166-543: Windows Vista is a major release of the Windows NT operating system developed by Microsoft . It was the direct successor to Windows XP , released five years earlier, which was then the longest time span between successive releases of Microsoft Windows. It was released to manufacturing on November 8, 2006, and over the following two months, it was released in stages to business customers, original equipment manufacturers (OEMs), and retail channels. On January 30, 2007, it
332-432: A dedicated x64 edition ) has x64 editions. The first version of Windows NT to support ARM64 devices with Qualcomm processors was Windows 10, version 1709 . This is a full version of Windows, rather than the cut-down Windows RT . The minimum hardware specification required to run each release of the professional workstation version of Windows NT has been fairly slow-moving until the 6.0 (Vista) release, which requires
498-509: A home network ; and new multimedia tools such as Windows DVD Maker . Windows Vista included version 3.0 of the .NET Framework , allowing software developers to write applications without traditional Windows APIs . There are major architectural overhauls to audio, display, network, and print sub-systems; deployment, installation, servicing, and startup procedures are also revised. It is the first release of Windows built on Microsoft's Trustworthy Computing initiative and emphasized security with
664-454: A release to manufacturing (RTM) build is the final version of code shipped to retailers and other distributors, the purpose of a pre-RTM build is to eliminate any last "show-stopper" bugs that may prevent the code from responsibly being shipped to customers, as well as anything else that consumers may find troublesome. Thus, it is unlikely that any major new features would be introduced; instead, work would focus on Vista's fit and finish. In just
830-513: A taskbar and Start menu ), which originally appeared in Windows 95 . The first release was given version number 3.1 to match the contemporary 16-bit Windows; magazines of that era claimed the number was also used to make that version seem more reliable than a ".0" release. Also the Novell IPX protocol was apparently licensed only to 3.1 versions of Windows software. The NT version number
996-471: A "Family Pack" version of Windows 7 Home Premium was also released for a limited time, which allowed upgrades on up to three computers. In certain regions, copies of Windows 7 were only sold in, and could only be activated in a designated region. Support for the original release of Windows 7 (without a service pack) ended on April 9, 2013, requiring users to update to Windows 7 Service Pack 1 in order to continue receiving updates and support. Microsoft ended
1162-545: A 64-bit install media can acquire this media through the Windows Vista Alternate Media program. The Ultimate edition includes both 32-bit and 64-bit media. The digitally downloaded version of Ultimate includes only one version, either 32-bit or 64-bit, from Windows Marketplace. The maximum amount of RAM that Windows Vista supports varies by edition and processor architecture, as shown in the table. All editions except Windows Vista Starter support both
1328-455: A 64-bit kernel and 64-bit memory addressing. Windows NT is a group or family of products — like Windows is a group or family. Windows NT is a sub-grouping of Windows. The first version of Windows NT, 3.1 , was produced for workstation and server computers. It was commercially focused — and intended to complement consumer versions of Windows that were based on MS-DOS (including Windows 1.0 through Windows 3.1x ). In 1996, Windows NT 4.0
1494-569: A Microsoft blog, there are three choices for OpenGL implementation on Vista. An application can use the default implementation, which translates OpenGL calls into the Direct3D API and is frozen at OpenGL version 1.4, or an application can use an Installable Client Driver (ICD), which comes in two flavors: legacy and Vista-compatible. A legacy ICD disables the Desktop Window Manager , a Vista-compatible ICD takes advantage of
1660-775: A PC that Windows Vista supports is: one processor for Windows Vista Starter, Windows Vista Home Basic, and Windows Vista Home Premium, and two processors for Windows Vista Business, Windows Vista Enterprise, and Windows Vista Ultimate. Microsoft releases updates such as service packs for its Windows operating systems to add features, address issues, and improve performance and stability. Windows NT 24H2 (10.0.26100.2454) (November 21, 2024 ; 2 days ago ( 2024-11-21 ) ) [±] 23H2 (10.0.22635.4515) (November 22, 2024 ; 1 day ago ( 2024-11-22 ) ) [±] 24H2 (10.0.26120.2415) (November 22, 2024 ; 1 day ago ( 2024-11-22 ) ) [±] Windows NT
1826-622: A September 23, 2005 front-page article in The Wall Street Journal , Microsoft co-president Jim Allchin , who had overall responsibility for the development and delivery of Windows, explained how development of Longhorn had been "crashing into the ground" due in large part to the haphazard methods by which features were introduced and integrated into the core of the operating system, without a clear focus on an end-product. Allchin went on to explain how in December 2003, he enlisted
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#17327720867291992-401: A TCP/IP stack derived at first from a STREAMS -based stack from Spider Systems , then later rewritten in-house). Windows NT 3.1 was the first version of Windows to use 32-bit flat virtual memory addressing on 32-bit processors. Its companion product, Windows 3.1, used segmented addressing and switches from 16-bit to 32-bit addressing in pages. Windows NT 3.1 featured a core kernel providing
2158-486: A blog entry which decried the development process of Windows Vista, stating that "The code is way too complicated, and that the pace of coding has been tremendously slowed down by overbearing process." The same post also described Windows Vista as having approximately 50 million lines of code , with about 2,000 developers working on the product. During a demonstration of the speech recognition feature new to Windows Vista at Microsoft's Financial Analyst Meeting on July 27, 2006,
2324-480: A boot PIN being required too. A variety of other privilege-restriction techniques are also built into Vista. An example is the concept of "integrity levels" in user processes, whereby a process with a lower integrity level cannot interact with processes of a higher integrity level and cannot perform DLL–injection to processes of a higher integrity level. The security restrictions of Windows services are more fine-grained, so that services (especially those listening on
2490-864: A bug related to HDMI audio and another related to printing XPS documents. In Europe, the automatic nature of the BrowserChoice.eu feature was dropped in Windows 7 Service Pack 1 in February 2011 and remained absent for 14 months despite Microsoft reporting that it was still present, subsequently described by Microsoft as a "technical error." As a result, in March 2013, the European Commission fined Microsoft €561 million to deter companies from reneging on settlement promises. The Platform Update for Windows 7 SP1 and Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1
2656-673: A class-action lawsuit), among other critiques. As such, the adoption of Vista in comparison to XP remained somewhat low. In July 2007, following the shelving of the Vienna project and six months following the public release of Vista, it was reported that the next version of Windows would then be codenamed Windows 7, with plans for a final release within three years. Bill Gates , in an interview with Newsweek , suggested that Windows 7 would be more "user-centric". Gates later said that Windows 7 would also focus on performance improvements. Steven Sinofsky later expanded on this point, explaining in
2822-856: A development process that would enforce high levels of code quality, reduce interdependencies between components, and in general, "not make things worse with Vista". Since Microsoft decided that Longhorn needed to be further componentized, work started on builds (known as the Omega-13 builds, named after a time travel device in the film Galaxy Quest ) that would componentize existing Windows Server 2003 source code, and over time add back functionality as development progressed. Future Longhorn builds would start from Windows Server 2003 Service Pack 1 and continue from there. This change, announced internally to Microsoft employees on August 26, 2004, began in earnest in September, though it would take several more months before
2988-425: A direct effect on its development. This effort has resulted in a number of new security and safety features and an Evaluation Assurance Level rating of 4+. User Account Control , or UAC is perhaps the most significant and visible of these changes. UAC is a security technology that makes it possible for users to use their computer with fewer privileges by default, to stop malware from making unauthorized changes to
3154-472: A few days, developers had managed to drop Vista's bug count from over 2470 on September 22 to just over 1400 by the time RC2 shipped in early October. However, they still had a way to go before Vista was ready to RTM. Microsoft's internal processes required Vista's bug count to drop to 500 or fewer before the product could go into escrow for RTM. For most of the pre-RTM builds, only 32-bit editions were released. On June 14, 2006, Windows developer Philip Su posted
3320-412: A finger. Clicking this button minimizes all windows, and clicking it a second time restores them. Window management in Windows 7 has several new features: Aero Snap maximizes a window when it is dragged to the top, left, or right of the screen. Dragging windows to the left or right edges of the screen allows users to snap software windows to either side of the screen, such that the windows take up half
3486-559: A hybrid drive can be spun down when not in use. Another new technology called SuperFetch utilizes machine learning techniques to analyze usage patterns to allow Windows Vista to make intelligent decisions about what content should be present in system memory at any given time. It uses almost all the extra RAM as disk cache . In conjunction with SuperFetch, an automatic built-in Windows Disk Defragmenter makes sure that those applications are strategically positioned on
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#17327720867293652-424: A large horizontal pane that appeared under the toolbars. A new search interface allowed for filtering of results, searching for Windows help, and natural-language queries that would be used to integrate with WinFS. The animated search characters were also removed. The "view modes" were also replaced with a single slider that would resize the icons in real-time, in the list, thumbnail, or details mode, depending on where
3818-459: A large number of new application programming interfaces. Chief among them is the inclusion of version 3.0 of the .NET Framework , which consists of a class library and Common Language Runtime . Version 3.0 includes four new major components: These technologies are also available for Windows XP and Windows Server 2003 to facilitate their introduction to and usage by developers and end-users. There are also significant new development APIs in
3984-471: A layered design architecture that consists of two main components, user mode and kernel mode . Programs and subsystems in user mode are limited in terms of what system resources they have access to, while the kernel mode has unrestricted access to the system memory and external devices. Kernel mode in Windows NT has full access to the hardware and system resources of the computer. The Windows NT kernel
4150-532: A limited subset of features planned for Longhorn, in particular fast file searching and integrated graphics and sound processing, but appeared to have impressive reliability and performance compared to contemporary Longhorn builds. Most Longhorn builds had major Windows Explorer system leaks which prevented the OS from performing well, and added more confusion to the development teams in later builds with more and more code being developed which failed to reach stability. In
4316-413: A minimum of 15 GB of free disk space, a tenfold increase in free disk space alone over the previous version, and the 2021 10.0 (11) release which excludes most systems built before 2018. Windows 7 Windows 7 is a major release of the Windows NT operating system developed by Microsoft . It was released to manufacturing on July 22, 2009, and became generally available on October 22, 2009. It
4482-478: A native TFTP client with the ability to transfer files to or from a TFTP server. The taskbar has seen the biggest visual changes, where the old Quick Launch toolbar has been replaced with the ability to pin applications to the taskbar. Buttons for pinned applications are integrated with the task buttons. These buttons also enable Jump Lists to allow easy access to common tasks, and files frequently used with specific applications. The revamped taskbar also allows
4648-940: A new API, and is fully compatible with the Desktop Window Manager. At least two primary vendors, ATI and NVIDIA provided full Vista-compatible ICDs. However, hardware overlay is not supported, because it is considered as an obsolete feature in Vista. ATI and NVIDIA strongly recommend using compositing desktop/ Framebuffer Objects for same functionality. Windows Vista is the first Microsoft operating system: Some notable Windows XP applications and features have been replaced or removed in Windows Vista, including Active Desktop , MSN Explorer , HyperTerminal , Messenger service NetMeeting , NTBackup , and Windows Messenger . Several multimedia features, networking features, and Shell and Windows Explorer features such as
4814-409: A new networking API with support for building SOAP-based web services in native code (as opposed to .NET -based WCF web services), new features to simplify development of installation packages and shorten application install times. Windows 7, by default, generates fewer User Account Control (UAC) prompts because it allows digitally signed Windows components to gain elevated privileges without
4980-883: A new version of Windows Media Center , a Gadget for Windows Media Center, improved media features, XPS Essentials Pack, and Windows PowerShell being included, and a redesigned Calculator with multiline capabilities including Programmer and Statistics modes along with unit conversion for length, weight, temperature, and several others. Many new items have been added to the Control Panel , including ClearType Text Tuner, Display Color Calibration Wizard, Gadgets , Recovery, Troubleshooting, Workspaces Center, Location and Other Sensors, Credential Manager, Biometric Devices, System Icons, and Display. Windows Security Center has been renamed to Action Center ( Windows Health Center and Windows Solution Center in earlier builds), which encompasses both security and maintenance of
5146-413: A piece of malicious software to compromise the system, or disable the encryption. BitLocker can work in conjunction with a Trusted Platform Module (TPM) cryptoprocessor (version 1.2) embedded in a computer's motherboard , or with a USB key. However, as with other full disk encryption technologies, BitLocker is vulnerable to a cold boot attack , especially where TPM is used as a key protector without
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5312-656: A portable operating system, compatible with OS/2 and POSIX and supporting multiprocessing , in October 1988. When development started in November 1989, Windows NT was to be known as OS/2 3.0, the third version of the operating system developed jointly by Microsoft and IBM . To ensure portability, initial development was targeted at the Intel i860 XR RISC processor , switching to the MIPS R3000 in late 1989, and then
5478-695: A prompt. Additionally, users can now adjust the level at which UAC operates using a sliding scale. Certain capabilities and programs that were a part of Windows Vista are no longer present or have been changed, resulting in the removal of certain functionalities; these include the classic Start Menu user interface, some taskbar features , Windows Explorer features , Windows Media Player features , Windows Ultimate Extras , Search button, and InkBall . Four applications bundled with Windows Vista— Windows Photo Gallery , Windows Movie Maker , Windows Calendar and Windows Mail —are not included with Windows 7 and were replaced by Windows Live -branded versions as part of
5644-563: A protected mode, which operates with lower permissions than the user and runs in isolation from other applications in the operating system, preventing it from accessing or modifying anything besides the Temporary Internet Files directory. Microsoft's anti-spyware product, Windows Defender , has been incorporated into Windows, protecting against malware and other threats. Changes to various system configuration settings (such as new auto-starting applications) are blocked unless
5810-647: A refined version of Windows Vista. At PDC 2008, Microsoft demonstrated Windows 7 with its reworked taskbar . On December 27, 2008, the Windows 7 Beta was leaked onto the Internet via BitTorrent . According to a performance test by ZDNet , Windows 7 Beta beat both Windows XP and Windows Vista in several key areas, including boot and shutdown time and working with files, such as loading documents. Other areas did not beat XP, including PC Pro benchmarks for typical office activities and video editing, which remain identical to Vista and slower than XP. On January 7, 2009,
5976-520: A revision of Windows NT, even though the Windows NT name itself has not been used in many other Windows releases since Windows NT 4.0 in 1996. Windows NT provides many more features than other Windows releases, among them being support for multiprocessing , multi-user systems , a "pure" 32-bit kernel with 32-bit memory addressing, support for instruction sets other than x86 , and many other system services such as Active Directory and more. Newer versions of Windows NT support 64-bit computing , with
6142-420: A stripped-down version of the Windows operating system. Windows 11 is the first non-server version of Windows NT that does not support 32-bit platforms. The 64-bit versions of Windows NT were originally intended to run on Itanium and DEC Alpha ; the latter was used internally at Microsoft during early development of 64-bit Windows. This continued for some time after Microsoft publicly announced that it
6308-444: A system API, running in supervisor mode (ring 0 in x86; referred to in Windows NT as "kernel mode" on all platforms), and a set of user-space environments with their own APIs which included the new Win32 environment, an OS/2 1.3 text-mode environment and a POSIX environment. The full preemptive multitasking kernel could interrupt running tasks to schedule other tasks, without relying on user programs to voluntarily give up control of
6474-583: A team. The name of the lab in which any given build originated is shown as part of the build label, and the date and time of the build follow that. Some builds (such as Beta 1 and Beta 2) only display the build label in the version information dialog (Winver). The icons used in these builds are from Windows XP. At the Windows Hardware Engineering Conference (WinHEC) in May 2003, Microsoft gave their first public demonstrations of
6640-555: A very small amount written in assembly language . C is mostly used for the kernel code while C++ is mostly used for user-mode code. Assembly language is avoided where possible because it would impede portability . The following are the releases of Windows based on the Windows NT technology. Windows NT 3.1 to 3.51 incorporated the Program Manager and File Manager from the Windows 3.1x series. Windows NT 4.0 onwards replaced those programs with Windows Explorer (including
6806-433: A year later. Windows Vista was succeeded by Windows 7 in 2009. Mainstream support for Windows Vista ended on April 10, 2012 and extended support ended on April 11, 2017. Microsoft began work on Windows Vista, known at the time by its codename "Longhorn", in May 2001, five months before the release of Windows XP . It was originally expected to ship in October 2003 as a minor step between Windows XP and "Blackcomb", which
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6972-473: Is a hybrid kernel ; the architecture comprises a simple kernel , hardware abstraction layer (HAL), drivers, and a range of services (collectively named Executive ), which all exist in kernel mode. The booting process of Windows NT begins with NTLDR in versions before Vista and the Windows Boot Manager in Vista and later. The boot loader is responsible for accessing the file system on
7138-473: Is a proprietary graphical operating system produced by Microsoft as part of its Windows product line, the first version of which, Windows NT 3.1 , was released on July 27, 1993. Originally made for the workstation , office, and server markets, the Windows NT line was made available to consumers with the release of Windows XP in 2001. The underlying technology of Windows NT continues to exist to this day with incremental changes and improvements, with
7304-565: Is a new architecture with more advanced shader support, and allows the graphics processing unit to render more complex scenes without assistance from the CPU. It features improved load balancing between CPU and GPU and also optimizes data transfer between them. WDDM also provides video content playback that rivals typical consumer electronics devices. It does this by making it easy to connect to external monitors, providing for protected HD video playback, and increasing overall video playback quality. For
7470-488: Is a stripped-down version of Windows 7 meant for low-cost devices such as netbooks . In comparison to Home Premium, Starter has reduced multimedia functionality, does not allow users to change their desktop wallpaper or theme, disables the "Aero Glass" theme, does not have support for multiple monitors, and can only address 2GB of RAM. Home Basic was sold only in emerging markets , and was positioned in between Home Premium and Starter . The highest edition, Enterprise ,
7636-463: Is achieved on IA-32 via an integrated DOS Virtual Machine – although this feature is not available on other architectures. NT has supported per-object (file, function, and role) access control lists allowing a rich set of security permissions to be applied to systems and services. NT has also supported Windows network protocols, inheriting the previous OS/2 LAN Manager networking, as well as TCP/IP networking (for which Microsoft used to implement
7802-408: Is aimed at low-powered computers with availability only in emerging markets. Windows Vista Home Basic is intended for budget users. Windows Vista Home Premium covers the majority of the consumer market and contains applications for creating and using multimedia; the home editions consequentally cannot join a Windows Server domain . For businesses, there are three editions as well. Windows Vista Business
7968-448: Is all about: "bringing clarity to your world" (a reference to the three marketing points of Vista—Clear, Connected, Confident), so you can focus on what matters to you". Microsoft co-president Jim Allchin also loved the name, saying that "Vista creates the right imagery for the new product capabilities and inspires the imagination with all the possibilities of what can be done with Windows—making people's passions come alive." After Longhorn
8134-505: Is also enhanced to support real-time multimedia application including video playback and 3D games, thus allowing use of DirectX 10 in remote desktop environments. The three application limit, previously present in the Windows Vista and Windows XP Starter Editions, has been removed from Windows 7. All editions include some new and improved features, such as Windows Search , Security features, and some features new to Windows 7 , that originated within Vista. Optional BitLocker Drive Encryption
8300-455: Is capable of running all editions of Windows Vista although some of the special features and high-end graphics options may require additional or more advanced hardware. A Vista Premium Ready PC can take advantage of Vista's high-end features. Windows Vista's Basic and Classic interfaces work with virtually any graphics hardware that supports Windows XP or 2000; accordingly, most discussion around Vista's graphics requirements centers on those for
8466-503: Is dimmed, and only the authorization window is active and highlighted. The intent is to stop a malicious program from misleading the user by interfering with the authorization window, and to hint to the user about the importance of the prompt. Testing by Symantec Corporation has proven the effectiveness of UAC. Symantec used over 2,000 active malware samples, consisting of backdoors , keyloggers , rootkits , mass mailers, trojan horses , spyware , adware , and various other samples. Each
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#17327720867298632-460: Is functionally similar to Ultimate , but is only sold through volume licensing via Microsoft's Software Assurance program. All editions aside from Starter support both IA-32 and x86-64 architectures , Starter only supports 32-bit systems. Retail copies of Windows 7 are distributed on two DVDs: one for the IA-32 version and the other for x86-64. OEM copies include one DVD, depending on
8798-516: Is included with Windows 7 Ultimate and Enterprise. Windows Defender is included; Microsoft Security Essentials antivirus software is a free download. All editions include Shadow Copy , which—every day or so—System Restore uses to take an automatic "previous version" snapshot of user files that have changed. Backup and restore have also been improved, and the Windows Recovery Environment —installed by default—replaces
8964-402: Is limited as the update does not include DXGI / WDDM 1.2 from Windows 8, making unavailable many related APIs and significant features such as stereoscopic frame buffer, feature level 11_1 and optional features for levels 10_0, 10_1 and 11_0. In October 2013, a Disk Cleanup Wizard addon was released that lets users delete outdated Windows updates on Windows 7 SP1, thus reducing the size of
9130-466: Is not now generally used for marketing purposes, but is still used internally, and said to reflect the degree of changes to the core of the operating system. However, for application compatibility reasons, Microsoft kept the major version number as 6 in releases following Vista, but changed it later to 10 in Windows 10. The build number is an internal identifier used by Microsoft's developers and beta testers. Starting with Windows 8.1 , Microsoft changed
9296-446: Is not the case with Vista, which includes more comprehensive wireless networking support. For graphics, Vista introduces a new Windows Display Driver Model and a major revision to Direct3D . The new driver model facilitates the new Desktop Window Manager , which provides the tearing -free desktop and special effects that are the cornerstones of Windows Aero. Direct3D 10, developed in conjunction with major graphics card manufacturers,
9462-869: Is specifically designed for small and medium-sized enterprises , while Windows Vista Enterprise is only available to Software Assurance customers. Windows Vista Ultimate contains all features from the Home and Business editions, as well as Windows Ultimate Extras . In the European Union , Home Basic N and Business N variants without Windows Media Player are also available due to sanctions brought against Microsoft for violating anti-monopoly laws ; similar sanctions exist in South Korea . Windows Vista includes four distinct visual styles: Computers capable of running Windows Vista are classified as Vista Capable and Vista Premium Ready . A Vista Capable or equivalent PC
9628-421: Is the final version of Windows that supports processors without SSE2 or NX (although an update released in 2018 dropped support for non-SSE2 processors). Its successor, Windows 8 , requires a processor with SSE2 and NX (for any then-supported architecture). Windows 7 is the successor to Windows Vista, and its version name is Windows NT 6.1, compared to Vista's NT 6.0; its naming caused some confusion when it
9794-496: Is the successor to Windows Vista , released nearly three years earlier. Windows 7's server counterpart, Windows Server 2008 R2 , was released at the same time. It was succeeded by Windows 8 in October 2012. Extended support ended on January 14, 2020, over ten years after the release of Windows 7, after which the operating system ceased receiving further updates. A paid support program was available for enterprises, providing security updates for Windows 7 for up to three years since
9960-510: The 32-bit ( x86 ) architecture and the additional 64-bit ( x86-64 ) instruction set extensions, which Vista was the first consumer home release of Windows to support. Intel IA-64 Itanium support however is exclusively limited to the Vista-based Windows Server 2008 . The maximum number of logical processors in a PC that Windows Vista supports is: 32 for 32-bit; 64 for 64-bit. The maximum number of physical processors in
10126-756: The Engineering Windows 7 blog that the company was using a variety of new tracing tools to measure the performance of many areas of the operating system on an ongoing basis, to help locate inefficient code paths and to help prevent performance regressions. Senior Vice President Bill Veghte stated that Windows Vista users migrating to Windows 7 would not find the kind of device compatibility issues they encountered migrating from Windows XP . An estimated 1,000 developers worked on Windows 7. These were broadly divided into "core operating system" and "Windows client experience", in turn organized into 25 teams of around 40 developers on average. In October 2008, it
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#173277208672910292-547: The Intel i386 in 1990. Microsoft also continued parallel development of the DOS-based and less resource -demanding Windows environment, resulting in the release of Windows 3.0 in May 1990. Windows 3.0 was eventually so successful that Microsoft decided to change the primary application programming interface for the still unreleased NT OS/2 (as it was then known) from an extended OS/2 API to an extended Windows API . This decision caused tension between Microsoft and IBM and
10458-916: The Luna visual style are no longer available. Support for the original release of Windows Vista (without a service pack) ended on April 13, 2010. Windows Vista Service Pack 1 was retired on July 12, 2011, and Windows Vista Service Pack 2 reached its end of support on April 11, 2017. Several Windows Vista components are upgradable to the latest versions, which include new versions introduced in later versions of Windows, and other major Microsoft applications are available. These latest versions for Windows Vista include: Windows Vista shipped in six different product editions. These were deviced across separate consumer and business target markets, with editions varying in features to cater to specific sub-markets. For consumers, there are three editions, with two available for economically more developed countries. Windows Vista Starter edition
10624-752: The PowerPC processor in 1995, specifically PReP -compliant systems such as the IBM ThinkPad Power Series laptops and Motorola PowerStack series; but despite meetings between Michael Spindler and Bill Gates, not on the Power Macintosh as the PReP compliant Power Macintosh project failed to ship. Intergraph Corporation ported Windows NT to its Clipper architecture and later announced an intention to port Windows NT 3.51 to Sun Microsystems ' SPARC architecture, in conjunction with
10790-590: The Windows 8 -derived Windows RT on October 26, 2012, and the use of Windows NT, rather than Windows CE, in Windows Phone 8 . The original Xbox and Xbox 360 run a custom operating system based upon a heavily modified version of Windows 2000 , an approach that Microsoft engineer Don Box called "fork and run". It exports APIs similar to those found in Microsoft Windows , such as Direct3D . The Xbox One and Xbox Series X/S consoles use
10956-558: The Windows Live Essentials suite. Windows 7 is available in six different editions, of which the Home Premium , Professional , and Ultimate were available at retail in most countries, and as pre-loaded software on most new computers. Home Premium and Professional were aimed at home users and small businesses respectively, while Ultimate was aimed at enthusiasts. Each edition of Windows 7 includes all of
11122-649: The Windows Preinstallation Environment , which is a lightweight version of Windows NT made for deployment of the operating system. Since Windows Vista, the Windows installation files, as well as the preinstallation environment used to install Windows, are stored in the Windows Imaging Format . It is possible to use the Deployment Image Servicing and Management (DISM) tool to install Windows from
11288-636: The x64 version of the Windows 7 Beta (build 7000) was leaked onto the web, with some torrents being infected with a trojan . At CES 2009, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer announced the Windows 7 Beta, build 7000, had been made available for download to MSDN and TechNet subscribers in the format of an ISO image. The stock wallpaper of the beta version contained a digital image of the Betta fish . The release candidate, build 7100, became available for MSDN and TechNet subscribers, and Connect Program participants on April 30, 2009. On May 5, 2009, it became available to
11454-511: The Alpha NT 5 (Windows 2000) release had reached RC1 status. On January 5, 2011, Microsoft announced that the next major version of the Windows NT family will include support for the ARM architecture . Microsoft demonstrated a preliminary version of Windows (version 6.2.7867) running on an ARM-based computer at the 2011 Consumer Electronics Show . This eventually led to the commercial release of
11620-505: The CPU, as in Windows 3.1 Windows applications (although MS-DOS applications were preemptively multitasked in Windows starting with Windows/386 ). Notably, in Windows NT 3.x, several I/O driver subsystems, such as video and printing, were user-mode subsystems. In Windows NT 4.0, the video, server, and printer spooler subsystems were moved into kernel mode. Windows NT's first GUI was strongly influenced by (and programmatically compatible with) that from Windows 3.1; Windows NT 4.0's interface
11786-592: The Chromium codebase also dropped support for these operating systems after version 109, including Google Chrome and Opera . A fork of Chromium named Supermium is maintained for versions of Windows older than Windows 10, including Windows 7. Mozilla maintains Firefox 115 Extended Support Release (ESR) to support Windows 7, 8 and 8.1. Mozilla has committed to support it until at least March 2025. Steam ended support for Windows 7, 8, and 8.1 on January 1, 2024. Several Windows 7 components are upgradable to
11952-476: The DEC Alpha. Windows NT and VMS memory management , processes , and scheduling are very similar. Windows NT's process management differs by implementing threading , which DEC did not implement until VMS 7.0 in 1995. Like VMS, Windows NT's kernel mode code distinguishes between the "kernel", whose primary purpose is to implement processor- and architecture-dependent functions, and the "executive". This
12118-569: The GeForce FX series on Vista was 96.85. Microsoft offered a tool called the Windows Vista Upgrade Advisor to assist Windows XP and Vista users in determining what versions of Windows their machine is capable of running. The required server connections for this utility are no longer available. Although the installation media included in retail packages is a 32-bit DVD, customers needing a CD-ROM or customers who wish for
12284-414: The Internet around February 28, 2003. It was also privately handed out to a select group of software developers. As an evolutionary release over build 3683, it contained several small improvements, including a modified blue "Plex" theme and a new, simplified Windows Image-based installer that operates in graphical mode from the outset, and completed an install of the operating system in approximately one third
12450-451: The July 2017 date. On March 18, 2016, in response to criticism from enterprise customers, Microsoft delayed the end of support and non-critical updates for Skylake systems to July 17, 2018, but stated that they would also continue to receive security updates through the end of extended support. In August 2016, citing a "strong partnership with our OEM partners and Intel", Microsoft retracted
12616-511: The Kaby Lake and Ryzen platforms. Security updates released since March 2018 contained bugs that affect processors that do not support SSE2 extensions, including all Pentium III , Athlon XP , and prior processors. Microsoft initially stated that it would attempt to resolve this issue, and prevented installation of the affected patches on these systems. However, Microsoft retroactively modified its support documents on June 15, 2018 to remove
12782-516: The Longhorn project as "another Cairo" or "Cairo.NET", referring to the Cairo development project that the company embarked on through the first half of the 1990s, which never resulted in a shipping operating system (though nearly all the technologies developed in that time did end up in Windows 95 and Windows NT ). Microsoft was shocked in 2005 by Apple's release of Mac OS X Tiger . It offered only
12948-589: The Version API Helper functions' behavior. If an application is not manifested for Windows 8.1 or later, the API will always return version 6.2, which is the version number of Windows 8 . This is because the manifest feature was introduced with Windows 8.1, to replace GetVersion and related functions. In order to prevent Intel x86 -specific code from slipping into the operating system, due to developers being used to developing on x86 chips, Windows NT 3.1
13114-585: The Windows Aero interface. As of Windows Vista Beta 2, the NVIDIA GeForce 6 series and later, the ATI Radeon 9500 and later, Intel's GMA 950 and later integrated graphics, and a handful of VIA chipsets and S3 Graphics discrete chips are supported. Although originally supported, the GeForce FX 5 series has been dropped from newer drivers from NVIDIA. The last driver from NVIDIA to support
13280-662: The Windows NT driver model, and is incompatible with older driver frameworks. With Windows 2000 , the Windows NT driver model was enhanced to become the Windows Driver Model , which was first introduced with Windows 98 , but was based on the NT driver model. Windows Vista added native support for the Windows Driver Foundation , which is also available for Windows XP , Windows Server 2003 and to an extent, Windows 2000 . Microsoft decided to create
13446-626: The audio being received by the speech recognition software being "incredibly distorted". Windows Vista build 5824 (October 17, 2006) was supposed to be the RTM release, but a bug, where the OOBE hangs at the start of the WinSAT Assessment (if upgraded from Windows XP), requiring the user to terminate msoobe.exe by pressing Shift+F10 to open Command Prompt using either command-line tools or Task Manager prevented this, damaging development and lowering
13612-556: The boot drive, starting the kernel , and loading boot-time device drivers into memory. Once all the boot and system drivers have been loaded, the kernel starts the Session Manager Subsystem . This process launches winlogon , which allows the user to login. Once the user is logged in File Explorer is started, loading the graphical user interface of Windows NT. Windows NT is written in C and C++ , with
13778-845: The business-oriented versions like Windows 2000 (build 2195) or Server 2003 (build 3790). On November 16, 2006, Microsoft made the final build available to MSDN and Technet Plus subscribers. A business-oriented Enterprise edition was made available to volume license customers on November 30, 2006. Windows Vista was launched for general customer availability on January 30, 2007. New features introduced by Windows Vista are very numerous, encompassing significant functionality not available in its predecessors. Vista includes technologies such as ReadyBoost and ReadyDrive , which employ fast flash memory (located on USB flash drives and hybrid hard disk drives ) to improve system performance by caching commonly used programs and data. This manifests itself in improved battery life on notebook computers as well, since
13944-972: The capabilities and features of the edition below it, and adds additional features oriented towards their market segments; for example, Professional adds additional networking and security features such as Encrypting File System and the ability to join a domain . Ultimate contained a superset of the features from Home Premium and Professional , along with other advanced features oriented towards power users, such as BitLocker drive encryption; unlike Windows Vista, there were no " Ultimate Extras " add-ons created for Windows 7 Ultimate. Retail copies were available in "upgrade" and higher-cost "full" version licenses ; "upgrade" licenses require an existing version of Windows to install, while "full" licenses can be installed on computers with no existing operating system. The remaining three editions were not available at retail, of which two were available exclusively through OEM channels as pre-loaded software. The Starter edition
14110-566: The chance that it would hit its January 2007 deadline. Development of Windows Vista came to an end when Microsoft announced that it had been finalized on November 8, 2006, and was concluded by co-president of Windows development, Jim Allchin . The RTM's build number had also jumped to 6000 to reflect Vista's internal version number, NT 6.0. Jumping RTM build numbers is common practice among consumer-oriented Windows versions, like Windows 98 (build 1998), Windows 98 SE (build 2222), Windows Me (build 3000) or Windows XP (build 2600), as compared to
14276-452: The collaboration ultimately fell apart. IBM continued OS/2 development alone while Microsoft continued work on the newly renamed Windows NT. Though neither operating system would immediately be as popular as Microsoft's MS-DOS or Windows products, Windows NT would eventually be far more successful than OS/2. Microsoft hired a group of developers from Digital Equipment Corporation led by Dave Cutler to build Windows NT, and many elements of
14442-450: The command line and skip the GUI installer. It has been suggested that Dave Cutler intended the initialism "WNT" as a play on VMS , incrementing each letter by one . However, the project was originally intended as a follow-on to OS/2 and was referred to as "NT OS/2" before receiving the Windows brand. One of the original NT developers, Mark Lucovsky , states that the name was taken from
14608-660: The company's planned introduction of UltraSPARC models in 1995, but neither version was sold to the public as a retail product. Only two of the Windows NT 4.0 variants (IA-32 and Alpha) have a full set of service packs available. All of the other ports done by third parties (Motorola, Intergraph, etc.) have few, if any, publicly available updates. Windows NT 4.0 was the last major release to support Alpha, MIPS, or PowerPC, though development of Windows 2000 for Alpha continued until August 1999, when Compaq stopped support for Windows NT on that architecture; and then three days later Microsoft also canceled their AlphaNT program, even though
14774-616: The computer. ReadyBoost on 32-bit editions now supports up to 256 gigabytes of extra allocation. Windows 7 also supports images in RAW image format through the addition of Windows Imaging Component -enabled image decoders, which enables raw image thumbnails, previewing and metadata display in Windows Explorer, plus full-size viewing and slideshows in Windows Photo Viewer and Windows Media Center. Windows 7 also has
14940-617: The core of the operating system, notably the completely re-designed audio, networking, print, and video interfaces, major changes to the security infrastructure, improvements to the deployment and installation of applications (" ClickOnce " and Windows Installer 4.0), new device driver development model (" Windows Driver Foundation "), Transactional NTFS , mobile computing API advancements (power management, Tablet PC Ink support, SideShow ) and major updates to (or complete replacements of) many core subsystems such as Winlogon and CAPI . There are some issues for software developers using some of
15106-473: The creator of the driver can be identified. This is also on par with one of the primary goals of Vista to move code out of kernel-mode into user-mode drivers, with another example bing the new Windows Display Driver Model . While much of the focus of Vista's new capabilities highlighted the new user interface, security technologies, and improvements to the core operating system, Microsoft also adding new deployment and maintenance features: Windows Vista includes
15272-502: The decision and stated that it would continue to support Windows 7 and 8.1 on Skylake hardware through the end of their extended support lifecycle. However, the restrictions on newer CPU microarchitectures remain in force. In March 2017, a Microsoft knowledge base article announced which implies that devices using Intel Kaby Lake , AMD Bristol Ridge , or AMD Ryzen , would be blocked from using Windows Update entirely. In addition, official Windows 7 device drivers are not available for
15438-401: The design reflect earlier DEC experience with Cutler's VMS , VAXELN and RSX-11 , but also an unreleased object-based operating system developed by Cutler at Digital codenamed MICA . The team was joined by selected members of the disbanded OS/2 team, including Moshe Dunie . Although NT was not an exact clone of Cutler's previous operating systems, DEC engineers almost immediately noticed
15604-435: The end of extended support, available via specific volume licensing programs in yearly installments. Windows 7 Professional for Embedded Systems , Windows Embedded Standard 7 , and Windows Embedded POSReady 7 also get Extended Security Updates for up to three years after their end of extended support date, via OEMs . The Extended Security Updates program for Windows Embedded POSReady 7 ended on October 8, 2024, marking
15770-461: The end, Microsoft chose Windows Vista as confirmed on July 22, 2005, believing it to be a "wonderful intersection of what the product really does, what Windows stands for, and what resonates with customers, and their needs". Group Project Manager Greg Sullivan told Paul Thurrott "You want the PC to adapt to you and help you cut through the clutter to focus on what's important to you. That's what Windows Vista
15936-521: The executive. Routines from each are directly accessible, as for example from kernel-mode device drivers. API sets in the Windows NT family are implemented as subsystems atop the publicly undocumented "native" API ; this allowed the late adoption of the Windows API (into the Win32 subsystem). Windows NT was one of the earliest operating systems to use UCS-2 and UTF-16 internally. Windows NT uses
16102-516: The final end of IA-32 updates on the Windows NT 6.1 product line after more than 15 years. In August 2019, Microsoft announced it would offer a year of 'free' extended security updates to some business users. In January 2023, version 109 of the Chromium -based Microsoft Edge became the last version of Edge to support Windows 7, Windows 8/8.1, Windows Server 2012, and Windows Server 2012 R2. Alongside this, several other web browsers based on
16268-482: The first time in Windows, graphics processing unit (GPU) multitasking is possible, enabling users to run more than one GPU-intensive application simultaneously. At the core of the operating system , many improvements have been made to the memory manager, process scheduler and I/O scheduler. The Heap Manager implements additional features such as integrity checking in order to improve robustness and defend against buffer overflow security exploits , although this comes at
16434-536: The general public, although it had also been leaked onto the Internet via BitTorrent . The release candidate was available in five languages and expired on June 1, 2010, with shutdowns every two hours starting March 1, 2010. Microsoft stated that Windows 7 would be released to the general public on October 22, 2009, less than three years after the launch of its predecessor . Microsoft released Windows 7 to MSDN and Technet subscribers on August 6, 2009. Microsoft announced that Windows 7, along with Windows Server 2008 R2 ,
16600-478: The graphics APIs in Vista. Games or programs built solely on the Windows Vista-exclusive version of DirectX , version 10, cannot work on prior versions of Windows, as DirectX 10 is not available for previous Windows versions. Also, games that require the features of D3D9Ex, the updated implementation of DirectX 9 in Windows Vista are also incompatible with previous Windows versions. According to
16766-458: The hard disk where they can be loaded into memory very quickly with the least physical movement of the hard disk's read-write heads. As part of the redesign of the networking architecture, IPv6 has been fully incorporated into the operating system and a number of performance improvements have been introduced, such as TCP window scaling . Earlier versions of Windows typically needed third-party wireless networking software to work properly, but this
16932-454: The help of two other senior executives, Brian Valentine and Amitabh Srivastava, the former being experienced with shipping software at Microsoft, most notably Windows Server 2003, and the latter having spent his career at Microsoft researching and developing methods of producing high-quality testing systems. Srivastava employed a team of core architects to visually map out the entirety of the Windows operating system, and to proactively work towards
17098-544: The internal similarities. Parts of VAX/VMS Internals and Data Structures , published by Digital Press , accurately describe Windows NT internals using VMS terms. Furthermore, parts of the NT codebase's directory structure and filenames matched that of the MICA codebase. Instead of a lawsuit, Microsoft agreed to pay DEC $ 65–100 million, help market VMS, train Digital personnel on Windows NT, and continue Windows NT support for
17264-449: The introduction of many new security and safety features such as BitLocker and User Account Control . The ambitiousness and scope of these changes, and the abundance of new features earned positive reviews, but Windows Vista was the subject of frequent negative press and significant criticism. Criticism of Windows Vista focused on driver, peripheral, and program incompatibility; digital rights management ; excessive authorization from
17430-434: The latest features from every development team at Microsoft was included. Typically, a team working on a certain feature or subsystem would generate their working builds which developers would test with, and when the code was deemed stable, all the changes would be incorporated back into the main development tree at once. At Microsoft, several "Build labs" exist where the compilation of the entirety of Windows can be performed by
17596-432: The latest version of Windows based on Windows NT being Windows 11 in 2021. The name "Windows NT" originally denoted the major technological advancements that it had introduced to the Windows product line, including eliminating the 16-bit memory access limitations of earlier Windows releases such as Windows 3.1 and the Windows 9x series. Each Windows release built on this technology is considered to be based on, if not
17762-1024: The latest versions, which include new versions introduced in later versions of Windows, and other major Microsoft applications are available. These latest versions for Windows 7 include: Additional requirements to use certain features: The maximum amount of RAM that Windows 7 supports varies depending on the product edition and on the processor architecture, as shown in the following table. Windows 7 Professional and up support up to 2 physical processors (CPU sockets), whereas Windows 7 Starter, Home Basic, and Home Premium editions support only 1. Physical processors with either multiple cores, or hyper-threading , or both, implement more than one logical processor per physical processor. The x86 editions of Windows 7 support up to 32 logical processors; x64 editions support up to 256 (4 x 64). In January 2016, Microsoft announced that it would no longer support Windows platforms older than Windows 10 on any future Intel-compatible processor lines, citing difficulties in reliably allowing
17928-460: The market was quickly moving to 64-bit processors. While Microsoft had originally hoped to have the consumer versions of the operating system available worldwide in time for the 2006 holiday shopping season , it announced in March 2006 that the release date would be pushed back to January 2007 in order to give the company—and the hardware and software companies that Microsoft depends on for providing device drivers —additional time to prepare. Because
18094-463: The most popular version of Windows worldwide. Windows 11 overtook Windows 7 as the second most popular Windows version on all continents in August 2022. As of 2024 , just 3% of traditional PCs running Windows are running Windows 7, although it remains relatively popular in parts of the world, such as China (where it is tied with Windows 11), and is second most popular in some countries. Windows 7
18260-571: The names of releases from Windows 2000 and later, though Microsoft described that product as being "Built on NT Technology". "NT" was a trademark of Northern Telecom (later Nortel ), which Microsoft was forced to acknowledge on the product packaging. One of the main purposes of NT is hardware and software portability. Various versions of NT family operating systems have been released for a variety of processor architectures, initially IA-32 , MIPS , and DEC Alpha , with PowerPC , Itanium , x86-64 and ARM supported in later releases. An initial idea
18426-747: The network with a password , and files and folders can be shared with all other devices in the HomeGroup, or with specific users. The default libraries, along with printers, are shared by default, but the personal folder is set to read-only access by other users, and the Public folder can be accessed by anyone. Windows 7 includes improved globalization support through a new Extended Linguistic Services API to provide multilingual support (particularly in Ultimate and Enterprise editions). Microsoft also implemented better support for solid-state drives , including
18592-723: The network) cannot interact with parts of the operating system they do not need to. Obfuscation techniques such as address space layout randomization are used to increase the amount of effort required of malware before successful infiltration of a system. Code integrity verifies that system binaries have not been tampered with by malicious code. As part of the redesign of the network stack, Windows Firewall has been upgraded, with new support for filtering both incoming and outgoing traffic. Advanced packet filter rules can be created that can grant or deny communications to specific services. The 64-bit versions of Vista require that all new Kernel-Mode device drivers be digitally signed, so that
18758-582: The new TRIM command , and Windows 7 is able to identify a solid-state drive uniquely. Native support for USB 3.0 is not included because of delays in the finalization of the standard. At WinHEC 2008 Microsoft announced that color depths of 30-bit and 48-bit would be supported in Windows 7 along with the wide color gamut scRGB (which for HDMI 1.3 can be converted and output as xvYCC ). The video modes supported in Windows 7 are 16-bit sRGB, 24-bit sRGB, 30-bit sRGB, 30-bit with extended color gamut sRGB, and 48-bit scRGB. For developers, Windows 7 includes
18924-536: The new Desktop Window Manager and Aero . The demonstrations were done on a revised build 4015 which was never released. Several sessions for developers and hardware engineers at the conference focused on these new features, as well as the Next-Generation Secure Computing Base (previously known as "Palladium"), which at the time was Microsoft's proposed solution for creating a secure computing environment whereby any given component of
19090-575: The new User Account Control; inordinately high system requirements when contrasted with Windows XP; its protracted development; longer boot time ; and more restrictive product licensing. Windows Vista deployment and satisfaction rates were consequently lower than those of Windows XP, and it is considered a market failure; however, its use surpassed Microsoft's pre-launch two-year-out expectations of achieving 200 million users (with an estimated 330 million users by 2009). On October 22, 2010, Microsoft ceased retail distribution of Windows Vista; OEM supply ceased
19256-413: The new development process and build methodology would be used by all of the development teams. A number of complaints came from individual developers, and Bill Gates himself, that the new development process was going to be prohibitively difficult to work within. By approximately November 2004, the company had considered several names for the final release, ranging from simple to fanciful and inventive. In
19422-488: The official end of life. Windows 7 was intended to be an incremental upgrade to Microsoft Windows , addressing Windows Vista's poor critical reception while maintaining hardware and software compatibility . Windows 7 continued improvements on the Windows Aero user interface with the addition of a redesigned taskbar that allows pinned applications, and new window management features. Other new features were added to
19588-508: The older Windows XP version to the most recent Windows 10 versions; a patch to correct the flaw is currently available. In September 2019, Microsoft announced that it would provide free security updates for Windows 7 on federally-certified voting machines through the 2020 United States elections . On September 7, 2018, Microsoft announced a paid "Extended Security Updates" (ESU) service that will offer additional updates for Windows 7 Professional and Enterprise for up to three years after
19754-442: The only time this partition is accessed is when the computer is booting, or when there is a Windows update that changes files in this area, which is a legitimate reason to access this section of the drive. The area can be a potential security issue, because a hexadecimal editor (such as dskprobe.exe), or malicious software running with administrator and/or kernel level privileges would be able to write to this "Ghost Partition" and allow
19920-584: The operating system to be a major improvement over its predecessor because of its improved performance, its more intuitive interface, fewer User Account Control popups, and other improvements made across the platform. Windows 7 was a major success for Microsoft; even before its official release, pre-order sales for the operating system on the online retailer Amazon.com had surpassed previous records. In just six months, over 100 million copies had been sold worldwide, increasing to over 630 million licenses by July 2012. By January 2018, Windows 10 surpassed Windows 7 as
20086-667: The operating system to operate on newer hardware. Microsoft stated that effective July 17, 2017, devices with Intel Skylake CPUs were only to receive the "most critical" updates for Windows 7 and 8.1, and only if they have been judged not to affect the reliability of Windows 7 on older hardware. For enterprise customers, Microsoft issued a list of Skylake-based devices "certified" for Windows 7 and 8.1 in addition to Windows 10, to assist them in migrating to newer hardware that can eventually be upgraded to 10 once they are ready to transition. Microsoft and their hardware partners provide special testing and support for these devices on 7 and 8.1 until
20252-630: The operating system, including libraries, the new file-sharing system HomeGroup, and support for multitouch input. A new " Action Center " was also added to provide an overview of system security and maintenance information, and tweaks were made to the User Account Control system to make it less intrusive. Windows 7 also shipped with updated versions of several stock applications, including Internet Explorer 8 , Windows Media Player , and Windows Media Center . Unlike Windows Vista, Windows 7 received critical acclaim, with critics considering
20418-454: The optional Recovery Console of Windows XP. A new system known as "Libraries" was added for file management; users can aggregate files from multiple folders into a "Library." By default, libraries for categories such as Documents, Pictures, Music, and Video are created, consisting of the user's personal folder and the Public folder for each. The system is also used as part of a new home networking system known as HomeGroup; devices are added to
20584-414: The original target processor—the Intel i860 , code-named N10 ("N-Ten"). A 1991 video featuring Bill Gates and Microsoft products specifically says that "Windows NT stands for 'New Technology'". Seven year later in 1998, during a question-and-answer (Q&A) session, he then revealed that the letters were previously expanded to such but no longer carry any specific meaning. The letters were dropped from
20750-471: The planned features for the final product, as well as a number of changes to the user interface, based largely on feedback from beta testers. Windows Vista was deemed feature-complete with the release of the "February CTP", released on February 22, 2006, and much of the remainder of the work between that build and the final release of the product focused on stability, performance, application and driver compatibility, and documentation. Beta 2, released in late May,
20916-403: The price of breaking backward compatibility with some legacy applications. A Kernel Transaction Manager has been implemented that enables applications to work with the file system and Registry using atomic transaction operations. Improved security was a primary design goal for Vista. Microsoft's Trustworthy Computing initiative, which aims to improve public trust in its products, has had
21082-476: The processor architecture licensed. The installation media for consumer versions of Windows 7 are identical, the product key and corresponding license determines the edition that is installed. The Windows Anytime Upgrade service can be used to purchase an upgrade that unlocks the functionality of a higher edition, such as going from Starter to Home Premium , and Home Premium to Ultimate . Most copies of Windows 7 only contained one license; in certain markets,
21248-453: The program's Remote Desktop Protocol , allowing for the possibility of remote code execution , may now include related flaws, collectively named DejaBlue , affecting newer Windows versions (i.e., Windows 7 and all recent versions) as well. In addition, experts reported a Microsoft security vulnerability , CVE - 2019-1162 , based on legacy code involving Microsoft CTF and ctfmon (ctfmon.exe) , that affects all Windows versions from
21414-455: The project in 2004. Many features were eventually reimplemented after the reset, but Microsoft ceased using managed code to develop the operating system. New features of Windows Vista include a graphical user interface and visual style referred to as Windows Aero ; a content index and desktop search platform called Windows Search ; new peer-to-peer technologies to simplify sharing files and media between computers and devices on
21580-408: The promise that this bug would be resolved, replacing it with a statement suggesting that users obtain a newer processor. This effectively ends further patch support for Windows 7 on these older systems. Windows 7 Service Pack 1 (SP1) was announced on March 18, 2010. A beta was released on July 12, 2010. The final version was released to the public on February 22, 2011. At the time of release, it
21746-450: The reordering of taskbar buttons. To the far right of the system clock is a small rectangular button that serves as the Show desktop icon. By default, hovering over this button makes all visible windows transparent for a quick look at the desktop. In touch-enabled displays such as touch screens, tablet PCs, etc., this button is slightly (8 pixels) wider in order to accommodate being pressed by
21912-804: The sale of new retail copies of Windows 7 in October 2014, and the sale of new OEM licenses for Windows 7 Home Basic, Home Premium, and Ultimate ended on October 31, 2014. OEM sales of PCs with Windows 7 Professional pre-installed ended on October 31, 2016. The sale of non-Professional OEM licenses was stopped on October 31, 2014. Mainstream support for Windows 7 ended on January 13, 2015. Extended support for Windows 7 ended on January 14, 2020. Variants of Windows 7 for embedded systems and thin clients have different support policies: Windows Embedded Standard 7 support ended in October 2020. Windows Thin PC and Windows Embedded POSReady 7 had support until October 2021. In March 2019, Microsoft announced that it would display notifications to users informing users of
22078-524: The same machine. Windows XP Mode runs Windows XP in a virtual machine, and displays applications within separate windows on the Windows 7 desktop. Furthermore, Windows 7 supports the mounting of a virtual hard disk (VHD) as a normal data storage, and the bootloader delivered with Windows 7 can boot the Windows system from a VHD; however, this ability is only available in the Enterprise and Ultimate editions. The Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) of Windows 7
22244-684: The screen. When a user moves windows that were snapped or maximized using Snap, the system restores their previous state. Snap functions can also be triggered with keyboard shortcuts. Aero Shake hides all inactive windows when the active window's title bar is dragged back and forth rapidly. Windows 7 includes 13 additional sound schemes, titled Afternoon, Calligraphy, Characters, Cityscape, Delta, Festival, Garden, Heritage, Landscape, Quirky, Raga, Savanna, and Sonata. Internet Spades , Internet Backgammon and Internet Checkers , which were removed in Windows Vista, were restored in Windows 7. Users are able to disable or customize many more Windows components than
22410-542: The security of the Windows codebase, which is programmed in C , C++ and assembly . Longhorn became known as Vista in 2005. Vista in Spanish means view. The early development stages of Longhorn were generally characterized by incremental improvements and updates to Windows XP. During this period, Microsoft was fairly quiet about what was being worked on, as their marketing and public relations efforts were more strongly focused on Windows XP, and Windows Server 2003 , which
22576-505: The slider was. File metadata was also made more visible and more easily editable, with more active encouragement to fill out missing pieces of information. Also of note was the conversion of Windows Explorer to being a .NET application. Most builds of Longhorn and Vista were identified by a label that was always displayed in the bottom-right corner of the desktop. A typical build label would look like "Longhorn Build 3683.Lab06_N.020923-1821". Higher build numbers did not automatically mean that
22742-400: The software recognized the phrase "Dear mom" as "Dear aunt" . After several failed attempts to correct the error, the sentence eventually became " Dear aunt, let's set so double the killer delete select all ". A developer with Vista's speech recognition team later explained that there was a bug with the build of Vista that was causing the microphone gain level to be set very high, resulting in
22908-403: The system could be deemed "trusted". Also at this conference, Microsoft reiterated their roadmap for delivering Longhorn, pointing to an "early 2005" release date. By 2004, it had become obvious to the Windows team at Microsoft that they were losing sight of what needed to be done to complete the next version of Windows and ship it to customers. Internally, some Microsoft employees were describing
23074-469: The system. This was often difficult in previous versions of Windows, as the previous "limited" user accounts proved too restrictive and incompatible with a large proportion of application software, and even prevented some basic operations such as looking at the calendar from the notification tray. In Windows Vista, when an action is performed that requires administrative rights (such as installing/uninstalling software or making system-wide configuration changes),
23240-460: The time of Windows XP on the same hardware. An optional "new taskbar" was introduced that was thinner than the previous build and displayed the time differently. The most notable visual and functional difference, however, came with Windows Explorer. The incorporation of the Plex theme made blue the dominant color of the entire application. The Windows XP-style task pane was almost completely replaced with
23406-577: The upcoming end of support, and direct users to a website urging them to purchase a Windows 10 upgrade or a new computer. In August 2019, researchers reported that "all modern versions of Microsoft Windows" may be at risk for "critical" system compromise because of design flaws of hardware device drivers from multiple providers. In the same month, computer experts reported that the BlueKeep security vulnerability , CVE - 2019-0708 , that potentially affects older unpatched Microsoft Windows versions via
23572-451: The user gives consent. Whereas prior releases of Windows supported per-file encryption using Encrypting File System , the Enterprise and Ultimate editions of Vista include BitLocker Drive Encryption , which can protect entire volumes , notably the operating system volume. However, BitLocker requires approximately a 1.5-gigabyte partition to be permanently not encrypted and to contain system files for Windows to boot. In normal circumstances,
23738-401: The user is first prompted for an administrator name and password; in cases where the user is already an administrator, the user is still prompted to confirm the pending privileged action. Regular use of the computer such as running programs, printing, or surfing the Internet does not trigger UAC prompts. User Account Control asks for credentials in a Secure Desktop mode, in which the entire screen
23904-566: Was also restarted, and thus delayed, in August 2004. A number of features were cut from Longhorn. Blackcomb was renamed Vienna in early 2006, and was later canceled in 2007 due to the scope of the project. When released, Windows Vista was criticized for its long development time , performance issues, spotty compatibility with existing hardware and software at launch, changes affecting the compatibility of certain PC games, and unclear assurances by Microsoft that certain computers shipping with XP before launch would be "Vista Capable" (which led to
24070-616: Was announced for 2003, delaying the development of Blackcomb. By the middle of 2003, however, Longhorn had acquired some of the features originally intended for Blackcomb. After three major malware outbreaks—the Blaster , Nachi , and Sobig worms—exploited flaws in Windows operating systems within a short time period in August 2003, Microsoft changed its development priorities, putting some of Longhorn's major development work on hold while developing new service packs for Windows XP and Windows Server 2003. Development of Longhorn (Windows Vista)
24236-562: Was announced in 2008. Windows president Steven Sinofsky commented that Windows 95 was the fourth version of Windows, but Windows 7 counts up from Windows NT 4.0 as it is a descendant of NT. Originally, a version of Windows codenamed " Blackcomb " was planned as the successor to Windows XP and Windows Server 2003 in 2000. Major features were planned for Blackcomb, including an emphasis on searching and querying data and an advanced storage system named WinFS to enable such scenarios. However, an interim, minor release, codenamed "Longhorn,"
24402-727: Was announced that Windows 7 would also be the official name of the operating system. There had been some confusion over naming the product Windows 7, while versioning it as 6.1 to indicate its similar build to Windows Vista and increase compatibility with applications that only check major version numbers, similar to Windows 2000 and Windows XP both having 5.x version numbers. The first external release to select Microsoft partners came in January 2008 with Milestone 1, build 6519. Speaking about Windows 7 on October 16, 2008, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer confirmed compatibility between Windows Vista and Windows 7, indicating that Windows 7 would be
24568-423: Was cancelling plans to ship 64-bit Windows for Alpha. Because of this, Alpha versions of Windows NT are 32-bit only. While Windows 2000 only supports Intel IA-32 (32-bit), Windows XP, Server 2003, Server 2008 and Server 2008 R2 each have one edition dedicated to Itanium-based systems. In comparison with Itanium, Microsoft adopted x64 on a greater scale: every version of Windows since Windows XP (which has
24734-459: Was designed as a modified microkernel , as the Windows NT kernel was influenced by the Mach microkernel developed by Richard Rashid at Carnegie Mellon University, but does not meet all of the criteria of a pure microkernel. Both the kernel and the executive are linked together into the single loaded module ntoskrnl.exe ; from outside this module, there is little distinction between the kernel and
24900-511: Was executed on a default Windows Vista installation within a standard user account. UAC effectively blocked over 50 percent of each threat , excluding rootkits. 5 percent or less of the malware that evaded UAC survived a reboot. Internet Explorer 7 's new security and safety features include a phishing filter, IDN with anti-spoofing capabilities, and integration with system-wide parental controls. For added security, ActiveX controls are disabled by default. Also, Internet Explorer operates in
25066-523: Was initially developed using non-x86 development systems and then ported to the x86 architecture. This work was initially based on the Intel i860 -based Dazzle system and, later, the MIPS R4000-based Jazz platform. Both systems were designed internally at Microsoft. Windows NT 3.1 was released for Intel x86 PC compatible and PC-98 platforms, and for DEC Alpha and ARC -compliant MIPS platforms. Windows NT 3.51 added support for
25232-532: Was named Windows Vista in July 2005, an unprecedented beta-test program was started, involving hundreds of thousands of volunteers and companies. In September of that year, Microsoft started releasing regular Community Technology Previews (CTP) to beta testers from July 2005 to February 2006. The first of these was distributed at the 2005 Microsoft Professional Developers Conference , and was subsequently released to beta testers and Microsoft Developer Network subscribers. The builds that followed incorporated most of
25398-483: Was not completed until early 2006, and at the time of Microsoft's announcement, no firmware manufacturers had completed a production implementation which could be used for testing. As a result, the decision was made to postpone the introduction of UEFI support to Windows; support for UEFI on 64-bit platforms was postponed until Vista Service Pack 1 and Windows Server 2008 and 32-bit UEFI would not be supported, as Microsoft did not expect many such systems to be built because
25564-615: Was not made mandatory. It was available via Windows Update, direct download, or by ordering the Windows 7 SP1 DVD. The service pack is on a much smaller scale than those released for previous versions of Windows, particularly Windows Vista. Windows 7 Service Pack 1 adds support for Advanced Vector Extensions (AVX), a 256-bit instruction set extension for processors, and improves IKEv2 by adding additional identification fields such as E-mail ID to it. In addition, it adds support for Advanced Format 512e as well as additional Identity Federation Services . Windows 7 Service Pack 1 also resolves
25730-709: Was planned to be the company's next major operating system release. Gradually, "Longhorn" assimilated many of the important new features and technologies slated for Blackcomb, resulting in the release date being pushed back several times in three years. In some builds of Longhorn, their license agreement said "For the Microsoft product codenamed 'Whistler'". Many of Microsoft's developers were also re-tasked to build updates to Windows XP and Windows Server 2003 to strengthen security. Faced with ongoing delays and concerns about feature creep , Microsoft announced on August 27, 2004, that it had revised its plans. For this reason, Longhorn
25896-441: Was possible in Windows Vista. New additions to this list of components include Internet Explorer 8 , Windows Media Player 12 , Windows Media Center, Windows Search , and Windows Gadget Platform. A new version of Microsoft Virtual PC , newly renamed as Windows Virtual PC was made available for Windows 7 Professional, Enterprise, and Ultimate editions. It allows multiple Windows environments, including Windows XP Mode , to run on
26062-419: Was redesigned to match that of the brand-new Windows 95 , moving from the Program Manager to the Windows shell design. NTFS , a journaled, secure file system, is a major feature of NT. Windows NT also allows for other installable file systems; NT can also be installed on FAT file systems, and versions 3.1, 3.5, and 3.51 could be installed HPFS file systems. Windows NT introduced its own driver model,
26228-521: Was released in April 2003. Occasional builds of Longhorn were leaked onto popular file sharing networks such as IRC , BitTorrent , eDonkey and various newsgroups , and so most of what is known about builds before the first sanctioned development release of Longhorn in May 2003 is derived from these builds. After several months of relatively little news or activity from Microsoft with Longhorn, Microsoft released Build 4008, which had made an appearance on
26394-542: Was released internationally and was made available for purchase and download from the Windows Marketplace ; it is the first release of Windows to be made available through a digital distribution platform . Development of Windows Vista began in 2001 under the codename "Longhorn"; originally envisioned as a minor successor to Windows XP, it gradually included numerous new features from the then-next major release of Windows codenamed "Blackcomb", after which it
26560-456: Was released on February 26, 2013 after a pre-release version had been released on November 5, 2012. It is also included with Internet Explorer 10 for Windows 7. It includes enhancements to Direct2D , DirectWrite , Direct3D , Windows Imaging Component (WIC), Windows Advanced Rasterization Platform (WARP), Windows Animation Manager (WAM), XPS Document API, H.264 Video Decoder and JPEG XR decoder. However support for Direct3D 11.1
26726-686: Was released to manufacturing in the United States and Canada on July 22, 2009. Windows 7 build 7600.16385.090713-1255, which was compiled on July 13, 2009, was declared the final RTM build after passing all Microsoft's tests internally. Among Windows 7's new features are advances in touch and handwriting recognition , support for virtual hard disks , improved performance on multi-core processors, improved boot performance, DirectAccess , and kernel improvements. Windows 7 adds support for systems using multiple heterogeneous graphics cards from different vendors (Heterogeneous Multi-adapter),
26892-502: Was released, including the new shell from Windows 95 . Eventually, Microsoft incorporated the Windows NT technology into the Windows product line for personal computing and deprecated the Windows 9x family. Starting with Windows 2000 , "NT" was removed from the product name yet is still in several low-level places in the system — including for a while as part of the product version. Versions of Windows NT are installed using Windows Setup , which, starting with Windows Vista , uses
27058-522: Was repositioned as a major release of Windows, and it subsequently underwent a period of protracted development that was unprecedented for Microsoft. Most new features were prominently based on a new presentation layer codenamed Avalon , a new communications architecture codenamed Indigo , and a relational storage platform codenamed WinFS — all built on the .NET Framework ; however, this proved to be untenable due to incompleteness of technologies and ways in which new features were added, and Microsoft reset
27224-561: Was reset to start work on componentizing the Windows Server 2003 Service Pack 1 codebase, and over time re-incorporating the features that would be intended for an actual operating system release. However, some previously announced features such as WinFS were dropped or postponed, and a new software development methodology called the Security Development Lifecycle was incorporated to address concerns with
27390-523: Was the first build to be made available to the general public through Microsoft's Customer Preview Program. It was downloaded over 5 million times. Two release candidates followed in September and October, both of which were made available to a large number of users. At the Intel Developer Forum on March 9, 2006, Microsoft announced a change in their plans to support EFI in Windows Vista. The UEFI 2.0 specification (which replaced EFI 1.10)
27556-443: Was to have a common code base with a custom Hardware Abstraction Layer (HAL) for each platform. However, support for MIPS, Alpha, and PowerPC was later dropped in Windows 2000 . Broad software compatibility was initially achieved with support for several API "personalities", including Windows API , POSIX , and OS/2 APIs – the latter two were phased out starting with Windows XP. Partial MS-DOS and Windows 16-bit compatibility
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