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The following is a list of Microsoft Windows components.

Configuration and maintenance

ComponentDescriptionIntroducedScreenshot
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/NT4
Windows Mobility Center Centralizes the most relevant information related to mobile computing. Vista
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
Administrative Tools
Microsoft Management ConsoleProvides 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
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. 2000
ClickOnce Technology for deploying .NET Framework-based software via web pages, with automatic update capabilities. Intended for per-user only applications. .NET 2.0

User interface

By default, the Start Button is visible at all times in the lower left-hand corner of the screen.
ComponentDescriptionIntroducedScreenshot
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. 95
Taskbar The application desktop bar which is used to launch and monitor applications. 95
File associations Used to open a file with the correct program. File associations can be uniquely assigned to specific actions, known as verbs.
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. 95
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 in Windows 95 and Windows NT 4.0. 		3.0 / NT3.1

Applications

ComponentDescriptionIntroducedScreenshot
Accessories
Address Book Keeps a single list of contacts that can be shared by multiple programs.
Calculator A calculation application. 1.0
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. 3.0
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. XPAvailable as a stand-alone download for Windows 98, Me, and 2000.
Windows Write A text editor shipped with Microsoft Windows 2.0 and the Windows 3.x series. Replaced by WordPad in Windows 95. 2.0
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. 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

Games

Networking

Windows Server domains

ComponentAcronymDescriptionSupported 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
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 		All NT versions

Scripting and command-line

Startup

File system technology

ComponentAcronymDescriptionSupported 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
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. NT only
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

Core components

ComponentAcronymDescription
Core processes (Windows NT)
System idle process SIP A counter which measures how much idle capacity the CPU has at any given time. Although not actually a process, it 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 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.

Kernel

Security

Technology not in modern Windows

Miscellaneous (to be categorised)

See also

Notes and references

Microsoft lists | Microsoft Windows

 

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the "List of Microsoft Windows components".

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