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112-419: Installation typically involves code (program) being copied/generated from the installation files to new files on the local computer for easier access by the operating system, creating necessary directories, registering environment variables , providing a separate program for un-installation etc. Because code is generally copied/generated in multiple locations, uninstallation usually involves more than just erasing

224-421: A % sign before and after it. In DOS, OS/2 and Windows command-line interpreters as well as their API , upper or lower case is not distinguished for environment variable names. The environment variable named HOMEDRIVE contains the drive letter (plus its trailing : colon) of the user's home directory, whilst HOMEPATH contains the full path of the user's home directory within that drive. So to see

336-445: A bootable CD , DVD , USB flash drive or loaded over the network as with thin clients . Examples are AmigaOS 4.0, various Linux distributions , MorphOS or Mac OS versions 1.0 through 9.0. (See live CD and live USB .) Finally, web applications , which run inside a web browser , do not need installation. A custom installation allows the installer to choose to select components or parts that are required to be installed. This

448-741: 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

560-550: 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

672-462: A colon (common on Unix and Unix-like) or semicolon-delineated (common on Windows and DOS) list. The variables can be used both in scripts and on the command line . They are usually referenced by putting special symbols in front of or around the variable name. It is conventional for environment-variable names to be chosen to be in all upper cases. In programming code generally, this helps to distinguish environment variables from other kinds of names in

784-402: A feature, although with somewhat different syntax, usage and standard variable names. In all Unix and Unix-like systems, as well as on Windows, each process has its own separate set of environment variables . By default, when a process is created, it inherits a duplicate run-time environment of its parent process, except for explicit changes made by the parent when it creates the child. At

896-524: A hybrid installation engine, whereby a setup may be executed using either the Windows Installer APIs, or directly through InstallAware's native code setup engine. This hybrid engine also provides the capability to switch installation modes at runtime. macOS includes Installer , a native package manager . macOS also includes a separate software updating application, Software Update , that only supports Apple and system software. Included in

1008-513: 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

1120-646: A minimum amount of free environment space that will be available when launching secondary shells. While the content of environment variables remains unchanged upon storage, their names (without the " % ") are always converted to uppercase, with the exception of pre-environment variables defined via the CONFIG.SYS directive SET under DR DOS 6.0 and higher (and only with SWITCHES=/L (for "allow lowercase names") under DR-DOS 7.02 and higher). In principle, MS-DOS 7.0 and higher also supports lowercase variable names ( %windir% ), but provides no means for

1232-750: A minimum level of tools required to create installers using Windows Installer in the freely available Windows SDK , instead focusing on the API to allow developers and third parties to leverage it in creating custom installers. Third party tools may supporting create installers using this API to speed the process. Examples include InstallShield ( Flexera Software ) and WiX ( Outercurve Foundation ). Installation authoring tools that do not rely on Windows Installer include Wise Installation Studio ( Wise Solutions, Inc. ), Installer VISE (MindVision Software), Visual Installer (SamLogic), NSIS , Clickteam , InnoSetup and InstallSimple. InstallAware for Windows Installer features

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1344-610: 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

1456-400: 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

1568-520: A non-zero exit code. In DOS, OS/2 and Windows command-line interpreters such as COMMAND.COM and CMD.EXE , the SET command is used to assign environment variables and values using the following arguments: An environment variable is removed via: The SET command without any arguments displays all environment variables along with their values; SET " " , zero or more spaces, will include internal variables too. In CMD.EXE , it

1680-579: 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

1792-510: 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

1904-687: A running process can query the value of the TEMP environment variable to discover a suitable location to store temporary files , or the HOME or USERPROFILE variable to find the directory structure owned by the user running the process. They were introduced in their modern form in 1979 with Version 7 Unix , so are included in all Unix operating system flavors and variants from that point onward including Linux and macOS . From PC DOS 2.0 in 1982, all succeeding Microsoft operating systems, including Microsoft Windows , and OS/2 also have included them as

2016-413: A setuid process. setuid programs usually unset unknown environment variables and check others or set them to reasonable values. In general, the collection of environment variables function as an associative array where both the keys and values are strings. The interpretation of characters in either string differs among systems. When data structures such as lists need to be represented, it is common to use

2128-485: A shell script. However, in Unix, non-exported variables are preferred for this as they do not leak outside the process. In Unix, an environment variable that is changed in a script or compiled program will only affect that process and possibly child processes. The parent process and any unrelated processes will not be affected. Similarly, changing or removing a variable's value inside a DOS or Windows batch file will change

2240-485: A software program can be used to deploy a program on networks in educational institutions, including primary and secondary education and universities, in addition to business, government, and corporate networks. The person managing the silent installation can choose to add a desktop shortcut, for example, to silently install Google Drive with a desktop shortcut: Installation that is performed without user interaction during its progress or with no user present at all. One of

2352-465: 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

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2464-543: 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

2576-416: 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,

2688-451: A technique called bootstrapping is used. The common pattern for this is to use small executable files which update the installer and starts the real installation after the update. This small executable is called bootstrapper. Sometimes the bootstrapper installs other prerequisites for the software during the bootstrapping process too. Cross-platform installer builders produce installers that run on Windows, macOS and Linux . An example

2800-410: A user who attend it to make choices, such as accepting or declining an end-user license agreement (EULA), specifying preferences such as the installation location, supplying passwords or assisting in product activation . In graphical environments, installers that offer a wizard-based interface are common. Attended installers may ask users to help mitigate the errors. For instance, if the disk in which

2912-410: A user's command. For instance, a system administrator willing to install a later version of a computer program that is being used can schedule that installation to occur when that program is not running. An operating system may automatically install a device driver for a device that the user connects. (See plug and play .) Malware may also be installed automatically. For example, the infamous Con ficker

3024-521: A version intended for installation over a network. An installation program or installer is a computer program that installs files, such as applications , drivers , or other software , onto a computer. Some installers are specifically made to install the files they contain; other installers are general-purpose and work by reading the contents of the software package to be installed. They exist both as "standalone installer" (or "offline installer") & "web installer" (or "online installer"), where

3136-679: A zero-length string. Standard environment variables or reserved environment variables include: The DR-DOS family supports a number of additional standard environment variables including: Datalight ROM-DOS supports a number of additional standard environment variables as well including: %TZ% , %COMM% , %SOCKETS% , %HTTP_DIR% , %HOSTNAME% and %FTPDIR% are also used by ROM-DOS. These environment variables refer to locations of critical operating system resources, and as such generally are not user-dependent. User management variables store information related to resources and settings owned by various user profiles within

3248-463: Is InstallAnywhere by Flexera Software , which is based on Java . An instance of native code is InstallAware Multi Platform by InstallAware Software, featuring build toolchains and a setup engine that runs without dependencies; it can also switch to console mode if a graphical user interface (GUI) cannot be displayed on Linux. Windows NT family includes an installation API and an associated service called Windows Installer . Microsoft provides

3360-549: 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 ,

3472-435: 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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3584-450: 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

3696-435: Is assumed that there is no user to help mitigate errors. For instance, if the installation medium was faulty, the installer should fail the installation, as there is no user to fix the fault or replace the medium. Unattended installers may record errors in a computer log for later review. Installation performed without using a computer monitor connected. In attended forms of headless installation, another machine connects to

3808-556: Is being asked to be installed is needed. The installation of additional software then can simply be skipped or unchecked (this may require the user to use the "custom", "detailed" or "expert" version of the installation procedure). Such malicious conduct is not necessarily a decision by the software developers or their company but can also be an issue of external installers such as the Download.com installer by CNET . As mentioned earlier, some computer programs need no installation. This

3920-465: Is found in the Haiku operating system, which uses a utility called Haiku Installer to install itself onto a device after booting from a live CD or live USB . Environment variable An environment variable is a user-definable value that can affect the way running processes will behave on a computer. Environment variables are part of the environment in which a process runs. For example,

4032-462: Is not distinguished for environment variable names. The following command displays all environment variables and their values: The commands env and set can be used to set environment variables and are often incorporated directly into the shell. The following commands can also be used, but are often dependent on a certain shell. A few simple principles govern how environment variables achieve their effect. Environment variables are local to

4144-520: Is not of much use, but in bigger organizations where thousands of users work, deploying the applications becomes a typical task and for that reason silent installation is performed so that the application is installed in the background without affecting the work of the user. Silent parameters can vary from software to software; if a software/application has silent parameters, it can be checked by " <software.exe> /? " or " <software.exe> /help " or " <software.exe> -help ". Silently installing

4256-419: Is not the same as "unattended installation" (see below): All silent installations are unattended but not all unattended installations are silent. The reason behind a silent installation may be convenience or subterfuge. Malware and viruses can be installed silently when a person clicks on a link while working at a business they think is real but is a hacker's program download. For normal users silent installation

4368-451: Is possible to assign local variables that will not be global using the SETLOCAL command and ENDLOCAL to restore the environment. Use the switch /? to display the internal documentation , or use the viewer help : In PowerShell , the assignment follows a syntax similar to Unix: Examples of environment variables include: Under DOS, the master environment

4480-509: Is provided by the primary command processor, which inherits the pre-environment defined in CONFIG.SYS when first loaded. Its size can be configured through the COMMAND /E:n parameter between 160 and 32767 bytes. Local environment segments inherited to child processes are typically reduced down to the size of the contents they hold. Some command-line processors (like 4DOS ) allow to define

4592-529: 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

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4704-409: Is sometimes preferred as opposed to installing the full suite of software components. Some situations that require the need for a custom install might be where only the basic components are required which are smaller in size instead of the full components which may take up too much hard drive space. On Windows systems, this is the most common form of installation. An installation process usually needs

4816-715: Is stored in the Windows Registry or set in the AUTOEXEC.BAT file. On Unix , a setuid program is given an environment chosen by its caller, but it runs with different authority from its caller. The dynamic linker will usually load code from locations specified by the environment variables $ LD_LIBRARY_PATH and $ LD_PRELOAD and run it with the process's authority. If a setuid program did this, it would be insecure, because its caller could get it to run arbitrary code and hence misuse its authority. For this reason, libc unsets these environment variables at startup in

4928-573: 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,

5040-447: 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

5152-730: The API level, these changes must be done between running fork and exec . Alternatively, from command shells such as bash , a user can change environment variables for a particular command invocation by indirectly invoking it via env or using the ENVIRONMENT_VARIABLE=VALUE <command> notation. A running program can access the values of environment variables for configuration purposes. Shell scripts and batch files use environment variables to communicate data and preferences to child processes . They can also be used to store temporary values for reference later in

5264-409: The C shell family (csh, tcsh, etc.) of Unix command line shells . It unsets a shell variable, removing it from memory and the shell's exported environment. It is implemented as a shell builtin , because it directly manipulates the internals of the shell. Read-only shell variables cannot be unset. If one tries to unset a read-only variable, the unset command will print an error message and return

5376-802: The Dock as of 10.6.6, and also in the Apple menu , the Mac App Store shares many attributes with the successful App Store for iOS devices, such as a similar app approval process, the use of Apple ID for purchases, and automatic installation and updating. Although the App Store is Apple's preferred delivery method for macOS apps, previously purchased licenses cannot be transferred to the Mac App Store for downloading or automatic updating. Instead of an installer, many macOS applications distributed outside

5488-585: 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),

5600-974: 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),

5712-505: 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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5824-578: 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

5936-411: The operating system , are sometimes referred to as zero-install . Zero-install can be achieved through multiple means: The Linux distribution GoboLinux takes a similar approach (each applications gets its own directory structure), but still introduces the side-effects of the traditional Linux installation to maintain the backward compatibility with the standard Linux directory layout. Isolation of

6048-451: 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

6160-446: 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 ,

6272-736: 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

6384-589: 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

6496-482: The Mac App Store use an Apple Disk Image (.dmg file) that contains an application bundle to be dragged and dropped into the Applications folder; those applications are described as drag-install applications. These often feature prominent installation instructions and a shortcut to the Applications folder; that style of drag-install application was invented and published by Iris Artin (formerly Ben Artin) during

6608-501: The OS from any changes required by the application can also be achieved through the application virtualization tools, like VMware ThinApp , Microsoft App-V , InstallFree Bridge. A class of modern applications that do not need installation and are located on a detachable storage device are known as portable applications , as they may be moved around onto different computers and run. Similarly, there are live operating systems , which do not need installation and can be run directly from

6720-588: 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,

6832-430: 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

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6944-620: 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

7056-527: 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

7168-457: 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

7280-437: 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

7392-417: The code. Environment-variable names are case sensitive on Unix-like operating systems but not on DOS, OS/2, and Windows. In most Unix and Unix-like command-line shells , an environment variable's value is retrieved by placing a $ sign before the variable's name. If necessary, the name can also be surrounded by braces. To display the user home directory, the user may type: In Unix and Unix-like systems,

7504-443: The computer program is being installed was full, the installer may ask the user to specify another target path or clear enough space in the disk. A common misconception is unarchivation, which is not considered an installation action because it does not include user choices, such as accepting or declining EULA. A "silent installation" is an installation that does not display messages or windows during its progress. "Silent installation"

7616-427: The contents of environment variables to exceed 128 characters. DR-DOS COMMAND.COM supports environment variables up to 255, 4DOS even up to 512 characters. Since COMMAND.COM can be configured (via /L:128..1024 ) to support command lines up to 1024 characters internally under MS-DOS 7.0 and higher, environment variables should be expected to contain at least 1024 characters as well. In some versions of DR-DOS,

7728-409: 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

7840-452: The development of Fetch 5 and subsequently gained wide adoption. Commercial applications for macOS may also use a third-party installer, such as the Mac version of Installer VISE (MindVision Software) or InstallerMaker ( StuffIt ). A system installer is the software that is used to set up and install an operating system onto a device. Examples of Linux system installers: Another example

7952-405: The environment as needed and lastly the child replaces itself with the program to be called. This procedure gives the calling program control over the environment of the called program. In Unix shells, variables may be assigned without the export keyword. Variables defined in this way are displayed by the set command, but are not true environment variables, as they are stored only by

8064-486: The environment passed to drivers, which often do not need their environment after installation, can be shrunken or relocated through SETENV or INSTALL[HIGH] / LOADHIGH options /Z (zero environment), /D[: loaddrive ] (substitute drive, e.g. B:TSR.COM ) and /E (relocate environment above program) in order to minimize the driver's effectively resulting resident memory footprint . In batch mode, non-existent environment variables are replaced by

8176-425: The former allows for offline installation as it contains all installation files, whereas the latter needs to download files necessary for installation from the web at the time of installation. The differences between a package management system and an installer are: During an installation of a computer program , it is sometimes necessary to update the installer or package manager itself. To make this possible,

8288-516: 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

8400-419: The home drive and path, the user may type this: The command SET (with no arguments) displays all environment variables and their values. In Windows NT and later set can also be used to print all variables whose name begins with a given prefix by giving the prefix as the sole argument to the command. In Windows PowerShell , the user may type any of the following: In PowerShell, upper or lower case

8512-436: 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

8624-505: The interfering elements are absent, a clean installation may succeed where an unclean installation may fail or may take significantly longer. Network installation, shortened net install, is an installation of a program from a shared network resource that may be done by installing a minimal system before proceeding to download further packages over the network. This may simply be a copy of the original media but software publishers which offer site licenses for institutional customers may provide

8736-515: 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

8848-433: 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

8960-709: The names of environment variable are always uppercased. Some, but not all variables contain short 8.3 rather than long file names . While some variables present in the CMD environment are missing, there are also some variables specific to the COMMAND environment.) Windows 24H2 (10.0.26100.2454) (November 21, 2024 ; 6 days ago  ( 2024-11-21 ) ) [±] 23H2 (10.0.22635.4515) (November 22, 2024 ; 5 days ago  ( 2024-11-22 ) ) [±] 24H2 (10.0.26120.2415) (November 22, 2024 ; 5 days ago  ( 2024-11-22 ) ) [±] Microsoft Windows

9072-412: The names of environment variables are case-sensitive. The command env displays all environment variables and their values. The command printenv can also be used to print a single variable by giving that variable name as the sole argument to the command. In DOS, OS/2 and Windows command-line interpreters such as COMMAND.COM and CMD.EXE , an environment variable is retrieved by placing

9184-570: The need to reinstall before each execution. Common operations performed during software installations include: These operations may require some charges or be free of charge. In case of payment, installation costs means the costs connected and relevant to or incurred as a result of installing the drivers or the equipment in the customers' premises. Some installers may attempt to trick users into installing junkware such as various forms of adware , toolbars , trialware or software of partnering companies. To prevent this, extra caution on what exactly

9296-622: 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

9408-403: 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

9520-409: The process in which they were set. If two shell processes are spawned and the value of an environment variable is changed in one, that change will not be seen by the other. When a child process is created, it inherits all the environment variables and their values from the parent process. Usually, when a program calls another program, it first creates a child process by forking , then the child adjusts

9632-444: The program folder. For example, registry files and other system code may need to be modified or deleted for a complete uninstallation. Some computer programs can be executed by simply copying them into a folder stored on a computer and executing them. Other programs are supplied in a form unsuitable for immediate execution and therefore need an installation procedure. Once installed, the program can be executed again and again, without

9744-528: The reasons to use this approach is to automate the installation of a large number of systems. An unattended installation either does not require the user to supply anything or has received all necessary input prior to the start of installation. Such input may be in the form of command line switches or an answer file , a file that contains all the necessary parameters. Windows XP and most Linux distributions are examples of operating systems that can be installed with an answer file. In unattended installation, it

9856-495: 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

9968-754: 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

10080-420: 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

10192-439: 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,

10304-507: The shell and are unknown to all other processes. The printenv command will not display them, and child processes do not inherit them. The prefix syntax exports a "true" environment variable to a child process without affecting the current process: The persistence of an environment variable can be session-wide or system-wide. unset is a builtin command implemented by both the Bourne shell family ( sh , ksh , bash , etc.) and

10416-695: The system. As a general rule, these variables do not refer to critical system resources or locations that are necessary for the OS to run. Optional System variables are not explicitly specified by default but can be used to modify the default behavior of certain built-in console commands. These variables also do not need to be explicitly specified as command line arguments. The following tables shows typical default values of certain environment variables under English versions of Windows as they can be retrieved under CMD . (Some of these variables are also defined when running COMMAND.COM under Windows, but differ in certain important details: Under COMMAND.COM ,

10528-450: The target machine (for instance, via a local area network ) and takes over the display output. Since a headless installation does not need a user at the location of the target computer, unattended headless installers may be used to install a program on multiple machines at the same time. An installation process that runs on a preset time or when a predefined condition transpires, as opposed to an installation process that starts explicitly on

10640-468: The user to define them. Environment variable names containing lowercase letters are stored in the environment just like normal environment variables, but remain invisible to most DOS software, since they are written to expect uppercase variables only. Some command processors limit the maximum length of a variable name to 80 characters. While principally only limited by the size of the environment segment , some DOS and 16-bit Windows programs do not expect

10752-437: The variable for the duration of COMMAND.COM or CMD.EXE 's existence, respectively. In Unix, the environment variables are normally initialized during system startup by the system init startup scripts , and hence inherited by all other processes in the system. Users can, and often do, augment them in the profile script for the command shell they are using. In Microsoft Windows, each environment variable's default value

10864-465: 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

10976-407: 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

11088-492: 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

11200-517: 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

11312-417: Was installed when the user plugged an infected device to their computer. A clean installation is one that is done in the absence of any interfering elements such as old versions of the computer program being installed or leftovers from a previous installation. In particular, the clean installation of an operating system is an installation in which the target disk partition is erased before installation. Since

11424-462: 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

11536-698: 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

11648-512: Was once usual for many programs which run on DOS , the classic Mac OS , Atari TOS and AmigaOS . As computing environments grew more complex and fixed hard drives replaced floppy disks , the need for tangible installation presented itself. For example Commodore released the Installer for Amiga . The modern applications that can be run without going through formal process of installation and, in particular, do not require modifications of

11760-462: 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

11872-626: 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 ,

11984-675: 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

12096-509: 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

12208-401: 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

12320-586: 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 ),

12432-556: 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

12544-420: 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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