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102-460: CAS manages using the SSD storage as a cache layer for slower storage data (e.g. spinning hard drives). A cached copy of recently used data from slower storage is kept in faster SSD storage to improve I/O performance. CAS entered Intel's product line as the result of Intel's August 2012 acquisition of a Canadian start-up company Nevex Virtual Technologies; Intel re-branded Nevex CacheWorks product to CAS with

204-729: A web browser . The new service is an attempt at capitalizing on the growing trend, fostered during the COVID-19 pandemic , for businesses to adopt a hybrid remote work environment, in which "employees split their time between the office and home". As the service will be accessible through web browsers, Microsoft will be able to bypass the need to publish the service through Google Play or the Apple App Store . Microsoft announced Windows 365 availability to business and enterprise customers on August 2, 2021. Multilingual support has been built into Windows since Windows 3.0. The language for both

306-538: A 16-bit real mode initialisation segment) to allow those virtual devices to intercept interrupts and faults to control the access that an application has to hardware devices and installed software. Both the VMM and virtual device drivers run in a single, 32-bit, flat model address space at privilege level 0 (also called ring 0). The VMM provides multi-threaded, preemptive multitasking . It runs multiple applications simultaneously by sharing CPU ( central processing unit ) time between

408-550: A change which Microsoft promised would provide better performance over its DOS-based predecessors. Windows XP would also introduce a redesigned user interface (including an updated Start menu and a "task-oriented" Windows Explorer ), streamlined multimedia and networking features, Internet Explorer 6 , integration with Microsoft's .NET Passport services, a " compatibility mode " to help provide backwards compatibility with software designed for previous versions of Windows, and Remote Assistance functionality. At retail, Windows XP

510-472: A demo system running Cairo for all attendees to use. Based on the Windows NT kernel, Cairo was a next-generation operating system that was to feature as many new technologies into Windows, including a new user interface with an object-based file system (this new user interface would officially debut with Windows 95 nearly 4 years later while the object-based file system would later be adopted as WinFS during

612-645: A hot SSD cache during a VM migration. CAS works with the enterprise-class Intel SSD products, such as the DC S3700 SATA drives and the DC P3700 NVMe PCI Express devices. It also works with cache devices across SANs . Intel CAS for Linux consists of a GPL'd source loadable kernel module paired with a closed source user-space admin configuration tool. The CAS for Linux version supports CentOS , Red Hat Enterprise Linux and SUSE Linux Enterprise Server . The Windows Enterprise version currently runs only on

714-536: A large information database called the Windows registry . Hardware-specific settings are also stored in the registry, and many device drivers use the registry to load configuration data. Previous versions of Windows used files such as AUTOEXEC.BAT , CONFIG.SYS , WIN.INI , SYSTEM.INI and other files with an .INI extension to maintain configuration settings. As Windows became more complex and incorporated more features, .INI files became too unwieldy for

816-508: 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. Windows 7 has multi-touch support, a redesigned Windows shell with an updated taskbar with revealable jump lists that contain shortcuts to files frequently used with specific applications and shortcuts to tasks within

918-595: A modular, portable kernel with preemptive multitasking and support for multiple processor architectures. However, following the successful release of Windows 3.0 , the NT development team decided to rework the project to use an extended 32-bit port of the Windows API known as Win32 instead of those of OS/2. Win32 maintained a similar structure to the Windows APIs (allowing existing Windows applications to easily be ported to

1020-415: A more modern computing environment. These factors immediately began to impact the operating system's efficiency and stability. Microsoft marketing adopted Windows 95 as the product name for Chicago when it was released on August 24, 1995. Microsoft went on to release five different versions of Windows 95: OSR2, OSR2.1, and OSR2.5 ("OSR" being an initialism for "OEM Service Release") were not released to

1122-400: A new Windows 365 service in the following month. The new service will allow for cross-platform usage , aiming to make the operating system available for both Apple and Android users. It is a separate service and offers several variations including Windows 365 Frontline, Windows 365 Boot, and the Windows 365 app. The subscription service will be accessible through any operating system with

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1224-563: A program called "Interface Manager". The name "Windows" comes from the fact that the system was one of the first to use graphical boxes to represent programs; in the industry, at the time, these were called "windows" and the underlying software was called "windowing software." It was announced in November 1983 (after the Apple Lisa , but before the Macintosh ) under the name "Windows", but Windows 1.0

1326-506: 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." Microsoft published four OEM Service Releases (OSR) of Windows 95, each of which

1428-460: A special version with integrated peer-to-peer networking features and a version number of 3.11, was released. It was sold along with Windows 3.1. Support for Windows 3.1 ended on December 31, 2001. Windows 3.2, released in 1994, is an updated version of the Chinese version of Windows 3.1. The update was limited to this language version, as it fixed only issues related to the complex writing system of

1530-529: 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 are available as optional updates through the Windows Update service (except Windows 8). The interface language of installed applications is not affected by changes in the Windows interface language. The availability of languages depends on

1632-527: A stopgap release between Windows 98 and Windows XP (then code-named Whistler at the time). It borrowed some features from the business-oriented Windows 2000 into the Windows 9x series, and introduced the first version of System Restore , which allowed users to revert their system state to a previous "known-good" point in the case of a system failure. Windows Me also introduced the first release of Windows Movie Maker and included Windows Media Player 7 . Internet Explorer 5.5 came shipped with Windows Me. Many of

1734-416: A successor to NT 4.0. The Windows NT name was dropped at this point in order to put a greater focus on the Windows brand. The next major version of Windows NT, Windows XP , was released to manufacturing (RTM) on August 24, 2001, and to the general public on October 25, 2001. The introduction of Windows XP aimed to unify the consumer-oriented Windows 9x series with the architecture introduced by Windows NT,

1836-457: A year before the development of Windows 3.1's successor (Windows 95, code-named Chicago) began, Microsoft announced at its 1991 Professional Developers Conference that they would be developing a successor to Windows NT code-named Cairo , which has been implied by some to succeed both Windows NT and Windows 3.1's successor under one unified system. Microsoft publicly demonstrated Cairo at the 1993 Professional Developers Conference, complete with

1938-549: Is a product line of proprietary graphical operating systems developed and marketed by Microsoft . It is grouped into families and sub-families that cater to particular sectors of the computing industry – Windows (unqualified) for a consumer or corporate workstation , Windows Server for a server and Windows IoT for an embedded system . Windows is sold as either a consumer retail product or licensed to third-party hardware manufacturers who sell products bundled with Windows. The first version of Windows, Windows 1.0 ,

2040-524: Is a fork of Gecko 1.8.1 aimed at bringing "improved compatibility on the modern web" for versions of Windows as old as Windows 95 and NT 4.0. The latest version, 2.2, was released in February 2019 and added support for TLS 1.2 . Windows 9x is a series of monolithic 16/32-bit operating systems. Like most operating systems, Windows 9x consists of kernel space and user space memory. Although Windows 9x features some memory protection , it does not protect

2142-435: 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

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2244-450: Is an unofficial name given to the version of Windows that runs on Xbox consoles. From Xbox One onwards it is an implementation with an emphasis on virtualization (using Hyper-V ) as it is three operating systems running at once, consisting of the core operating system , a second implemented for games and a more Windows-like environment for applications. Microsoft updates Xbox One's OS every month, and these updates can be downloaded from

2346-523: Is said to be available to update from qualified Windows 7 with SP1, Windows 8.1 and Windows Phone 8.1 devices from the Get Windows 10 Application (for Windows 7 , Windows 8.1 ) or Windows Update ( Windows 7 ). In February 2017, Microsoft announced the migration of its Windows source code repository from Perforce to Git . This migration involved 3.5 million separate files in a 300-gigabyte repository. By May 2017, 90 percent of its engineering team

2448-573: Is the most popular desktop operating system in the world, with a 70% market share as of March 2023 , according to StatCounter ; however when including mobile OS es, it is not the most used, in favor of Android . As of today, the most recent version of Windows is Windows 11 for consumer PCs and tablets , Windows 11 Enterprise for corporations, and Windows Server 2025 for servers. Still supported are some editions of Windows 10 , Windows Server 2016 or later (and exceptionally with paid support down to Windows Server 2008 ). As of today,

2550-447: Is the last Windows client operating system 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 x86-64 (or simply x64), the 64-bit version of x86 architecture. Windows Vista

2652-572: Is the last version compatible with latter releases of Windows 9x (i.e. 98 and Me). While Internet Explorer 6 for Windows XP did receive security patches up until it lost support, this is not the case for IE6 under Windows 98 and Me. Due to its age, Internet Explorer 7 , the first major update to Internet Explorer 6 in half a decade, was only available for Windows XP SP2 and Windows Vista. The Windows Update website continued to be available for Windows 98, Windows 98 SE, and Windows Me after their end of support date; however, during 2011, Microsoft retired

2754-556: The FAT32 file system which allows support for disk partitions larger than the 2 GB maximum accepted by Windows 95. The USB support in Windows 98 was more robust than the basic support provided by the OEM editions of Windows 95. It also introduces the controversial integration of the Internet Explorer 4 web browser into the Windows shell and File Explorer (then known as Windows Explorer at

2856-585: 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 touch-based devices. The new Windows version required a minimum resolution of 1024×768 pixels, effectively making it unfit for netbooks with 800×600-pixel screens. Other changes include increased integration with cloud services and other online platforms (such as social networks and Microsoft's own OneDrive (formerly SkyDrive) and Xbox Live services),

2958-502: The VFAT file system, allowing file names with a maximum of 255 characters instead of having 8.3 filenames . Windows 9x has no support for event logging and tracing or error reporting that the Windows NT family of operating systems has, although software like Norton CrashGuard can be used to achieve similar capabilities on Windows 9x. Windows 9x is designed as a single-user system. Thus,

3060-950: The Windows Driver Model , support for USB composite devices , support for ACPI , hibernation , and support for multi-monitor 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 was 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 5.0 and Windows Media Player 6.2 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),

3162-494: The Windows Image Acquisition framework for retrieving images from scanners and digital cameras), additional system utilities such as System File Protection and System Restore , and updated home networking tools. However, Windows Me was faced with criticism for its speed and instability, along with hardware compatibility issues and its removal of real mode DOS support. PC World considered Windows Me to be one of

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3264-568: The Windows Store service for software distribution, and a new variant known as Windows RT for use on devices that utilize the ARM architecture , and a new keyboard shortcut for screenshots . An update to Windows 8, called Windows 8.1 , 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 8.1 have been subject to some criticism, such as

3366-468: The development of Windows Vista ). According to Microsoft's product plan at the time, Cairo was planned to be released as late as July 1996 following its development. However, it had become apparent that Cairo was a much more difficult project than Microsoft had anticipated, and the project was subsequently cancelled 5 years into development. A subset of features from Cairo were eventually added into Windows NT 4.0 released on August 24, 1996, albeit without

3468-485: The real-mode memory model, which confined it to a maximum of 1 megabyte of memory. In such a configuration, it could run under another multitasking system like DESQview , which used the 286 Protected Mode . Microsoft Windows scored a significant success with Windows 3.0 , released in 1990. In addition to improved capabilities given to native applications, Windows also allowed users to better multitask older MS-DOS-based software compared to Windows/386 , thanks to

3570-448: The x86 -based personal computer became dominant in the professional world. Windows NT 4.0 and its predecessors supported PowerPC , DEC Alpha and MIPS R4000 (although some of the platforms implement 64-bit computing , the OS treated them as 32-bit). Windows 2000 dropped support for all platforms, except the third generation x86 (known as IA-32 ) or newer in 32-bit mode. The client line of

3672-446: The "Tablet PC" edition (designed for mobile devices meeting its specifications for a tablet computer , with support for stylus pen input and additional pen-enabled applications). Mainstream support for Windows XP ended on April 14, 2009. Extended support ended on April 8, 2014. After Windows 2000, Microsoft also changed its release schedules for server operating systems; the server counterpart of Windows XP, Windows Server 2003 ,

3774-503: The 64-bit flavors of Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1 and Windows Server 2012 R2; 32-bit versions are not currently supported. The Windows Workstation version currently runs on only the 64-bit flavors of Windows 7, Windows 8.1, and Windows 10; 32-bit versions are not currently supported. The current version of CAS for Linux supports write-through, write-back, and write-around caching. The Windows versions of CAS support write-through and write-back caching. A workstation version, called CAS-W,

3876-587: The 9x series was Windows 95, which was succeeded by Windows 98 and then Windows Me , which was the third and last version of Windows on the 9x line, until the series was superseded by Windows XP . Windows 9x is predominantly known for its use in home desktops . In 1998, Windows made up 82% of operating system market share. The internal release number for versions of Windows 9x is 4.x. The internal versions for Windows 95, 98, and Me are 4.0, 4.1, and 4.9, respectively. Previous MS-DOS-based versions of Windows used version numbers of 3.2 or lower . Windows NT , which

3978-726: The C development environment, which included numerous windows samples. Windows 2.0 was released in December 1987, and was more popular than its predecessor. It features several improvements to the user interface and memory management. Windows 2.03 changed the OS from tiled windows to overlapping windows. The result of this change led to Apple Computer filing a suit against Microsoft alleging infringement on Apple's copyrights (eventually settled in court in Microsoft's favor in 1993). Windows 2.0 also introduced more sophisticated keyboard shortcuts and could make use of expanded memory . Windows 2.1

4080-589: 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. The next major consumer-oriented release of Windows, Windows 95 , was released on August 24, 1995. While still remaining MS-DOS-based, Windows 95 introduced support for native 32-bit 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

4182-627: The PATH environment variable. The registry consists of two files: User.dat and System.dat. In Windows Me, Classes.dat was added. The Virtual Machine Manager (VMM) is the 32-bit protected mode kernel at the core of Windows 9x. Its primary responsibility is to create, run, monitor and terminate virtual machines . The VMM provides services that manage memory, processes, interrupts and protection faults. The VMM works with virtual devices (loadable kernel modules, which consist mostly of 32-bit ring 0 or kernel mode code, but may include other types of code, such as

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4284-680: The Virtual Machine Manager (VMM), the Installable File System Manager ( IFSHLP ), the Configuration Manager, and in Windows 98 and later, the WDM Driver Manager (NTKERN). As a 32-bit operating system, virtual memory space is 4 GiB , divided into a lower 2 GiB for applications and an upper 2 GiB for kernel per process. Like Windows NT, Windows 9x stores user-specific and configuration-specific settings in

4386-535: The Win16 subsystem, the Win32 subsystem and MS-DOS. Windows 9x/Me set aside two blocks of 64 KiB memory regions for GDI and heap resources. By running multiple applications, applications with numerous GDI elements or by running applications over a long span of time, it could exhaust these memory areas. If free system resources dropped below 10%, Windows would become unstable and likely crash. The kernel mode parts consist of

4488-454: The Windows 9x series until July 11, 2006, when extended support ended for Windows 98, Windows 98 Second Edition (SE), and Windows Millennium Edition (Me) – 4 years after extended support for Windows 95 ended on December 31, 2001. Microsoft DirectX, a set of standard gaming APIs, stopped being updated on Windows 95 at version 8.0a. It also stopped being updated on Windows 98 and Me after the release of Windows Vista in 2006, making DirectX 9.0c

4590-522: The Windows NT family still ran on IA-32 up to Windows 10 (the server line of the Windows NT family still ran on IA-32 up to Windows Server 2008 ). With the introduction of the Intel Itanium architecture ( IA-64 ), 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 64-Bit Edition (Version 2003), released in 2003,

4692-752: The Windows Update v4 website and removed the updates for Windows 98, Windows 98 SE, and Windows Me from its servers. Microsoft announced in July 2019 that the Microsoft Internet Games services on Windows Me (and XP) would end on July 31, 2019 (and for Windows 7 on January 22, 2020). The growing number of important updates caused by the end of life service for these operating systems have slowly made Windows 9x even less practical for everyday use. Today, even open source projects such as Mozilla Firefox will not run on Windows 9x without major rework. RetroZilla

4794-430: 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 translate 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, 8.1 and RT except Single Language). They do not require

4896-616: The Xbox 360's system is backwards compatible with the original Xbox. Up to and including every version before Windows 2000 , Microsoft used an in-house version control system named Source Library Manager (SLM). Shortly after Windows 2000 was released, Microsoft switched to a fork of Perforce named Source Depot. This system was used up until 2017 once the system could not keep up with the size of Windows. Microsoft had begun to integrate Git into Team Foundation Server in 2013, but Windows (and Office) continued to rely on Source Depot. The Windows code

4998-522: The Xbox Live service to the Xbox and subsequently installed, or by using offline recovery images downloaded via a PC. It was originally based on NT 6.2 (Windows 8) kernel, and the latest version runs on an NT 10.0 base. This system is sometimes referred to as "Windows 10 on Xbox One". Xbox One and Xbox Series operating systems also allow limited (due to licensing restrictions and testing resources) backward compatibility with previous generation hardware, and

5100-403: The application developers themselves. Windows 8 and Windows Server 2012 introduce 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 8.1 and Windows Server 2012 R2 also includes a counterpart settings page for this. Changing

5202-437: The application, a home networking system called HomeGroup , and performance improvements. 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 Microsoft's Metro design language with optimizations for touch-based devices such as tablets and all-in-one PCs. These changes include

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5304-409: The design, mostly because of virtual memory and loadable virtual device drivers ( VxDs ) that allow Windows to share arbitrary devices between multi-tasked DOS applications. Windows 3.0 applications can run in protected mode , which gives them access to several megabytes of memory without the obligation to participate in the software virtual memory scheme. They run inside the same address space, where

5406-574: The early 2000s. By March 2004, it was impossible to purchase any versions of the Windows 9x series. Over time, support for the Windows 9x series ended. Windows 95 had lost its mainstream support in December 31, 2000, and extended support was dropped from Windows 95 on December 31, 2001 (which also ended support for older Windows versions prior to Windows 95 on that same day). Windows 98 and Windows 98 Second Edition had its mainstream support end on June 30, 2002, and mainstream support for Windows Me ended on December 31, 2003. Microsoft then continued to support

5508-557: The first megabyte of memory from userland applications for compatibility reasons. This area of memory contains code critical to the functioning of the operating system, and by writing into this area of memory an application can crash or freeze the operating system. This was a source of instability as faulty applications could accidentally write into this region, potentially corrupting important operating system memory, which usually resulted in some form of system error and halt. The user-mode parts of Windows 9x consist of three subsystems:

5610-516: The full Windows feature set. The early versions of Windows are often thought of as graphical shells, mostly because they ran on top of MS-DOS and used 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 MS-DOS, Windows allowed users to execute multiple graphical applications at

5712-451: The general public, rather, they were available only to OEMs that would preload the OS onto computers. Some companies sold new hard drives with OSR2 preinstalled (officially justifying this as needed due to the hard drive's capacity). The first Microsoft Plus! add-on pack was sold for Windows 95. On June 25, 1998, Microsoft released Windows 98, code-named "Memphis" during development. It included new hardware drivers and better support for

5814-402: The head of marketing at Microsoft, convinced the company that the name Windows would be more appealing to consumers. Windows 1.0 was not a complete operating system, but rather an "operating environment" that extended MS-DOS . Consequently, it shared the inherent flaws and problems of MS-DOS. The second installment of Microsoft Windows, version 2.0 , was released on December 9, 1987, and used

5916-436: The interface language also changes the language of preinstalled Windows Store apps (such as Mail, Maps and News) and certain other Microsoft-developed 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. Windows NT included support for several platforms before

6018-431: The introduction of virtual memory . Microsoft developed Windows 3.1 , which included several minor improvements to Windows 3.0, primarily consisting of bugfixes and multimedia support. It also excluded support for Real mode, and only ran on an Intel 80286 or better processor. Windows 3.1 was released on April 6, 1992. In November 1993 Microsoft also released Windows 3.11 , a touch-up to Windows 3.1 which included all of

6120-505: 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 files for right-to-left scripts, such as Arabic, may need to be installed separately, also from

6222-433: The last DOS-based version of Windows. Windows Me incorporated visual interface enhancements from its Windows NT-based 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), expanded multimedia functionality (including Windows Media Player 7, Windows Movie Maker , and

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6324-471: The last version of DirectX to support these operating systems. Support for Microsoft Internet Explorer on all Windows 9x releases have also ended. Windows 95, Windows 98 and Windows Me all lost security patches for Internet Explorer when the respective operating systems reached their end of support date. Internet Explorer 5.5 with Service Pack 2 is the last version of Internet Explorer compatible with Windows 95, while Internet Explorer 6 with Service Pack 1

6426-639: The limitations of the then-current FAT filesystem. Backwards-compatibility with .INI files was maintained until Windows XP succeeded the 9x and NT lines. Although Microsoft discourages using .INI files in favor of Registry entries, a large number of applications (particularly 16-bit Windows-based applications) still use .INI files. Windows 9x supports .INI files solely for compatibility with those applications and related tools (such as setup programs). The AUTOEXEC.BAT and CONFIG.SYS files also still exist for compatibility with real-mode system components and to allow users to change certain default system settings such as

6528-467: The more reliable Windows 98 Second Edition for the remainder of Windows Me's lifecycle until the release of Windows XP in 2001. A small number of Windows Me owners moved over to the business-oriented Windows 2000 Professional during that same time period. The inability of users to easily boot into real mode MS-DOS like in Windows 95 and 98 led users to quickly figure out how to hack their Windows Me installations to provide this missing functionality back into

6630-660: The need to call the real mode file system code of the DOS kernel). Partial support for Unicode can be installed on Windows 9x through the Microsoft Layer for Unicode . Windows 9x does not natively support NTFS or HPFS ; however, there are third-party solutions available for Windows 9x that allows read-only access to NTFS volumes. Early versions of Windows 95 did not support FAT32 . Like Windows for Workgroups 3.11 , Windows 9x provides support for 32-bit file access based on IFSHLP.SYS . Unlike Windows 3.x, Windows 9x has support for

6732-525: The new features from Windows Me were also available as updates for older Windows versions such as Windows 98 via Windows Update . The role of MS-DOS has also been greatly reduced compared to previous versions of Windows, with Windows Me no longer allowing real mode DOS to be accessed. Windows Me initially gained a positive reception upon its release, but later on it was heavily criticized by users for its instability and unreliability, due to frequent freezes and crashes. Windows Me has been viewed by many as one of

6834-454: The object file system. Windows NT and Windows 9x would not be truly unified until Windows XP nearly 5 years later, when Microsoft began to merge its consumer and business line of Windows under a singular brand name based on Windows NT. After Windows 3.11 , Microsoft began to develop a new consumer oriented version of the operating system code-named Chicago. Chicago was designed to have support for 32-bit preemptive multitasking, that of which

6936-622: The only active top-level family is Windows NT . The first version, Windows NT 3.1 , was intended for server computing and corporate workstations . It grew into a product line of its own and now consists of four sub-families that tend to be released almost simultaneously and share the same kernel. These top-level Windows families are no longer actively developed: The term Windows collectively describes any or all of several generations of Microsoft operating system products. These products are generally categorized as follows: The history of Windows dates back to 1981 when Microsoft started work on

7038-467: The operating system. Windows Me never received a dedicated Microsoft Plus! add-on like with Windows 95 and Windows 98. The release of Windows 2000 marked a shift in the user experience between the Windows 9x series and the Windows NT series. Windows NT 4.0, while based on the Windows 95 interface, suffered from a lack of support for USB, Plug and Play and DirectX versions after 3.0, preventing its users from playing contemporary games. Windows 2000 on

7140-442: The original version. Windows 98 Second Edition also has certain improvements over the original release, and hardware support through device drivers was increased. Many minor problems present in the original release of Windows 98 were also found and fixed. These changes, among others, makes it (according to many) the most stable release of Windows 9x family—to the extent that some commentators used to say that Windows 98's beta version

7242-501: The other hand, while primarily made towards business and server users, featured an updated user interface and better support for both Plug and Play and USB, as well as including built-in support for DirectX 7.0 . The release of Windows XP in late 2001 confirmed the change of direction for Microsoft, bringing the consumer and business operating systems together under Windows NT. After the release of Windows XP, Microsoft stopped selling Windows 9x releases to end users (and later to OEMs) in

7344-600: The patches and updates that followed the release of Windows 3.1 in early 1992. Meanwhile, Microsoft continued to develop Windows NT . The main architect of the system was Dave Cutler , one of the chief architects of VMS at Digital Equipment Corporation . Microsoft hired him in August 1988 to create a successor to OS/2 , but Cutler created a completely new system instead based on his MICA project at Digital. The first version of Windows NT, Windows NT 3.1 , would be released on July 27, 1993 and used Windows 3.1's interface. About

7446-403: The platform), but also supported the capabilities of the existing NT kernel . Following its approval by Microsoft's staff, development continued on what was now Windows NT, the first 32-bit version of Windows. However, IBM objected to the changes, and ultimately continued OS/2 development on its own. Windows NT was the first Windows operating system based on a hybrid kernel . The hybrid kernel

7548-421: The release (notably Plug and Play) slipped. Microsoft did not change all of the Windows code to 32-bit; parts of it remained 16-bit (albeit not directly using real mode ) for reasons of compatibility, performance and development time. Additionally it was necessary to carry over design decisions from earlier versions of Windows for reasons of backwards compatibility, even if these design decisions no longer matched

7650-443: The release of version 2.0 in December 2012. Versions of Intel CAS are available for Windows Enterprise, Windows Workstation, and Linux . CAS for Windows is an application-aware file-based cache, which can be tuned by system administrators. Additionally, it integrates with the operating system's buffer cache , creating a multi-tier cache architecture. CAS is also aware of some virtualization technologies like vMotion , maintaining

7752-489: The removal of the Start menu . On September 30, 2014, Microsoft announced Windows 10 as the successor to Windows 8.1. It was released on July 29, 2015, and addresses shortcomings in the user interface first introduced with Windows 8. Changes on PC 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 full-screen mode. Windows 10

7854-751: The said Control Panel). Third-party IMEs may also be installed if a user feels that the provided one is insufficient for their needs. Since Windows 2000, English editions of Windows NT have East Asian IMEs (such as Microsoft Pinyin IME and Microsoft Japanese IME) bundled, but files for East Asian languages may be manually installed on Control Panel. 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 Microsoft's Download Center and installed for any edition of Windows (XP or later) – they translate most, but not all, of

7956-420: The same time, through cooperative multitasking . Windows implemented an elaborate, segment-based, 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 3.0 , released in 1990, improved

8058-551: The security model is much less effective than the one in Windows NT. One reason for this is the FAT file systems (including FAT12/FAT16/FAT32), which are the only ones that Windows 9x supports officially, though Windows NT also supports FAT12 and FAT16 (but not FAT32; which wouldn’t be supported until Windows 2000) and Windows 9x can be extended to read and write NTFS volumes using third-party Installable File System drivers. FAT systems have very limited security; every user that has access to

8160-439: The segmented memory provides a degree of protection. Windows 3.0 also featured improvements to the user interface. Microsoft rewrote critical operations from C into assembly . Windows 3.0 was the first version of Windows to achieve broad commercial success, selling 2 million copies in the first six months. Windows 3.1, made generally available on March 1, 1992, featured a facelift. In August 1993, Windows for Workgroups,

8262-479: The threads in which the applications and virtual machines run. The VMM is also responsible for creating MS-DOS environments for system processes and Windows applications that still need to run in MS-DOS mode. It is the replacement for WIN386.EXE in Windows 3.x, and the file vmm32.vxd is a compressed archive containing most of the core VxD, including VMM.vxd itself and ifsmgr.vxd (which facilitates file system access without

8364-488: The time). On June 10, 1999, Microsoft released Windows 98 Second Edition (also known as Windows 98 SE), an interim release whose notable features were the addition of Internet Connection Sharing and improved WDM audio and modem support. Internet Connection Sharing is a form of network address translation , allowing several machines on a LAN (Local Area Network) to share a single Internet connection . It also includes Internet Explorer 5 as opposed to Internet Explorer 4 in

8466-465: The worst operating systems Microsoft had ever released, and the fourth worst tech product of all time. 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 Microsoft's OS/2 operating system known as "NT OS/2". NT OS/2 was intended to be a secure, multi-user operating system with POSIX compatibility and

8568-502: The worst operating systems of all time, both in critical and in retrospect. PC World was highly critical of Windows Me months after it was released (and indeed when it was no longer available), with their article infamously describing Windows Me as "Mistake Edition" and placing it 4th in their "Worst Tech Products of All Time" feature in 2006. Consequently, many home users that were affected by Windows Me's instabilities (as well as those who negatively viewed Windows Me) ultimately stuck with

8670-410: Was aimed at professional users such as networks and businesses, used a similar but separate version number between 3.1 and 4.0. All versions of Windows from Windows XP onwards are based on the Windows NT codebase. The first independent version of Microsoft Windows, version 1.0 , released on November 20, 1985, achieved little popularity. Its name was initially "Interface Manager", but Rowland Hanson ,

8772-407: Was announced as the successor to Windows 10 during a livestream. The new operating system was designed to be more user-friendly and understandable. It was released on October 5, 2021. As of May 2022, Windows 11 is a free upgrade to Windows 10 users who meet the system requirements. In July 2021, Microsoft announced it will start selling subscriptions to virtualized Windows desktops as part of

8874-599: Was announced in September 2013 by Dell ; Dell's announcement states an exclusive agreement with Intel to offer CAS-W only for Dell Precision workstations. Windows 24H2 (10.0.26100.2454) (November 21, 2024 ; 10 days ago  ( 2024-11-21 ) ) [±] 23H2 (10.0.22635.4515) (November 22, 2024 ; 9 days ago  ( 2024-11-22 ) ) [±] 24H2 (10.0.26120.2415) (November 22, 2024 ; 9 days ago  ( 2024-11-22 ) ) [±] Microsoft Windows

8976-552: Was available in OS/2 and Windows NT, although a 16-bit kernel would remain for the sake of backward compatibility. The Win32 API first introduced with Windows NT was adopted as the standard 32-bit programming interface, with Win16 compatibility being preserved through a technique known as " thunking ". A new GUI was not originally planned as part of the release, although elements of the Cairo user interface were borrowed and added as other aspects of

9078-492: 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. Vista's server counterpart, Windows Server 2008 was released in early 2008. On July 22, 2009, Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 were released to manufacturing (RTM) and released to the public three months later on October 22, 2009. Unlike its predecessor, Windows Vista, which introduced

9180-462: Was designed as a modified microkernel , influenced by the Mach microkernel developed by Richard Rashid at Carnegie Mellon University, but without meeting all of the criteria of a pure microkernel. The first release of the resulting operating system, Windows NT 3.1 (named to associate it with Windows 3.1 ) was released in July 1993, with versions for desktop workstations and servers . Windows NT 3.5

9282-432: Was divided among 65 different repositories with a kind of virtualization layer to produce unified view of all of the code. Windows 9x Windows 9x is a generic term referring to a line of discontinued Microsoft Windows operating systems from 1995 to 2000, which were based on the Windows 95 kernel and its underlying foundation of MS-DOS , both of which were updated in subsequent versions. The first version in

9384-462: Was 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

9486-476: Was more stable than Windows 95's final (gamma) version. Like with Windows 95, Windows 98 received the Microsoft Plus! add-on in the form of Plus! 98 . On September 14, 2000, Microsoft introduced Windows Me (Millennium Edition; also known as Windows ME), which upgraded Windows 98 with enhanced multimedia and Internet features. Code-named "Millennium", It was conceived as a quick one-year project that served as

9588-690: Was not released until November 1985. Windows 1.0 was to compete with Apple 's operating system, but achieved little popularity. Windows 1.0 is not a complete operating system; rather, it extends MS-DOS . The shell of Windows 1.0 is a program known as the MS-DOS Executive . Components included 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 modal dialog boxes may appear over other windows. Microsoft sold as included Windows Development libraries with

9690-458: Was released in April 2003. It was followed in December 2005, by Windows Server 2003 R2. 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

9792-557: Was released in September 1994, focusing on performance improvements and support for Novell 's NetWare , and was followed up by Windows NT 3.51 in May 1995, which included additional improvements and support for the PowerPC architecture. Windows NT 4.0 was released in June 1996, introducing the redesigned interface of Windows 95 to the NT series. On February 17, 2000, Microsoft released Windows 2000 ,

9894-671: Was released in two different versions: Windows/286 and Windows/386 . Windows/386 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 . Windows/286, 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 Windows packages, there were runtime-only versions that shipped with early Windows software from third parties and made it possible to run their Windows software on MS-DOS and without

9996-505: Was released on November 20, 1985, as a graphical operating system shell for MS-DOS in response to the growing interest in graphical user interfaces (GUIs). The name "Windows" is a reference to the windowing system in GUIs. The 1990 release of Windows 3.0 catapulted its market success and led to various other product families, including the now-defunct Windows 9x , Windows Mobile , Windows Phone , and Windows CE/Embedded Compact . Windows

10098-401: Was roughly equivalent to a service pack . The first OSR of Windows 95 was also the first version of Windows to be bundled with Microsoft's web browser , Internet Explorer . Mainstream support for Windows 95 ended on December 31, 2000, and extended support for Windows 95 ended on December 31, 2001. Windows 95 was followed up with the release of Windows 98 on June 25, 1998, which introduced

10200-582: Was the first client version of Windows NT to be released simultaneously in IA-32 and x64 editions. As of 2024, 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. Starting from Windows 10 Fall Creators Update (version 1709) and later includes support for ARM-based PCs. Windows CE (officially known as Windows Embedded Compact ),

10302-551: Was used in the Dreamcast along with Sega's 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 6.0 R3 and Windows CE 7.0 . Windows Phone 8 however, is based on the same NT-kernel as Windows 8. Windows Embedded Compact is not to be confused with Windows XP Embedded or Windows NT 4.0 Embedded , modular editions of Windows based on Windows NT kernel. Xbox OS

10404-420: Was using Git, in about 8500 commits and 1760 Windows builds per day. In June 2021, shortly before Microsoft's announcement of Windows 11, Microsoft updated their lifecycle policy pages for Windows 10, revealing that support for their last release of Windows 10 will end on October 14, 2025. On April 27, 2023, Microsoft announced that version 22H2 would be the last of Windows 10. On June 24, 2021, Windows 11

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