Microsoft Windows was announced by Bill Gates on November 10, 1983, 2 years before it was first released. Microsoft introduced Windows as a graphical user interface for MS-DOS, which had been introduced two years earlier, on August 12, 1981. The product line evolved in the 1990s from an operating environment into a fully complete, modern operating system over two lines of development, each with their own separate codebase.
Windows is a product line of proprietary graphical operating systems developed and marketed by Microsoft. It is grouped into families and sub-families that cater to particular sectors of the computing industry – Windows (unqualified) for a consumer or corporate workstation, Windows Server for a server and Windows IoT for an embedded system. Windows is sold as either a consumer retail product or licensed to third-party hardware manufacturers who sell products bundled with Windows.
Windows Server is a group of server operating systems (OS) that has been developed by Microsoft since 1993. The first OS that was released for this platform is Windows NT 3.1 Advanced Server, an edition of Windows NT 3.1. With the release of Windows Server 2003, Microsoft started releasing new versions under the name Windows Server. The latest release of Windows Server is Windows Server 2025.
Windows Server 2008, codenamed "Longhorn Server", is the seventh release of the Windows Server operating system produced by Microsoft as part of the Windows NT family of the operating systems. It was released to manufacturing on February 4, 2008, and generally to retail on February 27, 2008. Derived from Windows Vista, Windows Server 2008 is the successor of Windows Server 2003 and the predecessor to Windows Server 2008 R2. It removed support for processors without ACPI, and is the first version that includes Hyper-V.
Internet Explorer is a series of graphical web browsers developed by Microsoft and included as part of the Microsoft Windows line of operating systems, starting in 1995.
Windows NT is a proprietary graphical operating system produced by Microsoft as part of its Windows product line, the first version of which, Windows NT 3.1, was released on July 27, 1993. Originally made for the workstation, office, and server markets, the Windows NT line was made available to consumers with the release of Windows XP in 2001. The underlying technology of Windows NT continues to exist to this day with incremental changes and improvements, with the latest version of Windows based on Windows NT being Windows 11 in 2021.
Resilient File System (ReFS), codenamed "Protogon", is a Microsoft proprietary file system introduced with Windows Server 2012 with the intent of becoming the "next generation" file system after NTFS.
Internet Explorer 11 (IE11) is the eleventh and final version of the Internet Explorer web browser. It was initially included in the release of Windows 8.1, Windows RT 8.1 and Windows Server 2012 R2 on October 17, 2013, and was later released for Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 on November 7, 2013. It is the successor to Internet Explorer 10, released the previous year, and was the original, default browser in Windows 8.1 and Windows Server 2012 R2, before Microsoft Edge was introduced. Internet Explorer 11 was also included in the release of Windows 10 on July 29, 2015, as well as in Windows Server 2016 and Windows Server 2019. On April 16, 2019, Internet Explorer 11 was made available to Windows Server 2012 and Windows Embedded 8 Standard, the only still supported edition of Windows 8 as the final expansion of Internet Explorer 11 availability. Internet Explorer 11, like its predecessor, is not available for Windows 8, Windows Vista, Windows Server 2008, and earlier versions of Windows and Windows Server.
Windows Server 2012 R2, codenamed "Windows Server Blue", is the tenth version of the Windows Server operating system by Microsoft, as part of the Windows NT family of operating systems. It was unveiled on June 3, 2013, at TechEd North America, and released on October 18 of the same year. It is the successor to Windows Server 2012, and is based on the Windows 8.1 codebase. Windows Server 2012 R2 is the final version of Windows Server to use the "R2" suffix, which had been used since the release of Windows Server 2003 R2 in 2005.
Windows 10 is a major release of Microsoft's Windows NT operating system. The successor to Windows 8.1, it was released to manufacturing on July 15, 2015, and later to retail on July 29, 2015. Windows 10 was made available for download via MSDN and TechNet, as a free upgrade for retail copies of Windows 8 and Windows 8.1 users via the Microsoft Store, and to Windows 7 users via Windows Update. Unlike previous Windows NT releases, Windows 10 receives new builds on an ongoing basis, which are available at no additional cost to users; devices in enterprise environments can alternatively use long-term support milestones that only receive critical updates, such as security patches.
Windows Insider is an open software testing program by Microsoft that allows users globally who own a valid license of Windows 11, Windows 10, or Windows Server to register for pre-release builds of the operating system previously only accessible to software developers.
Windows Server 2016 is the eleventh release of the Windows Server operating system developed by Microsoft as part of the Windows NT family of operating systems. It was developed alongside Windows 10 and is the successor to the Windows 8.1-based Windows Server 2012 R2. The first early preview version became available on October 1, 2014 together with the first technical preview of System Center. Windows Server 2016 was released on September 26, 2016 at Microsoft's Ignite conference and reached general availability on October 12, 2016.
Windows Settings, or simply Settings app, is a component of Microsoft Windows. It allows users to adjust their user preferences, configure their operating system, and manage their connected devices. Microsoft introduced Settings with Windows Server 2012 and Windows 8, and initially intended it to replace the Windows Control Panel, something that has not happened after a decade.
Windows 10 is a major release of the Windows NT operating system developed by Microsoft. Microsoft described Windows 10 as an "operating system as a service" that would receive ongoing updates to its features and functionality, augmented with the ability for enterprise environments to receive non-critical updates at a slower pace or use long-term support milestones that will only receive critical updates, such as security patches, over their five-year lifespan of mainstream support. It was released in July 2015.
Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL) is a feature of Microsoft Windows that allows for using a Linux environment without the need for a separate virtual machine or dual booting. WSL is installed by default in Windows 11. In Windows 10, it can be installed either by joining the Windows Insider program or manually via Microsoft Store or Winget.
Windows Admin Center is a web program released by Microsoft on April 12, 2018 as an evolution of the Windows Server graphical user interface (GUI). Officially launched in public preview under the code name Project Honolulu at the Microsoft Ignite 2017 conference in Orlando, Florida, Windows Admin Center is meant to be a GUI-focused replacement for the management of Windows servers, Windows server clusters, and PCs. The idea behind the project was to simplify the management of servers by placing the majority of frequently referenced tools used by system administrators in one place. The project left preview on April 12, 2018 and was named Windows Admin Center.
Windows Server 2019 is the twelfth version of the Windows Server operating system by Microsoft, as part of the Windows NT family of operating systems. It is the second version of the server operating system based on the Windows 10 platform, after Windows Server 2016. It was announced on March 20, 2018 for the first Windows Insider preview release, and was released internationally on October 2, 2018, the same release date of Windows 10 version 1809. It was succeeded by Windows Server 2022 on August 18, 2021.
Windows Server 2022 is the thirteenth major long term servicing channel (LTSC) release of the Windows Server operating system by Microsoft Corporation, as part of the Windows NT family of operating systems. It was announced at Microsoft's Ignite event from March 2–4, 2021. It was released on August 18, 2021, almost 3 years after Windows Server 2019, and a few months before the Windows 11 operating system.
Windows 11 is the latest major release of Microsoft's Windows NT operating system, released on October 5, 2021. It succeeded Windows 10 (2015), and is available for free for any Windows 10 devices that meet the new Windows 11 system requirements.
Windows 11 is a major release of the Windows NT operating system developed by Microsoft that was released in October 2021. Starting with Windows 10, Microsoft described Windows as an "operating system as a service" that would receive ongoing updates to its features and functionality, augmented with the ability for enterprise environments to receive non-critical updates at a slower pace or use long-term support milestones that will only receive critical updates, such as security patches, over their five-year lifespan of mainstream support.
