specifically created for computers with arm architecture and while arm is still used for windows smartphones with windows 10 tablets with windows rt will not be updated windows ce windows ce and windows phone the latest current version of windows ce windows embedded compact 7 displaying a concept media player ui windows ce officially known as windows embedded compact is an edition of windows that runs on minimalistic computers like satellite navigation systems and some mobile phones windows embedded compact is based on its own dedicated kernel dubbed windows ce kernel microsoft licenses windows ce to oems and device makers the oems and device makers can modify and create their own user interfaces and experiences while windows ce provides the technical foundation to do so windows ce was used in the dreamcast along with segas own proprietary os for the console windows ce was the core from which windows mobile was derived its successor windows phone 7 was based on components from both windows ce 60 r3 and windows ce 70 windows phone 8 however is based on the same ntkernel as windows 8 windows embedded compact is not to be confused with windows xp embedded or windows nt 40 embedded modular editions of windows based on windows nt kernel xbox os xbox one system software and xbox 360 system software xbox os is an unofficial name given to the version of windows that runs on the xbox one microsoft updates xbox ones os every month and these updates can be downloaded from the xbox live service to the xbox and subsequently installed or by using offline recovery images downloaded via a pc xbox ones system also allows backward compatibility with xbox 360 version control system in 2017 microsoft announced that it would start using git an open source version control system created by linus torvalds microsoft has previously used a proprietary version control system called source depot microsoft began to integrate git into team foundation server in 2013 but windows continued to rely to source depot however this decision came with some complexity the windows codebase is not especially well suited to the decentralized nature of linux development that git was originally created to manage each git repository contains a complete history of all the files which proved unworkable for windows developers because cloning the repository takes several hours microsoft has been working on a new project called the virtual file system for git vfsforgit to address these challenges timeline of releases table of windows versions legendold versionolder version still supportedlatest versionlatest preview versionfuture release product name latest version general availability date codename support until latest version of mainstream extended ie directx edge old version no longer supported windows 10 101 november 20 1985 interface manager december 31 2001 na na na old version no longer supported windows 20 203 december 9 1987 na december 31 2001 old version no longer supported windows 21 211 may 27 1988 na december 31 2001 old version no longer supported windows 30 30 may 22 1990 na december 31 2001 old version no longer supported windows 31 31 april 6 1992 janus december 31 2001 5 old version no longer supported windows for workgroups 31 31 october 1992 sparta winball december 31 2001 old version no longer supported windows nt 31 nt 31528 july 27 1993 na december 31 2001 old version no longer supported windows for workgroups 311 311 august 11 1993 sparta winball december 31 2001 old version no longer supported windows 32 32 november 22 1993 na december 31 2001 old version no longer supported windows nt 35 nt 35807 september 21 1994 daytona december 31 2001 old version no longer supported windows nt 351 nt 3511057 may 30 1995 na december 31 2001 old version no longer supported windows 95 40950 august 24 1995 chicago 40 december 31 2000 december 31 2001 55 61 old version no longer supported windows nt 40 nt 401381 july 31 1996 cairo june 30 2002 june 30 2004 6 na old version no longer supported windows 98 4101998 june 25 1998 memphis 97 41 june 30 2002 july 11 2006 61 old version no longer supported windows 98 se 4102222 may 5 1999 na june 30 2002 july 11 2006 old version no longer supported windows 2000 nt 502195 february 17 2000 na june 30 2005 july 13 2010 na old version no longer supported windows me 4903000 september 14 2000 millenium 49 december 31 2003 july 11 2006 90c old version no longer supported windows xp nt 512600 october 25 2001 whistler april 14 2009 april 8 2014 8 old version no longer supported windows xp 64bit edition nt 523790 march 28 2003 na april 14 2009 april 8 2014 6 old version no longer supported windows server 2003 nt 523790 april 24 2003 na july 13 2010 july 14 2015 8 old version no longer supported windows xp professional x64 edition nt 523790 april 25 2005 na april 14 2009 april 8 2014 old version no longer supported windows fundamentals for legacy pcs nt 512600 july 8 2006 eiger mnch april 14 2009 april 8 2014 old version no longer supported windows vista nt 606002 january 30 2007 longhorn april 10 2012 april 11 2017 9 11 old version no longer supported windows home server nt 524500 november 4 2007 quattro january 8 2013 8 90c older version yet still supported windows server 2008 nt 606002 february 27 2008 longhorn server january 13 2015 january 14 2020 9 11 older version yet still supported windows 7 nt 617601 october 22 2009 blackcomb vienna january 13 2015 january 14 2020 11 older version yet still supported windows server 2008 r2 nt 617601 october 22 2009 na january 13 2015 january 14 2020 old version no longer supported windows home server 2011 nt 618400 april 6 2011 vail april 12 2016 9 older version yet still supported windows server 2012 nt 629200 september 4 2012 na october 9 2018 october 10 2023 10 111 old version no longer supported windows 8 nt 629200 october 26 2012 na january 12 2016 older version yet still supported windows 81 nt 639600 october 17 2013 blue january 9 2018 january 10 2023 11 112 older version yet still supported windows server 2012 r2 nt 639600 october 18 2013 server blue october 9 2018 october 10 2023 current stable version windows 10 nt 10017134 july 29 2015 threshold redstone october 13 2020 october 14 2025 12 42 older version yet still supported windows server 2016 nt 10017134 october 12 2016 na january 11 2022 january 12 2027 current stable version windows server 2019 nt 10017686 october 2 2018 na october 10 2023 october 10 2028 windows timeline bar chart viewtalkedit the windows family tree usage share and device sales usage share of operating systems this box viewtalkedit market share overview according to net applications and statcounter data from october 2018 desktop os net applications statcounter old version no longer supported windows xp 360 169 old version no longer supported windows vista 022 043 older version yet still supported windows 7 3935 2834 old version no longer supported windows 8 091 154 older version yet still supported windows 81 490 548 current stable version windows 10 3828 4053 all listed versions 8726 7801 mobile os net applications statcounter old version no longer supported windows phone 8 000 036 old version no longer supported windows phone 81 001 current stable version windows 10 mobile 007 all listed versions 008 036 according to net applications that tracks use based on web use windows is the mostused operating system family for personal computers as of july 2017 with close to 90 usage share the uk and ireland these numbers are easiest monthly numbers to find that track real use but they may not mirror installed base or sales numbers in recent years of devices they are consistent with server numbers in next section in terms of the number of devices shipped with the operating system installed on smartphones windows phone was the thirdmostshipped os 26 after android 828 and ios 139 in the second quarter of 2015 according to idc use of the latest version windows 10 has exceeded windows 7 globally since early 2018 usage share on servers usage share of windows on servers those running a web servers that is there are also other kinds of servers is at 336 security consumer versions of windows were originally designed for easeofuse on a singleuser pc without a network connection and did not have security features built in from the outset these design issues combined with programming errors eg buffer overflows and the popularity of windows means that it is a frequent target of computer worm and virus writers in june 2005 bruce schneiers counterpane internet security reported that it had seen over 1000 new viruses and worms in the previous six months microsoft releases security patches through its windows update service approximately once a month usually the second tuesday of the month although critical updates are made available at shorter intervals when necessary while the windows 9x series offered the option of having profiles for multiple users they had no concept of access privileges and did not allow concurrent access and so were not true multiuser operating systems in addition they implemented only partial memory protection they were accordingly widely criticised for lack of security the windows nt series of operating systems by contrast are true multiuser and implement absolute memory protection however a lot of the advantages of being a true multiuser operating system were nullified by the fact that prior to windows vista the first user account created during the setup process was an administrator account which was also the default for new accounts though windows xp did have limited accounts the majority of home users did not change to an account type with fewer rights partially due to the number of programs which unnecessarily required administrator rights and so most home users ran as administrator all the time windows vista changes this file permissions all windows versions from windows nt 3 have been based on a file system permission system referred to as agdlp accounts global local permissions in which file permissions are applied to the filefolder in the form of a local group which then has other global groups as members these global groups then hold other groups or users depending on different windows versions used this system varies from other vendor products such as linux and netware due to the static allocation of permission being applied directory to the file or folder however using this process of aglpagdlpagudlp allows a small number of static permissions to be applied and allows for easy changes to the account groups without reapplying the file permissions on the files and folders windows defender on january 6 2005 microsoft released a beta version of microsoft antispyware based upon the previously released giant antispyware on february 14 2006 microsoft antispyware became windows defender with the release of beta 2 windows defender is a freeware program designed to protect against spyware and other unwanted software windows xp and windows server 2003 users who have genuine copies of microsoft windows can freely download the program from microsofts web site and windows defender ships as part of windows vista and 7 windows malicious software removal tool and the optional microsoft safety scanner are two other free security products offered by microsoft in the windows 10 anniversary update microsoft introduced the limited periodic scanning feature which allows windows defender to scan detect and remove any threats that thirdparty antivirus software missed the advanced threat protection service is introduced for enterprise users the new service uses cloud service to detect and take actions on advanced network attacks thirdparty analysis in an article based on a report by symantec a study conducted by kevin mitnick and marketing communications firm avantgarde in 2004 found that an unprotected and unpatched windows xp system with service pack 1 lasted only four minutes on the internet before it was compromised and an unprotected and also unpatched windows server 2003 system was compromised after being connected to the internet for 8 hours alternative implementations owing to the operating systems popularity a number of applications have been released that aim to provide compatibility with windows applications either as a compatibility layer for another operating system or as a standalone system that can run software written for windows out of the box these include wine a free and opensource implementation of the windows api allowing one to run many windows applications on x86based platforms including unix linux and macos wine developers refer to it as a compatibility layer and use windowsstyle apis to emulate windows environment crossover a wine package with licensed fonts its developers are regular contributors to wine and focus on wine running officially supported applications cedega a proprietary fork of wine by transgaming technologies designed specifically for running microsoft windows games on linux a version of cedega known as cider allows windows games to run on macos since wine was licensed under the lgpl cedega has been unable to port the improvements made to wine to their proprietary codebase cedega ceased its service in february 2011 darwine a port of wine for macos and darwin operates by running wine on qemu linux unified kernel a set of patches to the linux kernel allowing many windows executable files in linux using wine dlls and some windows drivers to be used reactos an opensource os intended to run the same software as windows originally designed to simulate windows nt 40 now aiming at windows 7 compatibility it has been in the development stage since 1996 linspire formerly lindowsos a commercial linux distribution initially created with the goal of running major windows software changed its name to linspire after microsoft v lindows discontinued in favor of xandros desktop that was also later discontinued freedows os an opensource attempt at creating a windows clone for x86 platforms intended to be released under the gnu general public license started in 1996 by reece k sellin the project was never completed getting only to the stage of design discussions which featured a number of novel concepts until it was suspended in 2002 microsoft portal architecture of windows nt wintel de facto standard dominant design microsoft windowsat wikipedias sister projects media from wikimedia commons textbooks from wikibooks resources from wikiversity official website microsoft developer network windows client developer resources microsoft windows history timeline pearson education informit history of microsoft windows microsoft windows 7 for government vtemicrosoft windows family components history timeline criticism dosbased windows 10 windows 20 windows 21x windows 30 windows 31x windows 9x windows 95 development windows 98 windows me windows nt windows nt 31 windows nt 35 windows nt 351 windows nt 40 windows 2000 client versions windows xp editions x64 media center fundamentals development of xp windows vista editions development of vista windows 7 editions windows 8 editions rt 81 windows 10 editions version history windows server server 2003 home server server 2008 ebs 2008 hpc server 2008 server 2008 r2 home server 2011 server 2012 server 2012 r2 server 2016 server 2019 multipoint server server essentials specialized windows preinstallation environment windows embedded embedded compact ce 50 embedded ce 60 embedded compact 7 embedded automotive embedded industry windows mobile pocket pc 2000 pocket pc 2002 mobile 2003 mobile 50 mobile 60 mobile 61 mobile 65 windows phone phone 7 phone 8 phone 81 windows 10 mobile cancelled cairo nashville neptune odyssey related new features xp vista 7 8 10 removed features xp vista 7 8 10 criticism of windows xp vista 10 list of versions comparison book category vteoperating systems by microsoftdesktop microsoft windows 9x nt ce msdos msxdos os2 xenix mobile nokia asha platform nokia x platform kin os windows mobile windows phone zune windows 10 mobile console xbox xbox 360 xbox one projects barrelfish bigtop cairo homeos linux distros azure sphere os midas midori singularity verve vtemicrosoft history outline peoplefounders bill gates paul allen board of directors john w thompson chairman satya nadella ceo bill gates charles noski helmut panke john w stanton reid hoffman sandi peterson penny pritzker charles scharf arne sorenson padmasree warrior senior leadership team satya nadella ceo scott guthrie amy hood cfo terry myerson harry shum phil spencer corporate vps gabe aul vp joe belfiore richard rashid svp s somasegar svp divisions engineering groups mobile skype unit digital crimes unit garage press research studios net foundation outercurve foundation estates microsoft redmond campus microsoft talo microsoft algeria microsoft egypt microsoft india microsoft japan product families operating systems windows software office servers visual studio hardware hololens surface xbox web properties azure bing channel 9 codeplex developer network msn mixer officecom onedrive outlookcom store technet conferences build inspire mix pdc teched winhec campaigns where do you want to go today 1994 champagne 2002 mojave experiment 2006 im a pc 2008 scroogled 2012 criticism bundling of microsoft windows clippy iloo internet explorer microsoft bob nsakey windows xp vista 10 litigation alcatellucent v microsoft apple v microsoft european union microsoft competition case microsoft v lindows microsoft v mikerowesoft microsoft v shah united states v microsoft 2001 antitrust case microsoft ireland case acquisitions 6wunderkinder altamira software altspacevr aquantive azyxxi the blue ribbon soundworks beam bungie calista technologies colloquis connectix consumers software danger farecast fasa studio fast search transfer firefly forethought giant company software greenbutton groove networks high heat major league baseball hotmail jellyfishcom linkedin linkexchange lionhead studios maluuba massive incorporated mobile data labs mojang nokia devices and services onfolio pando networks perceptive pixel placeware powerset proclarity rare revolution analytics screentonic secure islands simplygon skype sunrise atelier swiftkey winternals software teleo telekinesys research tellme networks twisted pixel games vermeer technologies visio corporation vivaty volometrix vxtreme webtv networks xamarin yammer yupi category portal vtemicrosoft windows componentsmanagementtools app installer command prompt control panel applets device manager disk cleanup disk defragmenter driver verifier event viewer iexpress management console netsh performance monitor recovery console resource monitor settings sysprep system configuration system file checker system information system policy editor system restore task manager windows error reporting windows ink windows installer powershell windows update windows insider winre wmi apps alarms clock calculator calendar camera character map cortana edge fax and scan feedback hub file manager get help groove music magnifier mail messaging maps media player movies tv mobility center money news narrator notepad onedrive onenote paint paint 3d people phone companion photos quick assist snipping tool speech recognition skype sports sticky notes view 3d store tips voice recorder wallet weather windows to go windows story remix wordpad xbox shell action center aero autoplay autorun cleartype explorer search indexing service ifilter saved search namespace special folder start menu taskbar task view windows spotlight windows xp visual styles services service control manager bits clfs multimedia class scheduler shadow copy task scheduler error reporting wireless zero configuration file systems cdfs dfs exfat ifs fat ntfs hard link junction point mount point reparse point symbolic link txf efs refs udf server domains active directory dns group policy roaming user profiles folder redirection distributed transaction coordinator msmq windows media services rights management services iis remote desktop services wsus sharepoint network access protection pws dfs replication remote differential compression print services for unix remote installation services windows deployment services system resource manager hyperv server core architecture architecture of windows nt startup process nt vista csrss desktop window manager portable executable exe dll enhanced write filter graphics device interface haldll io request packet imaging format kernel transaction manager library files logical disk manager lsass minwin ntldr ntoskrnlexe object manager open xml paper specification registry resource protection security account manager server message block shadow copy smss system idle process user whea win32 console winlogon winusb security security and maintenance applocker bitlocker credential guard data execution prevention family safety kernel patch protection mandatory integrity control protected media path user account control user interface privilege isolation windows defender windows firewall compatibility commandcom virtual dos machine windows on windows wow64 windows subsystem for linux api active scripting wsh vbscript jscript com activex activex document com structured storage dcom ole ole automation transaction server directx net framework universal windows platform windows mixed reality windows runtime winusb games solitaire collection discontinuedgames 3d pinball chess titans freecell hearts inkball hold em purble place reversi spider solitaire solitaire tinker apps activemovie anytime upgrade address book backup and restore cardfile cardspace contacts desktop gadgets diagnostics drivespace dvd maker easy transfer fax food drink help and support center health fitness hyperterminal internet explorer journal media center meeting space messaging messenger mobile device center movie maker msn dialup netmeeting ntbackup outlook express travel photo gallery photo viewer program manager steps recorder syskey winhelp write others scandisk file protection media control interface nextgeneration secure computing base posix subsystem interix video for windows windows sideshow windows services for unix windows system assessment tool winfs spun off tomicrosoft store dvd player hover mahjong minesweeper vteoperating systemsgeneral advocacy comparison forensic engineering history hobbyist development list timeline usage share kernelarchitectures exokernel hybrid microkernel monolithic rump kernel unikernel components device driver loadable kernel module microkernel user space process managementconcepts context switch interrupt ipc process process control block realtime thread timesharing schedulingalgorithms computer multitasking fixedpriority preemptive multilevel feedback queue preemptive roundrobin shortest job next memory management andresource protection bus error general protection fault memory protection paging protection ring segmentation fault virtual memory storage access andfile systems boot loader defragmentation device file file attribute inode journal partition virtual file system virtual tape library list amigaos android beos bsd chrome os cpm dos genode gnu haiku illumos includeos ios linux macintosh classic mac os macos minix morphos musicsp nemesis nextstep nos openvms orvyl os2 osv pick qnx reactos risc os rstse rsx11 rt11 solaris tops10tops20 tpf unix visi on vmcms vs9 webos windows xinu zos miscellaneous concepts api computer network hal live cd live usb os shell cli gui nui tui vui zui pxe authority control worldcat identities bnf cb14400232k data gnd 41921835 lccn n88027331 viaf 230666902 