[Microsoft] '''[http://http://windows.microsoft.com%|%Microsoft Windows]''', also known simply as [Windows], is a proprietary operating system. ** See Also ** [dde]: [COM]: the '''C'''omponent '''O'''bject '''M'''odel [embedded]: [TWAPI]: provides direct high-level access to Win32 [API]'s [Task Dialog]: [exe]: [resolver]: [storage]: [tkvideo]: [How to compile Tcl and related C extensions on Windows]: [Services under Microsoft Windows NT]: ** Description ** Windows has evolved over the years, and its feature set has changed dramatically. This Wiki has a fair amount of information on the subject of [Microsoft Windows and Tcl] and [Microsoft Windows and Tk]. [RS]: Interfacing to [Windows/CE], renamed [PocketPC], is something of a special case - but great fun! [APN] Both have been obsolete for a decade or more as of 2015. ** Versions ** Major versions of Windows include: [Windows 95]: [Windows 98]: [Windows Vista]: [Windows Aero]: [Windows Mobile 2003]: [Windows CE]/[Windows/CE]: Windows ME: Windows NT: Windows 2000: Windows 2003: Windows 7: Windows 8: ** Other Windows API Implementations ** Microsoft is no longer the only provider of the platforms implementing the Windows API: just by far the most dominant. There's also [Wine] (providing support for Windows apps on platforms like [Linux], [FreeBSD] and [BeOS]) and [ReactOS] (providing an alternative Windows compatible operating system). [peterc] 2008-06-13: [getWindowsAPIVendor] is a small but handy proc for detecting which win32 code base your app is really running on: [Wine], [ReactOS] or Microsoft Windows. This can be used for tuning your app or informing the user of support/non-support. ** Windows Programs ** [Microsoft Access%|%Access]: a [relational database] system [Excel]: a spreadsheet program [PowerPoint]: a [presentation program] ** Tcl/Tk Programs ** Various Tcl/Tk programs provide Windows-specific functionality [Windows Inspection Tool Set]: a [GUI] program that provides various views of Windows components [Word reaper]: to extract the plain text from a word document via [DDE]. ** UNC name from Drive Letter ** [RS] 2005-09-21: This windows-specific procedure parses the output of ''net use'' and returns the remote name as a forward-slashed UNC path, or `{}` if something went wrong: ====== proc net_use drive { if ![catch {exec net use $drive} res] { foreach line [split $res \n] { if {[set pos [string first \\ $line]]>0} { return [file norm [string range $line $pos end]] } } } } ====== ======none % net_use h: //kstbf05/SuchRich$ ====== ** Windows and Unix ** [cygwin]: [http://unxutils.sourceforge.net/%|%unxutils]: outdated ** What's Wrong with Windows ** heavy processes: On other operating systems, creating new processes is inexpensive, but on windows there's so much overhead to process creation that it's avoided, and threads are used instead, even where shared process space is undesirable. <> Category Operating System | Category Windows