X-Nico

51 unusual facts about Microsoft windows


Active Directory Rights Management Services

Windows Rights Management Services (also called Rights Management Services, Active Directory Rights Management Services or RMS) is a form of Information Rights Management used on Microsoft Windows that uses encryption and a form of selective functionality denial for limiting access to documents such as corporate e-mail, Word documents, and web pages, and the operations authorized users can perform on them.

Adobe Type Manager

Adobe ported these products to the Microsoft Windows operating system platform, where they managed font display by patching into Windows (3.0, 3.1, 95, 98, Me) at a very low level.

Altsys

It was published for many years, originally only on the Macintosh, then also for Microsoft Windows.

Apple Open Directory

Any Mac OS X Server system prior to 10.7 (Lion) configured as an Open Directory Master can act as a Windows Primary Domain Controller (PDC), providing domain authentication services to Microsoft Windows clients.

Arek Dreyer

He maintains expertise in Microsoft Windows and UNIX based environments, particularly Sun Solaris, Mac OS X has become his preferred platform, and he enjoys the challenge of heterogeneous networks like integration with Active Directory.

Arthur and the Revenge of Maltazard

To promote the film, a video game was released for PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Nintendo Wii and Microsoft Windows.

Austin M. Allran

In March 2005 Senator Allran called for the game of solitaire to be erased from the Microsoft Windows computers of state employees in his North Carolina constituency, claiming that such a move would save millions of dollars and improve productivity due to the working time lost while state employees play the game.

Borland Reflex

As a testament to properly written software, one can still run Reflex on any modern Windows-based PC.

British and Malaysian English differences

Most computer software in Malaysia including Microsoft Windows and Microsoft Office come pre-set with English (United States) as the default and these settings are seldom changed to English (United Kingdom) resulting in the proliferation of American English in many places of work, local universities and other places with heavy reliance on documents and content created by using computers.

Condusiv Technologies

The company was formerly known as Diskeeper Corporation, a name derived from its flagship product, Diskeeper, a file-system defragmentation software package for Microsoft Windows and OpenVMS.

Corel VideoStudio

Corel VideoStudio (formerly Ulead VideoStudio) is a video editing software package for Microsoft Windows distributed by Ulead Systems (a division of Corel).

Cython

Cython is written in Python and works on Windows, Linux, and Mac OS X, producing source files compatible with CPython 2.4 through 3.3.

DexDrive

The product shipped with a Windows driver application, called DexPlorer, on two 3.5" floppy disks.

DV

Most Windows video software only supports DV packed into AVI containers, as they use Microsoft's avifile.dll, which only supports reading avi files.

Dysart Unified School District

In December 2009, Dysart Unified School District became the first Arizona School District to switch nearly one-third, or 3,000 of their desktop computer systems to a Linux based operating system from the proprietary Microsoft Windows.

Emergency Management Services

Emergency Management Services (EMS) provides an RS-232 accessible serial console interface to the bootloader menu on modern versions of Microsoft Windows.

FlashCP

It is part of the mtd-utils package, unrelated to the above, proprietary, closed source, Windows software.

Giveaway of the Day

Giveaway of the Day (often abbreviated GOTD) is a website that offers commercially licensed Windows (and occasionally Mac) software for free without software updates or technical support.

Guitar Pro

Until it reached version 4, the software was only available for Microsoft Windows.

It has versions for Windows, Mac OS X (Intel processors only), and Linux and is written by the French company Arobas Music.

Hearts

It also became known through the Microsoft version of the game packaged with most workstation versions of its popular Windows operating system, beginning in version 3.5

HighGrow

The program, compatible with Windows, takes a form similar to the popular virtual pet games whereby players care for their pets by feeding, watering, and playing with them on a regular basis.

Igor Engraver

Igor Engraver is a music notation program, published by the Swedish company NoteHeads, produced for the Macintosh and Windows operating systems.

InterVideo WinDVR

InterVideo WinDVR was a commercial digital video recorder (DVR) software package for Windows operating systems.

Lamorne Morris

Morris can be seen in commercials including ones for State Farm Insurance, Taco Bell, Twix, Miller Lite, Las Vegas, 7 Up, Edge, Sears, Microsoft Windows, Chili's, McDonald's, Ford and Hornitos Tequila.

Language Interface Pack

Unlike MUI packs which are available only to Microsoft volume license customers and for select SKUs of Windows Vista, a Language Interface Pack is available freely and can be installed on a licensed copy of Microsoft Windows or Office and a fixed base language.

M+NetMail

NetMail components are available for SUSE and Red Hat Linux, Novell NetWare v5.1 and later, Novell Open Enterprise Server (in both its OES-Linux and OES-NetWare versions), and Microsoft Windows platforms.

MagicVortex

Files can be sent either by an Internet browser or by a downloadable application for Microsoft Windows.

Mike Muuss

Due to its usefulness, ping has been implemented on a large number of operating systems, initially BSD Unix, but later others including Windows and Mac OS X.

Mosaic notation program

Several factors can be theorized: Sibelius and Finale were the competitor notation packages; they were developed for both Macintosh and Windows platforms.

MultitrackStudio

MultitrackStudio or MTS for short is a digital audio workstation platform for Microsoft Windows and Mac OS X operating systems, developed by Bremmers Audio Design.

NetBackup

It provides cross-platform backup functionality to a large variety of Windows, UNIX and Linux operating systems.

NoteWorthy Composer

NoteWorthy Composer (NWC) is a graphical score editor for Microsoft Windows computers (from Windows 95 to Windows 7), and is also reported to work on PCs under Linux with Wine.

OpenCodecs

OpenCodecs is a software package for enabling HTML5 video on Microsoft Windows, particularly using the Theora and WebM codecs in Internet Explorer.

PC Magazine

PC Magazine was a booster of early versions of the OS/2 operating system in the late 1980s, but then switched to a strong endorsement of the Microsoft Windows operating environment after the release of Windows 3.0 in May 1990.

Point-to-Point Tunneling Protocol

However, the most common PPTP implementation shipping with the Microsoft Windows product families implements various levels of authentication and encryption natively as standard features of the Windows PPTP stack.

Pragmatic General Multicast

It is not yet a standard, but has been implemented in some networking devices and operating systems, including Windows XP and later versions of Microsoft Windows, as well as in third-party libraries for Linux, Windows and Solaris.

Protect Software

ProtectDISC Software is a copy protection and digital rights management solution for Microsoft Windows applications and video games on mass replicated CDs and DVDs, designed to prevent the copying of discs for casual or commercial use.

PwnageTool

Although PwnageTool is only for Mac OS X, a Microsoft Windows version called WinPwn was developed but is now retired.

Richard T. Russell

Richard Thomas Russell is the creator of the BBC BASIC for Windows programming language and the author of the Z80 and MS-DOS versions of BBC BASIC.

Segmentation fault

On Microsoft Windows, the offending process receives a STATUS ACCESS VIOLATION exception.

Sibelius Software

All of the company's software is now available for both the Windows and Macintosh platforms.

Simple DNS Plus

All options and settings are available directly from a Windows user interface.

Simple DNS Plus is based on the Microsoft .NET Framework 2.0 and is 100% managed code, protecting it from common security issues such as buffer overruns, and making it run natively on both 32 bit and 64 bit CPUs and Windows versions, including Windows Vista.

Spam email delivery

Most of the major Windows e-mail viruses of 2003, including the Sobig and Mimail virus families, functioned as spammer viruses: viruses designed expressly to make infected computers available as spamming tools.

Spy Fox

When running with ScummVM, these games can be played on different operating systems, including Windows, Mac and GNU/Linux.

Starfield

3D Starfield, an effect simulating forward movement through Outer space amidst a field of stars; included as a screensaver with some versions of Microsoft Windows

TeX

TeXShop for Apple Mac OS X, TeXworks for GNU/Linux, Mac OS X and MS Windows, and WinShell for MS Windows are similar tools and provide an integrated development environment (IDE) for working with LaTeX or TeX.

VGX

The component of Microsoft Windows operating systems responsible for the vector graphics rendering.

William Schwarzer

He also presided over a lawsuit filed by Apple Computer against Microsoft, in which Apple alleged that Microsoft used some Apple features in Windows Version 2.03, and later 3.0.

Yuen Poovarawan

The Microcomputer Research Laboratory, which Yuen was head of, also developed the Thai Kernel System, a hardware-independent system designed to promote system-intercompatibility for Thai-language application development, in 1990, but this failed to gain a user base as it lost ground to the expanding Microsoft Windows systems.


4oD

The service was originally available as a Windows-only desktop program for downloading shows similar to BBC iPlayer Desktop.

ABC notation

Such software is readily available for most computer systems including Microsoft Windows, Unix/Linux, Macintosh, PalmOS, and web-based.

Alexei Shulgin

Particularly involved with software art and internet art, he is a part of the readme culture, and is probably most well known for his ongoing so called "386DX" performances, in which he manipulates an antiquated computer with Microsoft Windows version 3.1 and an Intel 386 processor to perform MIDI (Musical Instrument Digital Interface) renditions of popular music hits while a synthesized text-to-speech voice "sings" the lyrics.

AVADirect

They specialize in highly customized computer systems including Microsoft Windows and Linux servers, high-end workstations and gaming systems, business PCs, and notebooks.

Control-V

In many GUI environments, including Microsoft Windows and most desktop environments based on the X Window System, and in applications such as word processing software running in those environments, control-V can be used to paste text or other content (if supported) from the clipboard at the current cursor position.

Den Store Danske Encyklopædi

The text of the paper encyclopedia was also published, but without illustrations, on CD-ROMs for Microsoft Windows in 2004 and for Mac OS in 2005.

Dirt: Showdown

Dirt: Showdown (stylised as DiRT: Showdown) is a video game published and developed by Codemasters for Microsoft Windows, Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3.

Dropchord

Dropchord is a motion controlled music-based puzzle video game for Windows and OS X using the Leap Motion controller.

GNU toolchain

Parts of the GNU toolchain are also directly used with or ported to other platforms such as Solaris, Mac OS X, Microsoft Windows (via Cygwin and MinGW/MSYS) and Sony PlayStation 3.

High-speed multimedia radio

This method is supported by all modern operating systems including but not limited to Windows, Mac OS X, BSD, and Linux.

Home of the Underdogs

While a majority of games available on the site were for DOS or Microsoft Windows, the site also contained a section with games for other platforms.

HP LaserJet

The HP LaserJet family, along with Aldus PageMaker and Microsoft Windows, was central to the PC-based solution and while the design was more plebeian than Apple's product, this multi-vendor solution was available to a mass audience for the first time.

IBM mainframe

There are software-based emulators for the System/370, System/390, and System z hardware, including FLEX-ES and the freely available Hercules emulator which runs under Linux, FreeBSD, Solaris, Mac OS X and Microsoft Windows.

IWARP

Networking services implemented over iWARP include those offered in the OpenFabrics Enterprise Distribution (OFED) by the OpenFabrics Alliance for Linux operating systems, and the Winsock Direct protocol for Microsoft Windows.

JSBSim

JSBSim has been in development and use since 1996, and has been built on all of the most popular platforms in use today including those running Linux, Macintosh, and Microsoft Windows operating systems.

Lantastic

LANtastic was a peer-to-peer local area network (LAN) operating system for DOS, Microsoft Windows, Novell NetWare and OS/2.

Magic: The Gathering video games

Magic: The Gathering: Duels of the Planeswalkers is a 2009 game for Xbox Live Arcade, Microsoft Windows, and PS3 developed by Stainless Games Ltd and published by Wizards of the Coast.

MyFax

Some of the features of MyFax include the ability to send and receive faxes by email and through the internet, as well as send faxes directly from Microsoft Office, Microsoft Outlook, and Microsoft Windows-based applications including Google Docs, OpenOffice.org, and Intuit QuickBooks.

NeoModus Direct Connect

NeoModus Direct Connect was a file-sharing client for Windows and Mac users that provided file-sharing capabilities for any type of file within a hub-centric, peer-to-peer network and contained adware.

NO$GBA

NO$GBA (pronounced "no cash GBA") is a free Nintendo DS and Game Boy Advance emulator for Microsoft Windows & DOS.

Object Pascal

Currently, FPC can generate code for x86, x86-64, PowerPC, SPARC, and ARM processors, and for various operating systems, including Microsoft Windows, Linux, FreeBSD, Mac OS and Mac OS X (with an Xcode integration kit).

Pactos

Pactos sells a DOS-based package program called Navid 3, and also a Windows-based package program called Navid 4; both Navid programs are intended to enable blind and partially sighted people to use computers.

PC Format

Despite the occasional mention of alternatives, PC Format takes the term 'PC' to mean a Microsoft Windows-based computer.

Plain text

Many other computer programs are also capable of processing or creating plain text, such as countless commands in DOS, Windows, Mac OS, and Unix and its kin; as well as web browsers (a few browsers such as Lynx and the Line Mode Browser produce only plain text for display).

PRONOM

Unix magic numbers and Macintosh data forks do provide some of this functionality, but the same is not true within DOS or Microsoft Windows environments.

Rua 25 de Março

A person who shops here also runs the risk of getting caught by the government, though the dangers are quite low unless it is a foreigner bringing illegal goods back into their developed country, such as illegal electronics and software like Microsoft Windows, among other things.

SciTech SNAP

SciTech SNAP Graphics has been ported to MS-DOS, OS/2, Microsoft Windows (CE, NT, 2000, XP), QNX, SMX (the SunOS/Solaris port of MINIX), Linux, On Time RTOS-32, Unununium OS operating systems.

Scivelation

Scivelation (previously known as Salvation) is a third-person shooter being developed by Ukrainian developer Black Wing Foundation for Microsoft Windows, Xbox One and PlayStation 4.

Star Warped

Star Warped was released in late 1997, with versions for the Windows PC and Apple Macintosh operating systems.

SunBurn XNA Game Engine

It can produce games and 3D graphical simulations for Windows, Xbox, and Windows Phone 7 (WP7).

SwordSearcher

When Windows 95 was released, version 3 was released as a Windows program called SwordSearcher 95 and was apparently the first 32 bit Windows Bible Software available.

The Art of Unix Programming

The author utilizes a comparative approach to explaining Unix by contrasting it to other operating systems including desktop-oriented ones such as Microsoft Windows and Mac OS to ones with research roots such as EROS and Plan 9 from Bell Labs.

TigerDirect

The company was founded as Tiger Software, a publisher of titles for both Microsoft Windows and Apple Macintosh in 1989.

ToolBook

ToolBook is a Microsoft Windows programming environment, released in 1990 by Asymetrix Corporation (later known as click2learn and SumTotal Systems).

Virtual resource partitioning

VRP can be implemented in any OS and is available on Windows, Red Hat, Suse, HP-UX, Solaris, tru64, AIX and others.

Web interoperability

Web interoperability means producing web pages viewable in standard compatible web browsers, various operating systems such as Windows, Macintosh and Linux and devices such as PC, PDA and mobile phone based on the latest web standards.

Windowing system

Operating systems such as Microsoft Windows, Mac OS (version 9 and earlier), and Palm OS, contain a windowing system which is integrated with the OS.

Xing Technology

Over the next several years, Xing expanded in several directions: Windows support for the XingMPEG player, a software MPEG audio decoder, a real time ISA 160x120 MPEG capture board (XingIt!), a JPEG management system (Picture Prowler) and finally networking.

Xitami

Xitami was designed to be portable, and was ported to Windows, Linux and other Unices, OpenVMS, BeOS, and OS/2.