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This article lists some of the code names used by Microsoft to refer to its products before their final release. Since many of these releases, particularly those of new versions of Windows, are of major significance to the IT community, the terms are often widely used in discussions prior to the official release. Microsoft generally does not announce a final name until shortly before the product is finished, although it is usually possible to speculate ("Memphis", for instance, was expected to be "Windows 97", but was delayed).
| Codename
| Preliminary name
| Final name
| Notes
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| Windows family
|
| Janus
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| Windows 3.1
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| Kato
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| Windows for Workgroups 3.1
|
|
| Snowball
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| Windows for Workgroups 3.11
|
|
| Chicago
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| Windows 95
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| Detroit
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| Windows 95B (OSR 2)
|
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| Memphis
| Windows 97
| Windows 98
| The codename was the key to activating an easter egg in Windows 98:
- open the "Date and Time" control panel;
- go to the "Timezone" page;
- hold the Control key and drag a line with the mouse cursor from Memphis, Egypt (or maybe Cairo, codename of Windows NT 4 - the map is too small to tell) to Memphis, Tennessee. Still holding the Control key, drag another line from Memphis to Redmond, Washington;
- a window opens with the credits for Windows 98.
|
| Neptune
|
| N/A
| Never released.
|
| Millenium, Georgia
|
| Windows Me
|
|
| Windows NT family
|
| OS/2 3.0
| Windows NT
| Windows NT 3.1
|
|
| Daytona
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| Windows NT 3.5
|
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| Cairo
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| Windows NT 4.0
|
|
| Wolfpack
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| Cluster Server
|
|
| Hydra
| Terminal Services
| Terminal Server
| Terminal Server adds "multiheading" support to Windows, and the hydra was a mythological monster with multiple heads.
|
| Impala
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| Windows NT 4.0 Embedded
|
|
|
| Windows NT 5.0
| Windows 2000
| First major Windows release since Windows 2.0 without a codename.
|
| Astroid
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| Windows 2000 Service Pack 1
|
|
| Janus
|
| Windows 2000 64-bit
| Same codename as Windows 3.1.
|
| Odyssey
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| N/A
| Never released.
|
| Whistler
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| Windows XP
| Merge of Neptune and Odyssey. Named after Whistler, British Columbia, where design retreats were held.
|
| Mantis
|
| Windows XP Embedded
|
|
| Freestyle
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| Windows XP Media Center Edition 1.0
|
|
| Harmony
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| Windows XP Media Center Edition 1.5
|
|
| Whistler Server
| Windows .NET Server
| Windows Server 2003
| One of many unrelated Microsoft projects of the time to carry a ".NET" designation. See: Microsoft .NET.
|
| Bobcat
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| Windows Server 2003 Small Business Edition
|
|
| Longhorn
|
| N/A
| Not released yet (as of November 2004). Named after a bar in the Whistler-Blackcomb resort; initially planned as an "interim release" between "Whistler" and "Blackcomb".
|
| Blackcomb
|
| N/A
| Not released yet (as of January 2005). Named after the Whistler-Blackcomb resort ("Whistler" was also a codename, see above).
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| Others
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| Quartz
| ActiveMovie
| DirectShow
|
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| Darwin
| Microsoft Installer
| Windows Installer
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| Godot
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| Microsoft Layer for Unicode
| Source and anecdote (http://weblogs.asp.net/michkap/archive/2004/12/21/328259.aspx).
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