Games - Windows 2000

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Windows 2000 (also referred to as Win2K or W2K) is a preemptible and interruptible, graphical, business-oriented operating system that was designed to work with either uniprocessor or symmetric multi-processor (SMP) 32-bit Intel x86 computers. It is part of the Microsoft Windows NT line of operating systems and was released on February 17, 2000. Windows 2000 comes in four versions: Professional, Server, Advanced Server, and Datacenter Server. Additionally, Microsoft offers Windows 2000 Advanced Server- Limited Edition, which released in 2001 and runs on 64-bit Intel Itanium microprocessors. Windows 2000 is classified as a hybrid-kernel operating system, and its architecture is divided into two modes: user mode and kernel mode. The kernel mode provides unrestricted access to system resources and facilitates the user mode, which is heavily restricted and designed for most applications.

All versions of Windows 2000 have common functionality, including many system utilities such as the Microsoft Management Console (MMC) and standard system management applications such as a disk defragmentation utility. Support for people with disabilities has also been improved by Microsoft across their Windows 2000 line, and they have included increased support for different languages and locale information. All versions of the operating system support the Windows NT filesystem, NTFS 5, the Encrypted File System (EFS), as well as basic and dynamic disk storage. Dynamic disk storage allows different types of volumes to be used. The Windows 2000 Server family has enhanced functionality, including the ability to provide Active Directory services (a hierarchical framework of resources), Distributed file system (a file system that supports sharing of files) and fault-redundant storage volumes.

Windows 2000 can be installed and deployed to an enterprise through either an attended or unattended installation. Unattended installations rely on the use of answer files to fill in installation information, and can be performed through a bootable CD using Microsoft Systems Management Server (SMS), by the System Preparation Tool (Sysprep).

History

Windows 2000 originally descended from the Microsoft Windows NT operating system product line. Originally called Windows NT 5, Microsoft changed the name to Windows 2000 on 1998-10-27.

It was also the first Windows version that was released without a code name, though Windows 2000 Service Pack 1 was codenamed "Asteroid" and Windows 2000 64-bit was codenamed "Janus" (not to be confused with Windows 3.1, which had the same codename). The first beta for Windows 2000 was released on September 27, 1997 and several further betas were released until Beta 3 which was released on April 29, 1999. From here, Microsoft issued three release candidates from between July to November 1999 and finally released the operating system to partners on December 12, 1999.

The public received the full version of Windows 2000 on February 17, 2000 and the press immediately hailed it as the most stable operating system Microsoft had ever released. Novell, however, was not so impressed with Microsoft's new directory service architecture as they found it to be less scalable or reliable than their own Novell Directory Services (NDS) technology.

On September 29, 2000, Microsoft released Windows 2000 Datacenter. Microsoft released Service Pack 1 (SP1) on August 15, 2000, Service Pack 2 (SP2) on May 16, 2001, Service Pack 3 (SP3) on August 29, 2002 and its last Service Pack (SP4) on June 26, 2003. Microsoft has stated that they will not release a Service Pack 5, but instead, have offered an "Update Rollup" for Service Pack 4. Microsoft phased out all development of their Java Virtual Machine (JVM) from Windows 2000 in Service Pack 3.

Windows 2000 has since been superseded by newer Microsoft operating systems. Microsoft has replaced Windows 2000 Server products with Windows Server 2003, and Windows 2000 Professional with Windows XP Professional. Windows Neptune started development in 1999, and was supposed to be the home-user edition of Windows 2000. However, the project lagged in production time – and only one alpha release was built. Windows Me was released as a substitute, and the Neptune project was forwarded to the production of Whistler (Windows XP). The only elements of the Windows project which were included in Windows 2000 were the ability to upgrade from Windows 95 or Windows 98, and support for the FAT32 file system.

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Games - Windows 2000

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