Использование Windows 2000 спустя 25 лет
[Intro] On February 17, 2000, Windows 2000 was released for public sale. That was literally 25 years ago. What else happened in 2000? The new Nokia 3310 was released, becoming an absolute bestseller and later a part of early 2000s pop culture The Y2K problem loomed, scaring people and the corporate sector, but the nightmare never happened Trek Technology has introduced the world to a real 8MB USB drive with a $50 price tag and a lot more Can you believe flash drives are also turning 25, despite the first patent for such a device being filed a year earlier? But that's not what we're here to discuss. A new millennium began, and its bright start was not only in mobile phones, ... ...communication and equipment, but also in operating systems The year 2000 is known for the release of the first public beta of Mac OS X with its completely new Aqua design, ... ...the first version of Red Hat Enterprise Linux based on CentOS, ... ...the final release of the Windows 9x family called Windows Millennium; ... ...and no one knew how it would all turn out back then ...and most importantly, the release of Windows 2000: a direct continuation of Windows NT 4.0 aimed at the corporate and business segment. By the way, a fun fact! The public beta of Mac OS X was released on September 13, 2000, while Windows Millennium was released a day later – on September 14. Although there is a difference between the RTM release and general availability to consumers, I mentioned it just for "to think"...
It's interesting to know which you prefer: the beautiful Mac OS X or the professional Windows 2000? I think many would prefer the former, though anything is possible - we wait for your opinions! In this video, we will take a historical look at Windows 2000: briefly explain the development of the system in terms of beta builds, ... ...discuss the differences between editions, highlight the main changes, and so on Hooray, another technical and nerdy episode! Stay with us, grab some tea – it will be very interesting and engaging. The development of Windows 2000 began long before the release of Windows 98, Millennium, and the arrival of the year 2000. The first builds date back to 1997 under the name Windows NT 5.0
Yes, as mentioned earlier – this is a direct continuation of NT 4.0. On March 17, 1997, the first known build was released – build 1515. This build fully contained the legendary Windows Desktop Update in the form of a quick launch bar, IE 4.0, Active Desktop, and an improved Explorer. In addition, most innovations from Windows 95 were carried over... ...and developments from the closed Cairo project: FAT32 support, Plug&Play, and Windows Scripting Host. There was also the ability to set a color gradient for window titles, an early version of Microsoft Management Console with utility sketches, ...
...a huge number of minor interface changes, and the first mentions of Windows Installer as Microsoft Install Server In short, this introduced the groundwork for a common program installer and distribution in .MSI format. You have most likely encountered such a window :) And there are also plenty of Easter eggs here. If you go into MMC and click "Tip of the Day," you'll get a reference to the old Word in the form of... "Don't run with scissors!!! Haven't you learned anything from Word's tips?" And inside the SETUPDS.EXE file, there will be an interesting image. As many may have noticed, there is a "Minimize All Windows" button on the taskbar Not as a shortcut in the quick access panel, but as a separate button in the lower right corner of the screen, next to the clock. The appearance and disappearance of this feature was literally repeated multiple times; there were likely huge battles over the button within the company.
Ultimately, the button was added to the release only 12 years later – with the release of Windows 7. On September 9, 1997, the project reached Beta 1 (build 1671), where the full upgrade from Windows 95 was added, ... ...partially redesigned installer, and a new startup sound. [startup sound; author: Matthew A. Felton] Two months later, based on internal company documents, ... ...employees began to ponder the final name for the upcoming version of the system The goal was to find a mainstream name, as "NT 5.0 Workstation" reflected a high-class, powerful operating system, not a business solution.
It needed to appeal to both system administrators and businesses. According to the document, five names emerged: ... 1. Windows NT Workstation 5.0 2. Windows NT Client 5.0 3. Windows NT Desktop 5.0
4. Windows NT 5.0 5. And Windows 99/2000 As you might guess, Microsoft settled on the last one and gradually moved towards it. In March 1998, the Interim Developer's Release (build 1773) was released – a sort of "small break between the first and second". It's unclear why this was done, but looking at the shoddy branding and unfinished installer design, ...
(yes, the installer changed again, believe it or not) ...there are two possibilities: either they messed up badly somewhere, or they decided to fix accumulated errors. By the end of summer 1998, Beta 2 (build 1877) was officially presented, and everything was more or less excellent The design, correct branding for NT 5.0, the boot screen, and overall user space It seemed that all designers were creating branding for NT 5.0, but on October 27, Microsoft officially announced the final name – Windows 2000. I wonder if Microsoft's in-house designers knew about the changes in advance? I hope so. It would be funny if someone from former Microsoft employees finds this video and comments on it Or somehow lets us know :D Over time, in the spring of 1999, Beta 3 was released, and the OS began to take on its final design In July of the same year, it all reached release candidates. First, second, third. And then there's no point in telling more.
It's time to subscribe to my channel to support the author and, of course, to discuss the editions. Four main editions of Windows 2000 were released, and judging by their names, you can immediately understand what the system was aimed at... Windows 2000 Server - the standard server version, supporting up to 4 processors simultaneously and a maximum of 4 gigabytes of RAM. As you might guess from the name, it was used on servers. Based on it, two sub-versions were created: Small Business Server 2000 and BackOffice Server 2000, which were used for less extensive purposes.
Windows 2000 Advanced Server - this is an improved version of the previous edition; it was aimed at medium and large businesses, ... ...and had corresponding operational limits, namely 8 processors and 8 gigabytes of RAM. You might ask: how is that possible? The maximum volume is 8 gigabytes of RAM, and the system is 32-bit... Advanced Server supported physical address extension in memory, or PAE (Physical Address Extension) for short PAE as a technology appeared in 1995 with the release of Pentium Pro – and considering how it all worked...
it turns out… the computer became 36-bit? Please explain if someone knows this better :3 Windows 2000 Datacenter Server - if Advanced Server was better, then this is some kind of "heavy luxury." Clustering, limits of 32 processors and 32 gigabytes of RAM. It was aimed at very large businesses and high-load systems With the same PAE, it was possible to extend the RAM support limit to 64 GB, but a single application can address a maximum of only 4 GB.
Okay, all servers and servers, but what about something for home use? Of course – Windows Millennium. Just kidding. Windows 2000 Professional – the official edition for ordinary workstations or confident professionals like us. Probably.
Server tools were naturally absent, as they were unnecessary here. The company also planned to release a 64-bit Windows 2000 for Itanium processors, but later this idea was postponed, and the first 64-bit Windows became XP. By the way, it would be very cool to look at the contents of the official boxed edition, ... ...but unfortunately, at the time of filming, it hadn't arrived yet; so I will show it separately in my Telegram channel if you're interested. It's time to install the system.
Our image is only 383 megabytes. As usual, there are two so-called installation levels: text and graphical. The text installation starts with the SETUPLDR.BIN file, loading device drivers and preparing to launch the main text installation program in the form of SMSS.EXE. In Windows NT 4.0, we could choose the configuration of the PC, display, and keyboard, but in 2000, that was decided for you. However, if you really want to install the system on a 486, ...
...then, before the device drivers load, press F5 in text mode until the PC selection list appears. The graphical installation has also changed compared to the previous version: from the background to the design of the stages. There is now the ability to launch the command line during installation with the Shift+F10 key combination. All basic settings occur within the installer window, rather than launching separate tools.
If you were waiting for the initial setup, it won't happen: you will be greeted by the "Network Identification Wizard," which will log you in automatically. That's it... Okay, the first login is done. There are currently no virtual drivers, but that can be fixed. It's time to find out what global innovations the system has brought to its users compared to NT4. Let's start with the new version of the file system – NTFS 3.0: quotas, advanced file access settings, EFS, and encryption.
Next is FAT32 support, new USB printer drivers, and SSE/SSE2 instructions, and with SP4 – USB 2.0 devices and SSE3. When a USB device is plugged in, an applet shows a list of connected external devices with the option for safe removal. Many new applications for people with disabilities, including an on-screen keyboard. And there's a lot to say about this. This is a system component that was NOT created by Microsoft.
Originally, the On-Screen Keyboard is the Screen Doors Lite program from Madenta, released in 1998. The developer's company is mentioned here, but for some reason, it was removed with the release of XP. This program is hardly found separately on the internet, and there is little information about it, even on Archive.org.
Windows File Protection, automatic reboot after BSOD, multilingual support. New system administration tools in the form of WMI and improved group policies. And most importantly – support for Active Directory The latest technology from Microsoft that allows various network objects like PCs, printers, and servers to be combined into a single local infrastructure If you make a PC an Active Directory management server or a domain controller and connect devices to it, you can create accounts on the domain controller and use them remotely on any PC ...you can create accounts on the domain controller and use them remotely on any PC connected to this domain You can also apply certain group policies to one or the entire fleet, distribute shortcuts, or create a shared folder.
This can be done literally without getting up from your main computer and without performing repetitive actions manually across the entire fleet Now it's time, for historical purposes, to document the latest and optimal software versions that can run on Windows 2000 SP4. No, this won't be about survival, but capturing history from my perspective. Let's start with file managers.
The latest file viewer for 2025 is Total Commander 11.50* And if you need to find something quickly with strong filtering? You might find Everything 1.4.1.969, released in 2020, helpful. Although it claims minimal support for XP, it works fine here. Briefly, quickly, and, in principle, substantively. It's time for internet browsers. It's important to understand that the latest versions of browsers for Win2K, without any add-ons or modifications, ... ...will hardly provide an adequate web browsing experience, but they still need to be mentioned The last version of Opera is considered to be 12.02, released in August 2012, almost 13 years ago.
It's still that same Opera. [sigh] Ah. I do miss such an interface; it's slightly different from 9.6, but still very pleasant. Naturally, modern HTTPS is not really within its capabilities.
Firefox lasted less: the last version here is 12, released in April 2012. Its fork, Pale Moon, officially lasted much longer: up to version 26.5 from, attention, April 2018. Not bad. K-Meleon Browser stopped at version 74 from 2014.
As you can see, the browser situation is quite sparse. Chrome officially did not support 2000, and Supermium can literally be forgotten here: it is not officially supported, ... ...although the developers plan to implement support, but when that will be — only the team knows And finishing this category is Internet Explorer — for some, it's a legendary program for downloading other browsers. It stopped at version 6 SP1. Now think and write in the comments, which one from this list would you choose?) How about listening to music or watching videos? Sure, at that time such programs were in high demand due to the widespread use of CD and DVD discs and poorly developed internet.
Therefore, a lot of software was created for these purposes, but let's only mention the most popular. The official player from Microsoft, I must note, "with the music machine function," stopped at version 9 from 2002. Winamp 5.62 and VLC 1.1.11 also perform excellently.
Want to watch a video, but the standard Microsoft player and VLC don't appeal to you? You can try Media Player Classic version 1.3.1249 from 2009. But then... the question of codecs arises: you need to be able to watch something comfortably. And K-Lite Codec Pack solves the problem; the optimal version of the codec pack here is 7.10 straight from 2011. With it, H.264 is manageable, as well as MKV and MP4. H.265, of course, is not available.
If you ever feel like editing a photo, drawing, or engaging in some creativity, ...then Photoshop CS2, Paint.net 2.72, and GIMP 2.2.10 will help you In the case of video, welcome to Vegas 7. Writing your thesis or working with documents in such conditions, believe it or not, is quite a feasible task... The official office suite from Microsoft officially stopped at the release of Office 2003.
Among open-source solutions, you can look at OpenOffice 3.2 and its offspring – LibreOffice 3.6.3. Despite the overall age of the system at the time of the video release, the possibility of communication, surprisingly, has not been canceled. No, Skype won't be here; the best file-sharing service stopped supporting all its old clients back in 2017. For ICQ lovers, sitting through custom servers, the most popular representative, in my opinion, is kICQ (and this is not an advertisement) I can suggest version 5.1.
And if someone uses custom servers based on MSN, the last MSN Messenger we have is version 4.6. Discord works perfectly. Of course, the client is unofficial, but quite enjoyable. Servers, chats, attachments, mentions, notifications, private messages. I talked about this in my Shorts, if anyone follows the short video section.
And not only in Shorts. Recently, I wrote that this wonder began supporting Windows 95/98, providing my screenshots. And its reach has simply reached unimaginable scales: large Telegram channels, TikTok, Onlineer, Habr, and many more It's just incredible. Bravo. The last software update occurred on February 2, 2025. And this is not a joke. Available on GitHub. IRC chat lovers can chat in mIRC 6.35.
As you can see, these were programs that allowed chatting only through text or attachments. What about voice chats? Unfortunately, such options are simply no longer available. TeamSpeak could be mentioned, but its last compatible version is outdated and rejected by most servers. There's no point. It's time for archivers: both then and now – without these friends, you literally can't go anywhere; and here are old versions of many popular representatives. The legendary WinRAR stopped at version 4.11, released in 2012. WinZip — this program I have seen little of in the CIS, but it did have popularity, so mentioning it is not a problem.
Version 14.5 from 2010 ends support for Win2K 7-Zip — this is an open-source option, popular and still working here. Version 24.09. What about updates? After the release, developers should keep their finger on the pulse and promptly fix bugs and possible vulnerabilities in their creation. Four service packs and two patch collections (or Update Rollup) were released. The last Service Pack was released in June 2003, and the patch collection in September 2005.
Microsoft initially planned to release five update packages, but then suddenly changed plans and released Update Rollup 1 for SP4 instead. Update Rollups addressed the most significant security issues and similar matters. Speaking of service packs, an interesting story occurred in 2004 when the source code for Windows 2000 leaked online. On February 12, 2004, it became known that part of the source code had leaked and was distributed in archive format. Analysis of the leak concluded that it pertained to Windows 2000 SP1, raising suspicions that it was taken by someone with access to parts of Windows source code. Crash dumps revealed addresses of Mainsoft employees who were porting Internet Explorer to UNIX systems at that time.
Almost immediately after the leak, a vulnerability was found in IE. The end of official support from software manufacturers is not a death sentence. There are add-ons that allow running programs from newer versions of Windows. For example, KernelEx – a kernel extension that allows running some applications technically designed for XP, Vista, and above. Such an upgrade allows adding APIs and entry points for DLL objects so that people could run both Office 2007 and Windows Media Player 11.
Some even went further and ran Supermium, simply because why not. If you're very interested in my adventures with this add-on and subsequent program testing, then give 5,000 likes, subscribe to the channel, and let me know in the comments. What about support? Official main support for the system was provided by Microsoft until June 30, 2005. Extended support lasted until June 30, 2010. In 2025, updates can be installed through Windows Update Restored and Legacy Update services.
It won't provide updates from 2025, but you can choose to upgrade to the latest official patch. That's the situation. So what’s the conclusion? As a conclusion from the previous research regarding the optimal version of the software, I can say that... most third-party developers abandoned Windows 2000 almost immediately after the end of main support in 2005.
Certainly, there were programs that lasted until 2008 and even 2011; but the demand for such programs naturally decreased for them [the developers]. Regarding the system, it can be said that it... went almost unnoticed by consumers. Win2K did not manage to capture the media's attention after the resounding release of Millenium. After all, this OS was positioned more for professional users than for home users.
In 2001, Windows XP was released, and all of Windows 9x and Windows 2000 were simply forgotten. A kind of fleeting phenomenon. What’s your opinion? What could this system have appealed to you if you used it? And conversely, what disappointed you greatly? Share in the comments! That’s all for now, this is how the episode turned out. Like, share the video, and subscribe to the channel – let’s reach 150,000 subscribers together.
Thank you for watching and thanks to those who supported the channel financially. Until next time, and have a great mood, dear friends!
2025-02-18 14:18
