List of Microsoft Windows components

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The following is a list of Microsoft Windows components.

1 Configuration and maintenance
2 User interface
3 Applications
4 Windows Server domains
5 File system technology
6 Core components
7 Services
8 Games
9 Networking
10 Scripting and command-line
11 Kernel
12 Security
13 Technology not in modern Windows
14 Miscellaneous (to be categorised)
15 See also
16 Notes and references

[edit] Configuration and maintenance

Component	Description	Introduced	Screenshot
Control Panel
Control Panel	Allows users to view and manipulate basic system settings and controls, such as adding hardware, adding and removing software, controlling user accounts, changing accessibility options, and so on.	1.0
Device Manager	Allows the user to display and control the hardware attached to the computer, and control what device drivers are used.	95/2000
Windows Mobility Center	Centralizes the most relevant information related to mobile computing.	Vista
Windows Security Center	Centralizes and reports on the status of anti-virus, Automatic Updates, Windows Firewall, and other security-related components of the operating system.	XP SP2/Vista
Administrative Tools
Microsoft Management Console	Provides system administrators and advanced users with a flexible interface through which they may configure and monitor the system.	NT4 OP
Event Viewer	Lets administrators and users view the event logs on a local or remote machine.	NT 3.1
Logical Disk Manager	A hard disk partitioning system developed by Microsoft in conjunction with Veritas Software.	2000
Regedit	Edits the Windows registry.	3.1
Software installation and deployment
Windows Update	An online service which provides critical updates, service packs, device drivers, and other updates. A variation called Microsoft Update also provides software updates for several Microsoft products.	98
Windows Installer	A packaging format and engine for the installation, maintenance, and removal of software. Includes a GUI framework, automatic generation of the uninstallation sequence and deployment capabilities for corporate networks.	Me/2000	N/A
ClickOnce	Technology for deploying .NET Framework-based software via web pages, with automatic update capabilities. Intended for per-user only applications.	.NET 2.0	N/A

[edit] User interface

Component	Description	Introduced	Screenshot
Windows Shell	The most visible and recognizable aspect of Microsoft Windows. The shell is the container inside of which the entire graphical user interface is presented, including the Task bar, the Desktop, Windows Explorer, as well as many of the dialog boxes and interface controls.	1.0
Windows Explorer	Provides an interface for accessing the file systems, launching applications, and performing common tasks such as viewing and printing pictures.	95
Active Desktop	Allows the user to add HTML content to the desktop, along with some other features.	98 / IE4
Special Folders	Folders which are presented to the user through an interface as an abstract concept, instead of an absolute path. This makes it possible for an application locate where certain kinds of files can be found, regardless of what version or language of operating system is being used. See also, Windows Shell namespace.	95
Start menu	Serves as the central launching point for applications. It provides a customizable, nested list of programs for the user to launch, as well as a list of most recently opened documents, a way to find files and get help, and access to the system settings. By default, the Start Button is visible at all times in the lower left-hand corner of the screen.	95
Taskbar	The application desktop bar which is used to launch and monitor applications.	95	See below
Taskbar
File associations	Used to open a file with the correct program. File associations can be uniquely assigned to specific actions, known as verbs.	3.1
My Documents	A special folder on the computer's hard drive that is commonly used to store a user's documents, music, pictures, downloads, and other files.	98
Program Manager	The shell of Windows 3.x and Windows NT 3.x. This shell exposed a task-oriented interface consisting of icons (shortcuts for programs) arranged into program groups. Replaced by Windows Explorer and Start Menu in Windows 95 and Windows NT 4.0.	3.0 / NT3.1

[edit] Applications

Component	Description	Introduced
Accessories
Address Book	Keeps a single list of contacts that can be shared by multiple programs.	98 SE^[1]
Calculator	A calculation application.	1.0
Object Packager	A program used to create and insert packages into documents.	3.1
Paint	A simple graphics painting program.	1.0
Notepad	A simple text editor.	1.0
Narrator	A screen reader utility that reads dialog boxes and window controls in a number of the more basic applications for Windows.	2000
Sound Recorder	A simple audio recording program that can record from a microphone or headset, and save the results in WAVE format.	3.1
COMMAND.COM and Cmd.exe	A text-based shell that provides a command-line interface to the operating system.	1.0
WordPad	A simple word processor that is more advanced than Notepad. It has facilities to format and print text, but lacks intermediate features such as a spell checker and thesaurus.	95
Remote Desktop Connection	A client implementation of the Remote Desktop Protocol; allows a user to securely connect to a computer running Terminal Services (Remote Desktop on Windows XP and Server 2003) and interact with a full desktop environment on that machine, including support for remoting of printers, audio, and drives.	XP^[2]
Windows Write	A word processor shipped with Microsoft Windows all versions up to the Windows 3.x series. Replaced by WordPad in Windows 95.	1.0
Applications
Internet Explorer	A graphical web browser and FTP client. Uses the Trident layout engine. See also: Features, History, Criticism, Removal, Browser Helper Objects	95 OSR2
Outlook Express and Windows Mail	An e-mail and news client. Outlook Express is included as part of Internet Explorer. Windows Mail is the new name for Outlook Express in Windows Vista.	95 OSR2, IE 4
Windows Media Player	A digital media player and media library application that is used for playing audio, playing video and viewing images. In addition to being a media player, Windows Media Player includes the ability to rip music from, and copy music to compact discs, synchronize content with a digital audio player (MP3 player) or other mobile devices, and let users purchase or rent music from a number of online music stores.	98
Media Player	Windows Media Player's predecessor, includes simple audio and video playback capabilities. Still present in modern versions of Windows alongside Windows Media Player.	3.1
Windows Messenger	An instant messaging, presence, file transfer, application sharing and whiteboarding client. Integrates with Microsoft Exchange, Microsoft Outlook, Microsoft Outlook Express, and Windows XP's Remote Assistance feature. Windows Messenger is not present in Windows Vista, and neither is its successor, Windows Live Messenger.	XP
Windows Picture and Fax Viewer	An image viewer. Capable of viewing JPG, PNG, BMP, GIF, WMF and TIF format files, rudimentary image rotation, and TIFF annotation. Recognizes ICC color profiles.	XP
Windows Photo Gallery	A photo management application. Lets users organize their digital photo collection in its Gallery view, by adding titles, rating, captions, and custom metadata tags to photos. Photos can be edited for exposure, color correction, resizing, cropping, red-eye reduction, etc. and also allows printing photos via the Photo Printing Wizard.	Vista
Windows NetMeeting	A VoIP and multi-point videoconferencing client. Uses the H.323 protocol for video and audio conferencing, and is interoperable with OpenH323-based clients. Supports the ITU T.120 protocol for whiteboarding, Desktop sharing, and file transfers. Replaced by Windows Meeting Space in Windows Vista.	98SE
Windows Meeting Space	A peer-to-peer collaboration program which lets multiple users start collaboration sessions. Supports desktop sharing , distribution and collaborative editing of documents, and passing notes to other participants.	Vista
Windows Task Manager	Provides information about computer performance and displays details about running applications, processes, network activity, logged-in users, and system services.	3.1

[edit] Windows Server domains

Component	Acronym	Description	Supported by
Windows Server domain		A logical group of computers that share a central directory and user database.	All NT versions
Active Directory	AD	A set of technologies introduced with Windows 2000 that allows administrators to assign enterprise-wide policies, deploy programs to many computers, and apply critical updates to an entire organization. Active Directory stores information and settings relating to an organization in a central, organized, accessible database. Networks can vary from a small installation with a few objects, to global-scale directories with millions of objects. Related topics: Active Directory Service Interfaces, Flexible single master operation, IntelliMirror	2000, 2003
Domain controller	DC, PDC, BDC	A server that responds to security authentication requests (logging in, checking permissions, etc.) within a Windows Server domain. Prior to Windows 2000, a domain controller was either a Primary Domain Controller (PDC), of which there could only be one with this role; or a Backup Domain Controller (BDC). In Windows 2000 and later the concept of primary and secondary domain controllers were eliminated, partially to emphasize the multi-master replication technology available in Windows.	All NT versions
Group Policy	GP, GPO	Provides centralized management of user and computer settings in an Active Directory environment. Group policy can control a target object's registry, NTFS security, audit and security policy, software installation, logon/logoff scripts, folder redirection, and Internet Explorer settings. Policy settings are stored in Group Policy Objects (GPOs), and may be linked to one or more sites, domains or organizational units. Related topics: Administrative Templates	2000

[edit] File system technology

Component	Acronym	Description	Supported by
File Allocation Table	FAT, FAT16	The original file system used with MS-DOS. The standard filesystem used with Windows 1.0 through Windows 95.	All versions
FAT32	FAT32	Extensions to FAT supporting larger disk sizes. The standard filesystem for Windows 98 and Me.	Win95 OSR2, Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows Server 2003
NTFS	NTFS	Standard filesystem of Windows NT; supports security via access control lists, as well as file system journaling and filesystem metadata. Windows 2000 added support for reparse points (making NTFS junction points and Single instance storage possible), Hard links, file compression, and Sparse files. Encryption of data is provided by Encrypting File System. Symbolic links and transactioning of file operations via Transactional NTFS are features new to Windows Vista.	Windows NT, Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows Server 2003
ISO 9660	ISO 9660	The predominant file system for CD-ROM and DVD-ROM media. Windows includes support for Joliet extensions and the ISO 9660:1999 standard. ISO 9660:1999 is supported since Windows XP.	Win95, Win98, WinME, Windows NT, Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows Server 2003
Universal Disk Format	UDF	A file system for storing files on optical media. It is an implementation of the ISO/IEC 13346 standard (also known as ECMA-167). It is considered to be a replacement of ISO 9660. Successive versions of Windows have supported newer versions of UDF.	Win98, Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows Server 2003

[edit] Core components

Component	Acronym	Description
Windows kernel (Windows NT) Main article: Architecture of the Windows NT operating system line
Ntoskrnl.exe		The Windows kernel image. Provides the Microkernel and Executive layers of the kernel architecture, and is responsible for services such as hardware virtualization, process and memory management, etc.
hal.dll	HAL	Provides and handles the interaction between software and hardware via the Hardware Abstraction Layer.
Core processes (Windows NT)
System idle process	SIP	A counter which measures how much idle capacity the CPU has at any given time. The process runs in the background and monitors processing bandwidth, occupied memory and the Windows virtual paging file.
Session Manager Subsystem	SMSS	Performs several critical boot-time operations, such as the creation of environment variables, starting CSRSS, and performs file-copy operations that were queued up from before the system was booted. During system operation, it handles the creation of logon sessions via Winlogon and handles Windows File Protection.
Client/Server Run-time Subsystem	CSRSS	User-mode side of the Win32 subsystem. Provides the capability for applications to use the Windows API.
Local Security Authority Subsystem Service	LSASS	Responsible for enforcing the security policy on the system. Verifies users logging on to the computer and creates security tokens.
Winlogon		Responsible for handling the secure attention key, loading the user profile on logon, and optionally locking the computer when a screensaver is running. On Windows NT systems prior to Windows Vista, Winlogon is also responsible for loading GINA libraries which are responsible collecting logon credentials from the user.
Svchost.exe		A generic host process name for services that run from dynamic-link libraries (DLLs). Several Svchost processes are typically present on a Windows machine, each running in a different security context, depending on what privileges the contained services require.
Windows on Windows and WOW64	WoW	An abstraction layer that allows legacy code to operate on more modern versions of Windows; typically this means running 16-bit Windows applications on 32-bit Windows, and 32-bit applications on 64-bit Windows.
Virtual DOS machine	NTVDM	Allows MS-DOS programs to run on Intel 80386 or higher computers when there is already another operating system running and controlling the hardware. Introduced in Windows 2.1; not available in any 64-bit edition of Windows.
System startup (Windows NT) Main articles: Windows NT Startup Process and Windows Vista Startup Process
NTLDR, IA64ldr, Winload		The boot loader; performs basic system initialization options such as loading the hardware abstraction layer and boot-time device drivers, prior to passing control to the Windows kernel. In versions prior to Vista, NTLDR and IA64ldr also display menus to the user if multiple operating systems are defined in boot.ini, or if F8 is pressed.
Recovery Console		Provides the means for administrators to perform a limited range of tasks using a textual user interface, primarily to aid in recovering from situations where Windows does not boot successfully.
ntdetect.com		Used during the boot process to detect basic hardware components that may be required during the boot process.
Windows Boot Manager		In Vista and later operating systems, displays boot menus to the user if multiple operating systems are configured in the system's Boot Configuration Data.

[edit] Services

Display name	Service name	Description	Introduced
Background Intelligent Transfer Service	BITS	Transfers files between machines. Used by Windows Update, Windows Server Update Services, and Systems Management Server to deliver software updates to clients, as well as by Windows Messenger.	XP
Network Location Awareness	Nla	Manages network configurations and information, and notifies applications of changes.	XP
Print Spooler	Spooler	Manages printer devices and moves files into memory for printing.
Security Account Manager	SamSs	Manages user account security information.	All NT
Task Scheduler	Schedule	Lets users setup and schedule automated tasks.
Windows Image Acquisition (WIA)	stisvc	Handles scanner and camera inputs.	ME
Windows Time	W32time	Synchronizes the system time with external time servers.
Wireless Zero Configuration	WZCSVC	Configures and manages 802.11 wireless adapters
Distributed Transaction Coordinator
Messenger Service
MSRPC
Remote Installation Services
Volume Shadow Copy Service
Windows Firewall

[edit] Games

Microsoft Hearts, Purble Place, ...

[edit] Networking

[edit] Scripting and command-line

[edit] Kernel

[edit] Security

[edit] Technology not in modern Windows

[edit] Miscellaneous (to be categorised)

[edit] See also

List of Microsoft topics

[edit] Notes and references

^ First available for Windows 98 & Windows 95 through Outlook Express 5.
^ Available as a stand-alone download for Windows 98, Me, and 2000.

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