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Windows 1 Windows

At the of this edit, the Windows family of operating systems runs the vast majority of the world's home . How did Windows rapidly become the dominant for home use on the planet?

History began as a GUI add-on to DOS. The early versions of Windows required DOS to be installed first. The first version that did not require DOS to be pre-installed was . Early on, Windows split into two branches - the DOS-based branch and the NT based branch. Today, The DOS-based branch has been discontinued due to bugs (errors in ), Lack of hardware support, and instability. All versions of Windows since Windows NT 3.1 (these are Windows NT 3.1, NT 4.0, , XP and Vista) are NT based.

Predecessors

CP/M The CP/M Operating System, first written by Gary Kildall in PL/M, a language of his own invention, in 1975. It was written for the 8080 CPU, which was the power behind such legendary machines as the Altair 8800 and the IMSAI 8080, one of which was used in the movie 'War Games'. The system was very popular among those early users, and saw the introduction of many new devices, such as the 5 1/4" drive and the . In 1980, when IBM was building its first PC, they went to Gary Kindall, who didn't think the system would take off. It might interest you to know that one or two years later, the CP/M-86 OS was released independently of IBM, and cost about ten times what the then-new MS-DOS system did. Initially CP/M had many advanced features that MS-DOS did not have. However, because Gary did not want break off from his licensed based distribution of CP/M rather than accepting the OEM based distribution IBM wanted, Microsoft's MS-DOS was chosen to be the on the IBM PC. In addition to this, many of CP/M's features, such as multi-level directories and hard drive support, were not really thought of as needed.

DOS DOS stands for Disk Operating System. A product called MSDOS was released by Microsoft in 1981 for the IBM Personal Computer. It offered access to FAT partitions and had tools for editing, programing, and management. Later versions would support a semi-graphical navigator, and the ability to mount remote shares. MSDOS had an long-lasting effect on the computer world, a very scaled down version of MSDOS was present in every Windows OS including the recent (and the Windows NT Operating Systems, Windows 2000, 2003,and Windows XP).

OS/2 (include OS/2 for Windows and explain overlap with Windows)

Inception Microsoft was not the first company to investigate the use of a Graphical , or GUI, to control a personal computer. That distinction belongs to the Xerox Corporation's Palo Alto Research Center (Xerox PARC). Xerox demonstrated seven key ideas whose strategic importance were immediately apparrent to both Microsoft and Apple, and critical to the success of both the Apple and Microsoft Windows: 1. The use of a to give a user common presentation and operation of differrent applications, 2. The concept and use of a mouse to navigate that system, 3. A clear demonstration that multitasking (running several applications at the same time) could actually be useful to Windows 2

home and business users, 4. The demonstration of a laser printer, which significantly increased the potential for desktop publishing, 5. That a computer could potentially be used by an operator with little or no training, 6. That such an operator, once familiarized with the system, would be strongly opposed to moving back to a more complicated environment, and 7. That such a computer could be networked. The impact of that final idea took a long time to be fully realized- Windows certainly did not embrace it, or even support it, initially- but the whole package really was demonstrated that long ago. Why Xerox wasn't able to capitalize on its own strokes of genius would be (and, indeed, is) another book, in and of itself.

16-Bit Versions (286/386/486; explain)

Windows 3.0 - 3.1 (stub) (explain use of 386 protected mode and why this was important; note that apps, and significantly, device drivers, are still 16-bit)

Windows for Workgroups (stress importance of being first version to really support networking; possibly compare Banyan Vines, Novell Netware, etc.; also eval those for Predecessors section above)

32-Bit Versions

Windows NT (stress independence from DOS and differrences from consumer Windows version: kernel, multitasking model (preemptive instead of cooperative), driver model

Windows 95 The first 32-bit Operating System in the Windows Family outside of Windows NT. But still, it is easier to than Windows NT (but harder to crash than Windows 3.1), and relative to Windows NT, not very stable. This project has been abandoned years ago.

Windows 98 (stress changes in driver model; USB support; GUI changes)

Windows 98 SE Windows 98 SE (Second Edition) included DVD support)

Windows 2000 This version of Microsoft Windows preceded Windows XP. Its core functionality is very similar, but it lacks some of the features later added to XP. Many continue to use 2000 instead of XP, because they believe the extra XP features are unnecessary and cause the computer to run slower. Windows 2000 is the final NT-based system without activation. Windows 3

Windows Me

Windows Millennium Edition was meant to bring an end to the 95/DOS line of OS's, although it still contains DOS 8.00. It sported new features in the multimedia area, such as 1.0 and Player 7. It also had other important new features such as . Most of the new features were continued into Windows XP making XP what it is. Windows Me is the final DOS-based system without activation. DOS 8.00

Windows XP Windows XP was originally released in year 2001. It included improved graphics, and a more user-friendly environment. Windows XP was built on the core of Windows 2000 but adds greater stability for most desktop users plus a fancier grapical user interface. Although the goal of perfect security continues to elude the OS, 2 (SP2) improves matters over the original release and rolls up enhancements added between release and mid-2004.

64-Bit Versions There is currently support for the 64-bit Intel processor in Enterprise and Datacenter editions, supporting up to 64 Itanium CPUs in the later. Windows Server 2003 SP1 adds x64 support. Note: Source update under this version will be suffixed by "IA64", there is the difference from the usual Intel/AMD architecture of "x64" bit sources. Note also that there are computers based on the 64-bit IBM Power chips that are used in the G5 Macintosh computers that are running the Windows NT kernel. These "Macs running Windows" are used for game development on the future generation that will use IBM Power CPUs. (explain existing 64-bit CPUs- AMD, Intel, etc.)

Windows Vista This version of Microsoft Windows, released on January 2007, is the latest major upgrade for the Windows operating system. Until the product name was revealed in July 2005, Windows Vista was known as 'Codename Longhorn'. It includes major changes graphically. Translucency and other visual effects are highly used. Also, applications are now switching over to the .NET . (Add something more about core like avalon, and GUI)

Windows Server 2008 Systems With this introduction of Microsoft Windows Servers, released on October 2008, it contains the same code base as Vista (Windows6.0). Its significant change and added feature set is enabling the of Microsoft Windows Server Systems. The support from 32-bit Windows 2000, Windows 2003, 2003 R2 and Windows 2008 itself, plus the associated existing 64-bit version will expect to become the enabler of any enterprise system, large, medium or small to harness the use and simplicity of virtuialized Windows systems (including some flavors of Linuxes) to meet everyday needs of computing. Windows 4

Design Goals (UI similarity; consistent experience; ease of use; ; compatibility; etc. should this be above the versions list? is it more useful for strategy context for the version descriptions that follow, so that the evolution becomes apparrent, or down here as a summary of modern goals?)

Installation This chapter will explain how to install Windows. Since installation is fairly similar between versions- with important, and sometimes subtle, differences- we will example how to install Windows XP, Home Edition, and then review the differences for other versions. This chapter explains only the basics; once you're up and running, check out the Configuration chapter to personalize your system. Make sure that whatever you are installing, that you have a copy of the files you need stored in a safe place, even if it's on a separate partition. You're generally better off wiping the partition with your old operating system so as to remove all the incompatible files, viruses, and general clutter/temp files that all computers accrue over their lives.

Installing Windows XP, Home Edition Depends if you install from booting a CD or from running the setup program from another version of Windows. It's better to boot from the disk, this way you can alter your partitions before you install whereas otherwise you may find yourself being forced to install it over an old copy.

Differences for Windows XP Professional Adds greater networking and enterprise features. If you have a network, this is the version you need..

Differences for Windows MCE base-2004-2005 (stub) (not that many people will actually ever see these screens but that only makes it more important that this information be listed somewhere)

Configuration (place chapter intro here)

Basic Configuration (how to set the machine name, time, etc.; NOT networking)

Appearance and Environment (display settings and properties; ; themes; etc.)

Networking The workgroup is usually set up when the operating system is first installed. This choice can be edited from the network wizard later on. Once a computer has a network (basically before it's first boot) it can trade files with other computers on that network. (basic Workgroup and Domain configuration; NOT connection sharing, firewall stuff, etc.; that goes into Advanced Stuff) Windows 5

Printers (needs to be below networking because this should explain network printers; explain how to add a printer; how to change the default printer; how to change the printing defaults; when to choose PCL vs. PS when printer offers both; parallel vs. USB vs serial vs. network; explain FAX send can be a printing device, etc.)

Accessibility Both Windows XP and Windows Vista include options for those with difficulty reading or using a computer(Color-blind etc). They are found under: Start->All Programs->Accessories->Accessibility. (handicapped access; explain , text-to-speech, voice recognition, etc., including a -brief- discussion of third-party options)

Electronic

Outlook Express By default, Microsoft Windows includes to allow access to electronic mail. For further details, please see the Outlook Express User's Manual. For details about the full version of Outlook, available with , please see the Outlook User's Manual. Note: for Windows Vista, there's Windows mail instead of Outlook Express

Mozilla Thunderbird A rather more secure e-mail program than Outlook Express and works almost exactly the same.

Further details: http:/ / www. mozilla. org/ products/ thunderbird/

Using Windows Windows comes with a variety of software including Paint(A basic image editing program), Notepad(A simple text editor) and in later versions: Word, Explorer, Outlook Express or Windows Mail and so on. A great variety of freeware, and commercial packages are available.

Screenshots A of the entire monitor, complete with , can be copied to the system by pressing the Print screen key. Alternatively, pressing Alt + Print screen will copy just the active window to the clipboard. One can then paste the clipboard into a program such as MS Paint or Paint.NET to save it as an image file (for posting online, for instance), or paste it directly into a document. If saving as an image file, it is best to use a format which uses lossless compression (e.g. PNG) or no compression (e.g. BMP). Use a format which supports 24-bit color if the screenshot contains many colors.

Optimizing Performance Some people say that the various "tweaks" one can apply to the system never improve the performance significantly, certainly not enough to justify the hours and hours that some people spend experimentally tweaking. The problem is that the effects of many tweaks are a bit iffy. There are some programs that work and some tweaks that, while they have an effect, are not something that you are likely to notice. Generally the Internet Speed tweaks and XPLite programs are worth using. Beyond that though, don't bother. If things like the appearance settings and NTFS Last Access Stamp tweaks noticeably improve your speed then you would be better off running either Win98SE or , conversely they all have some effect and removing unneeded features does . Some people say that many "tweaks" are well worth doing. Windows 6

There are lots of things you can do to improve performance. Defragment the disk, turn off services you don't need - for a list - restart regularly (if you use it) since it's a memory hog... Ways to increase performance include:defragmenting the hard , disabling unneeded visual effects, upgrading the amount of RAM on your computer, and using various utilities and programs available for download or purchase.

General Tips Several programs work for almost all Windows versions. X-setup [1] Excellent tweaking program, comes well recommended. DH TuneXP [2] Free tweaker program, has useful tweaks. SG TCP/IP Optimizer [3] Use this for fast internet tweaking. cFos Homepage (English) [4] Get the packet shaping software from here. XpLite [5] Very useful in removing parts of Windows 2000 and Xp systems. Nlite [6] Fulfills the same function as XpLite but instead works on a windows XP CD image which is then transformed into a bootable CD. This program is freeware and more versatile than XpLite.

Processor When using Windows 2000 and XP there is an option to retry your operating system allocates processing power to programs. this is governed by registry entry called Win32PrioritySeparation and the values for this are allocated as follows... Start with zero and add numbers as follows The ratio of foreground to background priority 3:1, add 2. 2:1, add 1. 1:1, add 0. Length of the quanta Variable lengths: add 4. Fixed lengths: add 8. Te intervals between switching quanta. Shorter: add 32. Longer: add 16. By default it is set to "2" which is equal to "38", setting it to backround processeses sets it to "24". Note that this value is in decimal. Personally I use a value of "36" for the best all-around benefit. This value allows all programs to work seamlessly even at 100% processor usage; mind you this is on a P4 so your mileage may vary.

Internet Speed Generally optimizing an Internet connection involves tweaking the MTU (maximum transmission unit)and the receive window. The MTU controls how much data is in every download packet, larger settings improve efficiency by reducing overhead and require fewer acknowledgment packets. The receive window sets how much data is to be received before needing to send an acknowledgment packet, this setting does not need to be a multiple of the MTU and should be as large as reasonably possible. It would also be worth the time to set up a packet scheduler. Generally doing heavy uploading and downloading at the same time would slow down your connection, with a a packet scheduler this is less of an issue. Additionally, some packet schedulers like cFosSpeed allow for prioritizing specific programs like games over more bandwidth intensive but less interactive applications like FTP clients.

Trimming the OS Litepc creates software to trim operating systems. Removing unused parts of the OS is beneficial in several ways. It reduces the amount of disk space that the OS takes up, removes possible security issues and results in less of a RAM hit. XPLite allows for currently installed operating system to be altered while NLite (as previously mentioned) does the same to a CD image. XPLite leaves corrupted registry entries and is less versatile than Nlite.

Side Note On a final note it is important to know what any changes actually do, besides "provides speed boost" and how they affect your computer. I have had many incidents where the accruation of "tweaks" served to slow the computer down. Don't rely on being able to undo them with the program.

Windows CE Consumer edition of windows. Used with . Most notably used with the revolutionary Sega Dreamcast video game console. Windows CE is also used on many Pocket PCs and Smart Phones. The newest ist Windows CE 6.0, released in 2007.

Windows XP / 2000 / Server 2003 Beforehand it should be noted that 2000 is often acknowledged to provide better performance with real world use (Several programs running at the same time). It lacks some of the features of XP including the themes but is essentially the same and uses the same drivers. There are some tweaks that do not require specialized software. >System Advanced>Performance Settings> Disabling features will reduce the overhead on any action and some users can notice significant performance benefits from deselecting everything. Font smoothing, especially if using ClearType, will depend heavily on the graphics card, disabling it may have a significant effect.

Paging File There are plenty of recommendations on this, the one that makes the most sense is to set the minimum to cover normal system use like 256 or 512 MB which will not require it to change in size while in general use but to set the maximum much higher to cover contingencies. The default will work fine in most cases, note that setting the minimum higher will result in paging file fragmentation, which is very hard to fix and if succeeded, will give a speed hit. An avarage user might be able to download and use PageDefrag [7] (from Microsoft TechNet [8] website under Sysinternals [9]) to defragment paging file on Windows NT 4.0, Windows 2000, Windows XP, and Server 2003.

Cluster Size This represents the cluster size on a partition, generally bigger means less fragmentation as files expand and slighly higher disk speed as less data is spent on overhead, conversely it wastes space as each file takes up a minimum of one cluster. The default seems to do fine. Altering the cluster size on the partition with the may cause problems. Also, the default cluster size (4KB on NTFS / Windows XP) allows the computer to transfer data without using extra buffering.

Services.msc / Msconfig Run>services.msc Really there is no reason why anyone should bother with this section. Unless disabling security flaws removing services causes no end of interesting errors and will free up around 7-12MB. One benefit to using services.msc to is that services can be set to manual. However most services will not properly start up, I recommend to use Run>msconfig after identifying what services are necessary to disable them, they can also be restored to Windows default by clicking select all. Services that are critical or that are needed and may not start otherwise should be set to Automatic while the oher Automatic services should be set to Manual. This will theoretically cause them to only start when needed (again, it should be noted that this is almost never true). Note that some services are set to disabled by default on Windows Server 2003, these are Windows Xp features that are generally not needed by a server, if they are required they must first be enabled at services.msc.

Xsetup

UDMA/66 Hardware>Hard Disk This must be enabled on Windows 2000 as it is disabled by default. If your system is capable of UDMA/66, enable it, if the system is not capable then rebooting will untick the box.

Prefetching System>File system>Windows Prefetching Windows will monitor an application's startup sequence and Windows boot. After three application startups or three Windows boot ups, it creates a .PF file in the Windows Prefetch folder for the application or the associated boot item. This file is referenced anytime the application is launched but only when it is launched and NOT before. Windows uses the information in the applications's .PF file to optimally load the necessary files associated with the application loading into memory. Such as DLL A before B etc... Windows also uses this file when the defragmenter is run to layout all necessary files that the application uses to startup in sequence on the harddrive to further improve application load time. The same things happen during boot up but only in relation to files used for the boot process. Applications that are not loaded on startup are NOT precached or preloaded into Memory during boot. They are not precached at any time. This is NOT a cache and the .PF files should NOT be deleted or "cleaned". Manually deleting .PF Files does nothing but force Windows to recreate the .PF file if it is missing the next time the associated application is launched. This is a waste of time. Simply leave the .PF files and the Prefetch folder alone. Windows will automatically clean it as necessary in relation to uninstalled applications. Prefetching is NOT Caching, it is a new feature of Windows that improves application load and boot time performance automatically.

File System System>File system>Windows NT/2K/XP Options>Windows File System Options These are generally useless features, note that disabling the last access time stamp can cause windows cleanup to have interesting ideas on what is useless data. Disabling the creation of short file names may cause issues in some programs as well as pretty much all programs written for . Conversely you are unlikely to use those programs and it will help when dealing with folders that have many files that start the same. Windows 9

RAM System>Memory Unloading dll files instantly can cause system instability, conversely extra ram is always a good thing. Instability will only occur in very rare circumstances however if you start the same programs over and over this could be beneficial. This depends on how much ram you have though leaving it as it is may be the best choice. Disabling paging will force the computer to keep more of the system in RAM. This will also prevent the computer from entering . Windows will NEVER the core kernel & drivers (that would cause a crash) , however it is willing to page a part of it's systems. This setting causes more of the system to not be paged, probably won't help your game speed but if you run RAM heavy programs it will prove beneficial. Theory being that the programs will page but not the Windows core which should do less of a performance hit.

Cacheman Just one setting, may improve performance, may do nothing. Settings>Cache Set the bottom box to "Balance" It would be a good idea to stop Cacheman starting with Windows which you can do from the Options bar; it's worth noting here that "RAM Recovery" is generally agreed to be completely worthless, don't use it.

Other Links Optimize Xp [10] Wonderful site, also includes links to tweaking myths.

Other Platforms

Windows CE

Ancient times Microsoft was trying to enter the PDA market years before the release of the first Windows-powered hadhelds. First development initiatives happened as early as 1990. When Apple's Newton MessagePad emerged, Microsoft decided to begin development of the new OS. The WinPad project would be a revolution in the user inteface design. With the and support, the project promised brand-new user experience. However, the mobile devices' hardware was not ready for such an operating system at that moment. The main fault of the developers was possibly the attempt to use portions of the existing kernel modules' code. The project was closed in 1994. At the same time, Microsoft worked on the Pulsar project. The concept of a multipurpose wire- and keyboardless device featuring unique architecture was too pathbreaking, and Microsoft discarded this idea as well. (to be continued...) (...and PocketPC... and Handheld PC... and so on... make some sense of this mess for the reader! this of all things is clear as MUD even to developers!) And on 9th march 2006, MS has unveiled their UMPC..

Windows XP Embedded (stub)

SmartPhone (stub)

Automotive (stub)

Microsoft's Development Cycle (explain how a new version of Windows is conceptualized, designed, timelined, developed, put in beta, and released)

The Windows Version Lifecycle When a version is released, it is soon discovered that there are thousands of bugs (errors) and miscellaneous problems, especially security issues. This leads to a large stream of patches being released which sometimes get condensed into a service pack. As the program ages and newer systems are released the support will be discontinued so as to force users to upgrade.

More info here: http:/ / www. microsoft. com/ windows/ lifecycle/ default. mspx (explain how a Windows version is serviced- Service Packs, , etc- and finally obsoleted; explain how support options change and eventually evaporate)

The Future

Windows Vienna See Wikipedia article Windows 7.

Appendix: Key combinations

DOS Ctrl+Alt+Delete - performs a soft reset Left arrow, right arrow - Move backward or forward one character Ctrl + left arrow, right arrow - Move cursor backward or forward one word Home, End - Move cursor to start or end of line Up, down arrow - Scroll up and down stored (command) buffer Page up, down - Places oldest or most recent (command) in command line Insert - Toggle between insert and over-type modes. (square cursor denotes over-type mode) Esc - Delete current line F1 - Repeat text typed in preceding line character by character F3 - Repeat text typed in preceding line (complete) F5 - Cycle through entire current (command) buffer F7 - Display all entries in current (command) buffer with line numbers Alt+F7 - Delete all entries in current (command) buffer

F8 - As F5, If preceded by entry of character string, will load latest buffer line with corresponding characters (from start of buffer entry line) F9+Buffer line number - Displays relevant buffer line; normally F7 first to show lines with numbers Ctrl+tag">C - Close down most applications and return to prompt

Windows

All versions • ALT+F4 closes most programs • Win+M Minimize most programs

Versions Before Windows 95 • CTRL+ALT+DELETE brought up a blue screen • CTRL+C - Copies the selected text or images • CTRL+X - Cuts the selected text or images • CTRL+V - Pastes the previously copied or cut material

References

[1] http:/ / www. x-setup. net/

[2] http:/ / www. majorgeeks. com/ download. php?det=4194

[3] http:/ / www. speedguide. net/ downloads. php

[4] http:/ / www. cfos. de/ index2_e. htm

[5] http:/ / www. litepc. com

[6] http:/ / nuhi. msfn. org/

[7] http:/ / www. microsoft. com/ technet/ sysinternals/ Utilities/ PageDefrag. mspx

[8] http:/ / technet. microsoft. com

[9] http:/ / www. microsoft. com/ technet/ sysinternals/ default. mspx

[10] http:/ / mywebpages. comcast. net/ SupportCD/ OptimizeXP. html Article Sources and Contributors 12 Article Sources and Contributors

Windows Source: http://en.wikibooks.org/w/index.php?oldid=1502270 Contributors: Adrignola, Az1568, Breakpoint, Darklama, DavidCary, Derbeth, Hagindaz, Herbythyme, Jackster, James Johnson, Jhinder, Johnclow, Lobster, Metiscus, Mike.lifeguard, Mwtoews, Peteturtle, Pggwee, Rastilin, Robert Horning, Roni00, Sonamunda chaks, Techman224, Tigru, Whiteknight, Xp54321, Yuhong, Zondor, 98 anonymous edits Image Sources, Licenses and Contributors

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