X-Nico

67 unusual facts about Microsoft windows


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.

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 FreeHand

Development has been discontinued but it is still sold in versions for Microsoft Windows and Mac OS X.

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.

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).

CSharpBuilder

C#Builder, from Borland Software Corporation, is a computer program that allows programmers to create Microsoft Windows and Web applications for the Microsoft .NET Framework using the programming language C#.

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.

Dartmouth Time Sharing System

In 2000 a project to recreate the DTSS system on a simulator was undertaken and as a result DTSS is now available for Microsoft Windows systems and for the Apple Macintosh computer.

Dōjin soft

They are almost always exclusive to Windows-based PCs, but a few notable exceptions also exist for the Dreamcast, a console on which homebrew development was popular.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

IBM Open Class

IOC was an extensive set of C++ classes used to build CLI and GUI applications which could then be easily cross-compiled to OS/2, Microsoft Windows, and AIX.

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.

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.

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.

Lantastic

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

Lapsiporno.info

Electronic Frontier Finland (EFFI) have noticed that the blacklist includes non-pornographic websites also, including a Windows advice forum, a computer repair service and the Internet Initiative Japan server nn.iij4u.or.jp that, among others, hosts websites for a violin factory, a doll store and a hearing aid manufacturer.

Lifehacker

The blog posts cover a wide range of topics including: Microsoft Windows, Mac, Linux programs, iOS and Android, as well as general life tips and tricks.

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.

Net Daemons Associates

NDA's services included performing large scale network administration for UNIX, Linux, Windows and Mac networks; assisting companies in getting onto the Internet and setting up their websites; custom programming and network automation through scripting; security audits, penetration testing; and assisting companies in moving their computer networks.

Numbered musical notation

A number of Chinese-language Microsoft Windows applications are available for the WYSIWYG editing of scores (optionally with lyrics) in numbered musical notation.

OpenCodecs

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

OutSPOKEN

outSPOKEN for Microsoft Windows was released in 1994 for Windows 3.1, and was widely recognized as one of the first truly effective screen readers for Windows.

P0sixspwn

p0sixspwn is a jailbreak tool for Mac OS X and Windows to jailbreak iOS 6.1.3 - 6.1.5 untethered on all devices, except Apple TV 3G.

PaPeRo

In 2006, a virtual PaPeRo was released for use in any PC running the Windows operating system and the Pocket PC, which can be used to program or monitor the use of the PaPeRo operating system.

PC Format

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

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.

Personal Computer World

At its close PCW featured a mixture of articles, mainly related to the Windows PC, with some Linux and Macintosh-related content.

Point-to-Point Tunneling Protocol

All releases of Microsoft Windows since Windows 95 OSR2 are bundled with a PPTP client, although they are limited to only 2 concurrent outbound connections.

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.

Richard T. Russell

In addition to creating BBC BASIC for Windows, Russell also runs a Yahoo! support group for the language to which he regularly contributes tips, advice and comments on other users' code.

RobotWar

RoboWar is a similar game that was released later on the Macintosh, and is now available for both Mac OS and Windows.

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.

Segmentation fault

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

Senuti

It is a Mac OS X exclusive application; no version of Senuti has been released for Microsoft Windows.

Server Interface Pod

Many of Dell's KVM switches are IP enabled, allowing users to remote control servers with a Linux or Microsoft Windows client.

ServersCheck

It can perform traditional network related checks (TCP, PING, traceroute) but can also be used to monitor a wide variety of other checks such as internet related checks (url, email chain, database checks, Windows checks (diskspace, CPU, memory, process, services).

Shift JIS art

Unlike Western ASCII art, which is generally designed to be viewed with a monospaced font, Shift JIS art is designed around the proportional-width MS PGothic font supplied with Microsoft Windows, which is the default font for web sites in Japanese versions of Windows.

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.

Solid Edge

It runs on Microsoft Windows and provides solid modeling, assembly modelling and drafting functionality for mechanical engineers, designers and drafters.

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

Survex

It is designed to be portable and can be run on a variety of platforms, including Microsoft Windows, Mac OS X, and Unix.

Tersus

Both the Studio and the Server are available on a variety of platforms, including Microsoft Windows, UNIX, Linux, and Mac OS X.

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.

They Came From Hollywood

They Came From Hollywood (TCFH) was a video game under development by independent studio Octopus Motor for Microsoft Windows that involves the player smashing cities as a monster in the style of 1950s and 1960s monster films.

VGX

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

VistaPro

The PC version runs in MS-DOS for the earlier versions and from 4.00 onwards it runs on all versions of 32-bit Microsoft Windows.

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.

XBLite

It was started in 2001 by David Szafranski in order to provide a Windows exclusive version of the XBasic dialect.


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.

Brad Silverberg

Brad Silverberg is an American computer scientist and businessman, most noted for his work at Microsoft in 1990–1999 as Senior VP and product manager for MS-DOS, Windows, Internet Explorer, and Office.

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.

Cirrus Logic

Cirrus' Microsoft Windows 2D GUI accelerators (GDI) were among the fastest in the low-end market-segment, outperforming competing VGA-chips from Oak Technologies, Trident Microsystems, and Paradise (Western Digital).

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.

DarkSpace

2.0 GHz Intel Pentium 4/AMD Sempron Processor, Windows XP/Vista/7, Dedicated graphics card (Nvidia GeForce 9500GT / AMD/ATI Radeon HD 4000 Series or better), 1 GB of RAM (2 GB for Vista/7), 200 MB free hard drive space, Broadband internet connection, Direct Input compatible mouse, DirectX 9.0c or higher.

Dune II

Dune II also led to direct sequels: Westwood released a semi-remake for Windows in 1998 as Dune 2000, along with a PlayStation port in the same year.

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.

Final Scratch

Stanton claims that the ScratchAmp can now interact with any audio software through ASIO or WDM on Windows, and CoreAudio in Mac OS X.

Go!Zilla

Zilla (not to be confused with Godzilla, a fictional Japanese monster) is a proprietary download manager originally developed by Aaron Ostler in 1995, and later purchased by Radiate in 1999, for use on Windows.

Hammerin' Harry

Others were various Japan-only, pachinko machines, as well as home ports of them for Sony PlayStation, PlayStation 2, Windows-operated PCs and Game Boy.

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.

HomeRF

The group was disbanded in January 2003 after other wireless networks became accessible to home users and Microsoft began including support for them in its Windows operating systems.

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.

Karbar

Its articles, aimed at all levels of user, cover applications, programming, operating systems (Windows, Linux, etc.), graphics, animation, software, hardware, internet and games.

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.

Microsoft Silverlight

Even though Microsoft was officially collaborating on the Moonlight project, Bruce Chizen, who was CEO of Adobe Systems at the time, which sells the competing proprietary Flash platform, questioned "the commitment of Microsoft to keep the Silverlight platform compatible with other OS besides Windows".

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.

Option key

However, the Option key in a Mac operating system functions differently from the Alt key under other Unix-like systems or Microsoft Windows.

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.

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.

Program information file

TopView was the originator of PIFs which were inherited and extended by DESQview and Microsoft Windows, where they are most often seen.

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.

Text box

Pressing Home/End keys (Microsoft's Windows OS) or Command-left arrow/Command-right arrow (Apple's Mac OS) moves the caret to the beginning/end of the line;

ToolBook

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

Turbo Sliders

It was developed by Antti Mannisto and published by Jollygood Games (now Xiha Life) for the Windows and Linux platforms in 2003.

Van Wolverton

Wolverton has written other computer books, addressing MS-DOS, IBM OS/2, Microsoft Windows, WordPerfect, Netscape FastTrack, VisiCalc, QBasic and more.

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.

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.

Windows Task Manager

Windows Task Manager is a task manager, system monitor and startup manager included with the Microsoft Windows, that provides limited information about computer performance and running applications, processes and CPU usage, commit charge and memory information, network activity and statistics, logged-in users, and system services.

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.

Yahoo! Messenger

In addition to instant messaging features similar to those offered by ICQ, it also offers (on Microsoft Windows) features such as: IMVironments (customizing the look of Instant Message windows, some of which include authorized themes of famous cartoons such as Garfield or Dilbert), address-book integration and Custom Status Messages.