Yes sorry, those were years. The NT OS/2 project started in 11/88 with the first lines of code written in 02/89.

An additional few notes on some of the fields in the original article:

The minor version isn't just used to identify a minor increment, it's also used to avoid changing the major version. Such a change was done for Windows 7 and also for Windows 8; the reason being application compatibility.

In regards to using the checked build, it's not a requirement to have a debugger attached. Prior to Windows Vista, if a debugger wasn't attached and an assertion failed, the system would bugcheck. Now if an assertion fails and there's no debugger, it's not reported which is not of great use for a developer.

As for build architectures, the values are x86, amd64 and woa. You could also see ia64 for versions earlier than Windows Server 8.

One lab don't know about the features of an other lab. All labs are building based on a recent code from WinMain, where all the labs' code is consolidated. If the lab's key is used, the features of that lab activate and become usable per above RAC system, ELSE the build is no difference from the corresponding WinMain code, that this lab's build was built against at it's time. Meaning: if fbl_srv_wdacxml (Windows Server Data Access Components XML) is installed with the default key, it isn't differ from the corresponding winmain build and you cannot know which changes are tweaked to precisely that component and how that component differ from WinMain code.


Note: not an official statement, just my opinion based on my digging in the SLC system that described before.

Ditto!

That first post in this thread made me learn a lot about NT version numbers.

I already knew some of that basic information, but the rest was all new. Some great information here for new windows users that just like to mess around with those beta builds.

Why does Neptune (Build 51111) have a greater number than Whistler Build 2296? I thought Whistler was newer than Neptune!

Who knows why Neptune started in the 5xxx range? You were correct in thinking that Whistler was newer than Neptune.

Wow I thought the build tag was just an ID.

if it is post RTM builds of the os, it is either never used, put in a service pack, or put into a new OS; at least that is what i believe...
for example, the early 'win8' probably wasn't win8 but the staff messing around with new ideas (ex. the user pic in start bar wasn't in the final build)

This information is in Microsoft Collection Book.

MCB just has a copy of OP from this topic, that was put there once this was written.

That is indeed correct DeFacto, it is a straight copy of this information, since it is relevant to the MCB.
Ofcourse it isn't mine and Linuxlove, Daniel, arseny92 are properly credit at the beginning of the article.

Interesting. I never knew that before. Although I did know about the Compilation Date, and the NT major and minor numbers, plus the Build Number. But the rest seemed like random numbers, but I guess they aren't.

Thanks. Now I can solve the builds.