List of Microsoft Windows components

In this article, we will delve into the exciting world of List of Microsoft Windows components. From its origins to its relevance in today’s society, we will explore all the relevant aspects about this List of Microsoft Windows components. We will analyze its impact in different areas, its possible implications and the role it plays in people’s daily lives. Additionally, we will examine the future prospects of List of Microsoft Windows components and how it is influencing the way we live, work and relate. Throughout this investigation, we will discover the importance of List of Microsoft Windows components in the modern world and its evolution over time.

The following is a list of Microsoft Windows components.

Configuration and maintenance

Component Description Command Introduced
Settings Allows users to change system settings, similar to the Control Panel, but has less options[1] start ms-settings: Windows 8
Control Panel
Control Panel Allows users to view and change basic system settings and controls, such as adding hardware, adding and removing software, controlling user accounts, and changing accessibility options control.exe Windows 1.0
Device Manager Allows the user to display and control the hardware attached to the computer, and control what device drivers are used devmgmt.msc Windows 95
Windows Mobility Center Centralizes the most relevant information related to mobile computing mblctr.exe Windows Vista
Security and Maintenance Centralizes and reports on the status of anti-virus, Automatic Updates, Windows Firewall, and other security-related components of the operating system Windows XP SP2
Administrative Tools
Microsoft Management Console Provides system administrators and advanced users with a flexible interface through which they may configure and monitor the system mmc.exe Windows NT 4.0 Option Pack
Windows System Assessment Tool Built-in benchmarking tool that analyzes the different subsystems (graphics, memory, etc.), and uses the results to allow for comparison to other Windows Vista systems, and for software optimizations. It rates the computer’s performance using the Windows Experience Index. winsat.exe Windows Vista
System Restore Allows for the rolling back of system files, registry keys, installed apps, etc., to a previous state in the event of a system failure rstrui.exe Windows Me
Windows Recovery Environment Helps diagnose and recover from serious errors which may prevent Windows from booting successfully, or restore the computer to a previous state using System Restore or a backup image shutdown /r /o Windows Vista
Microsoft Drive Optimizer Rearranges files stored on a hard disk to occupy contiguous storage locations in order to optimize computer performance dfrgui.exe Windows 95, Windows 2000
Event Viewer Lets administrators and users view the event logs on a local or remote machine eventvwr.msc Windows NT 3.1
Resource Monitor
(previously Reliability and Performance Monitor) 		Lets administrators view current system reliability and performance trends over time resmon.exe Windows Vista
Logical Disk Manager Logical volume manager developed by Microsoft in conjunction with Veritas Software diskmgmt.msc Windows NT 4.0 (Separate Tool), Windows 2000
Registry Editor Allows users to browse and edit the Windows registry regedit.exe Windows 3.1
Windows Task Scheduler Allows users to script tasks for running during scheduled intervals taskschd.msc Microsoft Plus! for Windows 95
Software installation and deployment
Windows Update An online service providing updates such as service packs, critical updates and device drivers. A variation called Microsoft Update also provides software updates for other Microsoft products. control.exe update Windows 98
Windows Installer An engine for the management of software installation. Includes a GUI framework, automatic generation of the uninstallation sequence and deployment capabilities for corporate networks. msiexec.exe Office 2000
ClickOnce Technology for deploying .NET Framework-based software via web pages, with automatic update capabilities. Intended for per-user only applications. mage.exe and mageUI.exe .NET Framework 2.0

User interface

Component Description Introduced
Action Center View notifications sent from apps and change common settings Windows 7
Windows Command Prompt Text-based shell (command line interpreter) that provides a command line interface to the operating system Windows NT 3.1
PowerShell Command-line shell and scripting framework. Windows XP
Windows Shell The most visible and recognizable aspect of Microsoft Windows. The shell provides the container inside of which the entire graphical user interface is presented, including the taskbar, the desktop, Windows Explorer, as well as many of the dialog boxes and interface controls. In Windows Vista, a new compositing glass-like user interface called Windows Aero has been shown. Windows 95
File Explorer
(previously Windows Explorer) 		Provides an interface for accessing the file systems, launching applications, and performing common tasks such as viewing and printing pictures Windows 95
Windows Search Starting with Windows Vista, search is a tightly shell-integrated component of Windows. A downloadable Windows Desktop Search software is available for Windows XP and older versions. Windows Vista, downloadable for older versions
Search Folders Virtual folders that retrieve items based on queries rather than hierarchical folder trees on disk. Windows Vista
Special folders Folders which are presented to the user through an interface as an abstract concept, instead of an absolute path. This makes it possible for an application to locate where certain kinds of files can be found, regardless of what version or language of operating system is being used. See also Windows Shell namespace. Windows 95
Start menu Serves as the central launching point for applications. It provides a customizable, nested list of apps for the user to launch, as well as a list of most recently opened documents, a way to find files and get help, and access to the system settings. By default, the Start Button is visible at all times in the lower left-hand corner of the screen. Windows 95
Taskbar The application desktop bar which is used to launch and monitor applications Windows 95
Task View Displays all open windows and activities (via timeline) at a glance and switch between virtual desktops, starting in version 2004, users can now rename desktops

 Windows 10
File associations Used to open a file with the appropriate app. Users can assign file associations uniquely to specific actions, known as verbs. Windows 1.0

Applications and utilities

Component Description Introduced
Easy Transfer Used to transfer many files at once from one computer to another Windows Vista
Contacts Keeps a single list of contacts that can be shared by multiple apps Windows Vista
Camera Allows the user to take pictures or record video[2] Windows 8
Calculator Calculation application Windows 1.0
Calendar Calendaring application Windows Vista
Character Map Utility to view and search characters in a font, copy them to the clipboard and view their Windows Alt keycodes and Unicode names Windows 3.1
Cortana Digital personal assistant Windows 10 Version 1507
Edge Web browser Windows 10 Version 1507
Feedback Hub Platform for exchanging communication with Windows Insiders and developers Windows 10 Version 1607
Groove Music
(previously Xbox Music) 		Digital media player and media library application that is used for playing audio. In addition to being a media player, Groove includes the ability to copy music to compact discs, synchronize content with a digital audio player (MP3 player) or other mobile devices, and let users purchase or rent music from the Windows Store. Windows 8
Movies & TV
(previously Xbox Video) 		Digital media player and media library application that is used for playing video. In addition to being a media player, Movies & TV lets users purchase or rent movies and TV episodes from the Windows Store. Windows 8
OneDrive
(previously SkyDrive) 		Freemium cloud storage folder and sync service Windows 8
Microsoft OneNote Integrated note-taking app, based on the Microsoft Office product of the same name Windows 8
On-Screen Keyboard (osk.exe) Virtual keyboard
Paint 3D Simple graphics painting app Windows 10 Version 1703
Photos Simple image viewer Windows 8
Steps Recorder
(called Problem Steps Recorder in Windows 7) 		Utility that allows the user to capture steps they took to reproduce a problem Windows 7
Windows To Go Utility to create bootable versions of Windows 8 and above Windows 8
Notepad Simple text editor Windows 1.0
Narrator Screen reader utility that reads dialog boxes and window controls in a number of the more basic applications for Windows Windows 2000
Sound Recorder Simple audio recording app that can record from a microphone or headset, and save the results in WAVE format and Windows Media Audio format in some Windows versions Windows 3.0 Multimedia Extensions
Skype Messaging and calling service Windows 8.1, downloadable for previous versions
Sticky Notes Tool for jotting notes on the desktop Windows XP Tablet PC Edition
Private Character Editor Utility to create private use characters as defined under Unicode and various East Asian encoding schemes Windows 3.1 East Asian editions
Remote Desktop Connection Client implementation of the Remote Desktop Protocol; allows a user to securely connect to a computer running Terminal Services (Remote Desktop on Windows XP and Server 2003) and interact with a full desktop environment on that machine, including support for remoting of printers, audio, and drives. Windows XP, downloadable for previous Windows versions
Remote Assistance Allows a user to temporarily take over a remote computer over a network or the internet to offer help with and resolve issues Windows XP
Mobility Center Allows a user to adjust settings related to mobile computing Windows Vista
Speech Recognition Allows a user to input voice commands Windows Vista
IExpress Allows users to create self-extracting, self-installing INF installation-based packages Internet Explorer 6
Xbox Console Companion
(previously Xbox and Xbox Games) 		Account manager for Xbox Live user accounts and a screen recording tool Windows 8
Xbox Game Bar Provides a overlay for compatible games allowing for screen capture, chatting over the Xbox network, showing the frame rate of games, and playing music via Spotify[3][4] Windows 10 May 2019 Update (Version 1903)[5]
Magnifier Screen enlargement app Windows 98
Fax and Scan Integrated faxing and image scanning application Windows Vista, older faxing and scanning applications were present in previous Windows versions
Photo Viewer Simple image viewer that can play a simple slideshow Windows XP
Mail Email aggregator Windows Vista
Maps Map viewer that allows users to look for locations, and plan routes Windows 8
Media Center Designed to serve as a home-entertainment hub, to be viewed from a distance up to 3 meters (~10 feet) and controlled by specially designed remote controls. Lets users browse and view pictures, videos, and music from local hard drives, optical drives, and network locations, along with viewing, recording and deferred-playing live TV. Features an interactive TV guide with scheduled recording capabilities. Can also be used for visualization of other information (like sports scores) within the interface Windows XP Media Center Edition
Task Manager Provides information about computer performance and displays details about running applications, processes, network activity, logged-in users, and system services Windows 3.0
Disk Cleanup Utility for compacting rarely used files and removing files that are no longer required Windows 98
Snipping Tool Screen-capture tool that allows for taking screenshots (called snips) Experience Pack for Windows XP Tablet PC Edition 2005
Microsoft Store
(previously Windows Store) 		Initially known as Windows Store, it started as an app store for Windows 8. In Windows 10, it expanded into a broad digital distribution platform for apps, games, music, digital video and e-books. In 2017, it was renamed Microsoft Store and started offering hardware in United States, Canada and United Kingdom. Windows 8
MSN apps Provide information from MSN web services Windows 8
Alarms & Clock(pre Alarms) App that allows Windows users to set alarms, stopwatches, timers, and view a world clock Windows 8
Windows Security
(previously Windows Defender Security Center) 		Antivirus Windows 10 Version 1703
Solitaire Collection Set of solitaire card games Windows 10 Version 1507, downloadable for Windows 8.x

Windows Server components

Component Description Supported by
Active Directory A set of technologies introduced with Windows 2000 that allows administrators to assign enterprise-wide policies, deploy apps to many computers, and apply critical updates to an entire organization. Active Directory stores information and settings relating to an organization in a central, organized, accessible database. Networks can vary from a small installation with a few objects, to global-scale directories with millions of objects.
Related topics: Domain controller, Flexible single master operation 		Windows 2000 and later server versions
Group Policy Provides centralized management of user and computer settings in an Active Directory environment. Group policy can control a target object’s registry, NTFS security, audit and security policy, software installation, logon/logoff scripts, folder redirection, and Internet Explorer settings. Policy settings are stored in Group Policy Objects (GPOs), and may be linked to one or more sites, domains or organizational units.
Related topics: Administrative Templates 		Windows 2000 and later
Internet Information Services Web server Windows NT family

File systems

Component Description Supported by
FAT12, FAT16 The original file systems used with MS-DOS. The standard file systems used with Windows 1.0 through Windows 95. All versions
FAT32 Extensions to FAT supporting larger disk sizes. The standard file system for Windows 98 and Me. Windows 95 OSR2 and later versions
NTFS Standard file system of Windows NT; supports security via access-control lists, as well as file system journaling and file-system metadata. Windows 2000 added support for reparse points (making NTFS junction points and Single instance storage possible), Hard links, file compression, and Sparse files. Encryption of data is provided by Encrypting File System. Symbolic links and transactioning of file operations via Transactional NTFS are features new to Windows Vista. Although Windows 9x operating systems cannot read or write NTFS formatted disks, they can access the data over a network if it is shared by a computer running Windows NT. Windows NT (all versions)
ISO 9660 (CDFS) The predominant file system for CD-ROM and DVD-ROM media. Windows includes support for Joliet extensions and the ISO 9660:1999 standard. ISO 9660:1999 is supported since Windows XP. MS-DOS and Windows 9x via extensions, such as MSCDEX.EXE (Microsoft CDROM Extension), natively in Windows NT 3.5
Universal Disk Format (UDF) A file system for storing files on optical media. It is an implementation of the ISO/IEC 13346 standard (also known as ECMA-167). It is considered to be a replacement of ISO 9660. Successive versions of Windows have supported newer versions of UDF. Windows 98, Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows Server 2003, Windows Vista
HPFS High-Performance File system, used on OS/2 computers. Read and write capability in Windows 95 (where it also listed network computer NTFS-formatted drives as «HPFS», even though it had no direct NTFS capabilities). HPFS write support was dropped in Windows NT 4.0 and Windows 98, and dropped altogether shortly before the release of Windows 2000. Windows 95 (Read/write), Windows 98, Windows NT (read), 3.1/3.51 (read/write/boot)
ReFS A newer file system, based on NTFS. This system adds built-in integrity checking and removes the need for chkdsk, among other features. The maximum partition size is 1 YB. Windows Server 2012, Windows 8.1

Core components

Component Acronym Description
Windows kernel (Windows NT)
Main article: Architecture of Windows NT
Ntoskrnl.exe The Windows kernel image. Provides the kernel and executive layers of the kernel architecture, and is responsible for services such as hardware virtualization, process and memory management, etc.
hal.dll HAL Provides and handles the interaction between software and hardware via the Hardware Abstraction Layer.
kernel32.dll This application provides kernel operations to apps in the Win32 mode, like memory management, I/Os, process creation, etc.
Core processes (Windows NT)
System Idle Process SIP A counter which measures how much idle capacity the CPU has at any given time. The process runs in the background and monitors processing bandwidth, occupied memory and the Windows virtual paging file.
Session Manager Subsystem SMSS Performs several critical boot-time operations, such as the creation of environment variables, starting CSRSS, and performing file-copy operations that were queued up from before the system was booted (pending file rename operations). During system operation, it handles Windows File Protection and the creation of logon sessions via Winlogon.
Client/Server Runtime Subsystem CSRSS User-mode side of the Win32 subsystem. Provides the capability for applications to use the Windows API.
Local Security Authority Subsystem Service LSASS Responsible for enforcing the security policy on the system. Verifies users logging on to the computer and creates security tokens.
Winlogon Responsible for handling the secure attention key, loading the user profile on logon, and optionally locking the computer when a screensaver is running. On Windows NT systems prior to Windows Vista, Winlogon is also responsible for loading GINA libraries which are responsible collecting logon credentials from the user.
Svchost.exe A generic host process name for services that run from dynamic-link libraries (DLLs). Several Svchost processes are typically present on a Windows machine, each running in a different security context, depending on what privileges the contained services require.
Windows on Windows and WoW64 WoW An abstraction layer that allows legacy code to operate on more modern versions of Windows; typically this means running 16-bit Windows applications on 32-bit Windows, and 32-bit applications on 64-bit Windows.
Virtual DOS machine NTVDM Allows MS-DOS apps to run on Intel 80386 or higher computers when there is already another operating system running and controlling the hardware. Introduced in Windows 2.1; not available in any 64-bit edition of Windows.
System startup (Windows NT)
NTLDR, IA64ldr, Winload The bootloader; performs basic system initialization options such as loading the hardware abstraction layer and boot-time device drivers, prior to passing control to the Windows kernel. In versions prior to Vista, NTLDR and IA64ldr also display menus to the user if multiple operating systems are defined in boot.ini, or if F8 is pressed.
Recovery Console Provides the means for administrators to perform a limited range of tasks using a command line interface, primarily to aid in recovering from situations where Windows does not boot successfully.
ntdetect.com Used during the boot process to detect basic hardware components that may be required during the boot process
Windows Boot Manager In Windows Vista and later operating systems, displays boot menus to the user if multiple operating systems are configured in the system’s Boot Configuration Data.
Graphical subsystem
Desktop Window Manager DWM The compositing manager introduced in Windows Vista that handles compositing and manages special effects on screen objects in a graphical user interface
Graphics Device Interface GDI/GDI+ The kernel graphics component for representing graphical objects and transmitting them to output devices such as monitors and printers
Windows USER The Windows USER component provides core user interface, messaging and visual elements

Services