Microsoft, 2000. Windows.
Windows 2000 is a release of Windows NT and the successor to Windows NT 4.0, aimed at businesses and servers. It began as Windows NT 5.0. On 27 October 1998 Microsoft announced the final name, which referred to its planned release date. It was released to manufacturing on 15 December 1999 and reached shops on 17 February 2000. It was the first NT release without “NT” in its name, although its packaging still said “Built on NT Technology”.
It introduced NTFS 3.0, the Encrypting File System, and basic and dynamic disks, and improved support for people with disabilities and for other languages. It came in four editions: Professional, Server, Advanced Server and Datacenter Server. The server editions introduced Active Directory, which became widely used in business.
Microsoft marketed Windows 2000 as the most secure version of Windows yet, but it became the target of high-profile virus attacks such as Code Red and Nimda. Windows XP succeeded it in October 2001, and Windows Server 2003 succeeded its server editions in April 2003. It received security patches until support ended on 13 July 2010. The original Xbox and the Xbox 360 run modified versions of its kernel.
This exhibit resumes Windows 2000 Professional from a state saved on copy.sh. The desktop holds programs added to this copy, such as Blender, GIMP, Inkscape, Winamp and NetHack. A welcome window explains that networking stays off unless you run networking.bat, and at startup Windows reports that a duplicate name exists on the network.