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Nanotechnology 2015 impact factor
Windows is an operating system for use on both client and server computers. It was produced by Microsoft and released to manufacturing on December 15, , [2] and launched to retail on February 17, During development, Windows was known as Windows NT 5.
Four editions of Windows were released: Professional , Server , Advanced Server , and Datacenter Server ; [7] the latter was both released to manufacturing and launched months after the other editions. Windows introduces NTFS 3. Windows can be installed through either a manual or unattended installation.
Microsoft marketed Windows as the most secure Windows version ever at the time; [18] however, it became the target of a number of high-profile virus attacks such as Code Red [19] and Nimda. The original name for the operating system was Windows NT 5. The new login prompt from the final version made its first appearance in Beta 3 build the first build of Beta 3. The new, updated icons for My Computer , Recycle Bin etc.
The Windows boot screen in the final version first appeared in Beta 3 build Windows Service Pack 1 was codenamed "Asteroid" [24] and Windows bit was codenamed "Janus. From here, Microsoft issued three release candidates between July and November , and finally released the operating system to partners on December 12, Three days before this event, which Microsoft advertised as "a standard in reliability," a leaked memo from Microsoft reported on by Mary Jo Foley revealed that Windows had "over 63, potential known defects.
Much of this reliability came from maturity in the source code, extensive stress testing of the system, and automatic detection of many serious errors in drivers. Of course, it isn't perfect either. Windows was first planned to replace both Windows 98 and Windows NT 4. However, this changed later. Instead, an updated version of Windows 98 called Windows 98 Second Edition was released in Microsoft issued the following statement:.
As such, it is illegal to post it, make it available to others, download it or use it. Despite the warnings, the archive containing the leaked code spread widely on the file-sharing networks. On February 16, , an exploit "allegedly discovered by an individual studying the leaked source code" [35] for certain versions of Microsoft Internet Explorer was reported.
Microsoft planned to release a bit version of Windows , which would run on bit Intel Itanium microprocessors , in A new capability designed to protect critical system files called Windows File Protection was introduced. This protects critical Windows system files by preventing programs other than Microsoft's operating system update mechanisms such as the Package Installer , Windows Installer and other update components from modifying them. Microsoft recognized that a serious error a Blue Screen of Death or a stop error could cause problems for servers that needed to be constantly running and so provided a system setting that would allow the server to automatically reboot when a stop error occurred.
The most notable improvement from Windows NT 4. Similar to Windows 9x , Windows supports automatic recognition of installed hardware, hardware resource allocation, loading of appropriate drivers, PnP APIs and device notification events.
The addition of the kernel PnP Manager along with the Power Manager are two significant subsystems added in Windows Windows introduced version 3 print drivers user mode printer drivers. Windows 98 lacked generic support. Windows introduces layered windows that allow for transparency, translucency and various transition effects like shadows, gradient fills and alpha blended GUI elements to top-level windows.
The Start menu in Windows introduces personalized menus , expandable special folders and the ability to launch multiple programs without closing the menu by holding down the SHIFT key. A Re-sort button forces the entire Start Menu to be sorted by name. The Taskbar introduces support for balloon notifications which can also be used by application developers. Windows Explorer introduces customizable Windows Explorer toolbars, auto-complete in Windows Explorer address bar and Run box, advanced file type association features, displaying comments in shortcuts as tooltips, extensible columns in Details view IColumnProvider interface , icon overlays, integrated search pane in Windows Explorer, sort by name function for menus, and Places bar in common dialogs for Open and Save.
Windows Explorer has been enhanced in several ways in Windows This feature was abused by computer viruses that employed malicious scripts, Java applets, or ActiveX controls in folder template files as their infection vector. The "Web-style" folders view, with the left Explorer pane displaying details for the object currently selected, is turned on by default in Windows For certain file types, such as pictures and media files, the preview is also displayed in the left pane. However, such a previewer can be enabled in previous versions of Windows with the Windows Desktop Update installed through the use of folder customization templates.
All Microsoft Office documents since Office 4. File shortcuts can also store comments which are displayed as a tooltip when the mouse hovers over the shortcut. The shell introduces extensibility support through metadata handlers, icon overlay handlers and column handlers in Explorer Details view. The right pane of Windows Explorer, which usually just lists files and folders, can also be customized.
For example, the contents of the system folders aren't displayed by default, instead showing in the right pane a warning to the user that modifying the contents of the system folders could harm their computer. It's possible to define additional Explorer panes by using DIV elements in folder template files. The Indexing Service has also been integrated into the operating system and the search pane built into Explorer allows searching files indexed by its database.
Microsoft released the version 3. Sparse files allow for the efficient storage of data sets that are very large yet contain many areas that only have zeros. Windows also introduces a Distributed Link Tracking service to ensure file shortcuts remain working even if the target is moved or renamed.
The target object's unique identifier is stored in the shortcut file on NTFS 3. It allows any folder or drive on an NTFS volume to be encrypted transparently by the user. EFS works by encrypting a file with a bulk symmetric key also known as the File Encryption Key, or FEK , which is used because it takes less time to encrypt and decrypt large amounts of data than if an asymmetric key cipher were used. To decrypt the file, the file system uses the private key of the user to decrypt the symmetric key stored in the file header.
It then uses the symmetric key to decrypt the file. Because this is done at the file system level, it is transparent to the user. For a user losing access to their key, support for recovery agents that can decrypt files is built into EFS. A Recovery Agent is a user who is authorized by a public key recovery certificate to decrypt files belonging to other users using a special private key.
By default, local administrators are recovery agents however they can be customized using Group Policy. Windows introduced the Logical Disk Manager and the diskpart command line tool for dynamic storage. In addition to these disk volumes, Windows Server, Windows Advanced Server, and Windows Datacenter Server support mirrored volumes and striped volumes with parity:.
With Windows , Microsoft introduced the Windows 9x accessibility features for people with visual and auditory impairments and other disabilities into the NT-line of operating systems. Windows included version 7.
Microsoft published quarterly updates to DirectX 9. The majority of games written for versions of DirectX 9. Windows included the same games as Windows NT 4.
FreeCell , Minesweeper , Pinball , and Solitaire. Windows introduced the Microsoft Management Console MMC , which is used to create, save, and open administrative tools. Each console can contain one or many specific administrative tools, called snap-ins. In order to provide the ability to control what snap-ins can be seen in a console, the MMC allows consoles to be created in author mode or user mode. User mode allows consoles to be distributed with restrictions applied.
User mode consoles can grant full access to the user for any change, or they can grant limited access, preventing users from adding snapins to the console though they can view multiple windows in a console. Alternatively users can be granted limited access, preventing them from adding to the console and stopping them from viewing multiple windows in a single console. The main tools that come with Windows can be found in the Computer Management console in Administrative Tools in the Control Panel.
It also contains a service configuration console, which allows users to view all installed services and to stop and start them, as well as configure what those services should do when the computer starts.
REGEDIT has a left-side tree view of the Windows registry , lists all loaded hives and represents the three components of a value its name, type, and data as separate columns of a table. REGEDT32 has a left-side tree view, but each hive has its own window, so the tree displays only keys and it represents values as a list of strings. It is a command line utility that scans system files and verifies whether they were signed by Microsoft and works in conjunction with the Windows File Protection mechanism.
It can also repopulate and repair all the files in the Dllcache folder. The Recovery Console is run from outside the installed copy of Windows to perform maintenance tasks that can neither be run from within it nor feasibly be run from another computer or copy of Windows Windows introduced Windows Script Host 2.
When users try to access a network share off the DFS root, the user is really looking at a DFS link and the DFS server transparently redirects them to the correct file server and share. There can be two ways of implementing a DFS namespace on Windows Domain-based DFS roots exist within Active Directory and can have their information distributed to other domain controllers within the domain — this provides fault tolerance to DFS.
DFS roots that exist on a domain must be hosted on a domain controller or on a domain member server. A new way of organizing Windows network domains , or groups of resources, called Active Directory, is introduced with Windows to replace Windows NT's earlier domain model.
Active Directory's hierarchical nature allowed administrators a built-in way to manage user and computer policies and user accounts, and to automatically deploy programs and updates with a greater degree of scalability and centralization than provided in previous Windows versions. User information stored in Active Directory also provided a convenient phone book-like function to end users. Active Directory domains can vary from small installations with a few hundred objects, to large installations with millions.
Active Directory can organise and link groups of domains into a contiguous domain name space to form trees. Groups of trees outside of the same namespace can be linked together to form forests. Active Directory services could always be installed on a Windows Server, Advanced Server, or Datacenter Server computer, and cannot be installed on a Windows Professional computer.
However, Windows Professional is the first client operating system able to exploit Active Directory's new features. As part of an organization's migration, Windows NT clients continued to function until all clients were upgraded to Windows Professional, at which point the Active Directory domain could be switched to native mode and maximum functionality achieved.
There should be one or more domain controllers to hold the Active Directory database and provide Active Directory directory services. Along with support for simple, spanned and striped volumes, the server family of Windows also supports fault-tolerant volume types.