Windows components

—over 50% ownership needed to qualify as a subsidiary -->

discontinued web browser by Microsoft

web browser developed by Microsoft

raster graphics editor

media player and media library application by Microsoft

simple text editor included with Microsoft Windows

family of file systems originally developed by Microsoft

Microsoft OneDrive is a file-hosting service operated by Microsoft. First released as SkyDrive in August 2007, it allows registered users to store, share, back-up and synchronize their files. OneDrive also works as the storage backend of the web version of Microsoft 365. OneDrive offers 5 gigabytes of storage space free of charge, with 100 GB, 1 TB, and 6 TB storage options available, either separately or with Microsoft 365 subscriptions.

intelligent personal assistant

deprecated browser extension software for viewing multimedia, Rich Internet Applications, and streaming video and audio

digital distribution platform operated by Microsoft

VBScript (Microsoft Visual Basic Scripting Edition) is a deprecated programming language for scripting on Microsoft Windows using Component Object Model (COM), based on classic Visual Basic and Active Scripting. It was popular with system administrators for managing computers and automating many aspects of computing environments, and has been installed by default in every desktop release of Microsoft Windows since Windows 98; in Windows Server since Windows NT 4.0 Option Pack; and optionally with Windows CE (depending on the device it is installed on).

software update distribution service for Microsoft Windows

video editing software

', also known as Command Prompt or Windows Command Processor, is a shell program on later versions of Windows (NT and CE families), OS/2, eComStation, ArcaOS, and ReactOS. In some versions of Windows (CE .NET 4.2, CE 5.0 and Embedded CE 6.0) it is referred to as the Command Processor Shell'. Implementation differs between operating systems, but with significant consistency of behavior and available commands.

directory service created by Microsoft for Windows domain networks

file manager application that is included with releases of the Microsoft Windows operating system

feature of the Windows software

graphical user interface

hierarchical database used by the Microsoft Windows operating system and its applications

antivirus app, component of Windows Vista and later

The taskbar is a graphical user interface element that has been part of Microsoft Windows since Windows 95, displaying and facilitating switching between running programs. The taskbar and the associated Start Menu were created and named in 1993 by Daniel Oran, a program manager at Microsoft who had previously collaborated on great ape language research with the behavioral psychologist B.F. Skinner at Harvard.

WordPad is a discontinued word processor software designed by Microsoft that was included in versions of Windows from Windows 95 through Windows 11, version 23H2. Similarly to its predecessor Microsoft Write, it served as a basic word processor, positioned as more advanced than the Notepad text editor by supporting rich text editing, but with a subset of the functionality of Microsoft Word. Microsoft removed WordPad in Windows 11 24H2 and it has no successor.

part of the Microsoft Windows graphical user interface

software application

task manager application included with the Windows NT family of operating systems

digital video recorder and media player created by Microsoft

compatibility layer for running Linux binary executables on Windows

web browser by Microsoft

web browser of Microsoft

web browser by Microsoft

web mapping service from Microsoft

firewall software for Windows

vendor-neutral file system, used in practice for DVDs and other optical discs

built-in screenshot utility for Microsoft Windows

anti-infringement system created by Microsoft

Hyper-V is a native hypervisor developed by Microsoft; it can create virtual machines on x86-64 systems running Windows. It is included in Pro and Enterprise editions of Windows (since Windows 8) as an optional feature to be manually enabled. A server computer running Hyper-V can be configured to expose individual virtual machines to one or more networks.

discontinued image organizer, photo editor and photo sharing program

Microsoft Windows component responsible for representing objects as output devices such as monitors and printers

proprietary protocol that can provide a user with the graphical interface of another, remote, computer

ReadyBoost (codenamed EMD) is a disk caching software component developed by Microsoft for Windows Vista and included in later versions of Windows. ReadyBoost enables NAND memory mass storage CompactFlash, SD card, and USB flash drive devices to be used as a cache between the hard drive and random access memory in an effort to increase computing performance. ReadyBoost relies on the SuperFetch and also adjusts its cache based on user activity. ReadyDrive for hybrid drives is implemented in a manner similar to ReadyBoost.

system recovery feature in Microsoft Windows

Windows desktop packaging SDK

web browser by Microsoft

2013 version of Internet Explorer

multi-tabbed terminal emulator developed by Microsoft

mixed reality computing platform by Microsoft

Windows utility displaying characters in a font

Live USB operating system

file manager bundled with Microsoft Windows in the 1990s, now open source and ported to modern Windows

thumb|1 and 2 depict standard renderings of a ClearType and purely Spatial anti-aliasing|anti-aliased line, respectively, while 3 and 4 are the same lines enlarged. 5 shows how the ClearType line is rendered on a subpixel level.

NTLDR (abbreviation of NT loader) is the boot loader for all releases of Windows NT from 1993 with the release of Windows NT 3.1 up until Windows XP and Windows Server 2003. From Windows Vista onwards it is replaced by Windows Boot Manager (BOOTMGR).

MSConfig (officially called System Configuration in Windows Vista, Windows 7, Windows 8, Windows 10, or Windows 11 and Microsoft System Configuration Utility in previous operating systems) is a system utility to troubleshoot the Microsoft Windows startup process. It can disable or re-enable software, device drivers and Windows services that run at startup, or change boot parameters.

feature of Microsoft Internet Explorer 4.0's optional Windows Desktop Update

discontinued Microsoft audio player software application

painting software by Microsoft

policy management system in Microsoft Windows

web browser of Microsoft

desktop search platform by Microsoft

components of Microsoft Windows