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Major families of operating systems. Classification of operating systems by families As in the family of operating systems, windows is called

(NT 6.0)

2006 Not supported
Almost never used (NT 6.1) 2009 Not supported
Actively used (NT 6.2) 2012 Not supported
Almost never used (NT 6.3) 2013 Supported
Almost never used (NT 10) 2015 Supported
Actively used

Server Windows

Logo	Version	Year	Status
		1993	Not supported Generally not used
		1994
		1995
		1996
		2000
		2003	Not supported Still in use
		2005
		2008
		2009	Supported Actively used
		2012
		2013
		2016
		2018	Getting Started

All Windows versions by line + chronology

Ruler	years	Version enumeration
16 bit	1985 - 1995	Windows 1 / 2 / 3
32 bits (9x)	1995 - 2001	Windows 95/98/ME
NT (32 and 64 bits)	since 1993	Windows NT 3.1 / NT 3.5 / NT 3.51 / NT 4.0 Workstation / 2000 / XP / Vista / 7 / 8 / 8.1 / 10
NT Servers (32 and 64 bits)	since 1993	Windows NT 3.1 / NT 3.5 / NT 3.51 / NT 4.0 Server / 2000 Server / 2003 / 2003 R2 / 2008 / 2008 R2 / 2012 / 2012 R2 / 2016 / 2019

History of success

This success story reflects the frequency of use of the system; the number of glitches encountered by users; reviews.

	Windows 1	Failure
	Windows 2	Neutral
	Windows 3	Success
	Windows 95	Failure
	Windows 98	Success
	Windows Millennium	Failure
	Windows 2000	Neutral
	Windows XP	Big success
	Windows Vista	Failure
	Windows 7	Success
	Windows 8	Failure
	Windows 8.1	Failure
	Windows 10	Success

* despite the failure of some versions of the operating system, they carried new features that were transferred to already successful versions. For example, in the millennium, beautiful icons and windows appeared, which were carried over to Windows 2000. Therefore, failure should not be assessed as a failure.

Windows 1

Years of support: 1985 - 2001. Branch: 16 bits.

Editions: -

What's new

Before Windows 1, there was MS-DOS, so the most important innovation is the graphical interface and the ability to control with the mouse.

System requirements

Windows 3

Years of support: 1990 - 2008. Branch: 16 bit.

Editions: -

What's new

The first (from Microsoft) user-friendly interface.
The appearance of the program manager.
The emergence of multimedia capabilities.
Network support (since 3.1).

System requirements

Windows NT 3.1

Editions: -

What's new

The first system based on the NT kernel.
Support for the NTFS file system.

System requirements

CPU	Intel 80386
RAM	2 MB
Hard disk capacity	8 MB

Windows NT 3.5 Workstation

Editions: -

What's new

Built-in Winsock and TCP/IP support.
The advent of DHCP and WINS server and client.
VFAT support.

System requirements

CPU	33 MHz
RAM	12 MB
Hard disk capacity	70 MB

Windows NT 3.51 Workstation

Editions: -

System requirements

Windows NT 4.0 Workstation

Editions: -

System requirements

Windows 98

Years of support: 1998 - 2006. Branch: 9x (32 bits).

System requirements

Windows Millennium

Years of support: 2000 - 2006. Branch: 9x (32 bits).

System requirements

Windows 2000

Years of support: 2000 - 2010. Branch: NT.

System requirements

Windows XP

Editions: XP, XP Professional

System requirements

Windows Vista

Years of support: 2006 - 2017. Branch: NT. Bit depth: 32 and 64 bits.

Editions: Starter, Basic Home, Premium Home, Business, Enterprise, Ultimate

System requirements

Windows 7

Years of support: 2009 - 2020. Branch: NT. Bit depth: 32 and 64 bits.

Editions: Starter, Home Basic, Home Premium, Professional, Enterprise, Ultimate

System requirements

	Minimum		Featured
Architecture	32-bit	64-bit	32-bit	64-bit
CPU	1 GHz
RAM	1 GB	2 GB	4 GB
Hard disk capacity	16 GB	20 GB	16 GB	20 GB

Windows 8

Years of support: 2012 - 2016. Branch: NT. Bit depth: 32 and 64 bits.

System requirements

	Minimum		Featured
Architecture	32-bit	64-bit	32-bit	64-bit
CPU	1 GHz
RAM	1 GB	2 GB	4 GB
Hard disk capacity	16 GB	20 GB	16 GB	20 GB

Windows 8.1

Years of support: 2013 - 2023. Branch: NT. Bit depth: 32 and 64 bits.

Editions: 8, 8 Professional (Pro), 8 Corporate (Enterprise)

System requirements

	Minimum		Featured
Architecture	32-bit	64-bit	32-bit	64-bit
CPU	1 GHz
RAM	1 GB	2 GB	4 GB
Hard disk capacity	16 GB	20 GB	16 GB	20 GB

Windows 10 (latest for personal computers)

Years of support: 2015 - 2025. Branch: NT. Bit depth: 32 and 64 bits.

Editions

Home (Home). For most home computers. There is no way to set up a remote desktop so that the system can be connected remotely; there is no possibility of using group policies and joining a domain.
Professional (Pro). Contains all the features of the home version + the ability to join a domain, use group policies, the ability to connect to a computer using remote desktop.
Corporate (Enterprise). Some features of the home version have been cut. There are all the additional features of the Pro + DirectAccess version, AppLocker.
S. Is a stripped down version; preinstalled on some devices. Does not support standard app installation - can only be installed from the Windows Store.

What's new

Windows 10 is undergoing major changes with the release of new builds. Therefore, we will consider innovations on the basis of this.

Improved performance.
New built-in Microsoft Edge browser.
Automatic shrinking of an adjacent window when the active window is pressed to one side of the desktop.
"All apps" in "Start" supports displaying 2048 items (previously only 512).
Forced installation of updates.
Using virtual voice assistant Cortana.
The updated start menu is a hybrid of previous versions and Windows 8 (the old version of the disclosure returned, and tiles appeared on the right side).
Ability to create multiple desktops.
Rejection of the Windows 8 tiled system.

Handwriting capability (Windows Ink).
Webcam identification.
Synchronization with mobile device notifications.
Changing the system options menu.

Built-in support for virtual reality helmets.
Game Mode
By default, the command line in Powershell is offered.
Access to the classic control panel is hidden from context menu. Now it can be called with the command control.
Improvement of the built-in antivirus.
Webcam authentication for Active Directory.
The ability to create a screenshot with a selection of an area using the keyboard shortcut Win + Shaft + S.
Braille support.
Extended battery life.

The ability to run Cortana on one device and stop working on another.
Disable the SMBv1 protocol. You can enable it manually.
The appearance of the "People" panel.
GPU information in task manager.
Fullscreen Microsoft Edge
Extended battery life (Power Throttling).
The appearance of the emoji panel.
Selective OneDrive sync.
Fix for stuttering issues in games.

Possibility to recover the password using security questions.

Dark theme for File Explorer.
Possibility of accessing messages from the phone (“Your phone” function).

Isolated desktop for secure application launch.

* this list contains some of the innovations. Full list on the Wikipedia page.

System requirements

	Minimum		Featured
Architecture	32-bit	64-bit	32-bit	64-bit
CPU	1 GHz
RAM	1 GB	2 GB	4 GB
Hard disk capacity	16 GB	20 GB	16 GB	20 GB

Windows NT 3.1 Advanced Server

Years of support: 1993 - 2001. Branch: NT. Bit depth: 16, 32 and 64 bits.

Editions: -

System requirements

CPU	Intel 80386
RAM	2 MB
Hard disk capacity	8 MB

Windows NT 3.5 Server

Years of support: 1994 - 2001. Branch: NT. Bit depth: 16, 32 and 64 bits.

Editions: -

What's new

Built-in Winsock and TCP/IP support.
The advent of DHCP and WINS servers.
Sharing files and printers.
VFAT support.

System requirements

CPU	33 MHz
RAM	16 MB
Hard disk capacity	70 MB

Windows NT 3.51 Server

Years of support: 1995 - 2001. Branch: NT. Bit depth: 16, 32 and 64 bits.

Editions: -

System requirements

CPU	33 MHz
RAM	16 MB
Hard disk capacity	70 MB

Windows NT 4.0 Server

Years of support: 1996 - 2004. Branch: NT. Bit depth: 32 and 64 bits.

Editions: Server, Enterprise Edition, Terminal Server

System requirements

Windows 2000 Server

Years of support: 2000 - 2010. Branch: NT. Bit depth: 32 and 64 bits.

Editions: Server, Advanced Server and Datacenter Server

System requirements

Windows Server 2003

Years of support: 2003 - 2015. Branch: NT. Bit depth: 32 and 64 bits.

Editions: Web, Standard, Enterprise, Datacenter

System requirements

Web, Standard, Enterprise:

Data Center Edition:

Windows Server 2003 R2

Years of support: 2005 - 2015. Branch: NT. Bit depth: 32 and 64 bits.

Editions: Standard, Enterprise, Datacenter

System requirements

Standard, Enterprise:

Data Center Edition:

Windows Server 2008

Years of support: 2008 - 2020. Branch: NT. Bit depth: 32 and 64 bits.

Editions: Web, Standard, Enterprise, Datacenter, HPC, Storage, Itanium

System requirements

	Minimum		Featured
Architecture	32-bit	64-bit	32-bit	64-bit
CPU	1 GHz	1.4GHz	2 GHz
RAM	512 MB		2 GB
Hard disk capacity	10 GB		40 GB

Windows Server 2008 R2

Years of support: 2009 - 2020. Branch: NT. Bit depth: 64 bits.

Editions: Foundation, Small Business, Web, Standard, Enterprise, Datacenter, HPC, Itanium

System requirements

Windows Server 2012

Years of support: 2012 - 2023. Branch: NT. Bit depth: 64 bits.

System requirements

Windows Server 2012 R2

Years of support: 2013 - 2023. Branch: NT. Bit depth: 64 bits.

Editions: Foundation, Essentials, Standard, Datacenter

System requirements

Windows Server 2016

Years of support: 2016 - 2026. Branch: NT. Bit depth: 64 bits.

Editions: Essentials, Standard, Datacenter

What's new

Licensing for physical processor cores (minimum 16).
New installation mode - Nano .
The advent of container virtualization.
OpenGL and OpenCL for RDP.
Encryption of virtual machines and internal network traffic.
Block replication of file storages.

System requirements

Windows Server 2019 (latest for servers)

Years of support: 2018 - ?. Branch: NT. Bit depth: 64 bits.

Editions: Standard, Datacenter

What's new

Enhanced Security - Built-in Defender ATP and Defender Exploit Guard technologies.
Windows Subsystem Linux (WSL) - Containers for supporting Linux applications.
To build a cluster with an even number of nodes, a USB drive can be used as a witness disk.

Annotation: 16-bit Windows. Windows 9x. Windows NT. Windows CE. Windows Mobile and Windows Phone.

16 bit Windows

The first Windows was Windows 1.0, released in November 1985. It was not a full-fledged operating system, but an add-on to the MS-DOS operating system. Windows 1.0 provided the user with a graphical windowed interface and the ability to run multiple applications at the same time (both were missing in MS DOS). At first they wanted to call this program Interface Manager, but then they leaned towards the name Windows ("windows"), as it more accurately reflects the essence of working with the new program. Minimum system requirements memory was limited to 256 KB.

Windows 2.0 (December 1987) introduced some improvements to the graphical interface (such as support for overlapping windows) and memory management. Also, for greater convenience, keyboard shortcuts began to be used. In May 1988 and March 1989, respectively, Windows 2.10 and Windows 2.11 appeared, supporting the then-new Intel 80286 and Intel 80386 processors.

In May 1990, Windows 3.0 was released with improved graphics and support for virtual memory. In 1992 1993 versions appear Windows for Workgroups 3.1 and 3.11, which have support for peer-to-peer and server-managed networks. These were the latest versions of 16-bit Windows.

Windows 9x

In August 1995, Windows 95 was released - a 32-bit client operating system that had built-in support for working with the Internet (Internet Explorer browser) and modem networks, as well as Plug-and-Play ("plug and play") technology that allows you to quickly connect to the computer various devices. For the first time there was a Start button (Start) and the Taskbar (Taskbar). Windows 95 required a minimum of 4 MB of RAM.

On the Windows change 95 Windows 98 arrives in June 1998 with many programs for working with the Internet (Internet Explorer 4, Outlook Express etc.), DVD and USB support, the first appearance of the Panel quick launch programs ( Quick Launch bar). Windows 98 was the last operating system based on MS DOS.

The last version in the 9x family was Windows Me (Millennium Edition, September 2000). This system was aimed at home users, and therefore had broad media support (Windows Media Player 7, Windows Movie Maker), the Internet and home networks.

Another direction of development operating systems Windows in the 90s became the NT family.

Windows NT

In July 1993, the first operating system of the NT family, Windows NT 3.1, was released. There are various explanations for the name NT, the most common being an acronym for New Technology.

Development of a system based on a new kernel (not MS DOS) began in 1989. The following basic requirements were imposed on the new operating system:

32 bit;
support for multiprocessor systems;
support for preemptive multitasking and virtual memory;
high performance;
the ability to work as a server and client;
portability;
compatibility with other versions of Windows and MS DOS, as well as partial compatibility with UNIX;
safety;
reliability;
Unicode support.

Windows NT 3.1 met all these requirements, and all modern versions of Windows, including Windows 8, are based on the kernel of this system (with changes, of course).

Windows NT 3.1 supported the Intel 80386, Intel 80486, MIPS R4000, and DEC Alpha processors. There were client and server versions of the system - Windows NT and Windows NT Advanced Server. Windows NT, among other file systems, supported Microsoft's specially developed NTFS (New Technology File System) file system.

In 1994 1996, the operating systems Windows NT 3.5, Windows NT 3.51 and Windows NT 4.0 were sequentially released. The design goals for Windows NT 3.5 were to improve performance and reliability, and to reduce the size of the system. Windows NT 3.51 included support for the IBM PowerPC processor. Windows NT 4.0 had the same graphical interface as Windows 95.

Windows 2000, released in December 1999, was developed as a system for professional users, combining two areas - Windows 9x and Windows NT. The Windows 2000 system included Active Directory (a service and resource database for managing large networks) and support for a significant number of Plug-and Play devices, including wireless networks, USB, IEEE 1394, etc. There were 4 versions of Windows 2000 - one client (Professional ) and three server (Server, Advanced Server and Datacenter Server). Windows 2000 was the last system for which both client and server versions were released.

The next step was to merge both directions of client systems: systems for professional users (Windows 2000 Professional) and systems for home users (Windows Me). The result of this merger was the operating system Windows XP (August 2001). Thanks to its stability, speed and user-friendly interface, Windows XP has become (and still is) one of the most common operating systems in the world. an important step was the emergence of 64-bit versions of Windows XP (Windows XP 64-bit Edition). The number of lines of code in Windows XP is 45 million.

In March 2003, the Windows Server 2003 server operating system is released, which has greater performance and supports more powerful hardware than Windows 2000. The system has 4 main versions: Web, Standard, Enterprise and Datacenter. For example, the Datacenter edition supports 64 processors and up to 64 GB of RAM (up to 512 GB on 64-bit platforms).

The Windows Vista client operating system was released in November 2006. The emphasis in the development of this system was placed on security - User Account Control (User Account Control), disk encryption (BitLocker Drive Encryption), anti-spyware software (Windows Defender), etc. In Windows Vista, the user interface was also changed, in particular, changed view button Start (Start).

In February 2008, the Windows Server 2008 operating system, based on the code for Windows Vista, appeared - so most of the innovations in Windows Vista carried over to Windows Server 2008.

In July 2009, Windows 7 is released, featuring extended support for laptops and tablets. The main features of Windows 7 are new ways of working with windows, instant search for information on a computer, support for touch screens (Windows Touch), and great opportunities for customizing the design of the working environment.

In 2012, Microsoft releases the latest versions of operating systems - client Windows 8 (October 2012) and server Windows Server 2012 (September 2012). Windows 8 is an operating system that is equally designed for both ordinary desktop computers and laptops, and tablet computers, which have recently won a significant share of the entire personal computer market (see lecture 3 "Windows 8").

Windows CE

Windows CE is a real-time operating system for embedded systems. The "CE" symbols, according to Microsoft, stand for "Compact, Connectable, Compatible, Companion, Efficient" 1 http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;Q166915. This system is now officially known as Windows Embedded Compact (http://www.microsoft.com/windowsembedded).

Windows CE is delivered to device developers as a set of components that can be used to create an operating system for specific device. For example, Windows Mobile operating systems are built on top of Windows CE.

The first version of Windows CE 1.0 appeared in 1996 and was developed as a stripped-down version of Windows 95. Later, the Windows CE development team collaborated with the Windows 2000 team, then Windows CE developed as an independent system.

As of September 2012, the latest version is Windows CE 7.0.

Windows Mobile and Windows Phone

Windows Mobile is an operating system for smartphones and personal digital assistants (PDAs, Personal Digital Assistant - PDA) based on Windows CE.

The first versions of operating systems of this family were called Pocket PC (2000). Since 2003, the name Windows Mobile has been established - the operating systems Windows Mobile 2003, Windows Mobile 5, Windows Mobile 6 were released. The latest version with this name was Windows Mobile 6.5 (2009).

Since October 2010, Microsoft has released a new operating system for mobile devices– Windows Phone 7, which is not compatible with Windows Mobile, although it is also based on Windows CE. Windows Phone 7 introduced a new user interface, currently called Modern UI.

In October 2012, Windows Phone 8 is expected to be released, based on the Windows NT kernel.

Summary

The lecture provides an overview of Windows operating systems from 1985 to 2012. The main families and their key representatives are considered - 16-bit Windows, Windows 9x, Windows NT, Windows NT Server, Windows Mobile/Windows Phone and Windows CE.

The following lecture provides an overview of the latest operating system from Microsoft, Windows 8.

test questions

List the main families of Windows operating systems and give a brief description of them.
Name the main representatives of 16-bit Windows.
List the major differences between Windows NT and Windows 9x operating systems.
What is the difference between client and server versions of Windows NT?
Describe operating systems Windows families CE.
Describe the operating systems of the Windows Mobile/Windows Phone family.

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INTRODUCTION

1.1 Windows 9x family

1.2 Windows NT family

1.4 Windows Embedded Family

2. MICROSOFT WINDOWS N

2.3 Popularity

LIST OF SOURCES OF INFORMATION

INTRODUCTION

The operating system is the main program of the computer. Without it, we would not even be able to turn on the computer. Windows is an operating system. When we turn on the computer, we see a picture and all sorts of icons, buttons, windows, and so on. All this beauty that you see and use, all these buttons, windows, arrows, and much more - this is the operating system.

There are not many operating systems. Almost all computers have Windows installed, because it is the most simple and convenient. There are several versions of this system - 95, 98, 2000, Me, NT, XP, Vista, Windows 7. They differ from each other by the release date. The older the version of the operating system, the more flaws it has. At the moment, the newest version is Windows 7. But many people use the Windows XP operating system. In my opinion, they are doing the right thing. XP is a fairly reliable and fast operating system. Vista and Windows 7 require a lot of power from the computer, which often causes the computer to slow down. Yes, and some programs on Vist "and Windows 7 cannot be installed, they are simply not suitable for it. True, they say that Windows 7 has every chance of becoming the best operating system possible. But most computer people consider it still "raw" Perhaps, after some improvements, this system will indeed be the best.The Windows operating environment was developed by Microsoft for IBM-compatible computers.

Windows Features:

· The graphical user interface in Windows is based on the idea of a window interface, adopted in the same way in a number of other modern operating systems (for example, UNIX). Each program has its own window, in which messages are exchanged with the user. For clarity, Windows widely uses icons (pictograms) depicting individual programs. In addition, the Windows interface is largely standardized, making it easier for users to learn new programs.

· Data exchange between applications. In addition, data exchange between applications is possible, which allows, for example, information created in a spreadsheet to be transferred to a text document via the clipboard. Microsoft Windows is a family of Microsoft proprietary operating systems that are oriented towards the use of a graphical interface for management. Initially, they were just graphic add-ons for MS-DOS.

Currently, under the control of operating systems of the Windows family, according to the resource Netmarketshare (Net Applications) as of December 2011, about 92% of personal computers work.

Windows operating systems run on x86, x86-64, IA-64, ARM platforms. There were also versions for DEC Alpha, MIPS, PowerPC and SPARC.

1. GRAPHIC INTERFACES AND EXTENSIONS FOR DOS

These versions of Windows were not full-fledged operating systems, but were add-ons to the MS-DOS operating system and were essentially a multifunctional extension, adding support for new processor operating modes, multitasking support, providing standardization of hardware interfaces and uniformity for program user interfaces. They provided built-in tools (GDI and USER, the first versions of Windows generally consisted of three modules - KERNEL, GDI and USER, the first of them provided calls for memory management, launching EXE files and loading DLL files, the second - graphics, the third - windows) to create a graphical user interface. They have worked with processors since the Intel 8086.

1. Windows 1.0 (1985)

2. Windows 2.0 (1987)

3. Windows 2.1 (Windows 386) (1987) - the system introduced the ability to run DOS applications in graphics windows, with each application provided with a full 640 KB of memory. Full support for 80286 processor. Added support for 80386 processors.

4. Windows 3.0 (1990) -- improved support for 80386 processors and protected mode.

5. Windows 3.1 (1992) - a major redesign of Windows 3.0; UAE fixed, OLE engine added, WYSIWYG printing, TrueType fonts, Explorer (file manager) changed, multimedia features added.

6. Windows for Workgroups 3.1/3.11 is the first version of the OS family with support for local area networks. WFWG 3.11 also tested some of the core enhancements that were later introduced in Windows 95.

1.1 Windows 9x family

Includes Windows 95, Windows 98 and Windows Me.

Windows 95 was released in 1995. Its distinguishing features are: a new user interface, support for long file names, automatic detection and configuration of Plug and Play peripherals, the ability to run 32-bit applications and the presence of TCP / IP support directly in the system. Windows 95 uses preemptive multitasking and runs each 32-bit application in its own address space.

The operating systems of this family were not secure multi-user systems like Windows NT, because for compatibility reasons the entire user interface and graphics subsystem remained 16-bit and did not differ much from that in Windows 3.x. Since this code was not thread-safe, all calls to the subsystem were wrapped in a mutex named Win16Lock, which, moreover, was always in a locked state during the execution of a 16-bit application. Thus, a "hanging" of a 16-bit application immediately blocked the entire OS.

The API was a subset of the Win32 API supported by Windows NT, but had very limited Unicode support. Also, it did not have proper security (lists of access to objects and the concept of "administrator").

MS-DOS 7.0 was included with Windows 95, but its role was limited to booting and running 16-bit DOS applications.

Researchers have noticed that the Windows 95 kernel - VMM - calls DOS underneath, but there are quite a few such calls, main function DOS kernel -- the FAT file system -- was not used. In general, the interface between VMM and the underlying DOS was never published, and DOS was noticed (by the same Andrew Shulman) as having undocumented calls only to support VMM.

1.2 Windows NT family

Windows® XP text logo (usually used in conjunction with a graphic), (Fig.1).

Operating systems of this family currently work on processors with x86, x64, and Itanium, ARM architectures. Early versions (up to and including 4.0) also supported some RISC processors: Alpha, MIPS, and Power PC. All operating systems in this family are fully 32-bit or 64-bit operating systems, and don't even need MS-DOS to boot.

This family is the only operating system for servers. Up to and including Windows 2000, they were released under the same name as the equivalent workstation version but with an added suffix, such as "Windows NT 4.0 Server" and "Windows 2000 Datacenter Server". Beginning with Windows Server 2003, server operating systems are named differently.

1. Windows NT 3.1 (1993)

2. Windows NT 3.5 (1994)

3. Windows NT 3.51 (1995)

4. Windows NT 4.0 (1996)

5. Windows 2000 (2000) -- Windows NT 5.0

6. Windows XP (2001) -- Windows NT 5.1

7. Windows XP 64-bit Edition (2003) -- Windows NT 5.2

8. Windows Server 2003 (2003) -- Windows NT 5.2

9. Windows Vista (2006) -- Windows NT 6.0

10. Windows Home Server (2007) -- Windows NT 5.2

11. Windows Server 2008 (2008) -- Windows NT 6.0

12. Windows Small Business Server (2008) -- Windows NT 6.0

13. Windows 7 -- Windows NT 6.1 (2009)

14. Windows Server 2008 R2 -- Windows NT 6.1 (2009)

15. Windows Home Server 2011 -- Windows NT 6.1 (2011)

16. Windows 8 -- Windows NT 6.2 (2012)

17. Windows Server 2012 -- Windows NT 6.2 (2012)

The Windows NT family is based on the division of address spaces between processes. Each process has the ability to work with the memory allocated to it. However, it does not have permission to write to the memory of other processes, drivers, and system code.

The Windows NT family is a preemptive multitasking operating system. The division of processor time between threads occurs according to the "carousel" principle. The operating system kernel allocates a time quantum (in Windows 2000, the quantum is approximately 20 ms) to each of the threads in turn, provided that all threads have the same priority. A thread can refuse its allocated time slice. In this case, the system intercepts control from it (even if the allocated time slice has not ended) and transfers control to another thread. When transferring control to another thread, the system saves the state of all processor registers in a special structure in RAM. This structure is called a thread context. Saving the context of a thread is enough for later resumption of its work.

1.3 OS family for handheld computers

This family of real-time operating systems was specifically designed for mobile devices. ARM, MIPS, SuperH and x86 processors are supported. Unlike other Windows operating systems, operating systems of this family are sold only as part of ready-made devices, such as smartphones, PDAs, GPS navigators, MP3 players, and others.

Currently, the term "Windows CE" refers only to the core of the operating system. For example, Windows Mobile 5.0 includes the Windows CE 5.0 kernel, although some devices use the Windows CE kernel without Windows Mobile.

Windows Mobile

Windows phone

1.4 Windows Embedded Family

Windows Embedded is a family of real-time operating systems specifically designed for use in a variety of embedded systems. The system kernel is shared with the Windows CE family and supports ARM, MIPS, SuperH, and x86 processors. Windows Embedded includes additional embedding features such as write protection filter (EWF and FBWF), booting from flash, CD-ROM, networking, using native system shell, etc.

Unlike Windows operating systems, operating systems of this family are sold only as part of ready-made devices, such as: ATMs, medical devices, navigation equipment, thin clients, VoIP terminals, media players, digital frames (albums), cash terminals, payment terminals, robots, slot machines, jukeboxes and others.

2. MICROSOFT WINDOWS N

Microsoft Windows N - Versions of Microsoft Windows from which Microsoft has removed components that are not compatible with European Union laws

2.1 Release history of Microsoft Windows versions

2.2 Integrated software products

The Microsoft Windows package includes "standard" applications such as a browser (Internet Explorer), mail client(Outlook Express or Windows Mail), music and video player (Windows Media Player). With the help of COM and OLE technologies, their components can be used in third-party applications. These products are free and can be freely downloaded from the official Microsoft website, however, to install some of them, you need to have a licensed version of Microsoft Windows (only true for earlier versions before windows, since windows 98 are an integral part of the system). Running these programs under other operating systems is possible only with the help of emulators of the Windows (Wine) environment.

A lot of discussion and legal disputes flare up around the fact that such “standard” products are included in the Windows OS, according to third-party developers, this leads to a lack of competition and creates obstacles for the distribution of competing products, they often question the quality of the Internet Explorer browser, explaining its popularity entry into Windows package and poor user awareness of the availability of alternatives.

In 1997, Sun Microsystems sued the company for violating a license to use Java technologies. In 2001, Microsoft paid a fine and removed the non-licensed Java Virtual Machine from its products.

interface family operating software

2.3 Popularity

Microsoft Windows is currently installed on more than 89% of personal computers and workstations. As of July 2011, Windows had a market share of 87.60% according to Net Applications. It is worth noting that one of the main clients of NetApplications is Microsoft Corporation.

Among various versions Microsoft Windows according to W3Schools since August 2011, Windows 7 is the most popular.

When you turn on the computer (more correctly, when it boots up), the name of the operating system that is installed on it is usually written. If there is such an inscription, then the Windows XP operating system is installed on your computer (Fig. 3).

And if so, then you have Windows Vista (Fig. 4).

Well, such an inscription means that Windows 7 is installed on your computer (Fig. 5).

If, nevertheless, there is no inscription when loading the computer, then you can see the version of the operating system using the icon "My Computer" (Computer). To do this, open "Start", right-click on the inscription "My Computer" (Computer) and in the list that opens, click on the item "Properties" (Fig. 6).

A window will open in which it will be written which operating system is installed on the computer (Fig. 7).

CONCLUSIONS

The operating system is the main program of the computer. Without it, we would not even be able to turn on the computer. Windows is an operating system.

When we turn on the computer, we see a picture and all sorts of icons, buttons, windows, and so on. All this beauty that you see and use, all these buttons, windows, arrows, and much more - this is the operating system.

The Windows operating environment was developed by Microsoft for IBM-compatible computers.

Windows performs the following main functions:

· Convenient, clear graphical user interface.

· Multitasking, i.e. running multiple programs at the same time.

· Unification of the use of computer hardware resources.

Windows Features:

· Rules for writing a program. To work in the Windows environment, the program must be written according to certain rules that differ significantly from those adopted in MS-DOS.

Windows also allows you to run programs written for MS DOS, but the programs cannot take advantage of Windows.

· Multitasking. The multitasking mode allows you to run several applications at the same time, for example, a word processor, a database, a game, and switch between them.

Today, Microsoft's Windows operating system in all its manifestations is undeniably the most widely used PC operating system, with over 150 million IBM PC-compatible computers in the world, and Windows is installed on 100 million of them. It is obvious that familiarization with a PC must begin with an acquaintance with Windows, because without it, working on a PC is unthinkable for most users. Knowledge of the Windows system is a necessary brick in the wall of PC knowledge.

LIST OF SOURCES OF INFORMATION

1. Brian Livingston, Paul Tarrot. Microsoft Windows Vista Secrets = Windows Vista Secrets. - M .: "Dialectics", 2007. - S. 456.

2. Paul McPhaedris. Microsoft Windows XP SP2. Complete Guide = Microsoft Windows XP Unleashed. - M.: "Williams", 2006. - S. 880.

7. A. Levin. Computer tutorial. Publishing house "Piter", 2002.- 655p.:ill

8. V.E. Figurnov IBM for the user. Publishing house "INFRA-M", 2001.- 480s.:ill.

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Microsoft Windows

Microsoft Windows (/ˈwɪndoʊz/) is a family of proprietary operating systems from Microsoft. Windows operating systems run on x86, x86-64, IA-64, ARM platforms. There were also versions for DEC Alpha, MIPS and PowerPC.

Versions of Microsoft Windows

There are the following versions of Microsoft Windows:

1. Windows 1.0 (1985)

2. Windows 2.0 (1987)

3. Windows 3.0 (1990)

4. Windows 3.1 (1992)

5. Windows For Workgroups 3.1 (1992)

6. Windows NT 3.1 (1993)

7. Windows NT 3.5 (1994)

8. Windows NT 3.51 (1995)

9. Windows 95 (1995)

10. Windows NT 4.0 (1996)

11. Windows 98 (1998)

12. Windows 98 SE (1999)

13. Windows 2000 (2000)

14 Windows Me (2000)

15. Windows XP (2001)

16. Windows XP 64-bit Edition (2003)

17. Windows Server 2003 (2003)

18. Windows Fundamentals for Legacy PCs (2006)

19. Windows Vista (2007)

20. Windows Home Server (2007)

21. Windows Server 2008 (2008)

23. Windows Server 2008 R2 (previously known as Windows Server 7) (Scheduled for release late 2009 early 2010)

24. Windows 8 (Scheduled for release in 2012)

Let's take a closer look at each of these operating systems.

Windows 1.x

Windows 1.01, released on November 20, 1985, was Microsoft's first attempt at a multitasking operating environment for the IBM PC with a graphical interface.

Unlike subsequent versions, Windows 1.0 provided only limited multitasking support for existing MS-DOS programs, focusing mainly on creating an environment paradigm for running and interacting applications, as well as a stable API for future Windows programs. Today, twenty-three years after the release of Windows 1.0, you can not only run many of the programs created for that version on modern system Windows XP, but also compile their source code into fully functional "modern" applications (with minor modifications).

Windows 1.0 is often considered a "shell" for the MS-DOS operating system (this definition often applies to later versions of Windows as well). In fact, Windows 1.0 ran from MS-DOS, its programs could call MS-DOS functions, and its GUI programs ran from the same EXE executables as normal MS-DOS programs. However, Windows executable files had a different format (NE - English new executable), which could only be processed by Windows and which, for example, allowed loading code and data on demand. Applications were required to manage memory only with their own allocation management system Windows memory, which allowed the use of virtual memory.

The definition of Windows 1.0 as a "shell for DOS" comes from the fact that it was created only as a graphical environment for running applications, and not as a full-featured operating system. However, Windows 1.0 included native drivers for graphics cards, mice, keyboards, printers, and serial ports. Applications were only expected to call APIs built on top of these drivers. Given the limited support for graphics and peripherals in MS-DOS, applications had to access the hardware (or, in some cases, the BIOS) directly to perform the necessary actions. Thus, Windows 1.0 was not just a shell for MS-DOS, but supplemented and partially replaced features not provided in MS-DOS. The level of MS-DOS replacement has increased in subsequent versions of Windows.

The first released version of Windows was 1.01. Version 1.0 was not released due to a serious bug that prevented this version from being released.

Version 1.02, released in May 1986, was international and had localizations for various European languages.

Version 1.03, released in August 1986, was for the US only and contained improvements that made it more like an international release. It included drivers for European keyboards and additional drivers for screen and printers.

Version 1.04, released in April 1987, added support for the VGA graphics cards introduced in the new PS/2 series computers from IBM. At the same time, Microsoft, together with IBM, announced the OS / 2 operating system with a graphical interface - Presentation Manager, which, according to the companies, was supposed to eventually replace both MS-DOS and Windows.

Windows 1.0 was superseded by Windows 2.0 released in November 1987.

Windows 2.x

Instead of the tiling of windows that was in Windows 1.x, Windows 2.x implemented a system of overlapping windows. It also takes advantage of the protected mode of the 80286 and better processors, allowing programs to go beyond the 640 KB DOS main memory. In June 1988, version 2.1 is released, renamed Windows 286. Also on December 9, 1987, Windows 386 is released, an edition of Windows 2.0 optimized for the latest Intel CPU. It has some impact on the market, but mainly due to the ability to run multiple DOS programs in<виртуальных машинах>CPU 386; it lays the foundation for most future Windows features 3.0.

Windows 3.x

Windows 3.x is the generic name for a family of Microsoft operating systems released from 1990 to 1994. The first widespread version of Microsoft Windows was 3.0, allowing Microsoft to compete with the Macintosh and Commodore Amiga for GUI operating systems.

Windows 3.0 was released on May 22, 1990, with a significantly updated user interface and technical improvements to take advantage of the memory management capabilities of the Intel 80286 and 80386 processors. Text programs created for MS-DOS could be run in a window (this feature was previously available to a more limited extent in Windows/386 2.1). This made the system usable as a simple multitasking base for older programs; however, for home computers, this feature was not of great importance, since most games and entertainment applications still required direct access to DOS.

The MS-DOS Executive tool, which was previously used to run programs and manage files, has been replaced by the Program Manager and File Manager tools, making these actions easier. However, MS-DOS Executive was still shipped with the system as an alternative user interface. The Control Panel, which was previously an ordinary applet, has been redesigned and began to look more like its counterpart in the Mac OS operating system. It centralized system settings, including limited control over the color scheme of the interface. Several simple applications were included in the delivery, for example, text editor Write Notepad and Word Processor (both inherited from previous versions of Windows), Macro Writer (new in Windows 3.0; later removed), and Calculator (also from previous versions). The older Reversi game was supplemented with the Klondike solitaire card game.

Windows 3.0 was the last version of Windows that Microsoft claimed to be fully compatible with older Windows applications.

Media extensions were released in the fall of 1991 to support CD drives and sound cards as they become more common. These extensions have been released to OEMs, mainly manufacturers of CD drives and sound cards. They added simple audio I/O capability and an audio CD player to Windows 3.0. The new media extension features were not available in real mode. Subsequently, many of the features of these extensions were included in Windows 3.1.

Windows 3.1 (originally codenamed Janus), released on March 18, 1992, was an extension of Windows 3.0. It included the TrueType font system (and a preinstalled set of fairly good fonts), making Windows a serious desktop publishing platform for the first time. Similar capabilities could be obtained in Windows 3.0 using the Adobe Type Manager application. This version of Windows also included a simple Microsoft antivirus program. Anti-Virus for Windows, which later became notorious for identifying Windows 95 Setup as containing a computer virus. Starting with this version, Windows systems support 32-bit hard disk access.

Windows 3.1 was designed to be as backward compatible as possible with older Windows platforms. Like version 3.0, Windows 3.1 had File Manager and Program Manager.

A special version called Windows 3.1 for Central and Eastern Europe was also released, which supported Cyrillic and had fonts with diacritics.

Built-in networking was introduced in Windows for Workgroups 3.1, an enhanced version of Windows 3.1. It included SMB support for NetBEUI and/or IPX file sharing, as well as the PC game Hearts and VSHARE.386, a virtual device driver for the SHARE.EXE program. Windows for Workgroups 3.11 supported 32-bit file access, full 32-bit network redirectors, and the VCACHE.386 file cache. In addition, version 3.11 removed support for standard mode and the Reversi game. Support for TCP/IP protocols in Windows 3.x was based on separate packages from third parties (such as Winsock). An add-on from Microsoft (codenamed Snowball) also provided TCP/IP support for Windows for workgroups, but this package was not widely available.

Limited compatibility with the new 32-bit Win32 API that was used in Windows NT was provided additional package win32s.

Windows 3.2 was a Chinese-only version.

Over time, Windows 3.x was replaced by Windows 95, Windows 98 and later, which integrated both MS-DOS and Windows components into a single product.

Later, Windows 3.x found its way into embedded systems. On November 1, 2008, Microsoft stopped issuing licenses for its use.

Windows NT

Windows NT (colloquially just NT) is a line of operating systems (OS) produced by Microsoft Corporation and the name of the first versions of the OS.

Windows NT was designed from scratch, developed separately from other operating systems of the Windows family (Windows 3.x and Windows 9x) and, unlike them, was positioned as a reliable solution for workstations (Windows NT Workstation) and servers (Windows NT Server ). Windows NT gave rise to a family of operating systems that includes Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows Server 2003, Windows Vista, Windows Server 2008, Windows 7.

Development of Windows NT, under the working title NT OS/2, began in November 1988 by a team led by David Cutler who had moved to Microsoft from DEC, where they developed VAX and VMS. The work went hand in hand with IBM's development of its own operating system, OS/2 2.0, which was not finally released until April 1992. At the same time, Microsoft continued to develop its operating systems of the DOS and Windows family, which are distinguished by lower requirements for computer resources than IBM OS / 2. After Windows 3.0 was released in May 1990, Microsoft decided to add a Windows API compatible programming interface (API) to NT OS/2. This decision caused serious friction between Microsoft and IBM, which ended in a break in collaboration. IBM continued to develop OS/2 on its own, while Microsoft began working on the system, which was eventually released under the name Windows NT. Although this system did not bring immediate popularity, like DOS or Windows, Windows NT proved to be significantly more successful than OS / 2.

It should be noted that as software interfaces NT was originally planned for the OS/2 API and then POSIX, with Windows API support added last. In addition, Intel i860 and then MIPS were originally planned as a hardware platform for NT, support for Intel x86 was also added later. Then, during the evolution of this OS, support for both originally planned software interfaces and both originally planned hardware platforms disappeared. There was not even a single release version of this OS for the i860, although the name of the NT OS itself comes from the code name of this processor, N10. Microsoft now stands for NT as New Technology. And as an alternative to the POSIX subsystem, Microsoft began offering Microsoft Windows Services for UNIX.

NT's portability was one of its top priorities. That is why the development of this OS was originally carried out for the i860 processor, although binary compatibility with OS / 2, which was one of the conditions for the NT OS / 2 project, would in any case require the creation of an x86 version of NT, or the inclusion of emulation of this platform in it. The number of platforms for which there were release versions of the Windows NT family of operating systems is impressive: in addition to the named MIPS and Intel x86, this includes PowerPC, DEC Alpha, Itanium and AMD x86-64. ISVs also developed versions of Windows NT for the Clipper and SPARC architectures; however, these versions were not released as standalone software products. The Unix and Mach operating systems were taken as examples of highly portable operating systems during the development of NT.

To develop the NT operating system, Microsoft brought in a team from DEC, led by David Cutler, with experience building multitasking operating systems such as VAX/VMS and RSX-11. Some similarities noted between the internal architectures of Windows NT and the VMS family of operating systems gave grounds to accuse newly hired Microsoft employees of stealing DEC intellectual property. The resulting conflict was resolved amicably: DEC recognized Microsoft's ownership of the technologies underlying Windows NT, and Microsoft created and maintained a version of Windows NT for the DEC Alpha architecture.

In spite of common roots, compatibility between Windows NT and OS/2 has decreased with each new release of this OS. Support for the OS/2 2.0 API, although planned for NT, was never completed; Windows NT 4.0 removed support for the HPFS file system, and Windows XP removed the Software Support Subsystem for OS/2 1.x.

The user interface subsystem in Windows NT implements a windowing interface similar to previous versions of Windows. Two types of objects in this subsystem that were not present in 16-bit versions of Windows and in Windows 9x are window stations and desktops. A window station corresponds to a single Windows NT user session - for example, when connecting via Remote Desktop Service, a new window station is created. Each running process belongs to one of the window stations; services, except those marked as capable of interacting with the desktop, run in separate, invisible window stations.

Each window station has its own clipboard, a set of global atoms (used for DDE operations), and a set of desktops. The desktop is the context for all global operations of the user interface subsystem, such as installing hooks and broadcasting messages. Each running thread belongs to one of the desktops - the one where the windows served by it are located; in particular, a single thread cannot create multiple windows belonging to different desktops. One of the desktops can be active (visible to the user and able to respond to his actions), the rest of the desktops are hidden. The ability to create several desktops for one session and switch between them has not yet been provided standard means Windows user interface, although there are third-party programs that provide access to this functionality.

Window stations and desktops are the only objects in the Windows NT user interface subsystem that can be assigned permissions. The remaining types of objects - windows and menus - provide full access to any process that is with them in the same window station. Therefore, Windows NT services run in separate window stations by default: they run with elevated privileges, and allowing user processes to manipulate service windows indefinitely could lead to crashes and/or security issues.

Windows NT provides several sets of APIs for application programs. The most basic of them is the so-called "native" API (NT Native API), implemented in the dynamic link library ntdll and consisting of two parts: NT kernel system calls (functions with Nt and Zw prefixes that transfer execution to ntoskrnl kernel functions with the same names ) and functions implemented in user mode (prefixed with Rtl). Some of the functions of the second group use system calls internally; the rest consist entirely of unprivileged code, and can be called not only from user-mode code, but also from drivers. In addition to the Native API functions, ntdll also includes the C standard library functions.

The official documentation for the Native API is very sparse, but the community of enthusiasts managed to collect quite a lot of information about this interface through trial and error. In particular, in February 2000, Gary Nebbet's book "Handbook of Basic Functions of the Windows NT/2000 API" was published (); in 2002 it was translated into Russian (). The source of information about the Native API is the Windows DDK, which describes some of the kernel functions available through the Native API, as well as the study of Windows code (reverse engineering) - through disassembly, either using leaked Windows 2000 sources, or using the original Windows 2003 texts available through the Windows Research Kernel program.

Programs that run before the subsystems that run the rest of the Windows NT APIs are loaded are restricted to using the Native API. For example, the autochk program, which checks disks when the OS boots after an incorrect shutdown, uses only the Native API.

Most often, Windows NT application programs use the Win32 API, an interface based on the Windows 3.1 API that allows existing programs to be recompiled for 16-bit versions of Windows with minimal source code changes. The compatibility of the Win32 API and the 16-bit Windows API is so great that 32-bit and 16-bit applications can freely exchange messages, work with each other's windows, etc. In addition to supporting the functions of the existing Windows API, a number of new features, including support for console programs, multithreading, and synchronization objects such as mutexes and semaphores. Documentation for the Win32 API is included with the Microsoft Platform SDK and is available on the website.

The Win32 API support libraries are basically named the same as the Windows 3.x system libraries, with the addition of the 32 suffix: these are the libraries kernel32, advapi32, gdi32, user32, comctl32, comdlg32, shell32 and a number of others. The Win32 API functions can either independently implement the required functionality in user mode, or call the Native API functions described above, or access the csrss subsystem through the LPC mechanism, or make a system call to the win32k library that implements the necessary support for the Win32 API in mode kernels. The four options listed can also be combined in any combination: for example, the Win32 API function WriteFile calls the Native API function NtWriteFile to write to disk file, and calls the appropriate csrss function to output to the console.

Win32 API support is included in the Windows 9x family; it can also be added to Windows 3.1x by installing the Win32s package. To facilitate the porting of existing Windows applications that use MBCS encodings to represent strings, all Win32 API functions that take strings as parameters have been created in two versions: functions with an A (ANSI) suffix accept MBCS strings, and functions with a W (wide ) accept Unicode strings. On Win32s and Windows 9x, only A-functions are supported, while on Windows NT, where all strings inside the OS are stored exclusively in Unicode, each A-function simply converts its string parameters to Unicode and calls the W version of the same function. When the function name in original text program is specified without a suffix, the use of the A- or W-version of this function is determined by the compilation options. However, it is important to note that most of the new features introduced in Windows 2000 or later operating systems of the Windows NT family exist only in the Unicode version, because the problem of ensuring compatibility with older programs and with Windows 9x is no longer as acute as it used to be.

Unlike most "free" Unix-like operating systems, Windows NT is NIST-certified to comply with the POSIX.1 standard, and even with the more stringent FIPS 151-2 standard. The psxdll library exports standard POSIX functions, as well as some Native API functions that have no analogues in POSIX - for example, for working with a heap, with structured exceptions, with Unicode encoding. These functions use both the Native API and LPC calls to the psxss subsystem, which is a regular Win32 process. The posix shell program is used to load this subsystem and execute a POSIX program. The POSIX support included with Windows NT does not contain extensions for graphics or multi-threaded applications.

To run 16-bit programs written for OS/2 1.x, Windows NT includes two OS/2 system libraries (doscalls and netapi) and an os2 console emulator that loads and uses the os2srv subsystem via LPC calls and os2ss. The remaining OS/2 system libraries, except for the two named ones (kbdcalls, mailslot, moncalls, nampipes, quecalls, viocalls, and a dozen more), are not stored as separate files, but are emulated. Programs written for OS/2 2.0 and higher, as well as window programs and programs that work directly with computer devices, including drivers, are not supported by Windows NT.

Both of these subsystems, which are optional for most applications to run, were removed in Windows XP and later editions of Windows. Using registry manipulation, they could also be disabled in previous versions of Windows NT, which was recommended by computer security experts in order to reduce the attack surface of a computer system.

To ensure binary compatibility with existing programs for previous families of operating systems from Microsoft, the ntvdm emulator program was added to Windows NT, which implements a VDM (virtual DOS machine) within which a DOS program can be executed. Each running DOS program creates its own VDM, while several 16-bit Windows programs can run in separate threads within one VDM, which in this case plays the role of a subsystem. In order for Windows programs to be executed inside the VDM, the wowexec program must first be loaded into it, which establishes a connection between the VDM and the WOW platform (“Windows on Win32”), which allows using 16-bit Windows applications along with 32-bit ones. The ntvdm emulator program itself runs inside the Win32 subsystem, which allows Win32 programs to access DOS program windows as normal console windows, and Win16 program windows as normal graphical windows.

Another binary compatibility technology implemented in Windows NT is thunks, which allow 32-bit programs to use 16-bit DLLs (for Windows or OS/2), and vice versa. Thunks for Win16 are implemented in the wow32 (32-bit entry points) and krnl386 (16-bit entry points) libraries; thunks for OS/2 - in the doscalls library (16-bit entry points). The 16-bit system libraries included with Windows NT for WOW use include krnl386, gdi, user, commctrl, commdlg, shell, and others. : DPMI is supported, allowing DOS programs to access extended memory. However, support for programs for DOS and Win16 in Windows NT is limited by security requirements: programs that work directly with computer devices, including drivers, are not supported.

Due to hardware limitations of 64-bit platforms, support for VDM and WOW has been removed from 64-bit versions of Windows, and it is not possible to run 16-bit programs on them. The main API of these versions of Windows NT is the 64-bit version of the Win32 API; WOW64 technology is used to run 32-bit programs, similar to traditional WOW.

As already noted, an x86 version of NT was required to be compatible with OS/2, but in order to ensure the portability of the generated code, NT development began with versions for RISC architectures, and only then x86 support was added. Initially, the development of the x86 version of Windows NT was focused on the 80486 processor, but by the time Windows release NT 3.1 also added support for 80386. The last version to support i386 was Windows NT 3.51, and starting with Windows 2000, i486 support was also dropped.

The i860 processor, for which the initial development of the NT operating system was carried out, did not receive the support from computer manufacturers that Intel and Microsoft had hoped for by the time Windows NT was completed. As a result, the three platforms supported in Windows NT 3.1 were x86, Alpha, and MIPS. Support for these platforms continued in releases of Windows NT 3.x, with the addition of the PReP architecture based on the PowerPC processor in Windows NT 3.51. However, Windows NT 3.51 was not compatible with Macintosh computers with the same processor; in fact, only IBM PC clones with a PowerPC processor instead of x86 were supported. Such computers were produced mainly by the creators of PowerPC - IBM and Motorola.

The first release of Windows NT 4 supported four platforms (x86, Alpha, MIPS, and PowerPC), but support for less common platforms was reduced as service packs were released: MIPS support was removed from SP1, and PowerPC support from SP3. Recent releases of Windows NT 4 only supported x86 and Alpha; although Alpha support was planned for inclusion in Windows 2000, it was dropped from the RC2 release.

Windows 95

Windows 95 (codenamed Chicago) is a hybrid 16-bit and 32-bit graphical operating system released on August 24, 1995 by Microsoft Corporation. The Russian version went on sale on November 10, 1995.

This is the first system of the Windows family, the interface of which is used in all subsequent versions of Windows: it was in it that such elements of the graphical interface as the desktop with icons, the taskbar and the Start menu appeared.

Windows 95 is the result of an amalgamation of MS-DOS and Windows products that were previously distributed separately. Windows 95 is the third Windows system (after Windows for Workgroups 3.11 and Windows NT) to remove support for standard and real x86 processors and require an Intel 80386 or higher processor in protected mode. Windows 95 contains significant improvements to the graphical interface and internals of the system, including the desktop and Start menu, support for long (up to 256 characters) filenames, and a plug and play system.

The main innovation in Windows 95 was the ability to run 32-bit applications based on the Win32 API. This feature first appeared in Windows NT, but systems in this family had higher hardware requirements and therefore could not be compared in popularity with the "regular" Windows series (which was represented by the Windows 3.x family before the release of Windows 95).

Windows 95 implemented only a subset of the Win32 features available in Windows NT. However, this was enough to allow many applications based on the Win32 API to run on both Windows NT (which was positioned as a system for business use) and Windows 95 (targeted for the consumer market). This contributed to the popularity of Windows 95.

The introduction of 32-bit file access in Windows for Workgroups 3.11 meant that 16-bit MS-DOS real mode was no longer used for file manipulation during Windows runtime, and the introduction of 32-bit disk access in Windows 3.1 avoided the use of BIOS for managing hard drives. As a result, the role of MS-DOS has effectively been reduced to booting the Windows kernel running in protected mode. DOS could still be used to run older device drivers for compatibility purposes, but Microsoft recommended against using them as it interfered with proper multitasking and reduced system stability. Using the Control Panel, the user could determine which MS-DOS components were still in use on his system; optimal performance was achieved if there were none. The Windows kernel still used the old "MS-DOS-style" calls in what is known as failsafe mode, but this mode was only used to fix problems loading native protected mode drivers.

32-bit file access was required for long filenames, a feature available in Windows 95 through the use of the VFAT file system (a variant of FAT16). This feature was available to both Windows programs and MS-DOS programs launched from Windows (they needed to be slightly tweaked, since accessing files by long names required a larger buffer for the path and, as a result, other system calls). Other DOS-compatible operating systems required an update in order to use long filenames. Using older versions of the DOS file management utilities could corrupt long filenames when copying and moving them. In the process automatic update Windows 3.1 through Windows 95 DOS and third party utilities that could corrupt long filenames were detected and disabled. For those cases where it was necessary to use old disk utilities that did not accept long file names (for example, the defrag program from the MS-DOS 6.22 package), the LFNBACK program was provided to save and restore long names. The program is located in the \ADMIN\APPTOOLS\LFNBACK directory on the Windows 95 CD.

The Windows 95 graphical interface has become much more powerful and easier to use, resulting in a rivalry in the desktop operating system market that ended in victory for Microsoft. Windows 95 was an undeniable market success, and within a year or two of its release, it became the most successful operating system ever created. Windows 95 made graphical interface features such as the Start button and taskbar available to the masses (although similar features had been implemented earlier - in the Arthur and RISC OS operating systems - the market for these systems was extremely limited). These features have become a constant attribute of all subsequent versions of Windows, and subsequently copied in other graphical interfaces.

The "plug and play" system implemented in Windows 95 (literally - "plug and play") automatically installs device drivers, assigns them interrupt numbers, etc. - previously this had to be done manually. In its turn, advent of Windows 95 led to devices specifically designed for "plug and play" - for example, they are inactive until the system assigns addresses and interrupts to them. At an early stage of implementation, numerous hardware recognition errors occurred, so “plug and play” was often jokingly called “plug and pray” - literally “plug and pray”.

The release of Windows 95 was accompanied by a massive advertising campaign(according to many estimates - the largest in the history of software), including a commercial with the song "Start Me Up" (a hint at the "Start" button - "Start") performed by the Rolling Stones. The campaign also included stories from people queuing outside stores to purchase a copy of the system; there were even tales of people who didn't have computers buying Windows 95 just because of all the hype, without even knowing what Windows was.

Initially, Windows 95 was sold on 13 floppy disks in a special DMF (Distribution Media Format, 1.68 MB capacity) or on CDs (the CD version included many useful additional files). Some developments that could not be completed by the time Windows 95 was officially released were later included in Microsoft Plus! (for example, Internet Explorer).

The first versions of Windows 95 did not have built-in support for working with the Internet, but there was a "Microsoft Network" icon on the desktop - it was later removed.

Windows 95 has been superseded by other operating systems in the Windows 9x line - Windows 98, Windows 98 SE, and Windows ME. The Windows NT kernel used in Windows 2000, Windows XP, and Windows Vista is much more stable and functional than its predecessors used in the Windows 9x line, but does not support older MS-DOS games and applications well. To date, all operating systems of the Windows 9x line, especially Windows 95, have almost fallen into disuse. On December 31, 2002, Microsoft ended support for Windows 95.

Windows 98

Windows 98 (codenamed Memphis) is a graphical operating system released by Microsoft on June 25, 1998.

In fact, this operating system is an updated version of Windows 95, which is still a hybrid 16/32-bit product based on MS-DOS. AGP support has been improved, USB drivers have been improved, support for working with multiple monitors and WebTV support have been added. As in Windows 95 OSR 2.5, Internet Explorer 4 (Active Desktop feature) is integrated into the system interface.

The internal number of the "first edition" of Windows 98 is 4.10.1998, SE is 4.10.2222.

System requirements for Windows 98: 486DX/66 MHz processor or better, 16 MB of RAM and at least 195 MB of free disk space with standard installation.

Windows 98 Second Edition (Windows 98 SE) was released on May 5, 1999. The updated version includes many fixes, Internet Explorer 4 has been replaced with a much faster and lighter Internet Explorer 5, and Internet Connection Sharing has been added. Also added MS NetMeeting 3 and DVD playback support.

System RAM requirements for Windows 98 SE have increased to 24 MB.

Microsoft planned to end support for Windows 98 on July 16, 2004. However, due to the incredible popularity of this operating system, support was extended until July 30, 2006.

Windows 2000

Windows 2000 (also referred to as Win2k, W2k, or Windows NT 5.0, codenamed Cairo) is Microsoft's Windows NT family of operating systems designed to run on computers with 32-bit processors (with an Intel IA-32 compatible architecture).

The first beta version of the system was released on September 27, 1997. The system was originally called Windows NT 5.0 because it was the next major version of Windows NT after Windows NT 4.0. However, on October 27, 1998, it received its own name, Windows 2000. The final version of the system was released to the general public on February 17, 2000.

Windows 2000 is available in four editions: Professional (workstation and power user edition), Server, Advanced Server, and Datacenter Server (for use on servers). In addition, there is a "limited edition" of Windows 2000 Advanced Server Limited Edition and Windows 2000 Datacenter Server Limited Edition designed to run on 64-bit Intel Itanium processors.

Some of the most significant improvements in Windows 2000 over Windows NT 4.0 are: Support for the Active Directory directory service. The Active Directory back end comes with the Server, Advanced Server, and Datacenter Server editions, while the Professional edition provides full support for the client-side service. IIS version 5.0. Compared to IIS 4.0, this version includes, among other things, version 3.0 of the ASP web programming system. File system NTFS version 3.0 (also called NTFS 5.0 internally in Windows 2000 - NT 5.0). This version of NTFS for the first time introduced support for quotas, that is, restrictions on the maximum amount of stored files for each user. Updated user interface, including Active Desktop based on Internet Explorer version 5 and thus similar to the Windows 98 interface. Language integration: previous versions of Windows were released in three versions - for European languages (single-byte characters, writing only from left to right), for Far Eastern languages (multi-byte characters) and for Middle Eastern languages (writing from right to left with contextual letter variants). Windows 2000 combines these features; all its localized versions are made on a single basis.

Subsequently, Windows 2000 was replaced by Windows XP (client side) and Windows Server 2003 (server side) operating systems. However, Windows 2000 remains popular, especially in large companies where updating operating systems on a large number of computers is associated with serious technical and financial difficulties. According to a study by Assetmetrix, in early 2005, Windows 2000 accounted for more than 50% of Windows workstation operating systems in companies with more than 250 computers. At the same time, in companies with less than 250 computers, Windows XP is more popular. On June 30, 2005, Microsoft ended mainstream support for the Windows 2000 operating system. Extended support will continue through June 30, 2010.

Windows ME

Windows Millennium Edition (Windows ME; also abbreviated as Windows Me) is a mixed 16/32-bit operating system released by Microsoft on September 14, 2000. It was named so in honor of the new III millennium (Latin millennium - millennium).

It differs from its predecessors - Windows 95 and Windows 98 - with relatively minor updates, such as the new Internet Explorer 5.5 and Windows Media Player 7. Windows Movie Maker has also appeared with basic digital video editing functions. The system interface has changed - features that first appeared in Windows 2000 were added to it.

One of the most notable changes in Windows ME is that MS-DOS real mode is disabled by default, preventing programs that require this mode from being used. However, with the help of special utilities, this function can be unlocked. Booting Windows ME is the same as booting Windows 95 and 98.

Windows XP

Windows XP (code name during development - Whistler; internal version - Windows NT 5.1) is an operating system of the Windows NT family from Microsoft Corporation. It was released on October 25, 2001 and is an evolution of Windows 2000 Professional. The name XP comes from the English. experience (experience). The name entered the practice of use as a professional version.

Unlike previous Windows 2000, which came in both server and client versions, Windows XP is a client-only system. Its server version is the later released Windows Server 2003. Windows XP and Windows Server 2003 are based on the same operating system kernel, as a result of which their development and updating is more or less parallel.

Since April 14, 2009, Microsoft has stopped free support for the operating system (OS) Windows XP, now Windows XP users will not be able to contact Microsoft for free technical support in case of incidents, for design changes and in other situations. Now they will have to use the services of "extended support" for this - this means that all calls will become paid. Extended support will continue until April 8, 2014.

In addition, it stopped free support office suite Office 2003 as well as Windows Server 2003.

Windows XP analyzes the performance of the system with certain visual effects and, depending on this, activates them or not, taking into account a possible drop or increase in performance. Users can also change these settings using dialog boxes settings, while you can either flexibly select the activity of certain visual effects, or give it to the system to manage, or choose the maximum performance or the best view of the graphical interface. Some effects, such as alpha blending, etc., require a powerful graphics subsystem, on older video cards, performance can be severely reduced, and Microsoft recommends disabling these features in this case.

In Windows XP, it became possible to use "Visual Styles" to change the graphical user interface. Luna- new style graphical interface included with XP, which is the default interface for PCs with more than 64 megabytes of RAM. It is possible to use other "Visual Styles", but they must be digitally signed by Microsoft (since they are essential to the functioning of the system).

To get around this limitation, some users use special software such as TGTSoft's StyleXP, and sometimes a modified version of the uxtheme.dll library.

There is also a "classic" style that mimics the Windows 2000 interface style (which uses 4 MB less memory than Luna), as well as numerous third-party styles. For the Media Center version, Microsoft developed the "Royale" "visual style" that is included with this version of Windows XP and available for installation on other versions of XP.

More than 100 icons have been created for Windows XP by The Iconfactory, known for its collection of free icons for the Mac OS X operating system.

Windows XP also has a command line interface (CLI, "console"), cmd.exe, for controlling the system with commands from the console or running scripts called "batch files" (with cmd extensions) based on MS "batch" files. -DOS. The Windows XP CLI syntax is not well documented in the built-in help system. More general information can be obtained by typing "help" at the command line to get general information about available commands and "command name /?". The command line interface is available in both windowed and full-screen views (switching between them by pressing Alt+Enter), the preferred view can be specified in the appropriate settings dialog, along with parameters such as font size and type, etc. When working in this mode, the user can call previous commands (for example, the "up" key returns the previous command), use auto-completion of file and directory names, as well as commands.

Microsoft periodically releases service packs for its operating systems that fix known problems and add new features. At the moment there are three of them.

Service Pack 1 (SP1) for Windows XP was released on September 9, 2002. The most important innovations were USB support 2.0, a utility that allows you to select default programs for web browsing, mail, instant messaging, and various implementations of the Java Virtual Machine. Starting with SP1, the EFS encryption file system was able to use the AES encryption algorithm with a 256-bit key.

Starting with SP1, LBA-48 is supported, which allows the operating system to work with HDDs with a capacity of more than 137 GB, activated by default.

Service Pack 2 (SP2) (codenamed "Springboard") was released on August 6, 2004. SP2 added new features to Windows XP, including an improved firewall; WiFi support with the setup wizard and Bluetooth, as well as improvements in IE6 - for example, the ability to block "pop-up" windows. This service pack has made significant changes to the security of Windows XP. So, the built-in firewall has undergone significant changes, which has been renamed to Windows Firewall and now activated for everyone created connections default. Extended memory protection has appeared, in particular, against buffer overflow attacks both using the NX-bit technology and a number of other tricks. Services have also been changed - services such as telnet and messaging are disabled by default, a number of services run with reduced rights, etc. Security changes have affected both the Outlook Express mail program and the IE browser. Windows XP Service Pack 2 includes Windows Security Center, which makes it easier to monitor system security by monitoring and reminding the user to install or update antivirus and its databases, activate built-in or third-party firewalls, update the operating system, or change web browser settings. . Third party antivirus and firewalls have the ability to interact with it using an API interface. Autorun functions have also been improved when loading a CD or connecting flash drives and similar devices.

In early August 2007, Microsoft began beta testing SP3 with a limited group of beta testers. Despite the fact that the beta version was distributed only to a select few, its distribution has appeared in peer-to-peer networks. Since December 12, 2007 version RC1 SP3 is available for download and testing to everyone.

The final version of Service Pack 3 for Windows XP was released on April 21, 2008, but only to business customers such as original equipment manufacturers and MSDN and TechNet subscribers. The rest of the users were able to get the third service pack from the online Windows Update service or through the Microsoft Download Center on May 6, as well as through the automatic update service at the beginning of the summer. Initially, the RTM version of Windows XP SP3 was released in Chinese, English, French, German, Japanese, Korean, and Spanish.

The package includes all updates released since the release of Windows XP Service Pack 2 in 2004, as well as a number of other new items. Among them is the Network Access Protection feature and a new activation model borrowed from Windows Vista, in addition, there is an improved detection of so-called black hole routers, etc.

Effective July 1, 2008, Microsoft stopped selling Windows XP SP2 to its vendors. At the moment, Windows XP SP3 is supplied in OEM and BOX deliveries, a “downgrade” is possible under volume licensing. And also on sale is Get Genuine Kit Windows XP SP3 designed for licensing installed pirated software, under corporate licensing package Get Genuine Solution Windows XP.

Windows XP Service Pack 3 will also be distributed as part of Windows component 7 "Windows XP Mode"

Windows Server 2003

Windows Server 2003 (code name during development - Whistler Server, internal version - Windows NT 5.2) is an operating system of the Windows NT family from Microsoft, designed to work on servers. It was released on April 24, 2003.

Windows Server 2003 is an evolution of Windows 2000 Server and a server variant of the Windows XP operating system. Microsoft originally planned to call this product "Windows .NET Server" to promote their new Microsoft .NET platform. However, this name was subsequently dropped so as not to cause a misconception about .NET in the market. software.

Windows Server 2008 is the next server version of Windows NT, which will replace Windows Server 2003.

Windows Server 2003 basically develops the functions incorporated in the previous version of the system - Windows 2000 Server. This was also indicated by the NT 5.2 version of the system kernel (NT 5.0 for Windows 2000). The following are some of the more notable changes from Windows 2000 Server.

Windows Server 2003 is the first Microsoft operating system to ship with the .NET Framework preinstalled. This allows the system to act as an application server for the Microsoft .NET platform without installing any additional software.

Windows Server 2003 includes version 6.0 of Internet Information Services, which has a very different architecture from IIS 5.0 available in Windows 2000. In particular, to improve stability, it is possible to isolate applications from each other in separate processes without compromising performance. A new HTTP.sys driver has also been created to process HTTP requests. This driver runs in kernel mode, resulting in faster request processing.

According to Microsoft, in Windows Server 2003 a lot of attention was paid to system security. In particular, the system is now installed in the most limited form, without any additional services, which reduces the attack surface. Windows Server 2003 also includes the Internet Connection Firewall software. Subsequently, a service pack was released to the system, which is fully focused on improving the security of the system and includes several additional features to protect against attacks. According to the American security standard Trusted Computer System Evaluation Criteria (TCSEC), Windows Server 2003 belongs to the security class C2 - Controlled Access Protection

For the first time in Windows Server 2003, the Volume Shadow Copy Service appeared, which automatically saves old versions of user files, allowing you to return to the previous version of a document if necessary. Working with shadow copies is possible only if the “shadow copy client” is installed on the PC of the user whose documents need to be restored.

Also in this version of the system, the set of administration utilities called from the command line has been expanded, which simplifies the automation of system management.

A new concept has been introduced - “roles”, server management is based on them. Simply put, to get a file server, you need to add the role - "file server".

Windows Fundamentals for Legacy PCs

Windows FLP or Windows Fundamentals for Legacy PCs (Code Name: Eiger) - Microsoft version Windows, released July 8, 2006. - Compact OS from Microsoft for legacy PCs, based on Microsoft Windows XP Embedded Service Pack 2. It is intended to be used together with terminal servers (Microsoft, Citrix). It is also possible to run a small number of local applications.

Windows Vista

Windows Vista is an operating system of the Microsoft Windows NT family, a line of operating systems used on consumer personal computers. At the development stage, this operating system was codenamed "Longhorn".

In the Windows NT product line, Windows Vista is version number 6.0 (Windows 2000 is 5.0, Windows XP is 5.1, Windows Server 2003 is 5.2). The abbreviation "WinVI" is sometimes used to refer to "Windows Vista", which combines the name "Vista" and the version number written in Roman numerals.

Windows Vista, like Windows XP, is exclusively a client system. Microsoft also released a server version of Windows Vista, Windows Server 2008.

On November 30, 2006, Microsoft officially released Windows Vista and Office 2007 for corporate clients. On January 30, 2007, sales of the system for ordinary users began.

Early in its development, the system was known by the code name Longhorn, after the Longhorn Saloon near the Whistler ski resort in British Columbia. The name "Vista" was announced on July 22, 2005. A few months later, Microsoft also renamed Windows Longhorn Server to Windows Server 2008. As of November 8, 2006, a full version of Windows Vista is available to OEMs. The public release for end users took place on January 30, 2007.

It's worth noting that many of the features planned for Windows Vista were dropped by Microsoft due to public outcry. For example, OpenGL was supposed to be implemented as an add-on to Direct3D. This would lead to a serious drop in OpenGL performance compared to Direct3D and fix the OpenGL version. Fears were not justified, support for OpenGL in Windows Vista remained. Not included in Windows Vista and the WinFS file system - this time due to performance problems.

Windows Wista features include:

1. According to Microsoft itself, the boot time of the system is less than in Windows XP and on most computers is less than a minute. Reduced the time to enter and exit sleep mode to 6 seconds. But with the advent of the user interface, you have to wait much longer to start a full-fledged work, while background processes will go through that make it difficult for third-party programs to work. There is an opinion that Windows Vista is the worst operating system released by Microsoft. Windows Vista also took first place in the "Fail of the Year" competition, held by the Pwnie award site, created in 2007. Moreover, according to The Inquirer.net, a number of unprecedented promotions related to the promotion of WV in the market, it can be concluded that Microsoft management recognized Windows Vista as a failure.

2. Thanks to "Windows ReadyBoost" technology, it became possible to use the capacity external USB flash drives as RAM, which in some cases increases performance by 40%.

3. The logical model of interaction with graphic devices has been completely redesigned.

4. User Account Control (UAC) - control system accounts users, which requires the user's explicit permission to perform any action that requires administrative privileges, regardless of the rights of the current user account. If the user is not an administrator, a prompt will be displayed in which you can select an administrative account and perform an operation with its rights by entering a password - this allows you to configure the system and install applications from a restricted user account without explicitly using the runas mechanism and without having to switch to another account (which was required in XP, for example, in case of changing TCP/IP settings). If the user is a member of the "Administrators" group, then he will need (in the default settings) to confirm the use of rights by responding to a system prompt. UAC requests data in Secure Desktop mode, which protects against interception of data and control over the input window by third-party programs (approximately the same mode was used when logging into an NT domain with the requirement to press Ctrl-Alt-Del twice). UAC can be disabled for certain categories of accounts and reconfigured using a local (or group when used in a domain) security policy: for example, you can set the mandatory password entry for the use of administrative privileges by all users (including administrators), prohibit these actions for users of restricted accounts, and etc.

5. Bitlocker Drive Encryption - Provides the ability to encrypt the system drive using the command line interface and other sections. This uses a USB key or Trusted Platform Module to store the encryption keys. To encrypt partitions, by default, the AES algorithm is used with a key length of 128 bits in CBC encryption mode. This feature is available in Vista Enterprise or Ultimate editions.

6. EFS file encryption system. This system, which first appeared in Windows 2000, runs in Vista Business, Enterprise or Ultimate editions and provides the ability to "transparently" encrypt files at the file system level using AES (with a 256-bit key) or 3-DES algorithms. For each file, an encryption key is randomly generated, which, in turn, is encrypted with the users' public key (2048 bits by default). In Vista, using policies, it became possible to set different lengths of the user's public key (1024, 2048, 4096, ...), store the key on smart cards (by default, the key is stored locally, protected by the user's password) and encrypt the paging file, as well as require mandatory encrypting a user's document folder.

7. Prevention of virus infection from removable media. By default, Windows Vista disables autorun programs from flash cards and USB devices. This prevents the computer from being infected by viruses that spread through flash drives. There are also policies that control access to external media (including USB), which also helps protect confidential data.

8. Block direct writing to disk. Windows Vista prevents direct writing to the drive (\\.\PhysicalDriveX) if a file system is mounted from the drive.

There is an opinion that Windows Vista is the worst operating system released by Microsoft. Windows Vista also took first place in the "Fail of the Year" competition, held by the Pwnie award site, created in 2007. What's more, The Inquirer.net suggests that a series of unprecedented WV-related promotions in the market place suggests that Microsoft's management has declared Windows Vista a failure.

Windows Home Server

Windows Home Server is Microsoft's server operating system, which is based on Windows Server 2003 SP2 and is aimed at home users (as the name implies - English home - home) for use in home networks.

Windows Server 2008

Microsoft Windows Server 2008 (codename "Longhorn Server") is a new version of the server operating system from Microsoft. This version is intended to replace Windows Server 2003 as a representative of the Vista generation (NT 6.x) operating systems.

Windows Server 2008 includes an installation option called Server Core. Server Core is a substantially lightweight installation of Windows Server 2008 that does not include Windows shell explorer. All configuration and maintenance is performed using the Windows command line interface, or by connecting to the server remotely through the Management Console. At the same time, Notepad and some control panel elements are available, for example, Regional Settings.

Windows Server 2008 has seen a significant update to Terminal Services. Terminal Services now supports Remote Desktop Protocol 6.0. The most notable improvement, called Terminal Services RemoteApp, allows you to publish one specific application, instead of the entire desktop.

Another important feature added to Terminal Services is Terminal Services Gateway and Terminal Services Web Access (now completely web-based). Terminal Services Gateway allows authorized computers to securely connect to Terminal Services or Remote Desktop from the Internet using RDP over HTTPS without using a VPN. This does not require opening an additional port on the firewall; RDP traffic is tunneled over HTTPS. Terminal Services Web Access allows administrators to provide access to Terminal Services through a Web interface. When using TS Gateway and TS RemoteApp, data transfer occurs via HTTP(S) and remote applications appear to the user as if they were running locally. Multiple applications run in a single session to ensure there is no need for additional licenses per user.

With Terminal Services Easy Print, administrators no longer need to install any printer drivers on the server. In doing so, Easy Print Driver redirects the user interface and all features of the source printer. In addition, it improves performance when submitting print jobs by converting jobs to XPS format before sending them to the customer.

Windows Server 2008 is the first Windows operating system to be released with built-in Windows PowerShell, an extensible shell with a command line interface, and an accompanying scripting language developed by Microsoft. The PowerShell scripting language was designed specifically for administrative tasks, and can replace the need for cmd.exe and Windows Script Host.

Self-healing NTFS

If, in previous versions of Windows, the operating system encountered errors in file system NTFS volumes, she marked the volume as "dirty"; error correction on the volume could not be performed immediately. With self-healing NTFS, instead of locking the entire volume, only corrupted files/folders are locked, which remain inaccessible for the duration of the repair. Thanks to this, it is no longer necessary to reboot the server to fix file system errors.

Also, the operating system now displays S.M.A.R.T information. hard drives to help identify possible hard drive failures. This feature first appeared in Windows Vista.

Server Manager is a new role-based management tool for Windows Server 2008. It is a combination of Manage This Server and the Security Configuration Wizard from Windows Server 2003. Server Manager is an improved Server Configuration Wizard that was launched by default in Windows Server 2003 at logon. Now it allows not only to add new roles, but also consolidates all the operations that users can perform on the server, and also provides a consolidated, single portal view of the current status of each role.

Currently not possible remote server usage Manager, but a client version is planned.

Windows 7

Windows 7 (formerly codenamed Blackcomb and Vienna) is a version of the Windows NT family of computer operating systems following Windows Vista. In the Windows NT line, the system is version number 6.1 (Windows 2000 - 5.0, Windows XP - 5.1, Windows Server 2003 - 5.2, Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008 - 6.0). The server version is Windows Server 2008 R2.

Microsoft has made a statement that the operating system will go on sale October 22, 2009, less than three years after the release of the previous operating system, Windows Vista. Volume Licensing Partners and Customers were granted access to RTM on July 24, 2009.

Windows 7 included both some of the developments that were excluded from Windows Vista, as well as innovations in the interface and built-in programs.

Windows 7 will have a feature to disable or enable the Internet Explorer browser.

Windows 7 will have support for multitouch monitors. This feature was demonstrated by Microsoft at the annual TechEd'08 conference in Orlando. The demonstration used assembly 6.1.6856, as well as an experimental model of a laptop with a multitouch screen. According to some information, Windows 7 will partially implement the functionality planned in Windows Vista (had the code name "Longhorn"). Closer integration with Windows Live programs and services is also planned.

Windows 7 implements a more flexible User Account Control (UAC) setting, which, unlike Windows Vista, has two more intermediate states between the "Enable" and "Disable" modes.

Changes have been made to BitLocker encryption technology, and the BitLocker to go removable media encryption feature has been added, which allows you to encrypt removable media, even without a TPM module.

Improvements have also been made to the Windows firewall - the function of notifying a user about a blocked program that is trying to access the network has returned.

Windows 7 will not be able to play licensed Blu-Ray video discs, but it will be able to read and write information to them.

With Group Policy and the AppLocker feature, it will be possible to prevent certain applications from running.

The Branch Cache feature will reduce latency for users working with a computer remotely. For example, a file available over the network is cached locally, so it is no longer downloaded from remote server but from the local computer. This function can work in two modes - Hosted Cache and Distributed Cache. In the first case, the file is stored on a dedicated local server under Windows control Server 2008 R2, in the second - on the client's computer.

The DirectAccess feature allows you to establish a secure connection to the server in the background, unlike VPN, which requires user interaction. DirectAccess can also apply group policies before a user logs on.

Remote Desktop Host allows a user to connect to a remote computer with administrator rights.

Microsoft is also considering the possibility of releasing Windows 7 not only on optical discs, but also on flash media, which should simplify the process of installing the platform on netbooks that do not have a built-in optical drive.

Windows 7 will also use the sandbox mode, the implementation of which was discussed during alpha and beta testing (under development by Longhorn). All unmanaged code will run in an environment (sandbox) in which the operating system will restrict the program's access to the computer's hardware and network. Access to low-level sockets, as well as direct access to the file system, hardware abstraction layer (HAL), full access to a memory address, will be prohibited. All access to external applications, files and protocols will be regulated by the operating system and stopped immediately (theoretically). If successful, this approach promises almost complete security, since with this approach it is theoretically impossible for malware to cause any damage to the system if it is locked inside a metaphorical "glass box". This approach is associated with Virtual PC. If everything is correct, this environment will be able to adapt to the code base that was written in its language. This will remove most of the problems that arise as a result of backward compatibility when migrating to a new operating system.

When using applications in Beta 1, memory leaks were found in some applications, which led to a complete freeze, despite the sandbox mode. Theoretically, if the regime does not become more effective, this could cause a surge in the development of programs that deliberately use these vulnerabilities for their own purposes.

Bill Gates mentioned the ubiquitous instant search string (similar to Spotlight). The content indexing service has evolved since Windows XP, and a similar search bar was included in Windows Vista. Windows 7 also uses DirectX 11.

Will Windows 7 get a new kernel?

No. Although it must be said that such developments were carried out. At least that's what one Microsoft engineer said back in October last year. According to him, 200 programmers at the company were working on a smaller kernel for Windows 7. The kernel even got its own name, MinWin, and was supposed to take up six times less memory than the Vista kernel.

However, Flores and Sinofsky said that Windows 7 will not get a new kernel. “Contrary to some speculation, Microsoft is not building a new kernel for Windows 7,” Flores said. However, Sinofsky put it a little differently, "...the kernel in Windows Server 2008 is an evolution of the Windows Vista kernel, and the Windows 7 kernel will be a further evolution of that kernel."

Windows Server 2008 R2

Windows Server 2008 R2 is a server version of Windows 7 that is in development and will go on sale October 22, 2009. Like Windows 7, Windows Server 2008 R2 will use the Windows NT 6.1 kernel. New features include improved virtualization, new version Active Directory, Internet Information Services 7.5 and support for up to 256 processors. The system will be released only in 64-bit version. Support for booting Windows from MBR partitions has also been removed.

Microsoft announced Windows Server 2008 R2 at the Professional Developers Conference as a server Windows variant 7. On January 7, 2009, the Microsoft Windows Server 2008 R2 beta was made available to Microsoft TechNet and MSDN subscribers who participated in the Windows 7 Insider Program. On January 9, the beta was made available for public download on the Microsoft Download Center. April 30, 2009 - Release Candidate (RC) became available to TechNet and MSDN subscribers. May 5, 2009 - Windows Server 2008 R2 RC available on Microsoft Download Center June 2, 2009 - Microsoft announced that the RTM version will be available to Microsoft partners in the second half of July 2009. Release on sale will take place on October 22, 2009.

Currently, Microsoft Windows is installed on approximately 88% of personal computers and workstations. In addition, its competitor, Mac OS X, is also gaining momentum (about 10%). Despite the competition, Microsoft and Apple are cooperating, constantly increasing the compatibility of the two systems.

Basic functions of operating systems

According to modern ideas, the OS should be able to do the following.

· Provide loading of user programs in RAM and their execution (this item does not apply to OS intended for flashing in ROM).

· Provide memory management. In the simplest case, this is an indication to the only loaded program of the address where the memory available for use ends and the memory occupied by the system begins. In multi-process systems, this is a complex task of managing system resources.

· Manage devices long-term memory, such as magnetic disks, tapes, optical disks, flash memory, etc. As a rule, the OS manages free space on these media and structures user data in the form of file systems.

Provide more or less standardized access to various peripherals, such as terminals, modems, printers, or engines that turn the rudder planes of a fighter.

· Provide some user interface. The word some is not said here by chance - some of the systems are limited command line, while others are 90% composed of an interface subsystem. Embedded systems often do not have any user interface.

There are operating systems whose functions are exhausted by this. One of the good known systems of this type - disk operating system MS DOS.
More advanced operating systems also provide the following features:

· parallel (or pseudo-parallel, if the machine has only one processor) execution of several tasks;

organization of interaction of tasks with each other;

organization of machine-to-machine interaction and resource sharing;

protection of system resources, user data and programs, running processes and itself from erroneous and malicious actions of users and their programs;

Authentication (checking that the user is who he claims to be), authorization (checking that whoever the user claims to be has the right to perform this or that operation) and other security measures.

DOS (Disk Operating Systems)

These are systems that perform only the first four functions. As a rule, they are a kind of resident set of subroutines, nothing more. DOS loads user program into memory
and transfers control to it, after which the program does whatever it pleases with the system. When a program terminates, it is considered good manners to leave the machine in such a state that DOS can continue running. If the program puts the machine in some other state, well, DOS cannot prevent it from doing anything.
A typical example is various boot monitors for Spectrum class machines. As a rule, such systems work simultaneously with only one program.
The MS DOS disk operating system for IBM PC-compatible machines is a direct successor to one of these resident monitors.
The existence of systems of this class is due to their simplicity and the fact that they consume few resources. For machines of the Spectrum class, these are more than critical parameters. Another reason why such systems can be used even on fairly powerful machines is the requirement software compatibility with early models of the same family of computers.

general purpose OS

This class includes systems that perform all of the above functions. The division into OS and DOS comes, apparently, from the IBM DOS / 360 and OS / 360 systems for large computers of this company, the clones of which are known in our country under the name of the EC 10XX series computers. (By the way, IBM also had TOS/360, Tape Operating System).
Here, by OS, we mean "general-purpose" systems, i.e., designed for interactive work of one or several users in a time-sharing mode, with not very strict requirements for the system response time to external events. As a rule, in such systems, great attention is paid to protecting the system itself, software and user data from erroneous and malicious programs and users. Typically, such systems use protection and memory virtualization built into the processor architecture. This class includes such widespread systems as Windows 2000, systems of the Unix family.

Virtual machine systems

Such systems stand somewhat apart. A virtual machine system is an operating system that allows several programs to run simultaneously, but at the same time creates for each program the illusion that the machine is at its complete disposal, as when running under DOS. Often, the "program" turns out to be a complete operating system - examples of such systems are VMWare for x86 machines or VM for System/370 and its descendants.
Virtual machines are a valuable tool when developing and testing cross-platform applications. Less commonly, they are used to debug kernel modules or the operating system itself.
Such systems are characterized by high overhead costs and relatively low reliability; therefore, they are relatively rarely used in industrial applications.
CBM is often a general-purpose OS subsystem: MS DOS and MS Windows emulators for UNIX and OS/2, WoW subsystem on Windows NT/2000/XP, DOS session on Windows 3.x/95/98/ME, RT-11 emulator in VAX/VMS.
In virtual machine systems, as a rule, you have to pay a lot of attention to emulating the operation of the hardware. For example, several programs may start programming the system timer. The CCM must track such attempts and create for each of the programs the illusion that it programmed the timer exactly as it wanted. The development of such systems is a complex and often thankless task. The architecture of such systems is highly dependent on the properties of the virtualized hardware, so we will hardly discuss this class of OS.

Real time systems

These are systems designed to facilitate the development of so-called applications. real time- programs that control non-computer hardware, often with very tight time limits. An example of such an application can be a fly-by-wire on-board computer program (literally - "flying along the wire", that is, using a control system in which the controls do not have mechanical and hydraulic connection with the steering planes) of an aircraft, an elementary accelerator control system particles or industrial equipment. Such systems must support multithreading, guaranteed response time to an external event, easy access to the timer and external devices.
The ability to guarantee response times is a hallmark of RTO systems. It's important to keep in mind the distinction between being guaranteed and simply having high performance and low overhead. Not all algorithms and technical solutions, even those that provide excellent average response times, are suitable for real time applications and operating systems.
According to other signs, these systems can belong both to the DOS class (RT-11) and to the OS (OS-9, QNX).
It is curious that the newfangled trend in computer technology- multimedia - with high-quality implementation, it imposes the same requirements on the system as real-time industrial tasks. In multimedia, the main problem is the synchronization of the image on the screen with the sound. It's in that order. The sound is usually generated by an external hardware device with its own timer, and the picture is synchronized with it. A person is able to notice rather small temporal inhomogeneities in the audio stream, and frame skipping in the visual stream is not so noticeable. The discrepancy between sound and image is fixed by a person already at delays of about 30 ms. Therefore, high-quality multimedia systems must provide synchronization with the same or higher accuracy, which differs little from real time.
The so-called "soft real time" (soft real lime), provided by modern Win32 platforms, is not real time at all, it is something like "second freshness sturgeon". The "soft RT" system does not provide a guaranteed, but only an average response time. For multimedia applications and games, the difference between "average" and "guaranteed" is not very critical - well, the picture will twitch, or the sound will float. But for industrial applications where true real time is needed, this is usually unacceptable.

Cross development tools

These are systems designed for developing programs in a two-machine configuration, when editing, compiling, and often debugging code are performed on a tool machine (in English literature, it is often called host- literally, "master"), and then the compiled code is loaded into the target system. Most often they are used to write and debug programs that are later flashed into ROM. Examples of such operating systems are Intel, Atmel, PIC, etc. microcontroller programming systems, Windows CE systems, Palm OS, etc. Such systems typically include:

a set of compilers and assemblers running on an instrumental machine with a "normal" OS;
libraries that perform most of the functions of the OS when the program is running (but not loading this program!);
debugging tools.

Sometimes there are cross-systems in which the compiler does not work on the instrumental machine, but on the target system - for example, the development environment for the Inmos Transputer family of microprocessors is arranged.

Operating system families

You can often trace the continuity between different operating systems, not necessarily developed by the same company. In part, this continuity is due to the requirements of compatibility or at least portability of application software, in part - the borrowing of certain successful concepts.
On the basis of such continuity, it is possible to build "family trees" of operating systems and - with one reason or another - combine them into families. However, unlike the tree of origin of biological species, the OS relationship graph is not a tree and often contains cycles, so it is not possible to build an indisputable multi-level classification covering the entire technosphere, similar to the Linnean classification of species.
Nevertheless, with a fairly high degree of certainty, we can identify at least three families of operating systems currently in use and several more - extinct or close to that. The three now flourishing families are.

IBM large computer systems - OS/390, z/OS and IBM VM.
An extensive, thriving, and hard-to-define Unix family. In this book, under the systems of this family, we will mean, first of all, operating systems of three main types:

Unix System V Release 4.x: Sunsoft Solans, SCO UnixWare;
Berkeley Software Distribution Unix: BSDI, FreeBSD;
linux.

A family of direct and indirect descendants of Control Program/Monitor (CP/M) from Digital Research. This family also includes a very well-known subfamily of \sisname(Win 32) platforms (Fig. B.2).

Another family that has practically died out by now, but has left a number of important and interesting concepts as a legacy, is operating systems for DEC mini- and microcomputers: RT-11, RSX-11 and VAX / VMS.
A number of systems, including commercially successful ones, such as OS/400, cannot be assigned to any of the listed families with certainty, therefore, like the classification of the previous section, this classification should be treated with caution.

Similar information.