Is WIndows XP (Home/Pro) DOS Bases, or NT based?

Question

I read somewhere that its in the NT Category...
Thats why when i open up the Command Promt in windows Xp Pro..
it would show up as This:

Microsoft Windows XP [Version 5.1.2600]

that 5.1.2600 must mean something...

Answer 1

XP Pro & Home are NT based. They have a command prompt, but it's not the same as dos.

Answer 2

None of them are "based" on DOS. You have a fundamental misunderstanding of these operating systems. Windows 1-3 ran as an interface layer over the DOS environment, and as an extension to it. Win 9x was not "DOS-based", although many of the commands and a large amount of program compatibility were present. Win NT and up has little to do with DOS. The capabilities of these systems are far beyond any version of DOS. DOS was a 16-bit system that could address 1 meg of RAM, run a single program at a time, and access 2GB of hard disk at most. The later versions of Windows have a completely different architecture, and the 64-bit versions don't even have any 16-bit code or the ability to run it.

Answer 3

It is NT and yes the 5.1.2600 does mean something. Windows XP is Windows NT version 5.1

[edit] forgot to mention that 2600 is the RTM (release to manufacturing) build number



NT Version History:

NT 3.1 - Windows NT 3.1

NT 3.5 - Windows NT 3.5

NT 3.51 - Windows NT 3.51

NT 4.0 - Windows NT 4.0

NT 5.0 - Windows 2000

NT 5.1 - Windows XP

NT 5.2 - Windows Server 2003

NT 6.0 - Windows Vista

NT 6.1 - Windows 7 (not yet released)



NT started as the first true 32bit version of Windows that was marketed to professionals. The consumer counterparts like ME, 98, 95 etc were hybrid 16/32bit.



[edit]

Check out this link:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Windows#Timeline_of_releases

to see the names and release dates of many Windows versions from Windows 1.01 to Vienna (Windows 7)

Answer 4

windows xp home and pro are nt base and xp does not have dos