treasures seas

The essence of the game revolves in transporting a small submarine to a location where you will possible find a treasure under the sea. Every treasure gives you money, you can buy upgrades for your submarine with the money to find more treasure.

You have to watch out for the sharks as they will destroy your sub causing you to loose one life. The main part of the game relies on the ability of your submarine to stand pressure, the battery life and the amount of oxygen you have to make your trips under water.

You can increase the depth, you can go under water by buying plating, you will also need to buy a floodlight to see into the deep.

You will also have to buy oxygen tanks and batteries to make your trips longer.The friendly dolphins give you tips as to where the treasure is located and you can sell the sea weed you collect on the way for money on a particular island.

Treasure Seas Incorporated Controls:

The controls of the game are fairly simple,
Space Bar : Drops and Picks the Submarine from the water, Arrow Keys: Navigation, A: Picks up treasure, I: Displays the items you have or purchased, Enter: Enter and exit Island shops.

Hope you enjoy your treasure hunt…

flix 2

What kind of a game is flix 2, hmmm its been a while since I played an adventure game like this. Flix is a green blob, that also has a frog like long tongue  The simple objective of flix 2 is to make your way from a level to another avoiding obstacles and munching on flix snacks 

But that’s not all, flix can roll, jump, grapple and much more combined with some nice tunes this game is a good fun game to play. Although I’m not the kind of person to put a ready made screen shot into a game, after progressing through many levels, I wanted to see what happens if I get squished under an elevator, unfortunately  that’s a bug I had to restart Flix 2 from scratch as I couldn’t move, although it doesn’t happen all the time.

Anyway, I did have a good time playing it but never managed to get started again from where I was when the elevator incident took place. The game comes with some neat levels with good variation in environments and some nice beats along with it. Overall Flix 2 is a game that will take you through some entertaining levels with some good game play.

coma

If you recollect the game Skinny, created by Thomas Brush. Here’s Coma, his earlier creation, similar style, shorter and more mellow, quite mellow as compared to Skinny.

Just like a Coma, you wake into the game, no intro just a bunch of keys chalked out in the game art and off you go, immersed into the protagonist’s dream. A dream where talking birds and characters guide you through until you wake up, or maybe not?

As you pass through scenes that don’t stack together because of how different each part is, as different as left becomes right and vice versa, you uncover the mystery of where your sister could be.

Coma is an audio visual delight and its better late than never to find itself on the blog full of games, a special thanks to Thomas Brush! Remember whatever you do, don’t ring the door bell 

fancy pants 3

Like all of us, we too have our favorite games, this one year has been one of our most awaited games, the fancy pants adventure world 3. Oh and what an adventure, the fancy pants adventure series has taken a leap ahead with this release.

While retaining the awesome physics the earlier fancy pants adventures had , world 3 has added in so many more aspects to the gameplay, much more humor, more action, more enemies, more music and yes a lot more fun.

What starts off as a mission to find a bath tub ends up at saving your sister who has been kidnapped by the pirates. Although fancy pants doesn’t know she’s been put in charge after she knocked out the captain and locked him up along with his stash of rum.

As usual the game maps are sized well and involve a lot of bonus areas and a good amount of jumping, fighting and searching fro you to get through the later levels. The game offers you 9 levels of fun and is bound to take up a good amount of time, thanks to the awesome auto save feature; you can just come back to the game at any time and have a go at it.

Another super addition to the game is the new weapon you now have, apart from the usual jumps and slides you have a pencil now, all yours to poke some lead into those pesky ninjas.

The fancy pants adventure world 3 has met our expectations on every front, though we wish it could be a wee bit longer.

chibi knight

Chibi Knight is yet another super fun action game from Armor Games. In this action RPG you take control of a knight whose mission is to destroy the three beasts who have taken over your hometown, Oukoku.

You are a little knight who is just learning the basics, while the wizards of the land have gone into hiding, except the one who stays just close to the start point of the game, you get your first magic spell from him.

As you find more wizards you can learn more powerful spells, the kingdom is crawling with weaker enemies that can help you level up and improve either your Armor, Magic or Weapon skills. The game art is cartoony adding a very fun element to it, the animation I mean.

The story line is very simple and the game consists of a small but fun map, where you can interact with certain characters and also do tasks that give you benefits. You need to also kill certain monsters to unlock paths or tools that help you progress to the next stage.

Theres a complete maze inbuilt into this game where its not so easy to get lost, but easy to find monsters to find. Although it seems they decided to keep the game short by putting up all three beasts in one room.

Each beast in this game has a specific method to kill making it a requirement for a certain amount of skill and co-ordination. Leaving you, perhaps trying a number of times because of the repetitive requirements for the beast to be slain. But if that doesn’t add to the fun of the game, boy your missing out on something 

fancy pants 2

I am speechless, I was looking for a game and really wanted a good one, since its been tough finding one lately, most of the best online games are already here on the blog and then I struck gold.

Fancy Pants Adventure World 2, created by Brad Borne and he sure has made one entertaining game. It not unusual for me to stop playing a game cause of my hectic work schedule but this game just pushed away my work today.

You are this tiny stick figure in ‘Fancy Pants’ who is on a mission through an adventure world down the rabbits hole. It sure is an extremely creative game with some awesome physics, the fancy pants man can run and somersault in the air to gather points, it is an evolved concept of Mario to a certain extent.

I recommend you play Fancy Pants Adventure thats the first part as well or you can start with the second part as its got a new story line, but you will be able to see the changes and improvements in the newer version. Each round involves golf with a snail shell, once you find the snail, jump on the shell and get it into the golf hole.

Its easy for the first level but the next just gets tougher, I have embedded a video of the same. The game also gets tougher towards the end not just the snail part of it, but getting there is so much fun. The frustrating part is dying at the end of a level, it means you go back to the start so take care and enjoy this brilliant adventure game.

There’s a lot of bonus areas in this adventure game, so have a ball of a time unlocking stuff and just having a fancy time!

sonny

There are so many Zombie killing games available online and on our blog, like theEndless Zombie Rampage or the Boxhead Zombie Wars. But rarely do you find a game where you play the part of a Zombie, let me introduce you to Sonny, the character you play.

A talking zombie with no memories and a lot of enemies as you try to unravel the story in this well made role playing game and solve answers to your existence. The game play is styled similar to final fantasy with a range of weapons, power ups and abilities that keep the game interesting.

The various kind of enemies, some funny like the rock star and many powerful enough to destroy you in the first go, you can play test battles to level up and get more items. Theres not too much of a story line except at the game start as you progress its just some intense battles.

Overall Sonny is a fun game and if you like adventure based rpgs you are surely going to have a good time.

skinny

When i first saw a screen of the game, I was like, should I play this one, would Skinny be good enough for the site, but soon I was hooked onto Skinny’s adventure with the story line intertwined with the game.

I had not played Coma so I wasn’t familiar with Thomas Brush’s style of games, but after playing skinny I ended up trying Coma as well and will give it a complete go prior to putting it up here. Ok now lets take a look into what skinny has to offer.

You start off with a basic mission where your son looses his marbles, the son looks like the end character as well which perhaps was not intended to be noticed, as it has nothing to do with how the story line proceeds. You are a robot taking orders from a character called mama, who has people connected to the system, a touch of matrix here.

There is a lil girl that helps piece together the story and a anti climax end, but along the way while your playing you are definitely wondering wtf is going on at points of time. The game play is equally immersive with some nice elements of puzzle and skill wrapped up in the adventure.

You mostly have to gather stuff and drop them off, but thats a crude way of putting it, cause the story and gameplay make it a lot more interesting that what it could have been…

As you proceed through the game you feel like your being used to help an evil person/robot continue his domination over the world and help him/her keep the surviving humans as good as vegetables.

Interesting story line, now do what Mama asks you to, the game sometimes feels like a pun to our current existence as well, awesome sauce!

thing thing 4

If you played Thing Thing 3 and enjoyed it even a little bit, as the maps were quite confusing, Thing Thing 4 has a lot more to add which makes it very interesting.
Not only has Thing Thing 4 improved in the way of an easier navigation through levels, but a host of new meaner weapons and a story to begin the game with which makes it much more interesting. Although the game play stays more or less the same the movements now seem to be a little more fluid.
So you are on your journey to freedom, the one man army that you are you, you take down as many enemies as possible in this fast paced online shooting game. Jump about to avoid being an easy target. There is no life indicator except when your screen starts getting red reminds me of the good old wolf and doom games. When you notice too much blood on your screen your probably going to die.
The good feature is you can start the game where you left off so you can comeback and continue from the last level at any point of time, the game I feel will be considerably long but definitely is worth the time you are going to spend on it.
In the Genetic Research Lab you may get a little bored especially if you are out of weapons and have a shit load of zombies to kill, I suggest you keep some bullets for the next level which would require you to have to shoot your way through hell.

FWG knight

After trying a bit of Patapon on the PSP I was looking out for a flash version of the game, well I did find a three level demo of Patapon Beat Camp, but it was too short so I started to look for the full version. Somehow this Patapon like animated game called FWG Knight, FWG stands for the Free World Group is what I came across.
I tried the game, and then I tried it again and again and again. I ended up playing it for a couple of days before I put it up here. I even found the next version FWG Knight 2 and finished that one, but since the latter is relatively new its not yet available to embed but as once as its available you know you will find it here.
So FWG Knight got me stumped it was good fun slashing and lancing my way through the hundreds of enemies. Jumping high to get a blow at the dragon who attacks me, to get a high score which I never managed. I survived for a maximum of 4.8 days with around 430 enemies slashed but that was it.
I still do not mind the game as its so simple yet entertaining, I think this would be one game that you would not mind giving a shot again to beat your previous performance.

the electricman 2

Yes Electric man is a blast from the past, an old game that I had enjoyed playing and decided to put it up on this flash games blog! What is it about this game I like, for starters its fast paced, it has slow motion matrix style action as well and there are loads of enemies with different skills!
Although the game is a little tough to get used to as you have eight keys to control Electricman, three slow motion, three normal action and two to move left and right. One of my favorite moves is the running and grabbing move that flings enemies up, watch out they can land on you as well.
The game also seems to be a little tacky at times but it ain’t so bad, overall I am pretty sure most of you will have a good time playing this one and its a long overdue update for the action section!

SAS zombie assult two

Some of you may have played SAS Zombie Assault this is the sequence to that game, the game play is the same as the first part with a lot of new functions. If you recollect Zombie Assault One was based in a specific location a map though not too large you had to run about quite a bit.
The new version allows you to unlock new parts of the map, I am not sure if this is a good idea, you need to, to be able to find new guns and weapons.
But the more you unlock the more barricades more the zombies, more killing and definitely more fun. If you have not played the previous version, all you need to know is that you need to kill the zombies and survive.
You are in a room with barricades, the zombies break them and enter, so you need to fix them and kill them to survive. For every zombie you kill you get cash to upgrade weapons and features.
You can also get stronger barricades, sentry guns, etc, or does that make it easy? Not really as the zombies get stronger, variety is the spice of life isn’t it. You can even try Endless Zombie Rampage if you like this game, its quite similar except there’s no safe house like this game, your out in the open.

tripod attack

Remember that terrible Tom Cruise movie, War of the Worlds? Did you ever find yourself rooting for the alien tripods to win? Well, I need not say more. Tripod Attack is exactly what the name of the game is. You play the evil alien tripod out to destroy all humanity, and I assure you that you’re going to have a ball doing it!
The game is fairly simple by all means. Use your mouse to aim and destroy all resistance. And resistance is tough! It’s like having the entire US Army on your behind, and that’s exactly what you need to have for some explosive fun with the ray. The game gets surprisingly difficult at times thanks to the weapon needing constant recharging along with your shield, turning the fairly simple task of blowing stuff up into a calculated start-stop attack, not forgetting to keep an eye on your armor. For once your armor is depleted that’s the end of the line for you.
Tripod Attack, allows you to upgrade your alien tripod after each level. Choose your upgrades very carefully, or you would be taking longer than normal to get past levels. The artwork in the game is good, not outstanding. But the different types of soldiers, vehicles, tanks, helicopters and jets keep the game interesting, adding a new level of difficulty on every stage. But i’m pretty sure you will need to go back a couple of levels to get credits to upgrade and progress.
Gameplay is smooth and keeps your mouse engaged at all times, although the game tends to get boring sometimes. I mean, not that Tripod Attack relies on any sort of realism, but that damn tripod just walks way too slow for its own good. The sounds have been ripped from the movie, and the loud eerie tripod roar has been replicated perfectly, although the sounds of the military vehicles exploding leave a lot to be desired. The soundtrack does a decent job at keeping the whole alien invasion theme alive.
Overall, just like War of the Worlds, Tripod Attack is a leave-your-brains-on-standby experience that offers hours of destructive fun by putting you in the bad guy’s seat, a refreshing change if you ask me. So get your horns on and your mouse buttons greased, you’r an evil alien tripod, have a good time giving humanity a run for its life.

thing thing 3

Thing Thing 3 is a continuation of the Thing Thing series, it boasts of even more fast-paced action than the previous games.
Thing-Thing 3 features three enhanced survival modes, each with Internet-wide high score competition. You’ll last longer in Survival Mode if you earn some of the more powerful weapons in Story Mode first.

edless zombie rampage

From the creators of Thing Thing 3 comes another wonderful game that has got me hooked, due to the 3 different play modes, a good variety of weapons, a couple of power ups, a lot of different zombies and a lot of gore.
Defend your base from the Zombie attacks, do not die, killing zombies gives you experience points that you can exchange for upgrades. If you see the stats in the screenshot, you will realize why its endless, once you get the hang of the game it really seems to be endless!
Controls of Endless Zombie Rampage
AWSD or the Arrow Keys can be used for movement. Use the mouse to aim and left click to shoot. R or Num 0 reloads the weapon.

the last stand part 2

So here’s the sequel to The Last Stand, with a few options added and a few subtracted. But it sure is more fun and the bugs seem to have decreased as compared to the earlier version. The biggest change is that your not at one location you move from one to the other and at each location you can now choose which part of the city you want to scan in the day time. There are new weapons, but that is not too much different as when you compare it to the fact that you can now put traps in the room to help you take down the zombies. There are minor glitches sometimes after killing a dog he could still be standing for a particular reason.
But that does not take away the fun from the game, a major change to the game play is that you have a select amount of days to get to Union City and the biggest disappointment when you get to union city is that the game is over, without any shooting or killing.
So do not rush through the game take your time to play in the maximum amount of places before you get to union city, it sure looks like we are going to see the last stand part three. What would be even better if someone makes a full fledged action shooter based on this game, I can imagine it to be a lot of fun.

vector boom

Vector Boom is a different kind of an action game, well it can also fall into the defend your space station genre In short the game is, to defend your space station and destroy the hoards of enemies coming towards it.
Well how you attack in this game is unique, you draw a line anywhere on the screen and it becomes the radius of the missiles explosion, but the bigger the radius the more power gets used up, so you have to use it wisely.
There are power ups available during game play like the shield, max power that allows you to draw big lines and clear out the entire screen and magnet that pulls all the enemies together in one place making it easier for you to wipe them out.
There are a range of other upgrades after each level for you to boost your damage, add turrets to the space station, decrease recharge time etc that make this game quite interesting. Vector Boom also showcases a range of enemies, this game gets tough very fast so make the right upgrades. There are two different play modes available for you to have fun all thanks to Armor Games!

crush the castle

After being away for a month on vacation its good to be back and putting up some new games for you guys. There also has been a good amount of variety in the games that have been put up, today’s game Crush the Castle is not a defense game as you may have assumed but a skill game. You have a trebuchet, a medivial catapult and you have these funny structures that you need to bring down, you have a limited amount of shots to kill everyone in the castle.
As you progress through the levels the castles get tougher to destroy, from wood to cemented larger structures but the stones you catapult get upgraded as well.
The game requires you to click to activate the trebuchet and then click again to release the stone. The timing of the release enables the stone to fly higher or further depending on what you need to crush the castle. Its funny to see how the people in the castle die, have a good one.

shadez 2

If you recollect Shadez, a game built by Sean Cooper, the man who has a belt of games under him like the Boxhead Zombie Wars and more. Well Shadez had an interesting game play, the weaponry and upgrades were interesting, but it lacked good levels.
But this has changed in Shadez 2: Battle for Earth, you no longer are fighting against humans but a different species that has different weaponry. Also the game play has dramatically changed, you now have to gather resources build your city, army and then take on the enemy.
Not only does it have a skirmish mode where you can get down and dirty right away but you also can choose mission where the game play varies from defeating enemies, to rescuing civilians and also defending structures like the defend the white house mission.
Shadez 2 pushes the game play even further with a range of structures, tanks, choppers and infantry, you also have turrets and missile launchers to protect your base. This game offers a good variety of everything and extremely enjoyable game play as compared to the first version of Shadez. Sit back and get ready to blast some alien bases to pieces!

age of war

Do you remember Age of War? Well if you played Age of War on the blog full of games, today we have Age of War 2. More units more upgrades and much more fun.
The game was fun at that time, today its even better, very easy to beat on easy modes and insanely tough on the insane mode. For those of you who have never played it. Well you start of it pre historic times, you have a castle and so does the computer. You build units starting off with a club man and ending up with cyborgs after passing through the ages in history from the romans, egyptians, modern warfare to a futuristic mode.
You need to kill enemy units for experience points that you can either use to launch a special attack or collect to progress to a new age, the second option always seemed better for me.
Age of War 2 includes a game speed setting that was not present in the first part, plus an additional unit for all the stages. What’s even better is the the units now have specific upgrades that decides the outcome of the game. With a range of new upgrade, thoroughly improved game art, sound and gameplay, Age of War 2 is a must play, thanks to Max games!

microsoft windows

Microsoft Windows is a series of graphical interface operating systems developed, marketed, and sold by Microsoft.
Microsoft introduced an operating environment named Windows on November 20, 1985 as an add-on to MS-DOS in response to the growing interest in graphical user interfaces (GUIs).^[2] Microsoft Windows came to dominate the world's personal computer market with over 90% market share, overtaking Mac OS, which had been introduced in 1984.
The most recent client version of Windows is Windows 7; the most recent server version is Windows Server 2012; the most recent mobile version is Windows Phone 7.5.

Contents 1 Versions 1.1 Early versions 1.2 Windows 3.0 and 3.1 1.3 Windows 95, 98, and Me 1.4 Windows NT family 1.4.1 64-bit operating systems 1.5 Windows CE 1.6 Windows 8 2 History 3 Timeline of releases 4 Usage share 5 Security 5.1 File permissions 5.2 Windows Defender 5.3 Third-party analysis 6 Emulation software 7 See also 8 References 9 External links

Versions

See also: List of Microsoft Windows versions

The term Windows collectively describes any or all of several generations of Microsoft operating system products. These products are generally categorized as follows:

The classic Windows logo, used from 1992 until the release of Windows XP in 2001

Early versions

Main articles: Windows 1.0, Windows 2.0, and Windows 2.1x

Windows 1.0, the first version, released in 1985

The history of Windows dates back to September 1981, when Chase Bishop, a computer scientist, designed the first model of an electronic device and project "Interface Manager" was started. It was announced in November 1983 (after the Apple Lisa, but before the Macintosh) under the name "Windows", but Windows 1.0 was not released until November 1985.^[3] The shell of Windows 1.0 was a program known as the MS-DOS Executive. Other supplied programs were Calculator, Calendar, Cardfile, Clipboard viewer, Clock, Control Panel, Notepad, Paint, Reversi, Terminal, and Write. Windows 1.0 did not allow overlapping windows. Instead all windows were tiled. Only dialog boxes could appear over other windows.
Windows 2.0 was released in October 1987 and featured several improvements to the user interface and memory management.^[3] Windows 2.0 allowed application windows to overlap each other and also introduced more sophisticated keyboard shortcuts. It could also make use of expanded memory.
Windows 2.1 was released in two different versions: Windows/386 employed the 386 virtual 8086 mode to multitask several DOS programs, and the paged memory model to emulate expanded memory using available extended memory. Windows/286 (which, despite its name, would run on the 8086) still ran in real mode, but could make use of the high memory area.
In addition to full Windows-packages, there were runtime only versions that shipped with early Windows software from third parties and made it possible to run their Windows software under MS-DOS and without the full Windows feature set.
The early versions of Windows were often thought of as simply graphical user interfaces, mostly because they ran on top of MS-DOS and used it for file system services.^[4] However, even the earliest 16-bit Windows versions already assumed many typical operating system functions; notably, having their own executable file format and providing their own device drivers (timer, graphics, printer, mouse, keyboard and sound) for applications. Unlike MS-DOS, Windows allowed users to execute multiple graphical applications at the same time, through cooperative multitasking. Windows implemented an elaborate, segment-based, software virtual memory scheme, which allowed it to run applications larger than available memory: code segments and resources were swapped in and thrown away when memory became scarce, and data segments moved in memory when a given application had relinquished processor control.

Windows 3.0 and 3.1

Main articles: Windows 3.0 and Windows 3.1x

Windows 3.0, released in 1990

Windows 3.0 (1990) and Windows 3.1 (1992) improved the design, mostly because of virtual memory and loadable virtual device drivers (VxDs) that allowed them to share arbitrary devices between multitasked DOS windows.^{[citation needed]} Also, Windows applications could now run in protected mode (when Windows was running in Standard or 386 Enhanced Mode), which gave them access to several megabytes of memory and removed the obligation to participate in the software virtual memory scheme. They still ran inside the same address space, where the segmented memory provided a degree of protection, and multi-tasked cooperatively. For Windows 3.0, Microsoft also rewrote critical operations from C into assembly.

Windows 95, 98, and Me

Main articles: Windows 95, Windows 98, and Windows Me

Windows 95, released in August 1995

Windows 95 was released in August 1995, featuring a new object oriented user interface, support for long file names of up to 255 characters, and the ability to automatically detect and configure installed hardware (plug and play). It could natively run 32-bit applications, and featured several technological improvements that increased its stability over Windows 3.1. There were several OEM Service Releases (OSR) of Windows 95, each of which was roughly equivalent to a service pack.
Microsoft's next release was Windows 98 in June 1998. Microsoft released a second version of Windows 98 in May 1999, named Windows 98 Second Edition (often shortened to Windows 98 SE).
In February 2000, Windows 2000 (in the NT family) was released, followed by Windows Me in September 2000 (Me standing for Millennium Edition). Windows Me updated the core from Windows 98, but adopted some aspects of Windows 2000 and removed the "boot in DOS mode" option. It also added a new feature called System Restore, allowing the user to set the computer's settings back to an earlier date.
Windows Millennium Edition is often confused with Windows 2000 (because of its name), and has been said to be one of the worst operating systems Microsoft ever released.^[5]

Windows NT family

The Windows logo used from 2001 to 2006, for the Windows XP operating system.

The Windows logo used from 2006 to 2012, for the Windows Vista and Windows 7 operating systems.

Main article: Windows NT

The NT family of Windows systems was fashioned and marketed for higher reliability business use. The first release was NT 3.1 (1993), numbered "3.1" to match the consumer Windows version, which was followed by NT 3.5 (1994), NT 3.51 (1995), NT 4.0 (1996), and Windows 2000, which is the last NT-based Windows release that does not include Microsoft Product Activation. Windows NT 4.0 was the first in this line to implement the "Windows 95" user interface (and the first to include Windows 95's built-in 32-bit runtimes).
Microsoft then moved to combine their consumer and business operating systems with Windows XP that was released on October 25, 2001. It came both in home and professional versions (and later niche market versions for tablet PCs and media centers); they also diverged release schedules for server operating systems. Windows Server 2003, released a year and a half after Windows XP, brought Windows Server up to date with Windows XP. After a lengthy development process, Windows Vista was released on November 30, 2006 for volume licensing and January 30, 2007 for consumers. Its server counterpart, Windows Server 2008 was released in early 2008. On July 22, 2009, Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 were released as RTM (release to manufacturing) while the former was released to the public 3 months later on October 22, 2009.

64-bit operating systems

Windows NT included support for several different platforms before the x86-based personal computer became dominant in the professional world. Versions of NT from 3.1 to 4.0 variously supported PowerPC, DEC Alpha and MIPS R4000, some of which were 64-bit processors, although the operating system treated them as 32-bit processors.
With the introduction of the Intel Itanium architecture (also known as IA-64), Microsoft released new versions of Windows to support it. Itanium versions of Windows XP and Windows Server 2003 were released at the same time as their mainstream x86 (32-bit) counterparts. On April 25, 2005, Microsoft released Windows XP Professional x64 Edition and Windows Server 2003 x64 Editions to support the x86-64 (or x64 in Microsoft terminology) architecture. Microsoft dropped support for the Itanium version of Windows XP in 2005. Windows Vista was the first end-user version of Windows that Microsoft released simultaneously in x86 and x64 editions. Windows Vista does not support the Itanium architecture. The modern 64-bit Windows family comprises AMD64/Intel64 versions of Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008, in both Itanium and x64 editions. Windows Server 2008 R2 drops the 32-bit version, although Windows 7 does not.

Windows CE

Main articles: Windows CE and Windows Phone

The latest current version of Windows CE, Windows Embedded Compact 7, displaying a possible UI for what the media player can look like.

Windows CE (officially known as Windows Embedded Compact), is an edition of Windows that runs on minimalistic computers, like satellite navigation systems and some mobile phones. Windows Embedded Compact is based on its own dedicated kernel, dubbed Windows CE kernel. Microsoft licenses Windows CE to OEMs and device makers. The OEMs and device makers can modify and create their own user interfaces and experiences, while Windows CE provides the technical foundation to do so.
Windows CE was used in the Dreamcast along with Sega's own proprietary OS for the console. Windows CE is the core from which Windows Mobile is derived. Microsoft's latest mobile OS, Windows Phone, is based on components from both Windows CE 6.0 R3 and the current Windows CE 7.0.
Windows Embedded Compact is not to be confused with Windows XP Embedded or Windows NT 4.0 Embedded, modular editions of Windows based on Windows NT kernel.

Windows 8

The Start Screen of Windows 8 RTM (Build 9200).

Windows 8, the successor to Windows 7, has finished its development, and will be released to the market on 26 October 2012. Windows 8 has been designed to be used on both tablets and the conventional PC. The Microsoft Surface tablet is to be released alongside Windows 8, as a competitor to the Apple iPad and Samsung Galaxy Tab. It has been announced by Microsoft that Windows Surface will be available in two editions - one for the typical end user, and a Professional edition aimed at designers and other work-based users. Windows 8 was released to manufacturing on 1 August 2012, with a build of 6.2.9200.

History

Main article: History of Microsoft Windows

The first version of Microsoft Windows, version 1.0, released in November 1985, lacked a degree of functionality, achieved little popularity and was to compete with Apple's own operating system. Windows 1.0 is not a complete operating system; rather, it extends MS-DOS. Microsoft Windows version 2.0 was released in November 1987 and was slightly more popular than its predecessor. Windows 2.03 (release date January 1988) had changed the OS from tiled windows to overlapping windows. The result of this change led to Apple Computer filing a suit against Microsoft alleging infringement on Apple's copyrights.^[6][7]

The Windows family tree

Microsoft Windows version 3.0, released in 1990, was the first Microsoft Windows version to achieve broad commercial success, selling 2 million copies in the first six months.^[8][9] It featured improvements to the user interface and to multitasking capabilities. It received a facelift in Windows 3.1, made generally available on March 1, 1992. In August 1993, a special version with integrated peer-to-peer networking was released with version number 3.11. It was sold parallelly with the basic version under name Windows for Workgroups. Windows 3.1 support ended on December 31, 2001.^[10]
In July 1993, Microsoft released Windows NT based on a new kernel. Windows NT 3.1 was the first release of Windows NT. NT was considered to be the professional OS and was the first Windows version to utilize preemptive multitasking.^{[citation needed]} Windows NT would later be retooled to also function as a home operating system, with Windows XP.
On August 24, 1995, Microsoft released Windows 95, a new, and major, consumer version that made further changes to the user interface, and also used preemptive multitasking. Windows 95 was designed to replace not only Windows 3.1, but also Windows for Workgroups, and MS-DOS. It was also the first Windows operating system to include object oriented document management and use Plug and Play capabilities. The changes Windows 95 brought to the desktop were revolutionary, as opposed to evolutionary, such as those in Windows 98 and Windows Me. Mainstream support for Windows 95 ended on December 31, 2000 and extended support for Windows 95 ended on December 31, 2001.^[11]
Next in the consumer line was Microsoft Windows 98 released on June 25, 1998. It was followed with the release of Windows 98 Second Edition (Windows 98 SE) in 1999. Mainstream support for Windows 98 ended on June 30, 2002 and extended support for Windows 98 ended on July 11, 2006.^[12]
As part of its "professional" line, Microsoft released Windows 2000 in February 2000. During 2004 part of the Source Code for Windows 2000 was leaked onto the Internet. This was bad for Microsoft as the same kernel used in Windows 2000 was used in Windows XP. The consumer version following Windows 98 was Windows Me (Windows Millennium Edition). Released in September 2000, Windows Me implemented a number of new technologies for Microsoft: most notably publicized was "Universal Plug and Play". Windows Me was heavily criticized due to slowness, freezes and hardware problems.
In October 2001, Microsoft released Windows XP, a version built on the Windows NT kernel that also retained the consumer-oriented usability of Windows 95 and its successors. This new version was widely praised in computer magazines.^[13] It shipped in two distinct editions, "Home" and "Professional", the former lacking many of the superior security and networking features of the Professional edition. Additionally, the first "Media Center" edition was released in 2002,^[14] with an emphasis on support for DVD and TV functionality including program recording and a remote control. Mainstream support for Windows XP ended on April 14, 2009. Extended support will continue until April 8, 2014.^[15]
In April 2003, Windows Server 2003 was introduced, replacing the Windows 2000 line of server products with a number of new features and a strong focus on security; this was followed in December 2005 by Windows Server 2003 R2.
On January 30, 2007, Microsoft released Windows Vista. It contains a number of new features, from a redesigned shell and user interface to significant technical changes, with a particular focus on security features. It is available in a number of different editions, and has been subject to some criticism.
On October 22, 2009, Microsoft released Windows 7. Unlike its predecessor, Windows Vista, which introduced a large number of new features, Windows 7 was intended to be a more focused, incremental upgrade to the Windows line, with the goal of being compatible with applications and hardware which Windows Vista was not at the time.^[16] Windows 7 has multi-touch support, a redesigned Windows shell with a new taskbar, referred to as the Superbar, a home networking system called HomeGroup,^[17] and performance improvements.
On February 29, 2012, Microsoft released Windows 8 Consumer Preview, the beta version of Windows 8, build 8250. For the first time since Windows 95, the Start button is no longer available on the taskbar. It has been replaced with the Start screen and can be triggered by clicking the bottom-left corner of the screen and by clicking Start in the Charm or by depressing the Windows Key on the keyboard. Windows president Steven Sinofsky said more than 100,000 changes had been made since the developer version went public. In the first day of its release, Windows 8 Consumer Preview was downloaded over one million times. Microsoft released the Windows 8 Release Preview, Build 8400 on June 1, 2012. Like the Developer Preview, the Consumer Preview and the Release Preview are both set to expire on January 15, 2013.

Timeline of releases

Main article: Timeline of Microsoft Windows

[show]Timeline of releases

Windows timeline [show]

Usage share

Main article: Usage share of operating systems

Source	Net Market Share[23]	W3Counter[24]	Global Stats[25]
Date	September 2012	September 2012	September 2012
All versions	91.73%	76.6%	87.42%
Windows 7	44.04%	44.79%	52.2%
Windows XP	41.23%	25.15%	27.64%
Windows Vista	6.05%	6.36%	7.58%
Windows 8	0.3%	0.3%	—
Windows 2000	0.07%	—	—
Windows NT 4.0	0.03%	—	—
Windows 98	0.01%	—	—

Security

Consumer versions of Windows were originally designed for ease-of-use on a single-user PC without a network connection, and did not have security features built in from the outset.^[26] However, Windows NT and its successors are designed for security (including on a network) and multi-user PCs, but were not initially designed with Internet security in mind as much, since, when it was first developed in the early 1990s, Internet use was less prevalent.^[27]
These design issues combined with programming errors (e.g. buffer overflows) and the popularity of Windows means that it is a frequent target of computer worm and virus writers. In June 2005, Bruce Schneier's Counterpane Internet Security reported that it had seen over 1,000 new viruses and worms in the previous six months.^[28] In 2005, Kaspersky Lab found around 11,000 malicious programs—viruses, Trojans, back-doors, and exploits written for Windows.^[29]
Microsoft releases security patches through its Windows Update service approximately once a month (usually the second Tuesday of the month), although critical updates are made available at shorter intervals when necessary.^[30] In versions of Windows after and including Windows 2000 SP3 and Windows XP, updates can be automatically downloaded and installed if the user selects to do so. As a result, Service Pack 2 for Windows XP, as well as Service Pack 1 for Windows Server 2003, were installed by users more quickly than it otherwise might have been.^[31]
While the Windows 9x series offered the option of having profiles for multiple users, they had no concept of access privileges, and did not allow concurrent access; and so were not true multi-user operating systems. In addition, they implemented only partial memory protection. They were accordingly widely criticised for lack of security.
The Windows NT series of operating systems, by contrast, are true multi-user, and implement absolute memory protection. However, a lot of the advantages of being a true multi-user operating system were nullified by the fact that, prior to Windows Vista, the first user account created during the setup process was an administrator account, which was also the default for new accounts. Though Windows XP did have limited accounts, the majority of home users did not change to an account type with fewer rights – partially due to the number of programs which unnecessarily required administrator rights – and so most home users ran as administrator all the time.
Windows Vista changes this^[32] by introducing a privilege elevation system called User Account Control. When logging in as a standard user, a logon session is created and a token containing only the most basic privileges is assigned. In this way, the new logon session is incapable of making changes that would affect the entire system. When logging in as a user in the Administrators group, two separate tokens are assigned. The first token contains all privileges typically awarded to an administrator, and the second is a restricted token similar to what a standard user would receive. User applications, including the Windows Shell, are then started with the restricted token, resulting in a reduced privilege environment even under an Administrator account. When an application requests higher privileges or "Run as administrator" is clicked, UAC will prompt for confirmation and, if consent is given (including administrator credentials if the account requesting the elevation is not a member of the administrators group), start the process using the unrestricted token.^[33]

File permissions

All Windows versions from Windows NT 3 have been based on a file system permission system referred to as AGLP (Accounts, Global, Local, Permissions) AGDLP which in essence where file permissions are applied to the file/folder in the form of a 'local group' which then has other 'global groups' as members. These global groups then hold other groups or users depending on different Windows versions used. This system varies from other vendor products such as Linux and NetWare due to the 'static' allocation of permission being applied directory to the file or folder. However using this process of AGLP/AGDLP/AGUDLP allows a small number of static permissions to be applied and allows for easy changes to the account groups without reapplying the file permissions on the files and folders.

Windows Defender

On January 6, 2005, Microsoft released a Beta version of Microsoft AntiSpyware, based upon the previously released Giant AntiSpyware. On February 14, 2006, Microsoft AntiSpyware became Windows Defender with the release of Beta 2. Windows Defender is a freeware program designed to protect against spyware and other unwanted software. Windows XP and Windows Server 2003 users who have genuine copies of Microsoft Windows can freely download the program from Microsoft's web site, and Windows Defender ships as part of Windows Vista and 7.^[34] In Windows 8, Windows Defender and Microsoft Security Essentials have been combined into a single program, named Windows Defender. It is based on Microsoft Security Essentials borrowing its features and user interface. Although it is enabled by default, it can be turned off to use another anti-virus solution.^[35]

Third-party analysis

In an article based on a report by Symantec,^[36] internetnews.com has described Microsoft Windows as having the "fewest number of patches and the shortest average patch development time of the five operating systems it monitored in the last six months of 2006."^[37]
A study conducted by Kevin Mitnick and marketing communications firm Avantgarde in 2004 found that an unprotected and unpatched Windows XP system with Service Pack 1 lasted only 4 minutes on the Internet before it was compromised, and an unprotected and also unpatched Windows Server 2003 system was compromised after being connected to the internet for 8 hours.^[38] This study does not apply to Windows XP systems running the Service Pack 2 update (released in late 2004), which vastly improved the security of Windows XP.^{[citation needed]} The computer that was running Windows XP Service Pack 2 was not compromised. The AOL National Cyber Security Alliance Online Safety Study of October 2004 determined that 80% of Windows users were infected by at least one spyware/adware product.^{[citation needed]} Much documentation is available describing how to increase the security of Microsoft Windows products. Typical suggestions include deploying Microsoft Windows behind a hardware or software firewall, running anti-virus and anti-spyware software, and installing patches as they become available through Windows Update.^[39]

Emulation software

Emulation allows the use of some Windows applications without using Microsoft Windows. These include:

• Wine – a free and open source software implementation of the Windows API, allowing one to run many Windows applications on x86-based platforms, including Linux and Mac OS X. Wine developers refer to it as a "compatibility layer";^[40] and make use of Windows-style APIs to emulate the Windows environment.
  • CrossOver – A Wine package with licensed fonts. Its developers are regular contributors to Wine, and focus on Wine running officially supported applications.
  • Cedega – TransGaming Technologies' proprietary fork of Wine, designed specifically for running games written for Microsoft Windows under Linux. A version of Cedega known as Cider is used by some video game publishers to allow Windows games to run on Mac OS X. Since Wine was licensed under the LGPL, Cedega has been unable to port the improvements made to Wine to their proprietary codebase. Cedega ceased its service in February 2011.
  • Darwine – A bundling of Wine to the PowerPC Macs running OS X by running Wine on top of QEMU. Intel Macs use the same Wine as other *NIX x86 systems.
• ReactOS – An open-source OS that is intended to run the same software as Windows, originally designed to simulate Windows NT 4.0, now aiming at Windows XP and Vista/7 compatibility. It has been in the development stage since 1996.