30 Facts About Windows 2000

1.

Windows 2000 is a major release of the Windows NT operating system developed by Microsoft and oriented towards businesses.

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2.

Four editions of Windows 2000 were released: Professional, Server, Advanced Server, and Datacenter Server; the latter was both released to manufacturing and launched months after the other editions.

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3.

Windows 2000 is the final version of Windows which supports PC-98, I486 and SGI Visual Workstation 320 and 540, as well as Alpha, MIPS and PowerPC in alpha, beta, and release candidate versions.

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4.

Windows 2000 is a continuation of the Microsoft Windows NT family of operating systems, replacing Windows NT 4.

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5.

Windows 2000 did not have an actual codename because, according to Dave Thompson of Windows NT team, "Jim Allchin didn't like codenames".

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6.

Windows 2000 is the last public release of Windows for PC-98, I486 and SGI Visual Workstation 320 and 540 as Windows XP runs solely on IA-32 only.

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7.

Windows 2000 was initially planned to replace both Windows 98 and Windows NT 4.

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8.

Windows 2000 introduced USB device class drivers for USB printers, Mass storage class devices, and improved FireWire SBP-2 support for printers and scanners, along with a Safe removal applet for storage devices.

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9.

Windows 2000 is the first Windows version to support hibernation at the operating system level unlike Windows 98 which required special drivers from the hardware manufacturer or driver developer.

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10.

Windows 2000 introduced core system administration and management features as the Windows Installer, Windows Management Instrumentation and Event Tracing for Windows into the operating system.

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11.

Windows 2000 introduced version 3 print drivers based on Unidrv, which made it easier for printer manufacturers to write device drivers for printers.

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12.

Windows 2000 introduces layered windows that allow for transparency, translucency and various transition effects like shadows, gradient fills and alpha-blended GUI elements to top-level windows.

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13.

Windows 2000 Explorer introduces customizable Windows Explorer toolbars, auto-complete in Windows Explorer address bar and Run box, advanced file type association features, displaying comments in shortcuts as tooltips, extensible columns in Details view, icon overlays, integrated search pane in Windows Explorer, sort by name function for menus, and Places bar in common dialogs for Open and Save.

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14.

Until the dedicated interactive preview pane appeared in Windows Vista, Windows 2000 had been the only Windows release to feature an interactive media player as the previewer for sound and video files, enabled by default.

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15.

Windows 2000 introduces a Distributed Link Tracking service to ensure file shortcuts remain working even if the target is moved or renamed.

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16.

Windows 2000 introduced the Logical Disk Manager and the diskpart command line tool for dynamic storage.

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17.

Windows 2000 introduced the Microsoft Management Console, which is used to create, save, and open administrative tools.

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18.

Windows 2000 comes with two utilities to edit the Windows registry, REGEDIT.

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19.

Windows 2000 XP is the first system to integrate these two programs into a single utility, adopting the REGEDIT behavior with the additional NT features.

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20.

All editions of Windows 2000 Server have the following services and features built in:.

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21.

However, Windows 2000 Professional is the first client operating system able to exploit Active Directory's new features.

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22.

Windows 2000 Professional was designed as the desktop operating system for businesses and power users.

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23.

Furthermore, Windows 2000 introduced a Domain Name Server which allows dynamic registration of IP addresses.

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24.

Windows 2000 Advanced Server is a variant of Windows 2000 Server operating system designed for medium-to-large businesses.

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25.

Windows 2000 Datacenter Server is a variant of Windows 2000 Server designed for large businesses that move large quantities of confidential or sensitive data frequently via a central server.

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26.

Windows 2000 has received four full service packs and one rollup update package following SP4, which is the last service pack.

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27.

Several Windows 2000 components are upgradable to latest versions, which include new versions introduced in later versions of Windows, and other major Microsoft applications are available.

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28.

Microsoft in 2020 announced that it would disable the Windows Update service for SHA-1 endpoints and since Windows 2000 did not get an update for SHA-2, Windows Update Services are no longer available on the OS as of late July 2020.

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29.

However, as of April 2021, the old updates for Windows 2000 are still available on the Microsoft Update Catalog.

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30.

IDC determined that the four areas where Windows 2000 had a better TCO than Linux – over a period of five years for an average organization of 100 employees – were file, print, network infrastructure and security infrastructure.

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