Windows Through Time

1992/93: Windows 3.1 and Windows NT 3.1

1995: Windows 95
The marketing hype surrounding this release has nearly been unrivaled since. Windows 95 integrated 32-bit TCP/IP stack for Internet support and sported plug and play, dial-up networking and multimedia.

1996: Windows NT Workstation 4.0 and Windows NT Server 4.0
The desktop and server bookends for business applications now sported the likeable Windows 95 user interface and boosted networking support, secure access to corporate intranets and an integrated Web server, IIS.

1997: Windows NT Server 4.0, Enterprise Edition
Microsoft tries to get serious about the enterprise, to the resounding doubt of the industry. Yet, this first attempt beefed up performance and scalability and sported message-queuing capabilities and a transaction server.

1998: Windows 98
Consumer upgrade to Windows 95

2000: Windows Millennium Edition (Windows ME)
Another consumer play loaded with multimedia capabilities, Windows ME is considered a big flop for Microsoft. The operating system was buggy and glitch-prone from the get-go. It was the last OS based on the Windows 95 kernel.

2000: Windows 2000 Professional
The new umbrella OS to replace Windows 95, 98 and NT Workstation 4.0 client machines, which sported more ease-of-use features for configuring hardware, as well as reliability and .Net-compatibility improvements.

2000: Windows 2000 server family
Microsoft tiered its products to appeal to different user groups: Windows 2000 Server, Windows 2000 Advanced Server and Windows 2000 Datacenter Server.

2001: Windows XP/ Windows XP Professional
Today's desktop operating systems, which merge consumer and business OSs around the Windows 2000 code base.

2003: Windows Server 2003
The current server platform from Microsoft, which comes in tiered versions and is the first OS to feature built-in .Net functionality for Web services, XML and SOA-based development.

2005-2007: Longhorn
and beyond