There has been some suggestion that Microsoft may move towards defining the real name of their upcoming products earlier in the product development lifecycle so as to avoid needing product codenames.[1]
| Codename |
Preliminary name |
Final name |
Notes |
| NT OS/2 |
OS/2 3.0 |
Windows NT 3.1 |
|
| Daytona |
|
Windows NT 3.5 |
|
| SUR (Shell Update Release), Cairo[3] |
|
Windows NT 4.0 |
Microsoft originally planned for NT 4.0 to be just a simple "Shell Update Release" to integrate the Windows 95 GUI with Windows NT 3.51's kernel. |
| Wolfpack |
|
Microsoft Cluster Server |
|
| Hydra |
|
Terminal Services, Terminal Server |
Terminal Server adds "multiheading" support to Windows (the ability to run multiple instances of the graphics subsystem), and the hydra is a mythological monster with multiple heads. |
| Impala |
|
Windows NT 4.0 Embedded |
|
| None |
Windows NT 5.0 |
Windows 2000 |
A watershed in Windows naming:
- first major Windows release since Windows 3.0 without a codename;
- first major Windows NT release whose client 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 original Windows line (Windows 9x) has since been dropped altogether, and Windows NT operating systems since then are simply referred to as "Windows".
|
| Asteroid |
|
Windows 2000 Service Pack 1 |
|
| Janus |
|
Windows 2000 64-bit |
Same codename as Windows 3.1 |
| Odyssey |
|
N/A |
Ideas project, merged to Whistler. |
| Neptune |
Windows Neptune |
N/A |
Ideas project, merged to Whistler. |
| Whistler |
|
Windows XP |
Merge of Whistler build 2202, Neptune and Project Odyssey. Named after Whistler, British Columbia, where design retreats were held. |
| Mantis |
|
Windows XP Embedded |
|
| eHome |
|
Windows XP Media Center Edition |
|
| Freestyle |
|
Windows XP Media Center Edition 2003 |
Name of a terrain rating system in the Whistler-Blackcomb resort. |
| Harmony |
|
Windows XP Media Center Edition 2004 |
Name of a ski lift and alpine bowl in Whistler, British Columbia. |
| Symphony |
|
Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005 |
Name of an alpine bowl in Whistler, British Columbia. |
| Emerald |
|
Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005 Update Rollup 2 |
Name of a ski lift in Whistler, British Columbia. |
| Trainyard |
|
Windows XP Service Pack 1 |
Trainyard was an engineering package of driver updates to ship simultaneously with Windows XP Service Pack 1, the most major of which was support for USB 2.0 which was also ported backwards to Windows 2000. |
| Springboard |
|
Windows XP Service Pack 2 |
Name of a ski run on Blackcomb in Whistler, British Columbia. |
| Lone Star |
|
Windows XP Tablet PC Edition 2005 |
A branch of the Windows XP Professional Service Pack 2 codebase, featuring enhancements specifically for Tablet PC hardware. |
| 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 Small Business Server 2003 |
Bobcat is a ski-run on Whistler Mountain. |
| Eiger |
|
Windows Fundamentals for Legacy PCs |
A low-end version of Windows XP that is intended to be a thin-client that works with older hardware. Available through Software Assurance program. The Eiger is a mountain in the Bernese Oberland in Switzerland. The Eiger is part of a trio of mountains, The Eiger, The Mönch and The Jungfrau. |
| Mönch |
|
|
Similar to Eiger, but supports Windows Mobile devices, Windows Image Acquisition, wireless networking, VPN-s and advanced IP (Internet Protocol) security. The Mönch is a mountain in the Bernese Oberland in Switzerland. The Mönch is part of a trio of mountains, The Eiger, The Mönch and The Jungfrau. |
| Longhorn |
|
Windows Vista |
Went gold (RTM) on 8 of November 2006. Named after the Longhorn Bar in the Whistler-Blackcomb resort; initially planned as an "interim release" between "Whistler" and "Blackcomb" (which was "Vienna" and is now Windows 7). |
| Q, Quattro |
|
Windows Home Server |
Announced at CES 2007. Original project codename was "Quattro" because it was the leader of the project's 4th attempt at building a home server at Microsoft. Renamed to Q once the project moved out of incubation stage. |
| Cougar |
Windows Small Business Server "Longhorn" |
|
In development. Cougar is a ski-run on Whistler Mountain. |
| Longhorn Server |
|
Windows Server 2008 |
Server equivalent of Windows Vista Service Pack 1, released January 18, 2008. |
| Centro |
|
Windows Essential Business Server |
In development. Planned "mid-size" (25-500 PC) edition of Longhorn Server.[4]. |
| Blackcomb, Vienna, Windows 7 |
|
|
Originally codenamed "Blackcomb" after the Whistler-Blackcomb resort. Renamed to "Vienna" in January 2006 and "Windows 7" in 2007. |
| Fiji |
Windows Vista Media Center Feature Pack 2008 |
|
This will be the first out of band release for Media Center since Windows Vista was released.[5] |
| Codename |
Preliminary name |
Final name |
Notes |
| Pegasus, Alder[6] |
|
Windows CE 1.0 |
(released November 1996) |
| Mercury, Apollo |
|
Windows CE 2.0 |
(released November 1997) |
| Birch,[6] Gryphon |
|
Windows CE 2.1 |
|
| Wyvern, Jupiter, Orion, Hermes, Goldeneye |
|
Windows CE 2.11 |
|
| Cedar,[6] Galileo, Rapier, Merlin, Stinger |
|
Windows CE 3.0 |
(released April 2000) |
| Talisker[6] |
Windows CE .NET |
Windows CE 4.0 |
(released January 7, 2002) |
| Jameson |
|
Windows CE 4.1 |
(released June 2002) |
| McKendric |
|
Windows CE 4.2 |
(released April 23, 2003) |
| Ozone |
|
Windows Mobile 2003 |
(released June 23, 2003, powered by Windows CE 4.20) |
| Ozone update |
|
Windows Mobile 2003 SE |
(released March 24, 2004, powered by Windows CE 4.21) |
| Macallan[6] |
|
Windows CE 5.0 |
(July 9, 2004 |
| Magneto |
|
Windows Mobile 5.0 |
Windows Mobile 5.0 was officially announced at Microsoft's Mobile and Embedded Developers Conference 2005 in Las Vegas, May 9-12 2005. (based on Windows CE 5.0) |
| Crossbow |
Windows Mobile 6.0 |
Windows Mobile 6.0 |
Update to Mobile 5.0, released in February 12, 2007. |
| Yamazaki[6] |
Windows CE 6.0 |
Windows Embedded CE 6.0 |
|
| Photon |
Windows Mobile 7.0 |
|
Major update to the platform, merging Smartphone and Pocket PC. Expected in 2009. (based on Windows CE 6.0) |
| Codename |
Preliminary name |
Final name |
Notes |
| Thunder |
|
Visual Basic 1.0 |
The first version of Visual Basic.[7] The standard dialogs and controls created by the Visual Basic runtime library all have "Thunder" as a prefix of their internal type names (for example, buttons are internally known as ThunderCommandButton). |
| Zamboni |
|
Microsoft Visual C++ 4.1 |
After Zamboni, an ice resurfacing machine.[7] |
| Rainier |
|
Visual Studio .NET 2002 |
After Rainier, a small town south of Seattle |
| Everett |
|
Visual Studio .NET 2003 |
After Everett, a large city near Seattle, which is on the way (from Redmond) to Whidbey Island. |
| Saturn |
|
ASP.NET Web Matrix |
Free development tool for ASP.NET Web sites. Predecessor to Visual Web Developer Express Edition. |
| Cassini Web Server |
|
ASP.NET Development Server |
The lightweight local Web server that is launched in Visual Studio in order to test Web projects. |
| Venus |
|
Visual Web Developer Express Edition |
Named in keeping with a space-oriented theme for ASP.NET developer tool internal names. |
| Whidbey |
|
Visual Studio 2005 |
After Whidbey Island in Puget Sound. A little farther from Seattle than Everett. |
| Orcas |
|
Visual Studio 2008 |
Named after Orcas Island, located in Puget Sound. Farther still from Seattle. |
| Rosario |
|
|
Team System-only release after Visual Studio 2008. Named after a resort located on Orcas Island. |
| Burton |
|
Visual Studio Team System |
|
| Hatteras |
Visual Studio Team System's Source Control System |
|
Named after the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse in the Outer Banks region of North Carolina.[8] |
| Ocracoke |
Visual Studio Team System load testing suite |
|
Named after the Ocracoke Island Lighthouse on Ocracoke Island, also in North Carolina.[8] |
| Currituck |
Team Foundation Work Item Tracking |
|
Named after the Currituck Beach Lighthouse in Corolla, North Carolina.[8] |
| Bodie |
Team Foundation Server SDK |
|
Named after the Bodie Island Lighthouse in North Carolina.[8] |
| Whitehorse |
Visual Studio Team System's designers for architects. |
|
Includes Application Designer, Logical Data Center Designer, System Designer, and Deployment Designer. |
| Fidalgo |
|
Visual Studio 2005 Extensions for WinFX |
Named after Fidalgo Island, located in Puget Sound in the San Juan Islands. |
| Tuscany |
|
Online version of Visual Studio. |
Currently a research project.[9] |
| Codename |
Preliminary name |
Final name |
Notes |
| Lightning, Project 42 |
Next Generation Windows Services |
Microsoft .NET v1.0 |
Project Lightning was the original codename for the Common Language Runtime in 1997.[12] The team was based in building 42, hence Project 42.[13] "Next Generation Windows Services" appeared in the earliest press releases about the upcoming platform.[14] |
| COM+ 2.0, COM Object Runtime (COR), Universal Runtime (URT) |
|
Microsoft .NET Framework v1.0 |
The name COM+ is still in use to designate extensions to COM (currently at version 1.5) for resource management, integrated security and transactionality. .NET itself has little in common with COM and COM+. |
|
WinFX |
.NET Framework 3.0 |
|
| Avalon |
|
Windows Presentation Foundation |
|
| HailStorm |
|
.NET My Services |
Project to make MSN-hosted user data available to the same users at non-Microsoft web sites; never released |
| Indigo |
|
Windows Communication Foundation |
|
| Windows Presentation Foundation/Everywhere |
|
Silverlight |
|
| InfoCard |
|
Windows CardSpace |
|
| Accelerator |
|
|
Allows developers to use managed code to program GPU's to create highly parallel programmes. |
| Astoria |
|
|
A framework that takes advantage of Windows Communication Foundation and the Entity Data Model (EDM) to allow developers to expose data in the cloud. |
| Rotor |
|
Shared Source Common Language Infrastructure (SSCLI) |
|
| Codename |
Preliminary name |
Final name |
Notes |
| Acropolis |
|
|
Application framework for Smart Clients |
| Aero Diamond |
|
|
Used during the development of Windows Vista to describe a set of advanced user interface effects for the Desktop Window Manager to be introduced after Vista's release.[15] |
| Albany |
|
|
Albany is Microsoft's all-in-one, subscription-based service for office, communication, and security software.[16] |
| Alexandria |
|
Zune Marketplace |
An online music store. |
| Argo |
|
Zune |
A digital media player. |
| Atlas |
Ajax implementation in .NET |
ASP.NET Ajax |
An implementation for ASP.NET of Ajax native to the .NET Framework 2.0. |
| Bandit |
|
Schedule+ 1.0 |
Microsoft's first Personal Information Manager |
| Bullet |
|
Microsoft Mail 3.0 |
Microsoft's first LAN-based email product written in-house. (Microsoft had earlier purchased Intermail for AppleTalk networks and Network Courier for PC networks.) |
| Budapest |
|
Microsoft Office Communicator Web Access 2005 |
|
| Catapult |
|
Microsoft Proxy Server 1.0 |
|
| Cider |
|
|
Visual Studio designer for building Windows Presentation Foundation applications. Meant to be used by application developers. |
| Cirrus |
|
Access 1.0 |
|
| Concur |
|
|
Aims to: define higher-level abstractions (above "threads and locks"); for today’s imperative languages; that evenly support the range of concurrency granularities; to let developers write correct and efficient concurrent applications; with lots of latent parallelism; that can be efficiently mapped to the user’s. |
| CRM V1.0, Tsunami |
|
Microsoft CRM version 1.0[17] |
The platform was initially code named Tsunami,[17] but once the decision was made to make it an actual product it was just changed to the initials as the initials were enough of a code name.[17] |
| Darwin |
Microsoft Installer |
Windows Installer |
[18] |
| Danube Phase I |
|
Microsoft CRM version 1.2[17] |
|
| Danube Phase II |
|
Microsoft CRM version 3[17] |
|
| 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.[19] |
| Greenwich |
Real-Time Communications Server 2003 |
Microsoft Office Live Communications Server 2003 |
|
| Istanbul |
|
Microsoft Office Communicator 2005 |
|
| Clarity |
LINQ |
|
Language Integrated Query Language extensions to expose query syntax natively to languages such as Visual Basic .NET and C# |
| Maestro |
|
Microsoft Office Business Scorecard Manager 2005. |
|
| Media2Go |
|
Windows Mobile software for Portable Media Centers |
Platform built on Windows Mobile found on portable media players.[20][21] |
| Metro |
|
XML Paper Specification (XPS) |
|
| Milan |
|
Microsoft Surface |
Table-top style computer with multi-touch touchscreen interface. |
| Mira |
|
|
Windows CE .NET-based technology for smart displays.[22][23] |
| Monaco |
|
|
Music-making program similar to Apple's GarageBand application |
| Monad |
MSH, Microsoft Shell |
Windows PowerShell |
Monads, according to philosopher Gottfried Leibniz's monadology, are the ultimate elements of the universe, individual percipient beings, and MSH is similarly composed of small, individual modules the user puts in interrelation. |
| Origami |
|
Ultra-Mobile PC |
|
| Omega |
|
JET Engine |
ISAM database engine used in Microsoft Access, a desktop database management system. |
| Opus |
|
Word for Windows |
Word for Windows 1.0 for Windows 2.x, named after the penguin in the comic strip Opus. |
| Palladium |
Trusted Windows |
|
Effort to develop a small, very secure operating environment within Windows, including curtained memory, trusted input, and graphics. Project renamed to Next-Generation Secure Computing Base, and was never fully implemented. |
| Pinball |
|
High Performance File System |
Implemented as an Installable File System when IBM and Microsoft were co developing OS/2. |
| Softsled |
|
|
Software based Media Center Extender. |
| Springfield |
Microsoft Popfly |
|
Website in Alpha testing stage providing mashup and webpages creation tools, with publishing as Rich Internet Application option. |
| Tahoe |
|
Sharepoint Portal Server 2001. |
|
| Titan, Kilimanjaro |
|
Microsoft CRM version 4[17] |
Was originally Kilimanjaro but changed to Titan as Kilimanjaro was too difficult to spell.[17] |
| Jasper |
|
|
“Jasper” provides a programming interface to your data that is well-suited to rapid development. When a Jasper program runs, Jasper connects to the database, determines the database schema, and generates corresponding data classes. This generation step does not result in source files; the data classes are compiled in-memory and available for use within the running program. |
| Jolt |
|
Silverlight 1.0 |
|
| Paxos |
Silverlight 1.1 |
|
|
The convention of calling a fictional hardware device "toaster" is by no means exclusive to Microsoft, but Microsoft formalizes the concept to an unprecedented level: the "toaster" is prominently featured in the Driver Development Kit (DDK), as a fictional hardware device that performs no function but is extremely complex. The "toaster" is removable, plugged in a dedicated bus, it has hotplug support, power management, a customized driver installation procedure, and even UPS functionality. Its device driver implements all the required APIs but no other function, and it's released as a sample "skeleton" driver for developers of actual hardware devices.
