HISTORY OF WINDOWS XP

 
 Windows 2000, released in Professional, Server, Advanced Server, and Datacenter Server flavors, began its development in late 1996 with a projected release date sometime in 1997. This, however, was a long shot because there were so many features that needed to be added, removed, or fixed to Windows NT, such as improved directory services, plug-and-play support, and FAT32 support, just to name a few.

The first Windows NT 5.0 beta was released in 1997. Many new features were displayed, and Microsoft's goal at the time was to make NT 5 the ideal OS, a must-have upgrade to any previous version of Windows. There was just one issue...problems arose when trying to upgrade 9x to NT 5, as they had dreaded. Trying ever-so-hard to work all the features they'd like into the OS, the release date kept getting pushed farther and farther back. They were working on errorless networking, Windows Installer, NTFS 5.0, the Microsoft Management Console (MMC), file encryption, FAT32 support, and even more. It seemed like Microsoft was doing more than they could possibly handle.

Trying to make a late 1998 release date, Microsoft said that they would possibly cut some features from the OS. Features such as IntelliMirror and Active Directory were the features in question, but found their way into NT 5 after all. At this time, it was also confirmed that the future of Windows would lie in the hands of Windows NT. NT 5 was hoping to be the merger of the home and business operating systems around the NT kernel.

Windows NT 5 was also now optimized for laptops with new hibernation support, hot docking, and hot-swapping technologies. These, as well as IntelliMirror, would be featured in Beta 2, which was supposed to appear in June of 1998.

Along the way, it was decided that Internet Explorer 5.0 would be integrated into Windows NT 5, now pending a release date in early 1999. NT was now to have a seamless integration of DirectX and the Internet and advanced storage features, among other features that need not be mentioned. Also, in May of 1998, the Active Directory was finally being completed.

Promises were still being made that Beta 2 would appear in June, but alas, that did not happen. It was decided that NT 5 Beta 2 would not be released with nearly as many features as the Windows development team would have liked, but this just made way for a Beta 3 release to follow it up, hopefully to fill in the holes left by Beta 2.

Finally in August of 1998, Beta 2 was released. The features showcased in this build were the Personalized Start Menu, better hardware support, and a definite end to what became known as "DLL Hell". Also at around this time, Microsoft came to the realization that Windows NT 5 would be a strictly business-oriented operating system. Trying to integrate some of the features from Windows 98, for example, WebTV for Windows, among others, was becoming more of a pain and consequentally, more of a delay.
                    
In September of 1998, the release date was pushed back to late 1999, if not early 2000, and in October, the name "Windows 2000" was chosen for the OS.

In early 1999, it was decided that Windows 2000 would receive no more new features, and therefore, a release date of October 6th was in order. Beta 3 was due to be released in mid-April, and it was supposed to be a fairly stable operating system, also determined to be the best laptop OS on the market. Beta 3 was released on April 30th, and was, in fact, a quite solid operating system. Release candidates were right around the corner.

Three release candidates later, and on December 14, 1999, Windows 2000 build 2195 was designated as the last build of Windows 2000. The next day, it "went gold". Finally in mid-February 2000, Windows 2000 shipped.

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