Windows Fundamentals for Legacy PCs ("WinFLP") is a

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release of the

Windows NT Windows NT is a Proprietary software, proprietary Graphical user interface, graphical operating system produced by Microsoft as part of its Windows product line, the first version of which, Windows NT 3.1, was released on July 27, 1993. Original ...

operating system An operating system (OS) is system software that manages computer hardware and software resources, and provides common daemon (computing), services for computer programs. Time-sharing operating systems scheduler (computing), schedule tasks for ...

developed by

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and optimized for older, less powerful hardware. It was released on July 8, 2006, nearly two years after its Windows XP SP2 counterpart was released in August 2004, and is not marketed as a full-fledged general purpose operating system, although it is functionally able to perform most of the tasks generally associated with one. It includes only certain functionality for local workloads such as security, management, document viewing related tasks and the .NET Framework. It is designed to work as a client–server solution with

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clients or other third party clients such as Citrix ICA. Windows Fundamentals for Legacy PCs reached end of support on April 8, 2014, along with most other Windows XP editions.

History

Windows Fundamentals for Legacy PCs was originally announced with the

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" on 12 May 2005. ("

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" was announced as a potential follow-up project at about the same time.) The name "Windows Fundamentals for Legacy PCs" appeared in a press release in September 2005, when it was introduced as "formerly code-named 'Eiger and described as "an exclusive benefit to SA customers". A

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evaluation from April 2006 stated that: The RTM version of Windows Fundamentals for Legacy PCs, which was released on July 8, 2006, was built from the Windows XP Embedded Service Pack 2 codebase. The release was announced to the press on July 12, 2006. Because Windows Fundamentals for Legacy PCs comes from a codebase of Windows XP Embedded, its service packs are also developed separately. For the same reason, Service Pack 3 for Windows Fundamentals for Legacy PCs, released on October 7, 2008, is the same as Service Pack 3 for 32-bit (x86) editions of Windows XP. In fact, due to the earlier release date of the 32-bit version, many of the key features introduced by Service Pack 2 for 32-bit (x86) editions of Windows XP were already present in the RTM version of Windows Fundamentals for Legacy PCs. Service Pack 3 is the last released service pack for Windows Fundamentals for Legacy PCs. In May 2011, Microsoft announced Windows Thin PC as the successor product.

Technical specifications

Microsoft positioned Windows Fundamentals for Legacy PCs as an operating system that provides basic computing services on older hardware, while still providing core management features of more recent Windows releases, such as Windows Firewall,

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, Automatic Updates, and other management services. However, it was not considered to be a general-purpose operating system by Microsoft. Windows Fundamentals for Legacy PCs is a

Windows XP Embedded Windows XP, which is the next version of Windows NT after Windows 2000 and the successor to the consumer-oriented Windows Me, has been released in several editions since its original release in 2001. Windows XP is available in many languages. In ...

derivative and, as such, it requires significantly fewer system resources than the fully featured Windows XP. It also features basic networking, extended peripheral support,

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, and the ability to launch the remote desktop clients from

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s. In addition to local

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, it offers support for those hosted on a remote server using

Remote Desktop In computing, the term remote desktop refers to a software- or operating system feature that allows a personal computer's desktop environment to be run remotely from one system (usually a PC, but the concept applies equally to a server or a sma ...

. It can be installed on a local hard drive, or configured to run on a

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Hardware requirements

Despite being optimized for older PCs, hardware requirements for Windows Fundamentals for Legacy PCs are similar to Windows XP, although it is faster running on slower clock speeds than Windows XP.

Limitations

Windows Fundamentals for Legacy PCs has a smaller feature set than Windows XP. For example, WinFLP does not include

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and Windows games such as

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. Another limitation is the absence of the ''Compatibility'' tab in the ''Properties'' dialog box for executable files. Internet Explorer 8 (and 7) can be installed, but a hotfix is required for auto-complete to work in these newer versions of the browser.

Availability

Windows Fundamentals for Legacy PCs was exclusively available to

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customers, as it was designed to be an inexpensive upgrade option for corporations that had a number of

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computers, but lacked the hardware necessary to support the latest Windows. It was not available through

retail Retail is the sale of goods and services to consumers, in contrast to wholesaling, which is the sale to business or institutional customers. A retailer purchases goods in large quantities from manufacturers, directly or through a wholes ...

or OEM channels. On October 7, 2008, Service Pack 3 for

Windows Embedded for Point of Service Windows is a product line of proprietary graphical operating systems developed and marketed by Microsoft. It is grouped into families and subfamilies that cater to particular sectors of the computing industry – Windows (unqualified) for ...

and Windows Fundamentals for Legacy PCs was made available. On April 18, 2013, Service Pack 3 for Windows Fundamentals for Legacy PCs was temporarily made available for download again after previously having been removed from the Microsoft site. It was removed in 2014, and the original Service Pack 3 for Windows Embedded for Point of Service and Windows Fundamentals for Legacy PCs was reinstated. Following the release of Windows Thin PC, the Microsoft marketing pages for Windows Fundamentals were made to redirect to those of Windows Thin PC, suggesting that Windows Fundamentals is no longer available for any customers. Windows Fundamentals for Legacy PCs has the same lifecycle policy as Windows XP; as such, its support lifespan ended on 8 April 2014.

References

External links

Windows Fundamentals for Legacy PCs
home page on Microsoft's official site (Archived)

Fixing null.sys on WinFLP
{{DEFAULTSORT:Windows Fundamentals For Legacy PCs 2006 software Fundamentals IA-32 operating systems