Windows on Windows: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 15:28, 23 April 2007

Revision as of 11:38, 1 May 2007

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{{Unreferenced|date=April 2007}}

'''Windows on Windows''', commonly referred to as '''WOW''' or '''WoW''', is a name of two abstraction subsystems of [[Microsoft]] [[Microsoft Windows|Windows]] [[operating system]]. WoW is a name of two critical components for [[backward compatibility]] of [[legacy code]] as Windows progresses. The first component called WoW appeared in [[Windows NT]] to support applications using the [[Win16]] [[API]] and was relying on [[NTVDM]].

Supporting [[Win32]] applications on [[Windows XP Professional x64 Edition]], [[Windows Server 2003]] x64, and other x64 versions of Windows requires a new WoW called [[WOW64]]. The x64 versions of Windows no longer include the 16-bit WoW subsystem (as well as the NTVDM) and can therefore no longer run 16-bit Windows nor DOS applications.

== External links and references ==

* [http://www.microsoft.com/technet/archive/winntas/training/ntarchitectoview/ntarc_5.mspx?mfr=true Windows NT subsystems]

* [http://kb.iu.edu/data/acxn.html What are NTVDM and WOW?]

* [http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/windows2000serv/reskit/prork/preb_mon_ewvl.mspx?mfr=true Monitoring 16-bit Windows applications]

* [http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/win64/win64/running_32_bit_applications.asp 64-bit Windows]

* [http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/win64/win64/wow64_implementation_details.asp WOW64 implementation details]

[[Category:Windows components]]