| Word | Description |
| W2K | Microsoft Windows 2000 (workstation or server) operating system. Also known as Windows 2000. |
| W3C | "World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) is an international consortium where Member organizations, a full-time staff, and the public work together to develop Web standards. W3C primarily pursues its mission through the creation of Web standards and guidelines designed to ensure long-term growth for the Web. Over 400 organizations are Members of the Consortium. W3C is jointly run by the MIT Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (MIT CSAIL) in the USA, the European Research Consortium for Informatics and Mathematics (ERCIM) headquartered in France, Keio University in Japan, and has additional Offices worldwide." |
| W9x | Abbreviation for Windows 95 and Windows 98, sometimes also used to include Windows ME. Any software said to run on Windows 9x should run on Windows 95 and Windows 98, and probably Windows ME. W9x is often also expressed as "Windows 9x". |
| Wafer | A flat, round piece of silicon that is used in the manufacture of microprocessors. Fabrication plants, or fabs, typically will take a wafer and carve many microprocessors into it. Over the years wafer size has been increasing so that more chips can be fit on a single wafer, from 6″ to 8″ to 12″ in diameter in some plants today. Wafers are created by taking a cylinder of silicon and slicing it, much like taking a loaf of bread and cutting slices, but to much more precise measurements. |
| WAIS | Stands for "Wide Area Information Server." This is a program that can index enormous amounts of information and make it searchable across large networks (including the Internet). People can search the WAIS index and it will return results by relevance. Searches can then be narrowed down by subsequent searches on the original results. Search engines are a new and improved version of WAIS, specifically for the Web. |
| Wallpaper | An optional background graphic used in a graphical user interface. |
| WAN | Wide Area Network. Typically much slower than a LAN. Typical speeds start at 56kbps but are typically much faster. WANs typically provide connections between LANs that are at different geographical locations. |
| WAP | 1. Wireless Application Protocol. |
| War Chalking | War chalking is marking areas, usually on sidewalks with chalk, that receive wireless signals that can be accessed. |
| War Dialer | A computer program that automatically dials a series of telephone numbers to find lines connected to computer systems, and catalogs those numbers so that a cracker can try to break into the systems. |
| War Dialing | War dialing is a simple means of trying to identify modems in a telephone exchange that may be susceptible to compromise in an attempt to circumvent perimeter security. |
| War Driving | War driving is the process of traveling around looking for wireless access point signals that can be used to get network access. |
| WatchGuard | WatchGuard Technologies is a provider of Internet security solutions for small- to mid-sized enterprises worldwide and a pioneer in security appliances. WatchGuard products include the Firebox line of firewall and VPN appliances. |
| Water Cooling | This type of cooling differs from air cooling in that water is used to remove heat from a heatsink that makes contact with a hot microprocessor or other device. Ultimately the water may actually exchange its heat with metal and air, or it could be cooled by a refrigeration unit. Water cooling is more efficient than air cooling, especially if the water is refrigerated. |
| Watt | The electrical unit of power, which is energy transferred over a unit of time. Often it is used to describe the amount of heat generated by a microprocessor. |
| Wattage | A measure of an amount of watts. |
| Waveform | A waveform is an image that represents an audio signal or recording. It shows the changes in amplitude over a certain amount of time. The amplitude of the signal is measured on the y-axis (vertically), while time is measured on the x-axis (horizontally). Most audio recording programs show waveforms to give the user a visual idea of what has been recorded. If the waveform is very low and not pronounced, the recording was probably very soft. It the waveform almost fills the entire image, the recording may have been too "hot" or recorded with the levels set too high. Changes in a waveform are also good indicators as too when certain parts of a recording take place. For example, the waveform may be small when there is just a vocalist singing, but may become much larger when the drums and guitar come in. This visual representation enables audio producers to locate certain parts of a song without even listening to the recording. |
| Wavetable synthesis | A method of translating digital data into analog sounds; it relies on recordings of real instruments to produce sounds. |
| Wayback Machine | Wayback Machine is also known as Internet Archive's web archive. The Wayback Machine is a piece of software that makes archived websites viewable and browsable. |
| Web 2.0 | Web 2.0 is term that was introduced in 2004 and refers to the second generation of the World Wide Web. The term "2.0" comes from the software industry, where new versions of software programs are labeled with an incremental version number. Like software, the new generation of the Web includes new features and functionality that was not available in the past. However, Web 2.0 does not refer to a specific version of the Web, but rather a series of technological improvements. Some examples of features considered to be part of Web 2.0 are listed below: Blogs - also known as Web logs, these allow users to post thoughts and updates about their life on the Web. Wikis - sites like Wikipedia and others enable users from around the world to add and update online content. Social networking - sites like Facebook and MySpace allow users to build and customize their own profile sand communicate with friends. Web applications - a broad range of new applications make it possible for users to run programs directly in a Web browser. Web 2.0 technologies provide a level user interaction that was not available before. Websites have become much more dynamic and interconnected, producing "online communities" and making it even easier to share information on the Web. Because most Web 2.0 features are offered as free services, sites like Wikipedia and Facebook have grown at amazingly fast rates. As the sites continue to grow, more features are added, building off the technologies in place. So, while Web 2.0 may be a static label given to the new era of the Web, the actual technology continues to evolve and change. |
| Web Archive | A collection of web-published materials that an institution has either made arrangements for or has accepted long-term responsibility for preservation and access in keeping with an archive's user access policies. Some of these materials may also exist in other forms but the web archive captures the web versions for posterity. |
| Web Archive Service | Enables curators to build collections of web-published materials that are stored in either local and/or remote repositories. The service includes a set of tools for selection, curation, and preservation of the archives. It also includes repositories for storage, preservation services (e.g., replication, emulation, and persistent naming), and administrative services (e.g., templates for collection strategies, content provider agreements, repository provider agreements.) |
| Web farm | Web server environment using many servers each hosting the same website (or website application) so any one of the servers can respond to a http (web) request. Web farms are used where either high resilience is required (so web requests can continue to be responded to even though one server has failed) or for hosting busy websites where a single server would not be able to cope with the load. Also known as a server farm or server cluster. cf web garden. |
| Web garden | A web hosting environment which uses a single server but with multiple instances of the web server worker process are used for each application pool. Web gardens are a concept which exists under IIS. Web gardens can provide better performance for web applications which have long running requests (such as database queries) but which are not CPU bound. Web gardens are used where a server has two or more physical processors (but not multiple cores). |
| Web Host | In order to publish a website online, you need a Web host. The Web host stores all the pages of your website and makes them available to computers connected to the Internet. The domain name, such as "sony.com," is actually linked to an IP address that points to a specific computer. When somebody enters your domain name into their browser's address field, the IP address is located and Web site is loaded from your Web host. A Web host can have anywhere from one to several thousand computers that run Web hosting software, such as Apache, OS X Server, or Windows Server. Most websites you see on the Web are accessed from a "shared host," which is a single computer that can host several hundred Web sites. Larger websites often use a "dedicated host," which is a single machine that hosts only one website. Sites with extremely high amounts of traffic, such as apple.com or microsoft.com, use several computers to host one site. If you want to publish your own website, you'll need to sign up for a "Web hosting service." Finding a good Web host shouldn't be too hard, since their are thousands available. Just make sure the Web host you choose offers good technical support and ensures little or no downtime. You'll usually have to pay a monthly fee that varies depending on how much disk space and bandwidth your site will use. So it's a good idea to estimate how big your site will be and how much traffic you expect before signing up for a Web hosting service. |
| Web Page | An HTML document that is accessible on the Web. |
| Web Ring | A Web ring is a way of interlinking related Web sites so that people can visit many similar Web sites by just following the "Web ring" link on each page. Most Web rings allow people to browse backwards or forwards through the sites in the ring, or choose to visit individual sites from a list. The rings are typically run from a main site which uses a Web scripting application to select random sites and keep the ring up to date. This includes getting rid of outdated pages and links, and adding new ones. There are tens of thousands of Web rings for topics like football, cars, celebrities, computers, TV shows, etc. You can tell if a Web page is part of Web ring if on the bottom of the page it has some huge, obtrusive, off-color, button linking to other sites in the ring. |
| Web Service | A Web Service is a means for objects to obtain data from other remote objects over the internet using common internet protocol, normally XML over HTTP. A Web Service publishes what functions it provides (using WSDL). Clients communicate with the Web Service using XML and receive results back in XML form. Web Services typically make use of SOAP to translate objects into XML See also UDDI. |
| Web-bot | Web Robot. A generic term applied to any program which retrieves information from websites. Common examples of web-bots include: Search engines use web-bots (sometimes also called search-bots or simply bots) to gather (trawl) information from websites, which the search engine will then use to respond to search queries. An email-harvester will use a web-bot to gather email addresses from web-pages or from newsgroup postings. These are then used by spammers who then spam the harvested email addresses. A harvester-bot is used spammers to harvest e-mail addresses from web pages. See also bot. |
| Web-published materials | Web-published materials are accessed and presented via the World Wide Web. The materials span the cultural heritage spectrum and include a range of material types from text documents to streaming video to interactive experiences. Web-published materials are both dynamic and transient. They are at risk of disappearing. Web archives preserve web-published materials. |
| Webcam | The term webcam is a combination of "Web" and "video camera." The purpose of a webcam is, not surprisingly, to broadcast video on the Web. Webcams are typically small cameras that either attach to a user's monitor or sit on a desk. Most webcams connect to the computer via USB, though some use a Firewire connection. Webcams typically come with software that allows the user to record video or stream the video on the Web. If the user has a website that supports streaming video, other users can watch the video stream from their Web browsers. Webcams can also be used for video chat sessions with other people. Instead of broadcasting the video on the Web, users can set up a video chat session with one or more friends and have a conversation with live audio and video. For example, Apple's iSight camera, which is built into Apple laptops and iMacs, allows users to video chat using the iChat instant messaging program. Several other chat programs also work with webcams, allowing users to set up video chat sessions with friends. Since streaming video over the Internet requires a lot of bandwidth, the video stream is typically compressed to reduce the "choppiness" of the video. The maximum resolution of a webcam is also lower than most handheld video cameras, since higher resolutions would be reduced anyway. For this reason, webcams are relatively inexpensive compared to most video cameras. And while they may not be ideal for filming a movie, webcams are great for video chat sessions with friends. |
| Webmail | There are two primary ways of checking your e-mail – using an e-mail program like Microsoft Outlook or with a Web-based interface called webmail. When you check or send e-mail via the Web, you are using webmail. Most free e-mail services, such as Gmail, Hotmail, and Yahoo! Mail offer webmail interfaces that allow you to send, receive, and organize your e-mail on the Web. If you own a domain name, many Web hosts also offer a webmail interface to use with your domain name or website. Some common webmail systems supported by Web hosts include Horde, NeoMail, and SquirrelMail. Because webmail is run from a server, the messages downloaded to your inbox are saved on the mail server. This is convenient since you can check your mail and browse old messages from any computer as long as you have an Internet connection. The downside is that, since the messages are not downloaded to your computer, you need an Internet connection to view your messages – even ones that you have already viewed. If you only have one e-mail account, webmail may be the simplest way to check, send, and manage your e-mail. However, if you regularly use multiple e-mail accounts, a software e-mail client like Microsoft Outlook or Mac OS X Mail may be a better choice. |
| Webmaster | The webmaster is the person in charge of maintaining a Web site. The jobs of a webmaster include writing HTML for Web pages, organizing the Web site's structure, responding to e-mails about the Web site, and keeping the site up-to-date |
| Website | A website, or Web site, is not the same thing as a Web page. Though the two terms are often used interchangeably, they should not be. So what's the difference? To put it simply, a Web site is a collection of Web pages. For example, Amazon.com is a Web site, but there are millions of Web pages that make up the site. Knowing the difference between these two terms can save you a lot of embarrassment. |
| WEP | Stands for "Wired Equivalent Privacy." WEP is a security protocol for Wi-Fi networks. Since wireless networks transmit data over radio waves, it is easy to intercept data or "eavesdrop" on wireless data transmissions. The goal of WEP is to make wireless networks as secure as wired networks, such as those connected by Ethernet cables. The wired equivalent privacy protocol adds security to a wireless network by encrypting the data. If the data is intercepted, it will be unrecognizable to system that intercepted the data, since it is encrypted. However, authorized systems on the network will be able to recognize the data because they all use the same encryption algorithm. Systems on a WEP-secured network can typically be authorized by entering a network password. |
| WFW | Windows For Workgroups. Also known as Windows 3.11. Successor to Windows 3.1. Predecessor to Windows 95. |
| WGA | Windows Genuine Advantage (or Windows Genuine Article). A Microsoft programme that will require Windows to be validated as genuine before any windows updates can be downloaded from the Microsoft website. |
| Wheel Mouse | A mouse controller that, besides the usual buttons, also has a wheel device built in that is most often used to scroll up and down windows that are longer than the screen, such as long Web pages or documents. |
| White hat | A hacker with benign intentions. For example, if a hacker encounters a security hole and the first thing he or she does is explain the problem to the people who run the system that allows the security hole–without letting the knowledge out publicly–that hacker would be described as a white hat hacker. This term comes from old cowboy movies where the good guy wore a white hat. |
| White List | 1. List of approved or trusted people or vendors or items etc. cf Blacklist. 2. In the context of e-mail and Spam, a white list is a list of approved e-mail contacts that spam filtering software should allow through. |
| White Noise | This is technically sound with a uniform frequency spectrum over a wide range of frequencies. Non-technically, white noise is any unobtrusive background noise, such as the hum of a fan, the sound of rain, or the sound of a channel that isn’t coming in properly on an old television. Often white noise is imitated and generated to drown out other obtrusive sounds. |
| White Paper | This term has historically been used to describe a report that states the social or political position of an organization. In recent years, however, the IT industry has adopted the term to describe articles that explain a certain technology or product. For example, a company may release a white paper to the public in order to educate consumers about one of their products. The terminology used may be somewhat technical, but the goal of a white paper is usually to describe the technology or product in terms most people can understand. That way nerds don't get to have all the fun each time a new technology is invented. |
| WHOIS | This is an Internet service that finds information about a domain name or IP address. If you enter a domain name in a WHOIS search engine, it will scour a huge database of domains and return information about the one you entered. This information typically contains the name, address, and phone number of the administrative, billing, and technical contacts of the domain name. WHOIS can also be used to simply check if a certain domain name is available or if it has already been registered. To see the WHOIS service in action, check out Allwhois.com or BetterWhois.com. |
| Wi-Fi | (Wireless Fidelity) A popular term for a form of wireless data communication, basically Wi-Fi is "Wireless Ethernet". See also: Ethernet |
| Wide Area Information Service (WAIS) | A client/server method of accessing databases stored on multiple servers. You use a WAIS client to connect to a WAIS server and search the databases that the WAIS server has cataloged. WAIS is not much use to the average Internet user today, but is still used by some to access information that is not readily available in HTML form yet. |
| Wide SCSI | An improvement to the old narrow SCSI that allows for faster throughput by increasing the number of pins used to connect the drive to the controller from 50 to 68. Wide SCSI doubled the throughput of narrow versions of SCSI, but was generally more expensive due to the additional pins and marketing strategies. Of course you were getting twice the performance, so what’s a few bucks? |
| Wideband CDMA (WCDMA) | A 3G standard that increases the throughput of data transmission of CDMA by using a wider 5MHz carrier than standard CDMA, which uses a 200KHz carrier. WCDMA allows for data transfer rates as high as 2Mbps. |
| Widget | A widget is a small program run by the Mac OS X Dashboard or the Yahoo! Widget Engine. Dashboard is only available on Macintosh computers, while the Yahoo! Widget Engine is available for both Windows and Macintosh platforms. Dashboard and Yahoo! widgets are not compatible with each other, so similar widgets must be created separately for each widget engine. Some common widgets include weather guides, stock lists, flight trackers, calendars, and search boxes for various websites. Widgets are convenient tools since they are always only one click or keystroke away. By default, pressing the F12 key brings up Dashboard widgets on the Mac, while pressing the F8 key brings up Yahoo! widgets. When widgets are active, they jump to the front of the screen. When Dashboard widgets are not active, they completely disappear, while Yahoo! widgets move to the background. The idea of widgets started with a program called Konfabulator, which allowed many small programs to run simultaneously on the computer's desktop. Apple introduced a similar program, called Dashboard, with the release of Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger. Shortly after, in 2005, Yahoo! bought Konfabulator and now markets the program as the Yahoo! Widget Engine. While both widget engines come with several standard widgets, there are thousands more available online. |
| Wiki | A wiki is a web site for which the content can be easily edited and altered from the web browser in which you are viewing it. Typically there is an "edit" button on each page and the wiki is configured to allow either anyone or only people with passwords to edit each page. The word "wiki" comes from a Hawaiian word meaning "quick." |
| wild card | A special character provided by an operating system or a particular program that is used to identify a group of files or directories with a similar characteristic. Useful if you want to perform the same operation simultaneously on more than one file. Example: the asterisk (*) that can be used in DOS to specify a groups of files such as *.txt. |
| WiMAX | WiMAX, also known as "IEEE 802.16," is a broadband wireless access (BWA) standard similar to Wi-Fi. However, unlike Wi-Fi, which only has a range of several hundred feet, a WiMAX signal can be broadcast up to 30 miles. Therefore, WiMAX can be used to provide Internet access to large areas, such as corporate buildings or entire cities, with a single wireless station. While WiMAX isn't expected to replace Wi-Fi in small settings, it will provide a new, more efficient way of covering large regions. |
| WIN32 | The Windows API for all 32 bit versions of windows, i.e. from Windows 95 onwards. WIN32 can also indicate the 32bit API on 64bit versions of Windows. cf WIN64. |
| WIN64 | The Windows API for all 64 bit versions of windows. cf WIN32. |
| Window | A window is an area on the screen that displays information for a specific program. This often includes the user interface GUI as well as the program content. Windows are used by most applications as well as the operating system itself. A typical window includes a title bar along the top that describes the contents of the window, followed by a toolbar that contains user interface buttons. Most of the window's remaining area is used to display the content. Examples: Web Browser windows: The top of a typical Web browser window contains a title bar that displays the title of the current page. Below the title is a toolbar with back and forward buttons, an address field, bookmarks, and other navigation buttons. Below the toolbar is the content of the current Web page. The bottom of the window may contain a status bar that displays the page loading status Word Processing windows: A window used by a word processing program, such as Microsoft Word, typically includes buttons for page and text formatting, followed by a ruler that defines the document area. Below the ruler is the main page area used for entering text. Operating System windows: Windows used by the operating system typically include navigation buttons along the top and shortcuts to folders and other locations on the left side of the window. The rest of the window is used to display icons or lists of files and folders. Most windows can be opened, closed, resized, minimized, and moved around the screen. The close, minimize, and zoom buttons are located on the title bar (on the right side on Windows and the left side on Macs). Minimizing a window will close the contents of the window, but store a reference to it in the Taskbar (Windows) or the Dock (Mac). Closing a window will make it disappear completely (so you may be asked to save your changes first). To move a window, click on the title bar and drag the window where you want it. To resize a window, either click the Zoom button in the title bar or click the lower right-hand corner and expand or contract the window to the size you want. |
| Windowing | A windowing system is a system for sharing a computer's graphical display presentation resources among multiple applications at the same time. In a computer that has a graphical user interface (GUI), you may want to use a number of applications at the same time (this is called task). Using a separate window for each application, you can interact with each application and go from one application to another without having to reinitiate it. Having different information or activities in multiple windows may also make it easier for you to do your work. A windowing system uses a window manager to keep track of where each window is located on the display screen and its size and status. A windowing system doesn't just manage the windows but also other forms of graphical user interface entities. |
| Windows | A family of operating systems developed by Microsoft, which uses a graphical user interface (GUI) instead of a command line one. Windows is a generic term encompassing all the different versions of Windows released by Microsoft and includes: Windows 7 (Ultimate, Enterprise, Professional, Home Premium, Home Basic or Starter) Windows Vista (Ultimate, Business, Home Premium or Home Basic) Windows 2003 Server Windows XP (Home or Professional) Windows 2000 (Server or Professional, which are collectively known as Windows 2000) Windows NT 4 (Server or Workstation, which are collectively known as Windows NT) Windows NT 3.5 - collectively known as Windows NT Windows ME - collectively known as Windows 9x Windows 98SE - collectively known as Windows 9x Windows 98SE was a second release of Windows 98 with some additional features not found in the original release. Windows 98 - collectively known as Windows 9x Windows 95 - collectively known as Windows 9x Windows 3.11 - also known as Windows for Workgroups (WFW) Windows 3.1 - Windows 3, 3.1 and 3.11 are also collectively referred to as Windows 3.x Windows 3 (Windows 3.0) Windows 2 Windows 1 |
| Windows 2000 | General abbreviation for any Windows 2000 based operating system. This included Windows 2000 Professional and Windows 2000 Server. Windows 2000 is sometimes abbreviated to simply W2K. |
| Windows 3.x | Abbreviation denoting Windows 3, 3.1, 3.11 and WFW. Windows 9x is sometimes abbreviated to W9x. |
| Windows 95 | A 16- and 32-bit operating system that builds on DOS and Windows 3.x to support 32-bit operations, additional hardware, and a more usable interface. This was a true breakthrough product for Microsoft, allowing game developers to run games inside of the Windows OS instead of separately in DOS. It was designed for the consumer market. |
| Windows 98 | This operating system was designed by Microsoft and adds additional hardware support and integrated browsing onto the Windows 95 platform. This OS is still partially 16-bit, a full 15 years after Intel released its first 32-bit processor, the 386. |
| Windows 9x | Abbreviation for Windows 95 and Windows 98, sometimes also used to include Windows ME. Any software said to run on Windows 9x should run on Windows 95 and Windows 98, and probably Windows ME. Windows 9x is sometimes abbreviated to simply W9x. |
| Windows CE | This was initially the name for Microsoft’s mobile operating system designed for PDAs. Initial Windows CE devices offered color screens, and a fairly direct port of the Windows user interface. The Windows CE platform has been renamed by Microsoft to Pocket PC. |
| Windows Essential Business Server | Windows Essential Business Server[1] (code named Centro)[1] is Microsoft's server offering for mid-size businesses (up to a maximum of 300 Users and/or Devices). [2] It was released to manufacturing on 16 September 2008 and was officially launched on the 12th of November 2008. [3] Overview Built from the Windows Server 2008 codebase, two editions are available: Standard and Premium. The Standard edition includes three Windows Server 2008 x64 Standard Servers and on top of those three servers: Microsoft Exchange 2007, Microsoft System Center Essentials, Microsoft Forefront Security for Exchange Server, and Forefront Threat Management Gateway (Medium Business Edition) formerly known as Microsoft Internet Security and Acceleration Server. The Premium edition adds another Windows Server 2008 Standard Edition and the Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Standard database software. According to Microsoft, Essential Business Server features a single administration/management console, through which the collection of managed clients and servers can be monitored and managed. Third party software can also utilize the same console to present an administration interface to their software. Computer Associates Inc. and Symantec will use the management console for their CA ARCserve Backup, Backup Exec and Endpoint Protection products respectively.[2] Essential Business Server also includes Remote Web Workplace, an out-of-the-box feature that enables IT to easily set up security-enhanced remote access to company client computers and Outlook Web Access. |
| Windows for Workgroups (WFW) | Officially this was called Windows 3.11 for Workgroups, and it added some basic networking functionality to the standard Windows 3.1 operating system. |
| Windows Home Server | Windows Home Server, code-named Quattro, is a home server operating system from Microsoft. Announced on 7 January 2007, at the Consumer Electronics Show by Bill Gates, Windows Home Server is intended to be a solution for homes with multiple connected PCs to offer file sharing, automated backups, and remote access.[3][4] It is based on Windows Server 2003 Service Pack 2 Features Centralized Backup - Allows backup of up to 10 PCs,[8] using Single Instance Store technology to avoid multiple copies of the same file, even if that file exists on multiple PCs.[9] Health Monitoring - Can centrally track the health of all PCs on the network, including antivirus and firewall status.[9] File Sharing - Offers network shares for computers to store the files remotely, acting as a network-attached storage device. Separate categories are provided for common file types like Documents, Music, Pictures and Videos.[9] The files are indexed for fast searching.[10] Printer Sharing - Allows a centralized print server to handle print jobs for all users.[9] Shadow Copy - Takes advantage of Volume Shadow Copy Services to take point in time snapshots that allow older versions of files to be recovered.[11] However, after introduction Microsoft has recommended not enabling shadow copies on HomeServer for unspecified reasons, and had not fixed the problem by September 2008.[12] Headless Operation - No monitor or keyboard is required to manage the device.[9] Remote administration is performed by using the Windows Home Server Console client software provided in the bundle. Also supports Remote Desktop[13] connections to the server while connected to the same LAN.[14] Remote Access Gateway - Allows remote access to any connected PC on the network over the Internet.[14] Media Streaming - Can stream media to an Xbox 360 or other devices supporting Windows Media Connect.[9] Selective Data redundancy - Guards against a single drive failure by duplicating selected data across multiple drives.[9] Expandable Storage - Provides a unified single and easily expandable storage space, removing the need for drive letters.[9] Extensibility through Add-Ins - Add-Ins allow third-party developers to extend the features and functionality of the server. Add-Ins can be developed using the Windows Home Server SDK, to provide additional services to the client computers or work with the data already on the server. Add-Ins can also be ASP.NET applications, hosted in IIS 6 running on WHS.[10] Server Backup - Backs up files which are stored within shared folders on the server to an external hard drive. |
| Windows HPC Server 2008 | Windows HPC Server 2008, released by Microsoft in September 2008, is the successor product to Windows Compute Cluster Server 2003. Like WCCS, Windows HPC Server 2008 is designed for high-end applications that require high performance computing clusters. This version of the server is claimed to efficiently scale to thousands of cores. It includes features unique to HPC workloads: a new high-speed NetworkDirect RDMA, highly efficient and scalable cluster management tools, a service-oriented architecture (SOA) job scheduler, and cluster interoperability through standards such as the High Performance Computing Basic Profile (HPCBP) specification produced by the Open Grid Forum (OGF). In June 2008, a system built collaboratively with the National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA) and Microsoft ranked #23 on the Top500 list, a ranking of the world's fastest supercomputers, with a LINPACK score of 68.5 teraflops. In the November 2008 rankings published by Top500.org, a Windows HPC system built by the Shanghai Supercomputer Center achieved 180.6 teraflops, a peak performance that placed the Dawning 5000A system at #10 on the list of the world's fastest supercomputers. However, as of June 2009, Windows HPC only has about 1% of the market of the 500 most powerful supercomputers, with about 1.5% of total gigaflops, with Linux dominating the rankings and Unix second place. The other two systems in the top 100 that can run Windows HPC do so only part of the time[1][2]. |
| Windows Me (Windows Millennium Edition) | This Microsoft Windows operating system added many UI enhancements and clutter that actually made it less stable and more hated than Windows 95 and 98. No improvements to the core were made for stability or to enhance the combination 16- and 32-bit mess under the hood. This was Microsoft’s last version of Windows containing pieces of 16-bit DOS guts, and good riddance. |
| Windows Media Audio (WMA) | A Microsoft-developed audio codec that offers sampling rates of 8 to 48KHz. Files of this type typically have the file extension “.wma,” and Microsoft is aggressively pushing WMA as an alternative to the popular MP3 audio format, making WMA the default format for its Media Player, which now ships with Windows by default. WMA can create files that sound similar to MP3 files at a given quality and take up less disk space. |
| Windows NT | General abbreviation for a family of Microsoft Windows operating systems covering Windows NT 3.5 and NT 4 server or workstation. Windows NT is sometimes abbreviated to simply NT. |
| Windows RAM | A type of memory chip, or RAM, that was commonly used at one time in graphics cards on PCs. It is dual-ported so that graphics information can be displayed at the same time that it is being refreshed, much like with VRAM. This can give an increase in display speed over conventional memory. |
| Windows Server | Windows Server is a brand name for server operating systems released by Microsoft Corporation. This name has been used for the following software releases: Windows Server 2003 Windows Server 2008 Windows HPC Server 2008, an edition designed exclusively for high-performance computing Windows Server 2008 R2, the current release of Windows Server 2008 Windows Small Business Server, an operating system based on Windows Server with some integrated Microsoft Servers, for small businesses Windows Essential Business Server, a product similar to Small Business Server, but for medium-sized businesses Windows Home Server, a home server operating system for file sharing and streaming, automated backups, and remote access [edit]See also Microsoft Servers, overview of Microsoft's Server range of products. Windows NT |
| Windows Server 2003 | Windows Server 2003 (also referred to as Win2K3) is a server operating system produced by Microsoft. Introduced on 24 April 2003 as the successor to Windows 2000 Server, it is considered by Microsoft to be the cornerstone of its Windows Server System line of business server products[citation needed]. An updated version, Windows Server 2003 R2, was released to manufacturing on 6 December 2005. Its successor, Windows Server 2008, was released on 4 February 2008. New and updated features Manage Your Server See also: Features new to Windows XP Internet Information Services (IIS) v6.0 - A significantly improved version of IIS. Increased default security over previous versions, due to the built-in firewall and having most services disabled by default. Significant improvements to Message Queuing. Manage Your Server - a role management administrative tool that allows an administrator to choose what functionality the server should provide. Improvements to Active Directory, such as the ability to deactivate classes from the scheme, or to run multiple instances of the directory server (ADAM) Improvements to Group Policy handling and administration Provides a backup system to restore lost files Improved disk management, including the ability to back up from shadows of files, allowing the backup of open files. Improved scripting and command line tools, which are part of Microsoft's initiative to bring a complete command shell to the next version of Windows. Support for a hardware-based "watchdog timer", which can restart the server if the operating system does not respond within a certain amount of time.[3] [edit]Removed features The ability of creating rescue disk. Automated System Recovery (ASR) is used instead. |
| Windows Server 2008 | Windows Server 2008 is one of Microsoft Windows' server line of operating systems. Released to manufacturing on February 4, 2008, and officially released on February 27, 2008, it is the successor to Windows Server 2003, released nearly five years earlier. A second release, named Windows Server 2008 R2, was released to manufacturing on July 22, 2009.[3] Like Windows Vista and Windows 7, Windows Server 2008 is built on Windows NT 6.x. Features See also: Features new to Windows Vista Windows Server 2008 is built from the same code base as Windows Vista; therefore, it shares much of the same architecture and functionality. Since the code base is common, it automatically comes with most of the technical, security, management and administrative features new to Windows Vista such as the rewritten networking stack (native IPv6, native wireless, speed and security improvements); improved image-based installation, deployment and recovery; improved diagnostics, monitoring, event logging and reporting tools; new security features such as BitLocker and ASLR; improved Windows Firewall with secure default configuration; .NET Framework 3.0 technologies, specifically Windows Communication Foundation, Microsoft Message Queuing and Windows Workflow Foundation; and the core kernel, memory and file system improvements. Processors and memory devices are modelled as Plug and Play devices, to allow hot-plugging of these devices. This allows the system resources to be partitioned dynamically using Dynamic Hardware Partitioning; each partition has its own memory, processor and I/O host bridge devices independent of other partitions.[8] [edit]Server Core Default user interface for Server Core Windows Server 2008 includes a variation of installation called Server Core. Server Core is a significantly scaled-back installation where no Windows Explorer shell is installed. All configuration and maintenance is done entirely through command line interface windows, or by connecting to the machine remotely using Microsoft Management Console. However, Notepad and some control panel applets, such as Regional Settings, are available. Server Core does not include the .NET Framework, Internet Explorer, Windows PowerShell or many other features not related to core server features. A Server Core machine can be configured for several basic roles: Domain controller/Active Directory Domain Services, ADLDS (ADAM), DNS Server, DHCP Server, file server, print server, Windows Media Server, IIS 7 web server and Hyper-V virtual server. Server Core can also be used to create a cluster with high availability using Failover Clustering or Network Load Balancing. Andrew Mason, a program manager on the Windows Server team, noted that a primary motivation for producing a Server Core variant of Windows Server 2008 was to reduce the attack surface of the operating system, and that about 70% of the security vulnerabilities in Microsoft Windows from the prior five years would not have affected Server Core.[9] [edit]Active Directory roles Active Directory roles is expanded with identity, certificate, and rights management services. Active Directory, until Windows Server 2003, allowed network administrators to centrally manage connected computers, to set policies for groups of users, and to centrally deploy new applications to multiple computers. This role of Active Directory is being renamed as Active Directory Domain Services (ADDS).[10] A number of other additional services are being introduced, including Active Directory Federation Services (ADFS), Active Directory Lightweight Directory Services (AD LDS), (formerly Active Directory Application Mode, or ADAM), Active Directory Certificate Services (ADCS), and Active Directory Rights Management Services (ADRMS). Identity and certificate services allow administrators to manage user accounts and the digital certificates that allow them to access certain services and systems. Federation management services enable enterprises to share credentials with trusted partners and customers, allowing a consultant to use his company user name and password to log in on a client's network. Identity Integration Feature Pack is included as Active Directory Metadirectory Services. Each of these services represents a server role. [edit]Failover Clustering Main article: Failover Clustering Windows Server 2008 offers high-availability to services and applications through Failover Clustering. Most server features and roles can be kept running with little to no downtime. In Windows Server 2008 and Windows Server 2008 R2, the way that clusters are qualified is changing significantly with the introduction of the cluster validation wizard[11]. The cluster validation wizard is a feature that is integrated into failover clustering in Windows Server 2008 and Windows Server 2008 R2. With the cluster validation wizard, you can run a set of focused tests on a collection of servers that you intend to use as nodes in a cluster. This cluster validation process tests the underlying hardware and software directly, and individually, to obtain an accurate assessment of how well failover clustering can be supported on a given configuration. [edit]Windows PowerShell Screenshot of a sample Windows PowerShell session. Main article: Windows PowerShell Windows Server 2008 is the first Windows operating system to ship with Windows PowerShell, Microsoft's new extensible command line shell and task-based scripting technology.[12] PowerShell is based on object-oriented programming and version 2.0 of the Microsoft .NET Framework and includes more than 120 system administration utilities, consistent syntax and naming conventions, and built-in capabilities to work with common management data such as the Windows Registry, certificate store, or Windows Management Instrumentation. PowerShell's scripting language was specifically designed for IT administration, and can be used in place of cmd.exe and Windows Script Host. [edit]Self-healing NTFS In Windows versions prior to Windows Vista, if the operating system detected corruption in the file system of an NTFS volume, it marked the volume "dirty"; to correct errors on the volume, it had to be taken offline. With self-healing NTFS, an NTFS worker thread is spawned in the background which performs a localized fix-up of damaged data structures, with only the corrupted files/folders remaining unavailable without locking out the entire volume and needing the server to be taken down. The operating system now features S.M.A.R.T. detection techniques to help determine when a hard disk may fail.[13] [edit]Hyper-V Hyper-V architecture Main article: Hyper-V Hyper-V is a hypervisor-based virtualization system, forming a core part of Microsoft's virtualization strategy. It virtualizes servers on an operating system's kernel layer. It can be thought of as partitioning a single physical server into multiple small computational partitions. Hyper-V includes the ability to act as a Xen virtualization hypervisor host allowing Xen-enabled guest operating systems to run virtualized[14]. A beta version of Hyper-V ships with certain x86-64 editions of Windows Server 2008. Microsoft released the final version of Hyper-V on 26 June 2008 as a free download. Also, a standalone version of Hyper-V exists. This version also only supports the x86-64 architecture.[15] While the x86 editions of Windows Server 2008 cannot run the Hyper-V integrations, they can run the Manager Console and Hyper-V tools. [edit]Windows System Resource Manager Main article: Windows System Resource Manager Windows System Resource Manager (WSRM) is being integrated into Windows Server 2008. It provides resource management and can be used to control the amount of resources a process or a user can use based on business priorities. Process Matching Criteria, which is defined by the name, type or owner of the process, enforces restrictions on the resource usage by a process that matches the criteria. CPU time, bandwidth that it can use, number of processors it can be run on, and allocated to a process can be restricted. Restrictions can be set to be imposed only on certain dates as well. [edit]Server Manager Server Manager is a new roles-based management tool for Windows Server 2008[16]. It is a combination of Manage Your Server and Security Configuration Wizard from Windows Server 2003. Server Manager is an improvement of the Configure my server dialog that launches by default on Windows Server 2003 machines. However, rather than serve only as a starting point to configuring new roles, Server Manager gathers together all of the operations users would want to conduct on the server, such as, getting a remote deployment method set up, adding more server roles etc and provides a consolidated, portal-like view about the status of each role. [edit]Other features Other new or enhanced features include: [edit]Core OS improvements Fully multi-componentized operating system. Improved hot patching, a feature that allows non-kernel patches to occur without the need for a reboot. Support for being booted from Extensible Firmware Interface (EFI)-compliant firmware on x86-64 systems. Dynamic Hardware Partitioning Support for the hot-addition of processors and memory, on capable hardware. Support for the hot-replacement of processors and memory, on capable hardware. [edit]Active Directory improvements A new "Read-Only Domain Controller" operation mode in Active Directory, intended for use in branch office scenarios where a domain controller may reside in a low physical security environment. The RODC holds a non-writeable copy of Active Directory, and redirects all write attempts to a Full Domain Controller. It replicates all accounts except sensitive ones. In RODC mode, credentials are not cached by default. Moreover, only the replication partner of the RODC needs to run Windows Server 2008. Also, local administrators can log on to the machine to perform maintenance tasks without requiring administrative rights on the domain. Restartable Active Directory allows ADDS to be stopped and restarted from the Management Console or the command-line without rebooting the domain controller. This reduces downtime for offline operations and reduces overall DC servicing requirements with Server Core. ADDS is implemented as a Domain Controller Service in Windows Server 2008. [edit]Policy related improvements All of the Group Policy improvements from Windows Vista are included. Group Policy Management Console (GPMC) is built-in. The Group Policy objects are indexed for search and can be commented on.[17] Policy-based networking with Network Access Protection, improved branch management and enhanced end user collaboration. Policies can be created to ensure greater Quality of Service for certain applications or services that require prioritization of network bandwidth between client and server. Granular password settings within a single domain - ability to implement different password policies for administrative accounts on a "group" and "user" basis, instead of a single set of password settings to the whole domain. [edit]Disk management and file storage improvements The ability to resize hard disk partitions without stopping the server, even the system partition. This applies only to simple and spanned volumes, not to striped volumes. Shadow Copy based block-level backup which supports optical media, network shares and Windows Recovery Environment. DFS enhancements - SYSVOL on DFS-R, Read-only Folder Replication Member. There is also support for domain-based DFS namespaces that exceed the previous size recommendation of 5,000 folders with targets in a namespace.[18] Several improvements to Failover Clustering (High-availability clusters).[19] Internet Storage Naming Server (iSNS) enables central registration, deregistration and queries for iSCSI hard drives. [edit]Protocol and cryptography improvements Support for 128- and 256-bit AES encryption for the Kerberos authentication protocol. New cryptography (CNG) API which supports elliptic curve cryptography and improved certificate management. Secure Socket Tunneling Protocol, a new Microsoft proprietary VPN protocol. AuthIP, a Microsoft proprietary extension of the IKE cryptographic protocol used in IPsec VPN networks. Server Message Block 2.0 protocol in the new TCP/IP stack provides a number of communication enhancements, including greater performance when connecting to file shares over high-latency links and better security through the use of mutual authentication and message signing. [edit]Improvements due to client-side (Windows Vista) enhancements Searching Windows Server 2008 servers from Windows Vista clients delegates the query to the server, which uses the Windows Search technology to search and transfer the results back to the client. In a networked environment with a print server running Windows Vista, clients can render print jobs locally before sending them to print servers to reduce the load on the server and increase its availability. Event forwarding aggregates and forwards logs of subscribed Windows Vista client computers back to a central console. Event forwarding can be enabled on the client subscribers from the central server directly from the event management console. Offline Files are cached locally so that they are available even if the server is not, with copies seamlessly updating when the client and server are reconnected. [edit]Miscellaneous improvements Windows Deployment Services replacing Automated Deployment Services and Remote Installation Services. Windows Deployment Services (WDS) support an enhanced multicast feature when deploying operating system images.[20] Internet Information Services 7 - Increased security, XCOPY deployment, improved diagnostic tools, delegated administration. Windows Internal Database, a variant of SQL Server Express 2005, which serves as a common storage back-end for several other components such as Windows System Resource Manager, Windows SharePoint Services and Windows Server Update Services. It is not intended to be used by third-party applications. An optional "Desktop Experience" component provides the same Windows Aero user interface as Windows Vista, both for local users, as well as remote users connecting through Remote Desktop. [edit]Removed features See also: Features removed from Windows Vista NT Backup is replaced by Windows Server Backup, and no longer supports backing up to tape drives[21] NNTP (Network News Transfer Protocol) is no longer part of Internet Information Services 7.0 Post Office Protocol component has been deprecated and will no longer be supplied as part of Windows OS Exchange backups. (NTBackup was replaced with VSS-based Windows Server Backup). Microsoft is recommending Data Protection Manager, but it requires a dedicated server. However a plug-in has been included as part of Exchange 2007 SP2 which facilitates Exchange backups using the Windows 2008 Backup tool.[22] Windows Small Business Server and Windows Essential Business Server both include an Exchange backup component. A Windows Backup component for non-SBS installations is forthcoming. |
| Windows Server 2008 R2 | Windows Server 2008 R2 is a server operating system produced by Microsoft. It was launched on October 22, 2009.[2] According to the Windows Server Team blog, the retail availability was September 14, 2009.[3] It is built on Windows NT 6.1, the same core operating system used with the end-user oriented Windows 7. It is the first 64-bit only operating system release from Microsoft. Version enhancements include new functionality for Active Directory, new Virtualization and Management features, the release of IIS 7.5, and support for up to 256 logical processors. New features See also: Features new to Windows 7 A reviewer guide published by the company describes several areas of improvement in version R2.[9] These include new virtualization capabilities (Live Migration, Cluster Shared Volumes using Failover Clustering and Hyper-V), reduced power consumption, a new set of management tools and new Active Directory capabilities such as a "recycle bin" for deleted AD objects. IIS 7.5 has been added to this release which also includes updated FTP server services. Security enhancements include the addition of DNSSEC support for DNS Server Service and encrypted clientless authenticated VPN services through DirectAccess for clients using Windows 7. The DHCP server supports a large number of enhancements [10] such as MAC address-based control filtering, converting active leases into reservations or Link Layer based filters, IPv4 address exhaustion at scope level, DHCP Name protection for non-Windows machines to prevent name squatting, better performance through aggressive lease database caching, DHCP activity logging, auto-population of certain network interface fields, a wizard for split-scope configuration, DHCP Server role migration using WSMT, support for DHCPv6 Option 15 (User Class) and Option 32 (Information Refresh Time). The DHCP server runs in the context of the Network Service account which has less privileges to reduce potential damage if compromised. Windows Server 2008 R2 supports up to 64 physical processors [11] or up to 256 logical processors per system.[12] When deployed in a file server role, new File Classification Infrastructure services allow files to be stored on designated servers in the enterprise based on business naming conventions, relevance to business processes and overall corporate policies.[13] Server Core includes a subset of the .NET Framework, so that some applications (including ASP.NET web sites and Windows PowerShell 2.0) can be used. Performance improvement was a major area of focus for this release; Microsoft has stated that work was done to decrease boot time, improve the efficiency of I/O operations while using less processing power, and generally improve the speed of storage devices, especially iSCSI. Active Directory has several new features when raising the forest and domain functional levels[14] to Windows Server 2008 R2. When raising the domain function level, two added features are Authentication Mechanism Assurance and Automatic SPN Management. When raising the forest functional level, the Active Directory recycle bin feature is available and can be enabled using the Active Directory Module for Powershell.[15] |
| Windows Small Business Server | Windows Small Business Server (SBS) (formerly Microsoft Small Business Server) is an integrated server suite from Microsoft designed for running network infrastructure (both intranet management and Internet access) of small and medium enterprises having no more than 75 workstations or users. Application server technologies are tightly integrated to enable small businesses with targeted solutions such as the Remote Web Workplace, and offer management benefits such as integrated setup, enhanced monitoring, a unified management console, and remote access. Windows Small Business Server is technically not an 'edition' of the Windows Server operating system but rather a customized SKU of server technologies targeted especially to small businesses. As such, the application servers are not merely bundled with the OS but are tightly integrated into the operating system. Since the release of SBS 2008, the same service packs as those for Windows Server or other server products can be used to update the OS. Editions Windows Small Business Server is available in Standard and Premium editions. Both editions are based on the Windows Server codebase and include Microsoft Exchange Server mail server, Internet Information Services (IIS) web server, Windows SharePoint Services for collaboration, Microsoft Office Outlook 2003 email client (not included in 2008), Routing and Remote Access Service (RRAS), Windows Server Update Services for update management across the network, and a Fax server. Up to SBS 2003, the Premium edition also included Microsoft SQL Server, Microsoft Internet Security and Acceleration Server and Microsoft Office FrontPage 2003. SBS 2008 Premium edition will not include ISA Server but will include a Windows Server 2008 license and SQL Server 2008 for running on a second server. Those upgrading to SBS 2008 Premium edition via Software Assurance will be compensated with a free license for the latest version of ISA Server. [1] The version of Windows Server that is part of Small Business Server 2008 and Essential Business Server 2008, Windows Server 2008 for Windows Essential Server Solutions (WinWESS) or Windows Server 2008 Standard FE is available outside the product suite, supporting a maximum of 15 Client Access Licenses. [2] Initially, Small Business Server was marketed as an edition of Microsoft BackOffice Server. When Windows 2000 was released, it was marketed as Microsoft Small Business Server 2000, and finally was rebranded as a member of the Windows Server 2003 family. Microsoft has also introduced a Windows Essential Business Server product aimed at medium-sized businesses, which will now incorporate the next version of ISA Server instead of SBS. |
| Windows Sockets | An API designed to help inconsistent TCP/IP stacks talk together and be accessed properly by Windows 3.x programs. |
| Windows Task Manager | Windows Task Manager is a task manager application included with Microsoft Windows NT family of operating systems that provides detailed 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. The Task Manager can also be used to set process priorities, processor affinity, forcibly terminate processes, and shut down, restart, hibernate or log off from Windows. Windows Task Manager was introduced with Windows NT 4.0, previous versions of Windows NT included the Task List application, which had far fewer features. The task list was capable of listing currently running processes and killing them, or creating a new process. The Task Manager can be launched using any of the following four methods: Using the context menu on the taskbar and selecting "Task Manager". Using the key combination Ctrl+Shift+Esc. In Windows NT, Windows 2000, and Windows Vista, use the key combination Ctrl+Alt+Del to open the Windows Security dialog, then click on "Task Manager". In Windows XP, pressing Ctrl+Alt+Del or Ctrl+Shift+Esc directly launches Task Manager, unless you have disabled the Welcome Screen. Starting "Taskmgr.exe" from a command line, GUI (located in C:\Windows\System32\taskmgr.exe) or a shortcut. |
| Windows Vista | Windows Vista is the latest version of Microsoft's Windows operating system. The business version was released at the end of 2006, while the consumer version shipped on January 30, 2007. The Vista operating system includes an updated look from Windows XP, referred to as the "Aero" interface. The desktop, windows, icons, and toolbars have a smoother 3D look, similar to the Mac OS X interface. These graphics are generated using the new Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF) graphics subsystem included with Windows Vista. Other improvements include faster indexed file searching (which can locate text within files), built-in Web services called the Windows Communication Foundation (WCF), support for the new XML Paper Specification (XPS) document format, numerous security improvements, and more multimedia capabilities built into the operating system. Windows Vista was code-named "Longhorn" for much of the development process. The operating system was originally slated to ship in 2003 as an update to Windows XP, but Microsoft decided to make additional updates to the operating system and scheduled it for release in 2005. Several delays pushed back the release date to 2006 and eventually to the beginning of 2007. In order to ship the consumer version by early 2007, the new file system called Windows Future Storage, or WinFS, was left out of the release. Microsoft plans to incorporate the WinFS file system in a future update. Overall, Vista is a major upgrade to the Windows operating system (which is a good thing, since it has been over five years since Microsoft's last major OS release). The interface feels more modern, file navigation has been improved and system security has been designed to be stronger than Windows XP. If you plan to purchase Windows Vista for your system, you can choose one of five options: Business (designed for small business users and streamlined for work-oriented tasks) Enterprise (meant for large, global organizations with complex IT infrastructures) Home Basic (the most basic version of the Vista operating system designed for the average home user) Home Premium (a more robust home version that includes extra security and multimedia features) Ultimate (includes all the features from the Home Premium and Business versions of Vista) The absolute minimum system requirements for Vista are: - 800 MHz processor - 512 MB of RAM - 20 GB hard drive with at least 15 GB of available space - Super VGA graphics support - CD-ROM drive However, Microsoft recommends the following system requirements: - 1 GHz 32-bit (x86) or 64-bit (x64) processor - 1 GB of RAM - 40 GB hard drive with at least 15 GB of available space - DirectX 9 graphics support with a WDDM Driver - 128 MB (minimum) of video RAM - Pixel Shader 2.0 in hardware - 32 bits per pixel - DVD-ROM drive - Audio Output - Internet access Because many of Vista's new features require the recommended system requirements, it may be best to upgrade your operating system only if your computer meets or exceeds the recommended specifications. Otherwise, waiting to buy a new machine with Windows Vista installed is probably the best choice. |
| Windows XP | The friendly-faced, updated version of Windows 2000, with an almost cartoonish interface that will surely be looked back upon with a wince. XP started to take real “advantage” of the Internet by including numerous hooks and links to Microsoft’s website to improve various functionality, and that is part of what made this operating system so controversial. Also, at long last, it moved the Windows NT code-base onto consumer machines, allowing home users to get the benefits of stability that Windows Me didn’t offer. Many hold-outs prefer to stick with Windows 2000. |
| Windump | Windump is a freeware tool for Windows that is a protocol analyzer that can monitor network traffic on a wire. |
| Wine | An implementation of Windows 3.x and Win32 APIs on top of X-Windows. Wine runs on Linux and UNIX, and allows Windows programs to run. Wine was created in 1993 and continues to be updated. |
| WINS | Windows Internet Name Service. Dynamic hostname based addressing scheme used on Microsoft LANs. Integrated with DNS, allowing WINS clients to resolve DNS names. |
| WINS (Windows Internet Naming Service) | A Windows-specific method of name resolution where a WINS server translates a NetBIOS name into an IP address. |
| Winsock | Winsock. "Isn't that one of those tube-like flags that tell which way the wind is blowing?" Actually, that's a "windsock," which was first used by airline pilots to tell how fast and what direction the wind was blowing. To learn how to make your own windsock, click here. Winsock is actually short "Windows sockets," which are files that allow Windows programs to connect to the Internet and other computers. Technically, Winsock is an "Application Programming Interface (API)," that developers use to make their programs network-enabled. 16-bit applications use a file called WINSOCK.DLL and 32-bit applications use a file called WSOCK32.DLL. Both of these files are libraries of networking functions (based on TCP/IP), but they can differ from computer to computer, depending on the vendor. If you use Windows, you probably use Winsock on a regular basis. Fortunately, unless you're a Windows programmer, you don't have to understand exactly how it works. |
| Wired Equivalent Privacy (WEP) | A security protocol for wireless local area networks defined in the standard IEEE 802.11b. |
| Wireless | In the computing world, the term "wireless" can be rather ambiguous, since it may refer to several different wireless technologies. The two most common types of wireless capabilities computers have are Wi-Fi and Bluetooth. Wi-Fi is the technology used for wireless networking. If your computer has a wireless card, it is most likely Wi-Fi compatible. The wireless card transmits to a wireless router, which is also based on the Wi-Fi standard. Wireless routers are often connected to a network, cable modem, or DSL modem, which provides Internet access to anyone connected to the wireless network. Bluetooth is the technology often used for wireless keyboards and mice, wireless printing, and wireless cell phone headsets. In order to use a device such as a Bluetooth keyboard or mouse, your computer must be Bluetooth-enabled or have a Bluetooth adapter installed. Computers may also use other wireless technologies aside from Wi-Fi and Bluetooth. Products such as remote controls and wireless mice may use infrared or other proprietary wireless technologies. Because of the many wireless options available, it is a good idea to check the system requirements of any wireless device you are considering buying. |
| Wireless Application Protocol | A specification for a set of communication protocols to standardize the way that wireless devices, such as cellular telephones and radio transceivers, can be used for Internet access, including e-mail, the World Wide Web, newsgroups, and Internet Relay Chat. |
| Wiretapping | Monitoring and recording data that is flowing between two points in a communication system. |
| Wizard | When most people think of a wizard, they think of an old man with magical powers. This, as with many other computer definitions, has no correlation with the technical term. In computer terminology, a wizard is a part of a program that guides you through certain steps. For example, a wizard in Microsoft Word would help you create and format a new document according to your needs. This is helpful when creating a r?sum?, outline, invoice, etc. Some other examples of wizards are the Finale 2000 wizard, which helps you create a new music composition with your desired instruments, and the PowerPoint wizard, which helps you set up a presentation using a certain theme. Basically, a wizard acts as a guide for creating a new document in a software program. Though wizards can be helpful, sometimes they can be more of a hassle than a help for experienced users. Some users would rather just create a new document from scratch, without using a wizard. This is because wizards typically don't offer as much customization as an experienced user may want. Finally, be sure not to confuse a "wizard" with a "template." A template is a pre-formatted document that has already been created, whereas a wizard is a step-by-step guide that helps you create your own document. |
| WLAN | Wireless LAN. |
| WMI | Windows Management Instrumentation (W2K). Improves administrative control by allowing administrators to correlate data and events from multiple sources and vendors on a local or enterprise basis. |
| WMS | 1. Warehouse Management System. 2. Web Map Service. A technology for downloading map data from servers that are WMS compliant across the internet. WMS is defined by the Open GIS Consortium Inc in Web Map Service Implementation. |
| WOL | Wake On LAN. The ability of a network card to wake up a PC that is powered down or on standby (i.e. sleep or suspected), when a wake-up message is received across the LAN. |
| Word | 1. Technically a word is the number of bits (or bytes) that a CPU can process at a time. At the hardware level a word may therefore be 8, 16, 32 or 64 bits (1, 2, 4 or 8 bytes). It should be noted that in the programming sense the word size is 2 or 4 bytes. The concept originally came into existence because the bus and/or CPU register size is know as the word size. On old 16 bit CPU's this led to a common word size of 2 bytes. The most common CPU these days is 32 bit and therefore the word size is 4 bytes. However in general the word size defined by the compiler or programming language should not be confused with the word size of the hardware. Windows running on a 64 bit platform may or may not still define a word size as 4 bytes. 2. Common abbreviation for Microsoft Word, which is part of Microsoft Office. |
| WORD VARIANTS | Different word endings (such as -ing, -s, es, -ism, -ist,etc.) will be retrieved only if you allow for them in your search terms. One way to do this TRUNCATION, but few systems accept truncation. Another way is to enter the variants either separated by BOOLEAN OR (and grouped in parentheses). In +REQUIRE/-REJECT non-Boolean systems, enter the variant terms preceded with neither + nor -, because this will allow documents containing any of them to retrieved. |
| Word Wrap | Word wrapping is when a line of text automatically "wraps" to the next line when it gets to the end of a page or text field. This is different than a "word rap," which involves rhyming words to a rhythmic beat, though that may be more fun than typing. Most word processing programs use word wrap to keep the text within the default margins of the page. Without the word wrap feature, text would continue on one line until the user pressed "Enter" or "Return" to insert a line break. Most programs that incorporate word wrap take the first word that does not fit on a line of text and move it to the beginning of the next line. Advanced word processing programs can hyphenate long words at appropriate places. While it is uncommon, sometimes a word, or string of characters ,will take up more than one line. In this case, the word wrap feature will simply continue the string of characters onto the next line. |
| Workload Management | The operation of handling computation power demand and computation power unavailability. |
| Workstation | A workstation is a place where work gets done. It refers to a computer (and often the surrounding area) that has been configured to perform a certain set of tasks, such as photo editing, audio recording, or video production. An office may have several workstations for different purposes, which may be assigned to certain employees. For example, one workstation may be used for scanning and importing images, while another is used for editing images. Because workstations often work together like in the example above, they are commonly networked together. This allows them to send files back and forth over the network, which is important for various types of media production. To use another example, a user at a photo-editing workstation may prepare images to be used in a video clip. Once the images are ready, he may send them to another user at a video-editing workstation, where they are incorporated into the video. Once the video has been put together, the video file may be sent to another user at an audio production workstation where the soundtrack and other sound effects are added. While workstations are often part of a network, they can be standalone machines as well. Even a home computer can be a workstation if it is used for certain kinds of work. So if you want to sound professional, the next time you send an e-mail to a friend from your home PC, you can let him know you are sending it from your home workstation. |
| World-Wide Web | Also known as WWW, or W3, is a way that information is moved around the Internet, the world-wide network of computer networks, providing text, files, graphics, sounds and moving pictures. It is a hypertext- based Internet service used for browsing Internet resources. |
| Worm | A worm is a virus that does not infect other programs. It makes copies of itself, and infects additional computers (typically by making use of network connections) but does not attach itself to additional programs; however a worm might alter, install, or destroy files and programs. |
| WPA | 1. Windows Product Activation. An anti-piracy measure from Microsoft where each copy of software can only be used for a limited time before it stops working unless the product is activated - either by phone or across the internet. Activation involves checking that the product key has not already been registered and ties the product to the machine on which it is being registered. The software can then not be activated on anther PC. |
| WRAM (Windows RAM) | A type of memory chip, or RAM, that was commonly used at one time in graphics cards on PCs. It is dual-ported so that graphics information can be displayed at the same time that it is being refreshed, much like with VRAM. This can give an increase in display speed over conventional memory. |
| Write Protect Tab | This phrase was initially coined for older floppy diskettes that needed to be write-protected by placing a tab or sticker over a notch that told a floppy drive that the disk was write-enabled. With the standard 3.5″ floppy disks, the write protect tabs are replaced by small plastic parts that can be enabled by setting them to up or down positions. |
| WSDL | Web Services Description Language. A standard by which a web service can tell clients what messages it accepts and which results it will return. WSDL is an XML language which is used by service interfaces and protocol agreements, among others, for describing access to Web Services. WSDL is independent from the underlying service implementation language or component model. |
| WSUS | Windows Server Update Services. |
| WUS | Windows Update Services. A successor from Microsoft to SUS. |
| WWW | World Wide Web. Often abbreviated to just "Web". The World Wide Web is the collection of all web pages available across the world. It is referred to as a web because each page can contain links to other pages, and these links (links to pages which link to other pages which link to other pages and so forth) making a network or web of pages. Page links may be to pages on the same site, or to other sites - since the network of links ultimately straddles the globe it is truly a world wide web. |
| WYSIWYG | Stands for "What You See Is What You Get," and is pronounced "wihzeewig." WYSIWYG refers to software that accurately represents the final output during the development phase. For example, a desktop publishing program such as Photoshop is a WYSIWYG graphics program because it can display images on the screen the same way they will look when printed on paper. Word processing programs like Microsoft Word and Apple Pages are both WYSIWYG editors, because they include page layout modes that accurately display what the documents will look when printed. While WYSIWYG originally referred to programs that produce physical output, the term is now also used to describe applications that produce software output. For example, most Web development programs are called WYSIWYG editors since they show what Web pages will look like as the developer is creating them. This means that the developer can move text and images around the page to make it appear exactly how he or she wants before publishing the page on the Web. When the page is published, it should appear nearly the same on the Web as the way it looked in the Web development program. Of course, as most Web developers know, there is no guarantee that a Web page will look the same in two different browsers, such as Internet Explorer and Firefox. But at least a WYSIWYG editor can give developers a close approximation of what the published page will look like. |
