Windows nt

Windows NT

Main article: Windows NT

Early versions

In November 1988, a new development team within Microsoft (which included formerDigital Equipment Corporation developersDave 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 withPOSIX compatibility and a modular, portablekernel with preemptive multitasking and support for multiple processor architectures. However, following the successful release ofWindows 3.0, the NT development team decided to rework the project to use an extended 32-bit port of the Windows APIknown 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 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.[24][25]

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 workstationsand servers. Windows NT 3.5 was released in September 1994, focusing on performance improvements and support for Novell‘sNetWare, and was followed up by Windows NT 3.51 in May 1995, which included additional improvements and support for thePowerPC 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, 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.[25]

Home versions of Windows NT

The next major version of Windows NT,Windows XP, was released on October 25, 2001. The introduction of Windows XP aimed to unify the consumer-oriented Windows 9xseries with the architecture introduced by Windows NT, 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, modes to help provide compatibility with software designed for previous versions of Windows, and Remote Assistance functionality.[26]

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 itsspecifications for a tablet computer, with support for stylus pen input and additional pen-enabled applications).[27][28][29]Mainstream support for Windows XP ended on April 14, 2009. Extended support ended on April 8, 2014.[30]

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.[25] It was followed in December 2005, by Windows Server 2003 R2.