Windows Vista

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Revision as of 14:27, 29 March 2012 by Homaaa (talk | contribs) (minor stylistic changes and a few linkl in the opening)
Windows Vista
Windows Vista Logo.png
Microsoft Windows Vista
Codename
Preliminary name
Longhorn
Kernel version NT 6.0
CPU architecture x86, x64
Release date 30 January 2007
Support end 11 April 2017
Preceded by XP
Succeeded by 7

Windows Vista is a operating system produced by Microsoft. While the client version was released on January 30th, 2007, the Server version, which was still known as "Longhorn Server" to that time, was not released until February 27th, 2008, several months after it was given the final name Windows Server 2008.

This article is about the client Windows Vista only. For information about its Server counterpart, see Windows Server 2008.

During its development it had the codename "Longhorn". Development originally started earlier in approximately January to May 2001, when it was known by its old codename, "Whistler+" (although some sources also cite another possible codename, "Idaho"), though by late May 2001, it had been renamed to "Longhorn", and at least going back to September 2001, the builds of Longhorn being compiled were forked from the continuing "Whistler Server" builds. Although the Client counterpart of "Whistler Server", Windows XP, was released on October 25th, 2001, the Server counterpart was later renamed to Windows .NET Server, briefly Windows .NET Server 2003, and finally Windows Server 2003, and its continued development provided the codebase for the Longhorn builds.

Although the project itself was renamed to "Longhorn" in late May 2001, it was not until May 2002 that the builds were known to officially use the Longhorn codename (this might just mean that it was not hard coded into the kernel until then).

One of the biggest differences to Windows XP was that applications for Longhorn were supposed to be developed in managed languages, mainly C#, and that the "traditional" Win32 API should be replaced with managed .NET libraries in many places. During Longhorn development, many parts of the OS were rewritten in .NET 1.2 (can be seen as a prototype of .NET 2.0), causing bugs and memory leaks, especially in Windows Explorer.

While in its earlier stages of development, Longhorn suffered from many problems relating to reliability and stability. For this reason, on August 19th, 2004, the development of Longhorn was reset, and a preliminary build, Build 3790.1232, was compiled as a test of the new version of the Windows Server 2003 codebase on which the Longhorn code would be based from that point on, having been forked from the same build of Windows Server 2003 Service Pack 1. While it didn't contain any true Longhorn code, it did use the Longhorn EULA (End User License Agreement), proving that it was indeed distributed as a Longhorn build, and was to be tested as such.

Contrary to popular belief, Longhorn was based on Windows Server 2003 all along, just that the code reset was to replace the currently used Windows Server 2003 code (Windows .NET Server 2003 Release Candidate) with a later compile (Windows Server 2003 Service Pack 1).

Although it was apparently the case that certain builds of Longhorn were compiled from the old code as recently as Build 4094 from November 2004, Microsoft had otherwise switched entirely to compiling Longhorn from the more recent code, having entered Omega-13 stage. Build 5001 from September 27th, 2004, one of the first genuine Longhorn builds compiled after the reset, used the product name "Windows lh" instead of "Windows XP", and had very little else in the way of difference from that of Windows NT 5 (Windows 2000/XP/Server 2003), although the version number had shifted back up from 5.20 (as with Build 3790.1232), and the build numbering scheme had reverted back to the one used by the Longhorn builds, rather than the Windows Server 2003 Service Pack 1 builds.

However, by Build 5048 from March 2005, most of Longhorn's feature set was added back in, with a few exceptions. Yet even despite this, this build was criticized for continuing to lag behind in features and general functionality to some extent, most notably by Paul Thurrott, who even stated "This has the makings of a train wreck." as far as that build was concerned.

Microsoft continued compiling Longhorn builds, and by the time Build 5098 was compiled, almost all of the Longhorn functionality was added back in (with a notable exception to the sidebar, which was not added back until by the time that Build 5219 was compiled), and development had returned to normal.

At around the same time that the project entered Beta 1 stage with Build 5112, Microsoft gave the product a final name, in this case, Windows Vista. The name Windows Vista was chosen to improve the product's image and reputation.

Later, Windows Vista entered Beta 2 stage, and finally Release Candidate stage, until the RTM build was compiled in November 2006, and the product was released to general availability on January 30th, 2007.

There are two Service Pack releases for Windows Vista, Windows Vista Service Pack 1 (Server counterpart known as Windows Server 2008) and Windows Vista Service Pack 2 (Server counterpart known as Windows Server 2008 Service Pack 2).

Builds

  • No information available
  • Existence doubtful
  • Information or pictures available
  • Leaked or released

Omega-13

Beta 1

Pre-Beta 2 (Beta 2 Fork)

Community Tech Preview 2 (Beta 2 Fork)

Beta 2 (Beta 2 Fork)

Beta 2

NOTE: Some of the earliest builds listed may not actually be Beta 2 builds (although still obviously within the Beta 2 fork), so their exact status is still to confirm.

Beta 2

Pre-RC 1

Pre-Release Candidate 1

Release Candidate 1

Pre-Release Candidate 2

Release Candidate 2

Pre-RTM

RTM

Post-RTM

Service Pack 1

See Also

External links