Windows 2000 is an operating system for use on both client and server computers. It was produced by Microsoft and released to manufacturing on December 15, 1999[5]and launched to retail on February 17, 2000.[6] It is the successor to Windows NT 4.0, and is the last version of Microsoft Windows to display the "Windows NT" designation.[7] It is succeeded by Windows XP (released in October 2001) and Windows Server 2003 (released in April 2003). During development, Windows 2000 was known as Windows NT 5.0.
Four editions of Windows 2000 were released:Professional, Server, Advanced Server, and Datacenter Server;[8] the latter was both released to manufacturing and launched months after the other editions.[9] While each edition of Windows 2000 was targeted at a different market, they shared a core set of features, including many system utilities such as the Microsoft Management Console and standard system administration applications.
Support for people with disabilities was improved over Windows NT 4.0 with a number of new assistive technologies,[10] and Microsoft increased support for different languages[11] and locale information.[12]
All versions of the operating system support NTFS 3.0,[13]Encrypting File System, as well as basic and dynamic disk storage.[14] The Windows 2000 Server family has additional features,[15] including the ability to provide Active Directory services (a hierarchical framework of resources), Distributed File System (a file system that supports sharing of files) and fault-redundant storage volumes. Windows 2000 can be installed through either a manual or unattended installation.[16] Unattended installations rely on the use of answer files to fill in installation information, and can be performed through a bootable CD using Microsoft Systems Management Server, by the System Preparation Tool.[17]
Microsoft marketed Windows 2000 as the most secure Windows version ever at the time;[18] however, it became the target of a number of high-profile virus attacks such as Code Red and Nimda.[19] For ten years after its release, it continued to receive patches for security vulnerabilities nearly every month until reaching the end of its lifecycle on July 13, 2010.[4]
We start with the good old Blue Screen install interface. Let it copy the files, restart and we get to the Windows portion of the installer.
Starting up!
Waiting...For video drivers as much as anything.
Waiting some more for Windows to do it's thing. Whoo!
Set language, time and currency preferences.
Go ahead and name it for networking purposes.
Let's see if it finds and installs the network card. Looks like! Welcome to a version of Windows with a pretty impressive driver database built in!
Let it finish setting everything else up.
Restart the computer when it asks.
Now comes the fun part...Run the Wizard and tell it who uses the computer.
Password? Probably not a poor choice.
And here we be. Windows 2000 Professional desktop at the very first boot. Note the decent color scheme which means it found the video drivers, also the presence of the speaker in the lower right corner means it found the sound card.
Windows 2000 Service Pack 4 right out of the box is, I think, the only way to get it these days.
The Command Prompt Version Number matches up.
Slightly more updated icons that will remain throughout the better part of the next decade.
Go Team IE5! Pity it is still a pretty terrible web browser. I'm not actually sure where Win2K maxes out with regard to IE. Might have to update it and find out.
We have a Windows Update system that actually works. To be fair to the 9x Update system, by the time this one came along high-speed, always on internet connections were a lot more common.
The classic Windows Games...Which have not changed since their inception...
Good Old Windows Media Player 7. It is pretty impressive how far we have come in so short a time!
The Administrative Tools that I have come to know so well over the years.
The (now standard) Disk Management screen.
We have the Windows User Management Screen.
