List of Microsoft codenames: Difference between revisions

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There have been various Microsoft codenames that they have used 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
Windows family
Janus		Windows 3.1
Kato		Windows for Workgroups 3.1
Snowball		Windows for Workgroups 3.11
Chicago	Windows 94	Windows 95
Detroit, Nashville		Windows 95B (OSR 2)
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.
Millennium		Windows Me
Windows NT family
OS/2 3.0	Windows NT	Windows NT 3.1	There never was a Windows NT 1.0. The version number was chosen to mirror the Windows version number at the time, but also because the OS/2 version at that moment was 2.1, and Microsoft wanted to state that WNT was "one up".
Daytona		Windows NT 3.5
Cairo		Windows NT 4.0
Wolfpack		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		Windows NT 4.0 Embedded
	Windows NT 5.0	Windows 2000	A watershed in Windows naming: first major Windows release since Windows 2.0 without a codename; first major Windows NT release whose workstation variant was named "Professional" instead of "Workstation"; first major Windows NT release without the "NT" designation in the trade name, which caused confusion when Windows ME was released. The original Windows line has since been dropped altogether, and Windows NT operating systems are now simply referred to as "Windows".
Asteroid		Windows 2000 Service Pack 1
Janus		Windows 2000 64-bit	Same codename as Windows 3.1.
Odyssey		N/A	Never released. Also never compiled.
Neptune		N/A	A "Consumer" version based on the Windows 2000 codebase. Never released (became Whistler).
Whistler		Windows XP	Merge of initial Whistler (e.g. build 2202),Neptune and Project Odyssey. Named after Whistler, British Columbia, where design retreats were held.
Mantis		Windows XP Embedded
Freestyle		Windows XP Media Center Edition 1.0
Harmony		Windows XP Media Center Edition 1.5
Symphony		Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005
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		Windows Server 2003 Small Business Edition
Longhorn		N/A	Not released yet (as of June 2005). 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 May 2005). Named after the Whistler-Blackcomb resort ("Whistler" was also a codename, see above).
Windows CE family
Magneto		Windows Mobile 5.0	Windows Mobile 5.0 was officially announced at Microsoft's Mobile and Embedded Developers Conference 2005 in Las Vegas, May 9-12 2005.
Photon	Windows Mobile 2006
Others
	COM+ 2.5	Microsoft .NET
	COM+ 2.5 Runtime (COR)	Microsoft .NET Framework
Quartz	ActiveMovie	DirectShow
Darwin	Microsoft Installer	Windows Installer
Godot		Microsoft Layer for Unicode	Named after the play Waiting for Godot (centered around the failure of a man named "Godot" to appear and the endless wait for him), because it was felt to be long overdue (source).
Acrylic	Microsoft's New Image Editing program based on its acquired Expression.

@@ Line 87: / Line 87: @@
 *first major Windows release since Windows 2.0 without a codename;
 *first major Windows NT release whose workstation variant was named "Professional" instead of "Workstation";
-*first major Windows NT release without the "NT" designation in the trade name, which caused confusion when Windows ME was released. The original Windows line has been since dropped altogether, and Windows NT operating systems are now simply referred to as "Windows".
+*first major Windows NT release without the "NT" designation in the trade name, which caused confusion when Windows ME was released. The original Windows line has since been dropped altogether, and Windows NT operating systems are now simply referred to as "Windows".
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