Windows 9x - Knowledge (XXG)

1434:, the low-level disk I/O interrupt. When a program issued an int 21h call to access MS-DOS, the call would go first to the 32-bit file system manager, which would attempt to detect this sort of patching. If it detects that the program has tried to hook into DOS, it will jump back into the 16-bit code to let the hook run. A 16-bit driver called IFSMGR.SYS would previously have been loaded by CONFIG.SYS, the job of which was to hook MS-DOS first before the other drivers and programs got a chance, then jump from 16-bit code back into 32-bit code, when the DOS program had finished, to let the 32-bit file system manager continue its work. According to Windows developer 44: 2748: 2737: 712: 2725: 3552: 806:

98 Second Edition had its mainstream support end on June 30, 2002, and mainstream support for Windows Me ended on December 31, 2003. Microsoft then continued to support the Windows 9x series until July 11, 2006, when extended support ended for Windows 98, Windows 98 Second Edition (SE), and Windows Millennium Edition (Me) – 4 years after extended support for Windows 95 ended on December 31, 2001.

3542: 3532: 627: 520: 551:) for reasons of compatibility, performance and development time. Additionally it was necessary to carry over design decisions from earlier versions of Windows for reasons of backwards compatibility, even if these design decisions no longer matched a more modern computing environment. These factors immediately began to impact the operating system's efficiency and stability. 1590: 757:

affected by Windows Me's instabilities (as well as those who negatively viewed Windows Me) ultimately stuck with the more reliable Windows 98 Second Edition for the remainder of Windows Me's lifecycle until the release of Windows XP in 2001. A small number of Windows Me owners moved over to the business-oriented Windows 2000 Professional during that same time period.

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for ordinary users to detect or undo. The profile support in the Windows 9x family is meant for convenience only; unless some registry keys are modified, the system can be accessed by pressing "Cancel" at login, even if all profiles have a password. Windows 95's default login dialog box also allows new user profiles to be created without having to log in first.

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allow those virtual devices to intercept interrupts and faults to control the access that an application has to hardware devices and installed software. Both the VMM and virtual device drivers run in a single, 32-bit, flat model address space at privilege level 0 (also called ring 0). The VMM provides multi-threaded,

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Windows 95 and Windows 98 also offer backwards compatibility for DOS applications in the form of being able to boot into a native "DOS Mode" (MS-DOS can be booted without booting Windows, but not putting the CPU in protected mode). Through Windows 9x's memory managers and other post-DOS improvements,

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Drivers written for Windows 9x are loaded into the same address space as the kernel. This means that drivers can by accident or design overwrite critical sections of the operating system. Doing this can lead to system crashes, freezes and disk corruption. Faulty operating system drivers were a source

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Users and software can render the operating system unable to function by deleting or overwriting important system files from the hard disk. Users and software are also free to change configuration files in such a way that the operating system is unable to boot or properly function. This phenomenon is

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The VMM provides services that manage memory, processes, interrupts and protection faults. The VMM works with virtual devices (loadable kernel modules, which consist mostly of 32-bit ring 0 or kernel mode code, but may include other types of code, such as a 16-bit real mode initialisation segment) to

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Over time, support for the Windows 9x series ended. Windows 95 had lost its mainstream support in December 31, 2000, and extended support was dropped from Windows 95 on December 31, 2001 (which also ended support for older Windows versions prior to Windows 95 on that same day). Windows 98 and Windows

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Having a command line mode outside of the GUI also offers the ability to fix certain system errors without entering the GUI. For example, if a virus is active in GUI mode it can often be safely removed in DOS mode, by deleting its files, which are usually locked while infected in Windows. Similarly,

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drives (except for Windows Me). There are, however, many SATA-I controllers for which Windows 98/Me drivers exist (and indeed Windows 2000 and Windows XP also provided SATA support via third-party drivers as well), and USB mass storage support has been added to Windows 95 OSR2 and Windows 98 through

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was highly critical of Windows Me months after it was released (and indeed when it was no longer available), with their article infamously describing Windows Me as "Mistake Edition" and placing it 4th in their "Worst Tech Products of All Time" feature in 2006. Consequently, many home users that were

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Windows Me initially gained a positive reception upon its release, but later on it was heavily criticized by users for its instability and unreliability, due to frequent freezes and crashes. Windows Me has been viewed by many as one of the worst operating systems of all time, both in critical and in

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over the original release, and hardware support through device drivers was increased. Many minor problems present in the original release of Windows 98 were also found and fixed. These changes, among others, makes it (according to many) the most stable release of Windows 9x family—to the extent that

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can modify all files on the system that aren't open, in addition to being able to modify the boot sector and perform other low-level hard drive modifications. This enables viruses and other clandestinely installed software to integrate themselves with the operating system in a way that is difficult

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Code-named "Millennium", Windows Me was conceived as a quick one-year project that served as a stopgap release between Windows 98 and Windows XP (then code-named Whistler at the time). Many of the new features from Windows Me were also available as updates for older Windows versions such as Windows

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began to develop a new consumer oriented version of the operating system code-named Chicago. Chicago was designed to have support for 32-bit preemptive multitasking, that of which was available in OS/2 and Windows NT, although a 16-bit kernel would remain for the sake of backward compatibility. The

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Windows 93 (stylized as "WINDOWS93" in the title) is a web-based parody site created by two French musicians and programmers who go by the names of jankenpopp and Zombectro. Designed to look and feel like an actual operating system, It is also a parody of the Windows 9x series. It features several

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Windows 9x offers share-level access control security for file and printer sharing as well as user-level access control if a Windows NT-based operating system is available on the network. In contrast, Windows NT-based operating systems offer only user-level access control but integrated with the

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or have multiple user accounts with different access privileges, which allows important system files (such as the kernel image) to be immutable under most user accounts. In contrast, while Windows 95 and later operating systems offer the option of having profiles for multiple users, they have no

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The VMM is also responsible for creating MS-DOS environments for system processes and Windows applications that still need to run in MS-DOS mode. It is the replacement for WIN386.EXE in Windows 3.x, and the file vmm32.vxd is a compressed archive containing most of the core VxD, including VMM.vxd

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Often the software developers of drivers and applications had insufficient experience with creating programs for the 'new' system, thus causing many errors which have been generally described as "system errors" by users, even if the error is not caused by parts of Windows or DOS. Microsoft has

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Although Microsoft discourages using .INI files in favor of Registry entries, a large number of applications (particularly 16-bit Windows-based applications) still use .INI files. Windows 9x supports .INI files solely for compatibility with those applications and related tools (such as setup

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versions after 3.0, preventing its users from playing contemporary games. Windows 2000 on the other hand, while primarily made towards business and server users, featured an updated user interface and better support for both Plug and Play and USB, as well as including built-in support for

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Windows 9x retains backwards compatibility with many drivers made for Windows 3.x and MS-DOS. Using MS-DOS drivers can limit performance and stability due to their use of conventional memory and need to run in real mode which requires the CPU to switch in and out of protected mode.

1246:. The 32-bit VxD message server (msgsrv32) is a program that is able to load virtual device drivers (VxDs) at startup and then handle communication with the drivers. Additionally, the message server performs several background functions, including loading the Windows shell (such as 1429:

The second role of MS-DOS (as the 16-bit legacy device driver layer) was as a backward compatibility tool for running DOS programs in Windows. Many MS-DOS programs and device drivers interacted with DOS in a low-level way, for example, by patching low-level BIOS interrupts such as

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and heap resources. By running multiple applications, applications with numerous GDI elements or by running applications over a long span of time, it could exhaust these memory areas. If free system resources dropped below 10%, Windows would become unstable and likely crash.

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MS-DOS was just an extremely elaborate decoy. Any 16-bit drivers and programs would patch or hook what they thought was the real MS-DOS, but which was in reality just a decoy. If the 32-bit file system manager detected that somebody bought the decoy, it told the decoy to

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with Service Pack 1 is the last version compatible with latter releases of Windows 9x (i.e. 98 and Me). While Internet Explorer 6 for Windows XP did receive security patches up until it lost support, this is not the case for IE6 under Windows 98 and Me. Due to its age,

474:, which has been implied by some to succeed both Windows NT and Windows 3.1's successor under one unified system. Microsoft publicly demonstrated Cairo at the 1993 Professional Developers Conference, complete with a demo system running Cairo for all attendees to use. 845:

continued to be available for Windows 98, Windows 98 SE, and Windows Me after their end of support date; however, during 2011, Microsoft retired the Windows Update v4 website and removed the updates for Windows 98, Windows 98 SE, and Windows Me from its servers.

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the operating system. This was a source of instability as faulty applications could accidentally write into this region, potentially corrupting important operating system memory, which usually resulted in some form of system error and halt.

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However, it had become apparent that Cairo was a much more difficult project than Microsoft had anticipated, and the project was subsequently cancelled 5 years into development. A subset of features from Cairo were eventually added into

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The inability of users to easily boot into real mode MS-DOS like in Windows 95 and 98 led users to quickly figure out how to hack their Windows Me installations to provide this missing functionality back into the operating system.

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EmuOS is another web-based site that aims to replicate the look and feel of Windows 9x as a whole, featuring 3 themes based on all major Windows 9x releases starting from Windows 95 up to Windows Me. It was created by Emupedia, a

1418:) transferred all state information from MS-DOS to the 32-bit file system manager, and then shut off MS-DOS. These VxDs allow Windows 9x to interact with hardware resources directly, as providing low-level functionalities such as 719:

On September 14, 2000, Microsoft introduced Windows Me (Millennium Edition; also known as Windows ME), which upgraded Windows 98 with enhanced multimedia and Internet features. It borrowed some features from the business-oriented

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programs). The AUTOEXEC.BAT and CONFIG.SYS files also still exist for compatibility with real-mode system components and to allow users to change certain default system settings such as the PATH environment variable.

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After the release of Windows XP, Microsoft stopped selling Windows 9x releases to end users (and later to OEMs) in the early 2000s. By March 2004, it was impossible to purchase any versions of the Windows 9x series.

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The internal release number for versions of Windows 9x is 4.x. The internal versions for Windows 95, 98, and Me are 4.0, 4.1, and 4.9, respectively. Previous MS-DOS-based versions of Windows used version numbers of

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The growing number of important updates caused by the end of life service for these operating systems have slowly made Windows 9x even less practical for everyday use. Today, even open source projects such as

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on all Windows 9x releases have also ended. Windows 95, Windows 98 and Windows Me all lost security patches for Internet Explorer when the respective operating systems reached their end of support date.

544:". A new GUI was not originally planned as part of the release, although elements of the Cairo user interface were borrowed and added as other aspects of the release (notably Plug and Play) slipped. 869:

aimed at bringing "improved compatibility on the modern web" for versions of Windows as old as Windows 95 and NT 4.0. The latest version, 2.2, was released in February 2019 and added support for

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marked a shift in the user experience between the Windows 9x series and the Windows NT series. Windows NT 4.0, while based on the Windows 95 interface, suffered from a lack of support for USB,

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the overall system performance and functionality is improved. Some old applications or games may not run properly in the virtual DOS environment within Windows and require real DOS Mode.

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Installation software often replaced and deleted system files without properly checking if the file was still in use or of a newer version. This created a phenomenon often referred to as

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applications for compatibility reasons. This area of memory contains code critical to the functioning of the operating system, and by writing into this area of memory an application can

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came shipped with Windows Me. The role of MS-DOS has also been greatly reduced compared to previous versions of Windows, with Windows Me no longer allowing real mode DOS to be accessed.

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and computer history community-based site, and was designed to play retro games and applications within a web browser. The aforementioned Windows 93 parody site is also featured.

979:. Hardware-specific settings are also stored in the registry, and many device drivers use the registry to load configuration data. Previous versions of Windows used files such as 271:

Mainstream support for Windows 98 ended on June 30, 2002. Mainstream support for Windows Me ended on December 31, 2003. Extended support for both 98 and Me ended on July 11, 2006.

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Windows 98 has been recreated in web-based format under the name 98.js (also known as Windows 98 Online). It featured web-based versions of several classic Windows applications.

420:, which included several minor improvements to Windows 3.0, primarily consisting of bugfixes and multimedia support. It also excluded support for Real mode, and only ran on an 809:

Microsoft DirectX, a set of standard gaming APIs, stopped being updated on Windows 95 at version 8.0a. It also stopped being updated on Windows 98 and Me after the release of

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that would preload the OS onto computers. Some companies sold new hard drives with OSR2 preinstalled (officially justifying this as needed due to the hard drive's capacity).

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and earlier. According to Microsoft developer Raymond Chen, MS-DOS served two purposes in Windows 95: as the boot loader, and as the 16-bit legacy device driver layer.

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drivers. FAT systems have very limited security; every user that has access to a FAT drive also has access to all files on that drive. The FAT file systems provide no

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Microsoft announced in July 2019 that the Microsoft Internet Games services on Windows Me (and XP) would end on July 31, 2019 (and for Windows 7 on January 22, 2020).

326:, which was aimed at professional users such as networks and businesses, used a similar but separate version number between 3.1 and 4.0. All versions of Windows from 728:, which allowed users to revert their system state to a previous "known-good" point in the case of a system failure. Windows Me also introduced the first release of 1702: 540:

first introduced with Windows NT was adopted as the standard 32-bit programming interface, with Win16 compatibility being preserved through a technique known as "

1410:. The WIN.COM program used MS-DOS to load the virtual machine manager, read SYSTEM.INI, load the virtual device drivers, and then turn off any running copies of 1555:

being created in the 2010s that aimed to replicate the look and feel of Windows 9x (and indeed an actual operating system as a whole) on a single web browser.

1094:; however, there are third-party solutions available for Windows 9x that allows read-only access to NTFS volumes. Early versions of Windows 95 did not support 2751: 2411: 1189:

not exclusive to Windows 9x; many other operating systems are also susceptible to these vulnerabilities, either by viruses, malware or by the user’s consent.

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OSR2, OSR2.1, and OSR2.5 ("OSR" being an initialism for "OEM Service Release") were not released to the general public, rather, they were available only to

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corrupted registry files, system files or boot files can be restored from real mode DOS. Windows 95 and Windows 98 can be started from DOS Mode by typing

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that the Windows NT family of operating systems has, although software like Norton CrashGuard can be used to achieve similar capabilities on Windows 9x.

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Windows 9x is designed as a single-user system. Thus, the security model is much less effective than the one in Windows NT. One reason for this is the

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kernel, Cairo was a next-generation operating system that was to feature as many new technologies into Windows, including a new user interface with an

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On June 25, 1998, Microsoft released Windows 98, code-named "Memphis" during development. It included new hardware drivers and better support for the

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windows. The GUI provides a means to control the placement and appearance of individual application windows, and interacts with the window system.

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format and are loaded in user-mode, and are commonly used to control devices such as multimedia devices. To provide access to these devices, a

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in late 2001 confirmed the change of direction for Microsoft, bringing the consumer and business operating systems together under Windows NT.

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nearly 5 years later, when Microsoft began to merge its consumer and business line of Windows under a single brand name based on Windows NT.

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would be more appealing to consumers. Windows 1.0 was not a complete operating system, but rather an "operating environment" that extended

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itself and ifsmgr.vxd (which facilitates file system access without the need to call the real mode file system code of the DOS kernel).

493:). According to Microsoft's product plan at the time, Cairo was planned to be released as late as July 1996 following its development. 3535: 2804: 467: 2026: 3456: 3441: 2809: 2765: 1768: 1180:

concept of access privileges, making them roughly equivalent to a single-user, single-account operating system; this means that all

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CD-ROMs, however it had buggy ATAPI implementation. Windows 95 prior to OSR2 also had buggy support for processors implementing

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Like Windows NT, Windows 9x stores user-specific and configuration-specific settings in a large information database called the

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released on August 24, 1996, albeit without the object file system. Windows NT and Windows 9x would not be truly unified until

295:, both of which were updated in subsequent versions. The first version in the 9x series was Windows 95, which was succeeded by 1861: 1451:

Windows 9x can run MS-DOS applications within itself using a method called "Virtualization", where an application is run on a

3804: 3702: 2821: 2061: 1828: 401:, released in 1990. In addition to improved capabilities given to native applications, Windows also allowed users to better 2729: 1802: 4082: 3631: 3616: 3446: 3379: 541: 444: 4103: 3677: 3662: 3621: 3329: 1710: 1426:, win.com was no longer executed during the startup process; instead it went directly to execute VMM32.VXD from IO.SYS. 1091: 490: 2507: 3843: 3790: 3169: 1676: 1654: 1102: 1075: 670: 666: 195: 131: 1910: 1494:(or GUI). The default mode for Windows is usually the graphical user interface, whereas the CLI is available through 1337:

third party drivers. Hardware driver support for Windows 98/Me began to decline in 2005, most notably in motherboard

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The user-mode parts of Windows 9x consist of three subsystems: the Win16 subsystem, the Win32 subsystem and MS-DOS.

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Microsoft did not change all of the Windows code to 32-bit; parts of it remained 16-bit (albeit not directly using

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and memory management. All future file system operations would get routed to the 32-bit file system manager. In

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files became too unwieldy for the limitations of the then-current FAT filesystem. Backwards-compatibility with

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file system which allows support for disk partitions larger than the 2 GB maximum accepted by Windows 95. The

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in Windows 9x can be virtual device drivers or (starting with Windows 98) WDM drivers. VxDs usually have the

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extension to maintain configuration settings. As Windows became more complex and incorporated more features,

353:, released on November 20, 1985, achieved little popularity. Its name was initially "Interface Manager", but 3682: 3495: 3485: 3148: 3023: 2128: 1698: 1572: 1157: 1138: 1050: 1046: 597:

Windows 95 C – (OSR2.5) included all the above features, plus IE 4.0. This was the last 95 version produced.

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Mainstream support for Windows 95 ended on December 31, 2000. Extended support ended on December 31, 2001.

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at the command prompt and then hitting "Enter", akin to earlier versions of Windows such as Windows 3.1.

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The kernel mode parts consist of the Virtual Machine Manager (VMM), the Installable File System Manager (

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or better processor. Windows 3.1 was released on April 6, 1992. In November 1993 Microsoft also released

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kernel at the core of Windows 9x. Its primary responsibility is to create, run, monitor and terminate

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repeatedly redesigned the Windows Driver architecture since the release of Windows 95 as a result.

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The registry consists of two files: User.dat and System.dat. In Windows Me, Classes.dat was added.

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Windows Me never received a dedicated Microsoft Plus! add-on like with Windows 95 and Windows 98.

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with Service Pack 2 is the last version of Internet Explorer compatible with Windows 95, while

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as opposed to Internet Explorer 4 in the original version. Windows 98 Second Edition also has

665:(also known as Windows 98 SE), an interim release whose notable features were the addition of 580: 281: 183: 813:

in 2006, making DirectX 9.0c the last version of DirectX to support these operating systems.

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Showstopper!: The Breakneck Race to Create Windows NT and the Next Generation at Microsoft

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of memory. In such a configuration, it could run under another multitasking system like

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Some operating systems that were available at the same time as Windows 9x are either

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and switch into protected mode. Once in protected mode, the virtual device drivers (

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Like with Windows 95, Windows 98 received the Microsoft Plus! add-on in the form of

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host bus adapters (and neither do Windows 2000 nor Windows XP for that matter), or

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and improved WDM audio and modem support. Internet Connection Sharing is a form of

528: 425: 1632: 1293:, are also susceptible to malfunctioning drivers impeding the kernel's operation. 26:

For the Microsoft Windows operating system formerly referred to as Windows 9, see

2697:"1j01/98: 💿 Web-based Windows 98 desktop recreation █████▓█▓▓▒▓▒▒░▒░░░🗕︎🗗︎🗙︎" 3994: 3976: 3759: 3749: 3739: 3300: 3120: 2971: 2860: 2855: 2850: 2845: 2840: 1510: 1399: 1251: 1153: 786: 646:

editions of Windows 95. It also introduces the controversial integration of the

436: 417: 406: 398: 388: 369: 350: 319: 244: 200: 2202:"Farewell to Microsoft Internet Games on Windows XP, Windows ME, and Windows 7" 2001: 1053:) time between the threads in which the applications and virtual machines run. 3085: 2981: 2976: 2940: 2898: 2888: 2883: 2878: 2386: 1585: 1423: 1395: 1380: 1342: 1329: 1176: 1110: 999: 987: 953: 790: 706: 682: 662: 626: 621: 555: 519: 514: 502: 478: 432: 327: 323: 304: 300: 296: 288: 255: 149: 123: 67: 58: 27: 642:

support in Windows 98 was more robust than the basic support provided by the

19:"Windows 4.x" redirects here. For the operating system in the NT family, see 3931: 3838: 3764: 3729: 2967: 2962: 2612: 2515: 2486: 2421: 2359: 2323: 2124: 2090: 2031: 1918: 1531:

is the default user interface for the GUI; however, a variety of additional

1506: 673:, allowing several machines on a LAN (Local Area Network) to share a single 548: 532: 373: 72: 1922: 1589: 357:, the head of marketing at Microsoft, convinced the company that the name 4060: 1980: 1613: 1536: 1357: 1193: 694: 558:

as the product name for Chicago when it was released on August 24, 1995.

452: 384: 380: 2260: 466:(Windows 95, code-named Chicago) began, Microsoft announced at its 1991 4055: 3984: 3754: 1407: 1338: 1071: 993: 859: 781: 459:, would be released on July 27, 1993 and used Windows 3.1's interface. 440: 2292: 2265: 1495: 1431: 1411: 1384: 1031: 1015:

files was maintained until Windows XP succeeded the 9x and NT lines.

365:. Consequently, it shared the inherent flaws and problems of MS-DOS. 362: 292: 187: 82: 3566: 2757: 1360:

support for Windows 95 RTM). Windows 95 had preliminary support for

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Microsoft went on to release five different versions of Windows 95:

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in Windows 9x, unlike with Windows NT releases since Windows 2000.

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that they would be developing a successor to Windows NT code-named

4004: 1706: 1361: 1095: 710: 635: 625: 584: 518: 486: 451:, but Cutler created a completely new system instead based on his 421: 170: 2002:"How to restart from Windows Millennium into Windows 98 DOS mode" 1521:

effects, such as fade effects in menus, are not supported by the

314:. In 1998, Windows made up 82% of operating system market share. 1242: 1169: 1114: 1087: 724:

into the Windows 9x series, and introduced the first version of

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is usually used to refer to the three operating systems, as in

1049:. It runs multiple applications simultaneously by sharing CPU ( 956:), the Configuration Manager, and in Windows 98 and later, the 4040: 2831: 1415: 1349: 1333: 964: 936: 639: 447:. Microsoft hired him in August 1988 to create a successor to 2696: 1551:

The sheer popularity of the Windows 9x series led to several

2633: 1703:"Caldera shows Windows on DR-DOS, denying Microsoft claims" 1240:, whereas WDM compatible drivers usually use the extension 579:

Windows 95 B – (OSR2) included several major enhancements,

1946:"Windows 98: Stable and fast, as well as new and improved" 16:

Discontinued series of Microsoft Windows operating systems

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was more stable than Windows 95's final (gamma) version.

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operating system's own user account security mechanism.

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As a 32-bit operating system, virtual memory space is 4

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Users can control a Windows 9x-based system through a

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is a generic term referring to a line of discontinued

2741:

Basic Computing Using Windows/Appendices/Dual Booting

2675: 1394:

When Windows 95 started up, MS-DOS loaded, processed

1113:. Unlike Windows 3.x, Windows 9x has support for the 455:

project at Digital. The first version of Windows NT,

899:

Like most operating systems, Windows 9x consists of

397:

Microsoft Windows scored a significant success with

349:

The first independent version of Microsoft Windows,

4033: 3970: 3916: 3877: 3812: 3803: 3773: 3720: 3711: 3650: 3604: 3309: 3268: 3235: 3187: 3162: 3132: 3119: 3098: 3071: 2990: 2906: 2897: 2869: 2830: 2083:"DirectX 8.1 Runtime for Windows 98 and Windows Me" 1769:"Chronology of Microsoft Windows Operating Systems" 1121:with a maximum of 255 characters instead of having 262: 251: 240: 225: 206: 194: 176: 166: 156: 130: 106: 96: 88: 78: 66: 2177:"Where is Windows Update for Win98? - BetaArchive" 1738:. Sometimes Windows Me is included as a member of 1911:"Windows 95 OSR2.x Support for External USB Hubs" 862:will not run on Windows 9x without major rework. 372:, was released on December 9, 1987, and used the 310:Windows 9x is predominantly known for its use in 1348:Early versions of Windows 95 had no support for 1204:to handle common problems caused by this issue. 686:some commentators used to say that Windows 98's 2752:Operating System Design/Case Studies/Windows 9x 2508:"Function of the Windows 32-Bit Message Server" 1509:, unlike Windows NT where the GDI is loaded in 1277:of instability for the operating system. Other 61:, the first version of Windows in the 9x series 1387:in Windows much further than had been done in 658:(then known as Windows Explorer at the time). 330:onwards are based on the Windows NT codebase. 3582: 2773: 2387:"Resource Management Under Microsoft Windows" 368:The second installment of Microsoft Windows, 8: 2605:"What was the role of MS-DOS in Windows 95?" 36: 1803:"Windows NT and VMS: The Rest of the Story" 1567:from the late 1990s up to the early 2000s. 1074:can be installed on Windows 9x through the 590:Windows 95 B USB – (OSR2.1) included basic 379:model, which confined it to a maximum of 1 287:from 1995 to 2000, which were based on the 4114:Discontinued versions of Microsoft Windows 3809: 3717: 3589: 3575: 3567: 3541: 3531: 3129: 2903: 2780: 2766: 2758: 1757:is used to include Windows 95, 98, and Me. 907:memory. Although Windows 9x features some 431:Meanwhile, Microsoft continued to develop 35: 1030:The Virtual Machine Manager (VMM) is the 935:Windows 9x/Me set aside two blocks of 64 1977:"The 25 Worst Tech Products of All Time" 405:older MS-DOS-based software compared to 291:kernel and its underlying foundation of 2595: 2593: 2591: 2589: 1624: 435:. The main architect of the system was 2412:"Chapter 28 - Windows 98 Architecture" 1709:news. Hanover, Germany. Archived from 464:development of Windows 3.1's successor 1563:which reference and features various 1328:Windows 9x has no native support for 1305:Windows 9x has no native support for 1086:Windows 9x does not natively support 661:On June 10, 1999, Microsoft released 612:add-on pack was sold for Windows 95. 7: 2350:"Windows 95 Architecture Components" 2117:"Internet Explorer 6 Service Pack 1" 2058:"Windows 9x end of support lifetime" 1269:is required (such as MMSYSTEM.DLL). 2326:. November 21, 2001. Archived from 1368:as well as processors based on the 1257:Another type of device drivers are 568:Windows 95 A – included Windows 95 2538:"Maximus-Decim Native USB Drivers" 2448:"FAT32 or NTFS: Making the Choice" 2212:from the original on July 14, 2019 1921:. October 31, 2003. Archived from 1105:, Windows 9x provides support for 468:Professional Developers Conference 14: 439:, one of the chief architects of 340:Microsoft Windows version history 3693:Object-oriented operating system 3551: 3550: 3540: 3530: 2746: 2735: 2723: 2570:. August 3, 2014. Archived from 2477:Jin, Allen (February 20, 2014). 1862:"So what exactly IS COM anyway?" 1588: 1356:acceleration (including lack of 409:, thanks to the introduction of 51: 42: 2237:. June 19, 2008. Archived from 2064:from the original on 2015-03-07 1767:Polsson, Ken (April 22, 2008). 1604:Comparison of operating systems 1383:was able to reduce the role of 3703:Supercomputer operating system 2728:Learning materials related to 1944:Fasoldt, Al (March 29, 1998). 1133:Windows 9x has no support for 136:4.90.3000 / June 19, 2000 1: 1860:Larry Osterman (2004-10-15). 1677:"Microsoft Support Lifecycle" 1655:"Microsoft Support Lifecycle" 1633:"Microsoft Support Lifecycle" 896:16/32-bit operating systems. 565:Windows 95 – original release 445:Digital Equipment Corporation 3678:Just enough operating system 3663:Distributed operating system 1885:Anderson, Tim (2012-10-23). 1166:file-system level encryption 715:Wordmark logo for Windows Me 630:Wordmark logo for Windows 98 554:Microsoft marketing adopted 523:Wordmark logo for Windows 95 491:development of Windows Vista 3791:User space and kernel space 3106:Preinstallation Environment 3081:Fundamentals for Legacy PCs 2676:"98.js - Windows 98 Online" 1975:Tynan, Dan (May 26, 2006). 1827:Zachary, G. Pascal (2014). 1753:. In this article the term 1261:drivers. These drivers are 1103:Windows for Workgroups 3.11 1076:Microsoft Layer for Unicode 818:Microsoft Internet Explorer 671:network address translation 667:Internet Connection Sharing 4130: 3698:Real-time operating system 2512:Microsoft Help and Support 1609:Architecture of Windows 9x 1535:exist. Other GUIs include 1533:Windows shell replacements 1479: 892:Windows 9x is a series of 888:Architecture of Windows 9x 885: 704: 619: 512: 337: 25: 18: 3894:Multilevel feedback queue 3889:Fixed-priority preemptive 3673:Hobbyist operating system 3668:Embedded operating system 3526: 3518:Windows Server Essentials 3503:Windows for Pen Computing 2795: 2121:Microsoft Download Center 2087:Microsoft Download Center 1315:symmetric multiprocessing 1311:Data Execution Prevention 1135:event logging and tracing 1129:Event logging and tracing 960:Driver Manager (NTKERN). 663:Windows 98 Second Edition 267: 50: 41: 3937:General protection fault 3688:Network operating system 3642:User features comparison 2288:"Release RetroZilla 2.2" 1492:graphical user interface 1301:CPU and bus technologies 1196:. Windows Me introduced 1003:and other files with an 865:RetroZilla is a fork of 483:object-based file system 462:About a year before the 3683:Mobile operating system 1866:Larry Osterman's WebLog 1573:video game preservation 1158:Installable File System 1051:central processing unit 1047:preemptive multitasking 1026:Virtual Machine Manager 3786:Loadable kernel module 2479:"Chapter 9 - Security" 2231:"Firefox 3 Windows 98" 1749:June 19, 2010, at the 1488:command-line interface 1198:System File Protection 1117:file system, allowing 843:Windows Update website 734:Windows Media Player 7 716: 631: 576:into the installation. 524: 138:; 24 years ago 112:; 29 years ago 3854:Process control block 3820:Computer multitasking 3658:Disk operating system 2603:(December 24, 2007). 2330:on September 18, 2004 2206:answers.microsoft.com 1447:MS-DOS Virtualization 823:Internet Explorer 5.5 738:Internet Explorer 5.5 714: 650:web browser into the 629: 522: 4025:Virtual tape library 3617:Forensic engineering 2428:on December 21, 2007 2027:"Windows life cycle" 1925:on December 10, 2005 1370:P6 microarchitecture 1267:dynamic link library 1162:access control lists 1070:Partial support for 683:certain improvements 587:file system support. 416:Microsoft developed 4104:Computing platforms 4034:Supporting concepts 4020:Virtual file system 3513:Microsoft PowerToys 3170:Embedded Automotive 2574:on October 24, 2014 2366:on February 7, 2008 2296:. February 24, 2019 2181:www.betaarchive.com 2097:on January 15, 2005 1833:. Open Road Media. 1453:Virtual DOS machine 939:memory regions for 838:and Windows Vista. 832:Internet Explorer 7 827:Internet Explorer 6 730:Windows Movie Maker 679:Internet Explorer 5 677:. It also includes 675:Internet connection 648:Internet Explorer 4 345:Windows prior to 95 235:commercial software 38: 3957:Segmentation fault 3805:Process management 3469:Version comparison 3154:Embedded Compact 7 2518:on January 7, 2007 1553:web-based projects 1547:In popular culture 1420:32-bit disk access 1231:filename extension 1107:32-bit file access 717: 632: 583:(IE) 3.0 and full 525: 110:July 14, 1995 4109:Microsoft Windows 4091: 4090: 3947:Memory protection 3918:Memory management 3912: 3911: 3904:Shortest job next 3799: 3798: 3598:Operating systems 3564: 3563: 3406:Removed features 3183: 3182: 3175:Embedded Industry 3111:MultiPoint Server 3094: 3093: 2789:Microsoft Windows 2609:The Old New Thing 2417:Microsoft Technet 2355:Microsoft Technet 2241:on March 29, 2010 1840:978-1-4804-9484-8 1801:(December 1998). 1799:Russinovich, Mark 1773:www.islandnet.com 1744:this version list 1515:Alpha compositing 909:memory protection 789:. The release of 581:Internet Explorer 387:, which used the 285:operating systems 282:Microsoft Windows 275: 274: 4121: 4046:Computer network 3810: 3718: 3591: 3584: 3577: 3568: 3554: 3553: 3544: 3543: 3536:List of versions 3534: 3533: 3130: 3036:Home Server 2011 2904: 2782: 2775: 2768: 2759: 2750: 2739: 2727: 2712: 2711: 2709: 2707: 2693: 2687: 2686: 2684: 2682: 2672: 2666: 2665: 2663: 2661: 2651: 2645: 2644: 2642: 2640: 2630: 2624: 2623: 2621: 2619: 2597: 2584: 2583: 2581: 2579: 2560: 2554: 2553: 2551: 2549: 2544:. April 11, 2005 2534: 2528: 2527: 2525: 2523: 2514:. Archived from 2504: 2498: 2497: 2495: 2493: 2474: 2468: 2467: 2465: 2463: 2454:. Archived from 2444: 2438: 2437: 2435: 2433: 2424:. Archived from 2408: 2402: 2401: 2399: 2397: 2391:www.apptools.com 2382: 2376: 2375: 2373: 2371: 2362:. Archived from 2346: 2340: 2339: 2337: 2335: 2312: 2306: 2305: 2303: 2301: 2284: 2278: 2277: 2275: 2273: 2257: 2251: 2250: 2248: 2246: 2227: 2221: 2220: 2218: 2217: 2198: 2192: 2191: 2189: 2187: 2173: 2167: 2166: 2164: 2162: 2157:. 27 August 2011 2147: 2141: 2140: 2138: 2136: 2131:on June 27, 2011 2127:. Archived from 2113: 2107: 2106: 2104: 2102: 2093:. Archived from 2079: 2073: 2072: 2070: 2069: 2054: 2048: 2047: 2045: 2044: 2035:. Archived from 2023: 2017: 2016: 2014: 2012: 1998: 1992: 1991: 1989: 1987: 1972: 1966: 1965: 1963: 1961: 1956:on June 14, 2002 1952:. Archived from 1941: 1935: 1934: 1932: 1930: 1917:(3.0 ed.). 1915:Help and Support 1907: 1901: 1900: 1898: 1897: 1882: 1876: 1875: 1873: 1872: 1857: 1851: 1850: 1848: 1847: 1824: 1818: 1817: 1815: 1814: 1805:. Archived from 1795: 1789: 1788: 1786: 1784: 1775:. Archived from 1764: 1758: 1728: 1722: 1721: 1719: 1718: 1695: 1689: 1688: 1686: 1684: 1673: 1667: 1666: 1664: 1662: 1651: 1645: 1644: 1642: 1640: 1629: 1598: 1593: 1592: 1561:web applications 1529:Windows Explorer 1471: 1406:and finally ran 1260: 1245: 1239: 1235: 1217:Hardware support 1061:Software support 1039:virtual machines 1014: 1010: 1006: 1002: 996: 990: 984: 977:Windows registry 146: 144: 139: 120: 118: 113: 55: 46: 39: 33:Operating system 4129: 4128: 4124: 4123: 4122: 4120: 4119: 4118: 4094: 4093: 4092: 4087: 4029: 3990:Defragmentation 3975: 3966: 3952:Protection ring 3921: 3908: 3880: 3873: 3795: 3769: 3707: 3646: 3600: 3595: 3565: 3560: 3522: 3508:Microsoft Plus! 3442:Version history 3305: 3264: 3231: 3179: 3158: 3149:Embedded CE 6.0 3135: 3124: 3122: 3115: 3090: 3073: 3067: 3024:HPC Server 2008 2993: 2986: 2908: 2893: 2865: 2826: 2791: 2786: 2720: 2715: 2705: 2703: 2695: 2694: 2690: 2680: 2678: 2674: 2673: 2669: 2659: 2657: 2653: 2652: 2648: 2638: 2636: 2632: 2631: 2627: 2617: 2615: 2599: 2598: 2587: 2577: 2575: 2562: 2561: 2557: 2547: 2545: 2536: 2535: 2531: 2521: 2519: 2506: 2505: 2501: 2491: 2489: 2476: 2475: 2471: 2461: 2459: 2458:on May 27, 2012 2446: 2445: 2441: 2431: 2429: 2410: 2409: 2405: 2395: 2393: 2384: 2383: 2379: 2369: 2367: 2348: 2347: 2343: 2333: 2331: 2314: 2313: 2309: 2299: 2297: 2286: 2285: 2281: 2271: 2269: 2259: 2258: 2254: 2244: 2242: 2235:Mozilla Support 2229: 2228: 2224: 2215: 2213: 2200: 2199: 2195: 2185: 2183: 2175: 2174: 2170: 2160: 2158: 2149: 2148: 2144: 2134: 2132: 2115: 2114: 2110: 2100: 2098: 2081: 2080: 2076: 2067: 2065: 2056: 2055: 2051: 2042: 2040: 2025: 2024: 2020: 2010: 2008: 2000: 1999: 1995: 1985: 1983: 1974: 1973: 1969: 1959: 1957: 1943: 1942: 1938: 1928: 1926: 1909: 1908: 1904: 1895: 1893: 1884: 1883: 1879: 1870: 1868: 1859: 1858: 1854: 1845: 1843: 1841: 1826: 1825: 1821: 1812: 1810: 1797: 1796: 1792: 1782: 1780: 1766: 1765: 1761: 1751:Wayback Machine 1729: 1725: 1716: 1714: 1697: 1696: 1692: 1682: 1680: 1675: 1674: 1670: 1660: 1658: 1653: 1652: 1648: 1638: 1636: 1631: 1630: 1626: 1622: 1594: 1587: 1584: 1549: 1541:Program Manager 1484: 1478: 1469: 1461: 1449: 1378: 1307:hyper-threading 1303: 1258: 1241: 1237: 1233: 1224: 1219: 1210: 1208:Network sharing 1147: 1139:error reporting 1131: 1084: 1068: 1063: 1028: 1012: 1008: 1004: 998: 992: 986: 980: 973: 950: 930: 890: 884: 879: 860:Mozilla Firefox 855: 803: 772:The release of 770: 709: 703: 624: 618: 610:Microsoft Plus! 517: 511: 347: 342: 336: 270: 269: 209: 147: 142: 140: 137: 121: 116: 114: 111: 107:Initial release 62: 34: 31: 24: 17: 12: 11: 5: 4127: 4125: 4117: 4116: 4111: 4106: 4096: 4095: 4089: 4088: 4086: 4085: 4080: 4079: 4078: 4076:User interface 4073: 4063: 4058: 4053: 4048: 4043: 4037: 4035: 4031: 4030: 4028: 4027: 4022: 4017: 4012: 4007: 4002: 4000:File attribute 3997: 3992: 3987: 3981: 3979: 3968: 3967: 3965: 3964: 3962:Virtual memory 3959: 3954: 3949: 3944: 3939: 3934: 3928: 3926: 3914: 3913: 3910: 3909: 3907: 3906: 3901: 3896: 3891: 3885: 3883: 3875: 3874: 3872: 3871: 3866: 3861: 3856: 3851: 3846: 3841: 3836: 3834:Context switch 3831: 3816: 3814: 3807: 3801: 3800: 3797: 3796: 3794: 3793: 3788: 3783: 3777: 3775: 3771: 3770: 3768: 3767: 3762: 3757: 3752: 3747: 3742: 3737: 3732: 3726: 3724: 3715: 3709: 3708: 3706: 3705: 3700: 3695: 3690: 3685: 3680: 3675: 3670: 3665: 3660: 3654: 3652: 3648: 3647: 3645: 3644: 3639: 3634: 3629: 3624: 3619: 3614: 3608: 3606: 3602: 3601: 3596: 3594: 3593: 3586: 3579: 3571: 3562: 3561: 3559: 3558: 3548: 3538: 3527: 3524: 3523: 3521: 3520: 3515: 3510: 3505: 3500: 3499: 3498: 3493: 3488: 3478: 3477: 3476: 3466: 3465: 3464: 3459: 3454: 3449: 3439: 3438: 3437: 3432: 3427: 3422: 3417: 3412: 3404: 3403: 3402: 3397: 3392: 3387: 3382: 3377: 3369: 3368: 3367: 3362: 3357: 3352: 3347: 3342: 3334: 3333: 3332: 3327: 3322: 3313: 3311: 3307: 3306: 3304: 3303: 3298: 3293: 3288: 3283: 3278: 3272: 3270: 3266: 3265: 3263: 3262: 3257: 3252: 3247: 3241: 3239: 3233: 3232: 3230: 3229: 3224: 3219: 3214: 3209: 3204: 3202:Pocket PC 2002 3199: 3197:Pocket PC 2000 3193: 3191: 3189:Windows Mobile 3185: 3184: 3181: 3180: 3178: 3177: 3172: 3166: 3164: 3160: 3159: 3157: 3156: 3151: 3146: 3140: 3138: 3127: 3117: 3116: 3114: 3113: 3108: 3102: 3100: 3096: 3095: 3092: 3091: 3089: 3088: 3083: 3077: 3075: 3069: 3068: 3066: 3065: 3060: 3055: 3050: 3048:Server 2012 R2 3045: 3040: 3039: 3038: 3031:Server 2008 R2 3028: 3027: 3026: 3021: 3011: 3010: 3009: 2998: 2996: 2988: 2987: 2985: 2984: 2979: 2974: 2965: 2960: 2955: 2954: 2953: 2948: 2938: 2933: 2928: 2923: 2918: 2912: 2910: 2901: 2895: 2894: 2892: 2891: 2886: 2881: 2875: 2873: 2867: 2866: 2864: 2863: 2858: 2853: 2848: 2843: 2837: 2835: 2828: 2827: 2825: 2824: 2819: 2818: 2817: 2812: 2802: 2796: 2793: 2792: 2787: 2785: 2784: 2777: 2770: 2762: 2756: 2755: 2744: 2733: 2732:at Wikiversity 2719: 2718:External links 2716: 2714: 2713: 2688: 2667: 2646: 2625: 2585: 2555: 2529: 2499: 2483:Microsoft Docs 2469: 2452:The Elder Geek 2439: 2403: 2377: 2341: 2307: 2279: 2252: 2222: 2193: 2168: 2142: 2108: 2074: 2049: 2018: 1993: 1967: 1936: 1902: 1877: 1852: 1839: 1819: 1790: 1779:on May 2, 2008 1759: 1723: 1701:(1998-03-23). 1690: 1668: 1646: 1623: 1621: 1618: 1617: 1616: 1611: 1606: 1600: 1599: 1583: 1580: 1565:internet memes 1548: 1545: 1517:and therefore 1490:(or CLI) or a 1482:User interface 1477: 1476:User interface 1474: 1460: 1457: 1448: 1445: 1377: 1374: 1302: 1299: 1283:hybrid kernels 1263:New Executable 1227:Device drivers 1223: 1220: 1218: 1215: 1209: 1206: 1202:System Restore 1146: 1143: 1130: 1127: 1083: 1080: 1067: 1064: 1062: 1059: 1035:protected mode 1027: 1024: 972: 969: 949: 946: 929: 926: 886:Main article: 883: 880: 878: 875: 854: 851: 836:Windows XP SP2 802: 801:End of support 799: 769: 766: 746:Windows Update 726:System Restore 705:Main article: 702: 699: 620:Main article: 617: 614: 599: 598: 595: 588: 577: 566: 513:Main article: 510: 507: 499:Windows NT 4.0 457:Windows NT 3.1 411:virtual memory 392:Protected Mode 355:Rowland Hanson 346: 343: 335: 332: 273: 272: 265: 264: 263:Support status 260: 259: 253: 249: 248: 242: 238: 237: 229: 223: 222: 212: 210:user interface 204: 203: 198: 192: 191: 181: 174: 173: 168: 164: 163: 161:Windows Update 158: 154: 153: 134: 128: 127: 108: 104: 103: 98: 94: 93: 90: 86: 85: 80: 76: 75: 70: 64: 63: 57:Screenshot of 56: 48: 47: 32: 21:Windows NT 4.0 15: 13: 10: 9: 6: 4: 3: 2: 4126: 4115: 4112: 4110: 4107: 4105: 4102: 4101: 4099: 4084: 4081: 4077: 4074: 4072: 4069: 4068: 4067: 4064: 4062: 4059: 4057: 4054: 4052: 4049: 4047: 4044: 4042: 4039: 4038: 4036: 4032: 4026: 4023: 4021: 4018: 4016: 4013: 4011: 4008: 4006: 4003: 4001: 3998: 3996: 3993: 3991: 3988: 3986: 3983: 3982: 3980: 3978: 3973: 3969: 3963: 3960: 3958: 3955: 3953: 3950: 3948: 3945: 3943: 3942:Memory paging 3940: 3938: 3935: 3933: 3930: 3929: 3927: 3924: 3919: 3915: 3905: 3902: 3900: 3897: 3895: 3892: 3890: 3887: 3886: 3884: 3882: 3876: 3870: 3867: 3865: 3862: 3860: 3857: 3855: 3852: 3850: 3847: 3845: 3842: 3840: 3837: 3835: 3832: 3829: 3825: 3821: 3818: 3817: 3815: 3811: 3808: 3806: 3802: 3792: 3789: 3787: 3784: 3782: 3781:Device driver 3779: 3778: 3776: 3772: 3766: 3763: 3761: 3758: 3756: 3753: 3751: 3748: 3746: 3743: 3741: 3738: 3736: 3733: 3731: 3728: 3727: 3725: 3723: 3722:Architectures 3719: 3716: 3714: 3710: 3704: 3701: 3699: 3696: 3694: 3691: 3689: 3686: 3684: 3681: 3679: 3676: 3674: 3671: 3669: 3666: 3664: 3661: 3659: 3656: 3655: 3653: 3649: 3643: 3640: 3638: 3635: 3633: 3630: 3628: 3625: 3623: 3620: 3618: 3615: 3613: 3610: 3609: 3607: 3603: 3599: 3592: 3587: 3585: 3580: 3578: 3573: 3572: 3569: 3557: 3549: 3547: 3539: 3537: 3529: 3528: 3525: 3519: 3516: 3514: 3511: 3509: 3506: 3504: 3501: 3497: 3494: 3492: 3489: 3487: 3484: 3483: 3482: 3479: 3475: 3472: 3471: 3470: 3467: 3463: 3460: 3458: 3455: 3453: 3450: 3448: 3445: 3444: 3443: 3440: 3436: 3433: 3431: 3428: 3426: 3423: 3421: 3418: 3416: 3413: 3411: 3408: 3407: 3405: 3401: 3398: 3396: 3393: 3391: 3388: 3386: 3383: 3381: 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