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List of Microsoft codenames

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This article lists some of the code names used by Microsoft to refer to its products before their final release. Since many of these releases, particularly those of new versions of Windows, are of major significance to the IT community, the terms are often widely used in discussions prior to the official release. Microsoft generally does not announce a final name until shortly before the product is finished, although it is usually possible to speculate ("Memphis", for instance, was expected to be "Windows 97", but was delayed).

Codename Preliminary name Final name Notes
Windows family
Janus Windows 3.1
Kato Windows for Workgroups 3.1
Snowball Windows for Workgroups 3.11
Chicago Windows 95
Detroit Windows 95B (OSR 2)
Memphis Windows 97 Windows 98 The codename was the key to activating an easter egg in Windows 98:
  • open the "Date and Time" control panel;
  • go to the "Timezone" page;
  • hold the Control key and drag a line with the mouse cursor from Memphis, Egypt (or maybe Cairo, codename of Windows NT 4 - the map is too small to tell) to Memphis, Tennessee. Still holding the Control key, drag another line from Memphis to Redmond, Washington;
  • a window opens with the credits for Windows 98.
Millenium, Georgia Windows Me
Windows NT family
OS/2 3.0 Windows NT Windows NT 3.1 There never was a Windows NT 1.0. The version number was chosen to mirror the Windows version number at the time
Daytona Windows NT 3.5
Cairo Windows NT 4.0
Wolfpack Cluster Server
Hydra Terminal Services Terminal Server Terminal Server adds "multiheading" support to Windows, and the hydra was a mythological monster with multiple heads.
Impala Windows NT 4.0 Embedded
Windows NT 5.0 Windows 2000 A watershed in Windows naming:
  • first major Windows release since Windows 2.0 without a codename;
  • first major Windows NT release whose workstation variant was named "Professional" instead of "Workstation";
  • first major Windows NT release without the "NT" designation in the trade name, which caused confusion when Windows ME was released. The Windows line has been since dropped altogether, and Windows NT operating systems are now simply referred to as "Windows".
Astroid Windows 2000 Service Pack 1
Janus Windows 2000 64-bit Same codename as Windows 3.1.
Odyssey N/A Never released.
Neptune N/A A "Consumer" version based on the Windows 2000 codebase. Never released (became Whistler).
Whistler Windows XP Merge of Neptune and Odyssey. Named after Whistler, British Columbia, where design retreats were held.
Mantis Windows XP Embedded
Freestyle Windows XP Media Center Edition 1.0
Harmony Windows XP Media Center Edition 1.5
Whistler Server Windows .NET Server Windows Server 2003 One of many unrelated Microsoft projects of the time to carry a ".NET" designation. See: Microsoft .NET.
Bobcat Windows Server 2003 Small Business Edition
Longhorn N/A Not released yet (as of April 2005). Named after a bar in the Whistler-Blackcomb resort; initially planned as an "interim release" between "Whistler" and "Blackcomb".
Blackcomb N/A Not released yet (as of April 2005). Named after the Whistler-Blackcomb resort ("Whistler" was also a codename, see above).
Others
COM+ 2.5 Microsoft .NET
COM+ 2.5 Runtime (COR) Microsoft .NET Framework
Quartz ActiveMovie DirectShow
Darwin Microsoft Installer Windows Installer
Godot Microsoft Layer for Unicode Named after the play Waiting for Godot (centered around the failure of a man named "Godot" to appear and the endless wait for him), because it was felt to be long overdue (source).
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