Windows 4, 5 and 6?
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So we now have Windows 7. That got me wondering what the previous numbers were. We all remember Windows 3.11 (either from actual use or from your history classes in school). But what about the others? I'm guessing Windows 95, 98 and ME are all lumped together into Windows 4. That would make XP Windows 5 and Vista Windows 6. Of course, that leaves a lot of forking questions about where NT fits into the numbering scheme, but I'm willing to give that a miss. Of course, if my guessing is correct, that would mean that Windows 95 was 4.0, 98 was 4.1 and ME was 4.2, for which we paid full boat "new version" prices. Say, it suddenly occurs to me that I have this all wrong. Maybe it's Windows 95/98/ME as 4, all that NT stuff as 5, XP as 6 and Vista as version 7. That would mean Windows 7 is really just Windows 7.1, which makes much more sense. Of course, we'll still be paying the full "new version" pricing for the dot release. But then, that precedent was already set in the Windows 9x stuff, so I guess it's okay. Now my head is spinning. Is it too early to have a drink?
Christopher Duncan www.PracticalUSA.com Author of The Career Programmer and Unite the Tribes Copywriting Services
No, you're wrong in counting Win9x/ME as Windows 4.0 Actually, Win9x/ME are one single category operating systems, and Windows NT forms another category of operating systems from Microsoft. Win 7 is counted as the 7th number of operating system in WinNT line of Microsoft operating systems. Windows NT 3.1, Windows NT 3.5, WIndows NT 3.51, Windows NT 4.0, and its sucessor is Windows 2000 whose NT kernel version number is 5.0 (Windows 5.0 ). Next is Windows XP whose kernel version number is 5.1 (Windows 5.1) and 5.2 is Windows 2003 and WinXP x64-Bit editions. The sucessor(?) of XP, Longhorn or Vista is kernel version number 6.0 (Windows 6.0) and, Windows 7 is NT kernel version number 6.1 (The kernel versions of Server counterparts of both Vista and 7 are same as their non-server class equivalents). but Microsoft gave the operating system name as Windows 7. I think, Windows 7 cannot be considered as a Major Upgrade over Windows Vista, but it is a Major Improvement over Windows Vista( NT6.0 to NT6.1 ). I personally hate Windows Vista only because of its poor performance, and compatibility problems. Featurewise its a major upgrade to Windows XP. Thumbs up to Steven Sinofsky for a neat piece of software art :) -Jithin PG
"I studied but never topped. But the toppers of world's topmost universities are now my employees" - Bill Gates.
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So we now have Windows 7. That got me wondering what the previous numbers were. We all remember Windows 3.11 (either from actual use or from your history classes in school). But what about the others? I'm guessing Windows 95, 98 and ME are all lumped together into Windows 4. That would make XP Windows 5 and Vista Windows 6. Of course, that leaves a lot of forking questions about where NT fits into the numbering scheme, but I'm willing to give that a miss. Of course, if my guessing is correct, that would mean that Windows 95 was 4.0, 98 was 4.1 and ME was 4.2, for which we paid full boat "new version" prices. Say, it suddenly occurs to me that I have this all wrong. Maybe it's Windows 95/98/ME as 4, all that NT stuff as 5, XP as 6 and Vista as version 7. That would mean Windows 7 is really just Windows 7.1, which makes much more sense. Of course, we'll still be paying the full "new version" pricing for the dot release. But then, that precedent was already set in the Windows 9x stuff, so I guess it's okay. Now my head is spinning. Is it too early to have a drink?
Christopher Duncan www.PracticalUSA.com Author of The Career Programmer and Unite the Tribes Copywriting Services
This is all from memory. I think its accurate. The interesting part is Windows 7 is actually Ver 6.1.7.
Windows NT 3.5 = Ver 3.5 (NT Kernel) Windows NT 4.0 = Ver 4.0 (NT Kernel) Windows 95 = Ver 4.0 (x86 Kernel) Windows 98 = Ver 4.1 (x86 Kernel) Windows ME = Ver 4.1? (x86 Kernel) Windows 2000 = Ver 5.0 (NT Kernel) Windows XP = Ver 5.1 (NT Kernel) Windows Ser 2003 = Ver 5.1 (NT Kernel) Windows Vista = Ver 6.0.6 (NT Kernel) Windows Server 2008 = Ver 6.0.? (NT Kernel) Windows 7 = Ver 6.1.7 (NT Kernel) Windows Server 2008 R2 = Ver 6.1.? (NT Kernel) -
So Windows 7 really is just a Vista SP. :-D
Christopher Duncan www.PracticalUSA.com Author of The Career Programmer and Unite the Tribes Copywriting Services
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So we now have Windows 7. That got me wondering what the previous numbers were. We all remember Windows 3.11 (either from actual use or from your history classes in school). But what about the others? I'm guessing Windows 95, 98 and ME are all lumped together into Windows 4. That would make XP Windows 5 and Vista Windows 6. Of course, that leaves a lot of forking questions about where NT fits into the numbering scheme, but I'm willing to give that a miss. Of course, if my guessing is correct, that would mean that Windows 95 was 4.0, 98 was 4.1 and ME was 4.2, for which we paid full boat "new version" prices. Say, it suddenly occurs to me that I have this all wrong. Maybe it's Windows 95/98/ME as 4, all that NT stuff as 5, XP as 6 and Vista as version 7. That would mean Windows 7 is really just Windows 7.1, which makes much more sense. Of course, we'll still be paying the full "new version" pricing for the dot release. But then, that precedent was already set in the Windows 9x stuff, so I guess it's okay. Now my head is spinning. Is it too early to have a drink?
Christopher Duncan www.PracticalUSA.com Author of The Career Programmer and Unite the Tribes Copywriting Services
If you want to see witch version is your Windows version, just select Start->Run and type winver. This will tell you wich version is your Windows Operating System
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From my WinXP system:
C:\>ver
Microsoft Windows XP [Version 5.1.2600]
From my wife's Vista system:
C:\>ver
Microsoft Windows [Version 6.0.6002]
My Windows 7 reads:
Microsoft Windows [Version 6.1.7600]
So unfortunately doesn't quite work. If Vista read 7.0 and Win 7 read 7.1, then it would have worked quite nicely.
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So we now have Windows 7. That got me wondering what the previous numbers were. We all remember Windows 3.11 (either from actual use or from your history classes in school). But what about the others? I'm guessing Windows 95, 98 and ME are all lumped together into Windows 4. That would make XP Windows 5 and Vista Windows 6. Of course, that leaves a lot of forking questions about where NT fits into the numbering scheme, but I'm willing to give that a miss. Of course, if my guessing is correct, that would mean that Windows 95 was 4.0, 98 was 4.1 and ME was 4.2, for which we paid full boat "new version" prices. Say, it suddenly occurs to me that I have this all wrong. Maybe it's Windows 95/98/ME as 4, all that NT stuff as 5, XP as 6 and Vista as version 7. That would mean Windows 7 is really just Windows 7.1, which makes much more sense. Of course, we'll still be paying the full "new version" pricing for the dot release. But then, that precedent was already set in the Windows 9x stuff, so I guess it's okay. Now my head is spinning. Is it too early to have a drink?
Christopher Duncan www.PracticalUSA.com Author of The Career Programmer and Unite the Tribes Copywriting Services
Wikipedia help us! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Windows#Timeline_of_releases[^] That said, it is worth remarking that Windows 7 is actually Windows 6.1. Oh, Microsoft...
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I think you got it right - the most important bit is "Kernel." Windows 9x didn't come into the versioning scheme - considering they were all essentially the same (basically just explorer.exe tweaks ;P ) that makes sense. On top of that; that line was abandoned when XP came out so the versions are not important. The versioning for Win7/2008 is a compatibility hack. They are a new version because they are based on MinWin component model - but Microsoft decided to leave the 'internal' version the same for developers who don't know how to use the '&&' operator. So the last line should read: Windows 7/Server 2K8 R2 officially NT 7.0 (and probably 7.1, respectfully) but left at 6.1 for compatibility. Otherwise, spot on!
He who asks a question is a fool for five minutes. He who does not ask a question remains a fool forever. [Chineese Proverb] Jonathan C Dickinson (C# Software Engineer)
You're right...it's 7 but labeled 6.1 so that they don't have the same issues with the transition from XP to Vista. In all honesty, checking version numbers for compatibility is lazy and broken and irritates me to no end. But people are going to do it anyway. So at least MSFT is doing what they can to minimize the issue. If you ask me...I think they named it Windows 7 just so they could rhyme it with heaven as in this video[^] Another interesting note: the XP in Windows XP is really the Greek characters Chi and Rho (pronounced Cairo)
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So we now have Windows 7. That got me wondering what the previous numbers were. We all remember Windows 3.11 (either from actual use or from your history classes in school). But what about the others? I'm guessing Windows 95, 98 and ME are all lumped together into Windows 4. That would make XP Windows 5 and Vista Windows 6. Of course, that leaves a lot of forking questions about where NT fits into the numbering scheme, but I'm willing to give that a miss. Of course, if my guessing is correct, that would mean that Windows 95 was 4.0, 98 was 4.1 and ME was 4.2, for which we paid full boat "new version" prices. Say, it suddenly occurs to me that I have this all wrong. Maybe it's Windows 95/98/ME as 4, all that NT stuff as 5, XP as 6 and Vista as version 7. That would mean Windows 7 is really just Windows 7.1, which makes much more sense. Of course, we'll still be paying the full "new version" pricing for the dot release. But then, that precedent was already set in the Windows 9x stuff, so I guess it's okay. Now my head is spinning. Is it too early to have a drink?
Christopher Duncan www.PracticalUSA.com Author of The Career Programmer and Unite the Tribes Copywriting Services
Where is the windows 1 and 2? So you have: Windows 3.11, Windows CE, Windows ME, Windows NT, Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows Server 2003, Windows Vista, Windows 7; What you need to resolve the puzzle is group "similar" windows(es) (how it is the plural of "windows" anyway?) and set it from earlier to later and you will get Windows 7 at 7-th place ;) But then I do not think Windows 3.11 will be the third. Think about it as the way series of star wars released :)
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From my WinXP system:
C:\>ver
Microsoft Windows XP [Version 5.1.2600]
From my wife's Vista system:
C:\>ver
Microsoft Windows [Version 6.0.6002]
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So we now have Windows 7. That got me wondering what the previous numbers were. We all remember Windows 3.11 (either from actual use or from your history classes in school). But what about the others? I'm guessing Windows 95, 98 and ME are all lumped together into Windows 4. That would make XP Windows 5 and Vista Windows 6. Of course, that leaves a lot of forking questions about where NT fits into the numbering scheme, but I'm willing to give that a miss. Of course, if my guessing is correct, that would mean that Windows 95 was 4.0, 98 was 4.1 and ME was 4.2, for which we paid full boat "new version" prices. Say, it suddenly occurs to me that I have this all wrong. Maybe it's Windows 95/98/ME as 4, all that NT stuff as 5, XP as 6 and Vista as version 7. That would mean Windows 7 is really just Windows 7.1, which makes much more sense. Of course, we'll still be paying the full "new version" pricing for the dot release. But then, that precedent was already set in the Windows 9x stuff, so I guess it's okay. Now my head is spinning. Is it too early to have a drink?
Christopher Duncan www.PracticalUSA.com Author of The Career Programmer and Unite the Tribes Copywriting Services
People, if you go to the command prompt and type the command VER, then you will be enlightened with you Windows OS version ;P. Now with that said, my Windows 7 reported version 6.1.7600 :confused: