List of Microsoft codenames
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Microsoft codenames are given by Microsoft to products it has in development before these products are given the names by which they appear on store shelves. Many of these products (new versions of Windows in particular) are of major significance to the IT community, and so the terms are often widely used in discussions before the official release. Microsoft usually does not announce a final name until shortly before the product is publicly available. It is not uncommon for Microsoft to reuse codenames a few years after a previous usage has been abandoned.
There has been some suggestion that Microsoft may move towards defining the real name of their upcoming products earlier in the product development lifecycle to avoid needing product codenames.
Operating systems
Windows 3.x and 9x
| Codename | Preliminary name | Final name | Notes | Ref |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Janus | —N/a | Windows & MS-DOS 5 | Combined bundle of Windows 3.1 and MS-DOS 5. Janus is a Roman god usually depicted with two faces, here symbolizing the previously separate Windows and MS-DOS products. | |
| Jastro | —N/a | Windows & MS-DOS 6 | Combined bundle of Windows 3.1 and MS-DOS 6. Portmanteau of Janus and Astro, the codename of MS-DOS 6. | |
| Sparta, Winball | Windows 3.1 Plus | Windows for Workgroups 3.1 | Windows 3.1 (16-bit) with enhanced networking; designed to work particularly well as a client with the new Windows NT. | |
| Snowball | —N/a | Windows for Workgroups 3.11 | An updated version of Windows for Workgroups 3.1, which introduces 32-bit file access and network improvements. It also removes the Standard Mode, effectively dropping support for 16-bit x86 processors. | |
| Chicago | Windows 4.0, Windows 93, Windows 94 | Windows 95 | For codenames of some of the internal components of Windows 95, see "Jaguar", "Cougar", "Panther" and "Stimpy" under § OS components | |
| Detroit | —N/a | USB Supplement to Windows 95 OSR2 | Named after Detroit, Michigan. A writer for Maximum PC suggested that "Detroit" and other Windows 95-era names were answers to the question posed by Microsoft's "Where do you want to go today?" marketing campaign. | |
| Nashville | Windows 96 | Dropped | Named after Nashville. Cancelled upgrade for Windows 95; sometimes referred to in the press as Windows 96. Codename was reused for Internet Explorer 4.0 and Windows Desktop Update which incorporated many of the technologies planned for Nashville. | |
| Memphis | Windows 97[citation needed] | Windows 98 | —N/a | |
| Millennium | —N/a | Windows Me | ME stands for Millennium Edition; Microsoft states that it is pronounced Me. |
Windows NT family
| Codename | Preliminary name | Final name | Notes | Ref |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Razzle | NT OS/2, Advanced Windows | Windows NT 3.1 | Is also the name of a script that sets up the Windows NT development environment. NT OS/2 reflected the first purpose of Windows NT to serve as the next version of OS/2, before Microsoft and IBM split up. Microsoft used the NT OS/2 code to release Windows NT 3.1. | |
| Daytona | —N/a | Windows NT 3.5 | Named after the Daytona International Speedway in Daytona Beach, Florida. | |
| Cairo | —N/a | Dropped | A cancelled project that would have fulfilled Bill Gates' "Information at your fingertips" vision | |
| Shell Update Release | —N/a | Windows NT 4.0 | —N/a | |
| Wolfpack | —N/a | Microsoft Cluster Server | —N/a | |
| Janus | —N/a | Dropped | Codename for the proposed 64-bit edition of Windows 2000, which was never released. | |
| Impala | —N/a | Windows NT 4.0 Embedded | —N/a | |
| Neptune | —N/a | Dropped | Planned to be the first consumer-oriented release of Windows NT succeeding the Windows 9x series; merged with Odyssey to form Whistler. | |
| Triton | —N/a | Dropped | A cancelled successor to "Neptune". | |
| Asteroid | —N/a | Windows 2000 Service Pack 1 | —N/a | |
| Odyssey | —N/a | Dropped | Planned to be a successor to Windows 2000; merged with Neptune to form Whistler. | |
| Whistler | Windows 2002 | Windows XP | Named after Whistler Blackcomb, where design retreats were held. | |
| Mantis | —N/a | Windows XP Embedded | Named after the Mantis shrimp. | |
| Freestyle | —N/a | Windows XP Media Center Edition | —N/a | |
| Harmony | —N/a | Windows XP Media Center Edition 2004 | —N/a | |
| Symphony | —N/a | Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005 | —N/a | |
| Slalom | —N/a | Dropped | Longhorn Media Center Edition. Scrapped in favor of including Windows Media Center in Home Premium and Ultimate editions instead of a dedicated Media Center edition. | |
| Emerald | —N/a | Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005 Update Rollup 2 | —N/a | |
| Diamond | —N/a | Windows Media Center | Included with Windows Vista. | |
| Springboard | —N/a | —N/a | Set of enhanced security features, included in Windows XP Service Pack 2. | |
| Lonestar | —N/a | Windows XP Tablet PC Edition 2005 | —N/a | |
| Whistler Server | Windows 2002 Server, Windows .NET Server, Windows .NET Server 2003 | Windows Server 2003 | —N/a | |
| Bobcat | —N/a | Windows Small Business Server 2003 | Not to be confused with Microsoft Bob. | |
| Eiger, Mönch | —N/a | Windows Fundamentals for Legacy PCs | Mönch included additional features for use on mobile devices. | |
| Longhorn | —N/a | Windows Vista | Named after the Longhorn Bar in the Whistler Blackcomb ski resort; initially planned as a "minor release" between "Whistler" and "Blackcomb" (see below) | |
| Blackcomb, Vienna | —N/a | Dropped | The purported successor to Whistler, and later, Longhorn. Named after Whistler Blackcomb, where design retreats were held. Blackcomb was later renamed to Vienna in January 2006, named after the capital of Austria. Eventually cancelled due to scope creep and replaced with Windows 7. | |
| Q, Quattro | —N/a | Windows Home Server | —N/a | |
| Vail | —N/a | Windows Home Server 2011 | —N/a | |
| Longhorn Server | —N/a | Windows Server 2008 | —N/a | |
| Cougar | —N/a | Windows Small Business Server 2008 | —N/a | |
| Centro | —N/a | Windows Essential Business Server | Named after the Spanish translation of the word "center". | |
| Blackcomb | —N/a | Windows 7 | The number 7 comes from incrementing the internal version number of Windows Vista (6.0) by one. Often incorrectly referred to as Blackcomb or Vienna, while the codenames actually refer to an earlier Vista successor project that was cancelled due to scope creep. | |
| Windows Server 7 | —N/a | Windows Server 2008 R2 | —N/a | |
| Solution Server | Windows MultiPoint Server 2010 | |||
| Windows MultiPoint Server "2" | Windows MultiPoint Server 2011 | |||
| Fiji | Windows Vista Media Center Feature Pack 2008 | Windows Media Center TV Pack 2008 | Named after the country of Fiji. | |
| Cascades | Windows Essential Business Server "v2" | Windows Essential Business Server 2008 R2 (cancelled) | Originally intended as the successor of Windows Essential Business Server 2008 but was cancelled "due to external factors". | |
| Aurora | —N/a | Windows Small Business Server 2011 Essentials | —N/a | |
| Quebec | —N/a | Windows Embedded Standard 7 | Named after the province of Quebec | |
| Windows 8 | —N/a | Windows 8 | Often incorrectly referred to as Jupiter, Midori and Chidori. Jupiter is the application framework used to create "immersive" apps for Windows 8, and Midori was a separate, managed code operating system. (see below) | |
| Windows Server "8" | —N/a | Windows Server 2012 | —N/a | |
| Blue | —N/a | Windows 8.1 | —N/a | |
| Windows Server Blue | —N/a | Windows Server 2012 R2 | —N/a | |
| Threshold | —N/a | Windows 10 Windows 10 November Update | Named after a location seen in Halo: Combat Evolved, near which Installation 04 orbits. | |
| Redstone | —N/a | Windows Server 2016 Windows 10 Creators Update Windows 10 Fall Creators Update Windows 10 April 2018 Update Windows Server 2019 | Named after a fictional mineral from Minecraft. | |
| Santorini | Windows 10X | Dropped | Named after an island in Greece. Originally supposed to be a new OS to be released mid-late 2021, was eventually cancelled. Some of its features were integrated into Windows 11 and other products. | |
| Sun Valley | —N/a | Windows 11 | Named after Sun Valley, Idaho. | |
| Hudson Valley | —N/a | Windows 11 24H2 update | Named after Hudson Valley, New York |
Windows platform development semesters
The following are code names used for internal development cycle iterations of the Windows core, although they are not necessarily the code names of any of the resulting releases. With some exceptions, the semester designations usually matches the Windows version number.
| Codename | Semester | Release | Notes | Ref |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Titanium | 19H1 | Windows 10 May 2019 Update | Named after the chemical element in the periodic table. | |
| Vanadium | 19H2 | Windows 10 November 2019 Update | Named after the chemical element in the periodic table. | |
| Vibranium | 20H1 | Windows 10 May 2020 Update Windows 10 October 2020 Update Windows 10 May 2021 Update Windows 10 November 2021 Update Windows 10 2022 Update | Named after the fictional metal Vibranium in Marvel Comics as continuing the previous line of chemical elements with Chromium could have caused confusion with the web browser project. | |
| Manganese | 20H2 | —N/a | Named after the chemical element in the periodic table. | |
| Iron | 21H1 | Windows Server 2022 | Named after the chemical element in the periodic table. | |
| Cobalt | 21H2 | Windows 11 | Named after the chemical element in the periodic table. | |
| Nickel | 22H2 | Windows 11 2022 Update Windows 11 2023 Update | Named after the chemical element in the periodic table. Originally planned to be the 22H1 semester, although that semester was ultimately skipped and Nickel shifted to 22H2, expanded to span the entire year. | |
| Copper | 23H1 | —N/a | Named after the chemical element in the periodic table. | |
| Zinc[citation needed] | 23H2 | Windows Server, version 23H2 | Named after the chemical element in the periodic table. | |
| Gallium [citation needed] | 24H1 | —N/a | Named after the chemical element in the periodic table. | |
| Germanium [citation needed] | 24H2 | Windows 11 2024 Update Windows Server 2025 Windows 11 2025 Update | Named after the chemical element in the periodic table. | |
| Dilithium [citation needed] | 25H1 | —N/a | Named after the fictional material from Star Trek. | |
| Selenium [citation needed] | 25H2 | —N/a | Named after the chemical element in the periodic table. | |
| Bromine[citation needed] | 26H1 | —N/a | Named after the chemical element in the periodic table. | |
| Krypton | 26H2 | —N/a | Named after the chemical element in the periodic table. |
Windows CE family
| Codename | Preliminary name | Final name | Ref |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pegasus, Alder | —N/a | Windows CE 1.0 | |
| Birch | —N/a | Windows CE 2.0 | |
| Cedar | —N/a | Windows CE 3.0 | |
| Talisker | Windows CE .NET | Windows CE 4.0 | |
| Jameson | —N/a | Windows CE 4.1 | |
| McKendric | —N/a | Windows CE 4.2 | |
| Macallan | —N/a | Windows CE 5.0 | |
| Yamazaki | Windows CE 6.0 | Windows Embedded CE 6.0 | |
| Chelan | Windows Embedded CE 7 | Windows Embedded Compact 7 |
Windows Mobile
| Codename | Preliminary name | Final name | Ref |
|---|---|---|---|
| Rapier | —N/a | Pocket PC 2000 | |
| Merlin | —N/a | Pocket PC 2002 | |
| Ozone | —N/a | Windows Mobile 2003 | |
| Magneto | —N/a | Windows Mobile 5 | |
| Crossbow | —N/a | Windows Mobile 6 | |
| 6 on 6 | —N/a | Windows Mobile 6.1.4 | |
| Titanium | —N/a | Windows Mobile 6.5 | |
| Maldives | Windows Mobile 7 | Windows Phone 7 |
Windows Phone
| Codename | Preliminary name | Final name | Ref |
|---|---|---|---|
| Photon | Windows Mobile 7 Series | Windows Phone 7 | |
| Mango | —N/a | Windows Phone 7.5 | |
| Apollo | —N/a | Windows Phone 8 | |
| Blue | —N/a | Windows Phone 8.1 | |
| Threshold | —N/a | Windows 10 Mobile |
Others
| Codename | Preliminary name | Final name | Notes | Ref |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Singularity | —N/a | —N/a | Experimental operating system based on the Microsoft .NET platform, using software-based type safety as a replacement for hardware-based memory protection. Evolved into Midori. | |
| Midori | —N/a | —N/a | A managed code operating system being developed by Microsoft with joint effort of Microsoft Research. | |
| Red Dog | Windows Cloud | Azure | Microsoft cloud services platform | |
| Tahiti | —N/a | —N/a | Supposedly a family of multi-core technologies including an operating system, applications and development tools designed to make better use of today's multi-core CPUs. Midori may be a part of this suite of new Microsoft technologies. | |
| Tokyo | Azure AD Cloud App Discovery | Cloud App Discovery | Azure-based data-directory service designed to help connect the right people to the right data. | |
| Zurich | —N/a | .NET Services | Part of Microsoft Azure, Microsoft's cloud computing platform, that focuses on extended software development based on .NET Framework to the cloud. |
OS components
| Codename | Preliminary name | Final name | Notes | Ref |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Anaheim | —N/a | Microsoft Edge | A rewrite of Microsoft's web browser, based on the Chromium project. | |
| Barcelona | —N/a | Windows Defender Application Guard | A security feature for running the Microsoft Edge web browser inside a virtual machine, thus isolating it from the rest of the system in the event that it was hacked. | |
| Beihai | Paint 3D | 3D version of Microsoft Paint | ||
| Code Integrity Rooting | Secure Startup | BitLocker | A security feature that checks and validates the integrity of Windows boot and system components. | |
| Continuum | Tablet Mode | Continuum | A Windows 10 feature that enables hybrid devices to switch between tablet mode and desktop mode. An immediately manifest effect is the Start screen getting maximized in tablet mode. | |
| Cornerstone | Secure Startup | BitLocker | Full disk encryption feature introduced in Windows Vista and present in subsequent versions that utilizes the Trusted Platform Module to perform integrity checking prior to operating system startup. | |
| Assistant | —N/a | Cortana | An intelligent personal assistant included with Windows 10, named after an artificial intelligence character in Halo | |
| Cougar | —N/a | VMM32 | 32-bit kernel | |
| Darwin | Microsoft Installer | Windows Installer | A Windows service and application programming interface for installing software on computers running Microsoft Windows operating systems | |
| Frosting | —N/a | Microsoft Plus! for Windows 95 | ||
| Hydra | —N/a | Terminal Services, Windows Terminal Server | Terminal Server adds "multiheading" support to Windows (the ability to run multiple instances of the graphics subsystem), and the hydra is a mythological monster with multiple heads. | |
| Jaguar | —N/a | —N/a | 16-bit DOS kernel for Windows 95 based on MS-DOS 5.0, used by Windows 95 boot loader and compatibility layer. | |
| Jupiter | —N/a | WinRT XAML | A new application framework on Windows 8 used to create cross-platform "immersive" apps. | |
| Monad | MSH, Microsoft Shell | Windows PowerShell | "Monads", according to philosopher Gottfried Leibniz's monadology, are the ultimate elements of the universe, individual percipient beings, and MSH is similarly composed of small, individual modules the user puts in interrelation. | |
| Morro | —N/a | Microsoft Security Essentials | MSE was codenamed after the Morro de São Paulo beach in Brazil. | |
| Neon | —N/a | Fluent Design | Microsoft Fluent Design System is a revamp of the Windows UI based around five key components: Light, Depth, Motion, Material, and Scale. | |
| O'Hare | —N/a | Internet Explorer 1 | Internet Explorer 1, first shipped in Microsoft Plus! for Windows 95: The codename O'Hare ties into the Chicago codename for Windows 95: O'Hare International Airport is the largest airport in the city of Chicago, Illinois — in Microsoft's words, "a point of departure to distant places from Chicago". | |
| Panther | —N/a | —N/a | Cancelled. Panther was a 32-bit kernel based on Windows NT kernel. | |
| Pinball | —N/a | High Performance File System (HPFS) | "Pinball" is the nickname (as opposed to a codename) for HPFS because HPFS driver in Windows NT 3.5 is called PINBALL.SYS. | |
| Piton | —N/a | ReadyDrive | Feature introduced in Windows Vista to support hybrid drives | |
| Protogon | —N/a | ReFS | The successor of NTFS | |
| Rincon | —N/a | Internet Explorer 7 | Rincon is a surfing beach in Puerto Rico | |
| Spartan | —N/a | Microsoft Edge [Legacy] | Web browser first introduced in Windows 10, which uses EdgeHTML rendering engine. Refers to Spartans in Halo. | |
| Stimpy | —N/a | Windows Shell | Applies to Windows 95 only. | |
| Viridian | —N/a | Hyper-V | Virtualization update for Windows Server 2008 | |
| WinFS | —N/a | —N/a | A cancelled data storage and management system project based on relational databases, first demonstrated in 2003 as an advanced storage subsystem for the Microsoft Windows, designed for persistence and management of structured, semi-structured as well as unstructured data. | |
| Cascadia | —N/a | Windows Terminal | A terminal emulator for Windows 10. |
Microsoft Servers
SQL Server family
| Codename | Final name | Notes | Ref |
|---|---|---|---|
| SQLNT | SQL Server 4.21 | [citation needed] | |
| SQL95 | SQL Server 6.0 | [citation needed] | |
| Hydra | SQL Server 6.5 | [citation needed] | |
| Sphinx | SQL Server 7.0 | ||
| Plato | OLAP Services 7.0 | "OLAP Services" was later renamed Microsoft Analysis Services | |
| Shiloh | SQL Server 2000 | Version 8 | [citation needed] |
| Rosetta | Reporting Services in SQL Server 2000 | [citation needed] | |
| Yukon | SQL Server 2005 | Version 9 | |
| Picasso | Analysis Services in SQL Server 2005 | [citation needed] | |
| Katmai | SQL Server 2008 | Version 10 | |
| Kilimanjaro | SQL Server 2008 R2 | Version 10.5 | |
| Blue | SQL Server 2008 Report Designer 2.0 | This is the standalone release of the tool for Reporting Services. It must not be confused with Report Builder 2.0. | |
| Denali | SQL Server 2012 | Version 11 | |
| Juneau | SQL Server Data Tools | Was included in SQL Server 2012, later released as a standalone downloadable application | |
| Crescent | Power View | A data visualisation tool that originally shipped as part of SQL Server 2012, later an add-in for Microsoft Excel | |
| SQL14 | SQL Server 2014 | Version 12 | |
| Hekaton | SQL Server In-Memory OLTP | In-memory database engine built into SQL Server 2014 | |
| SQL16 | SQL Server 2016 | Version 13 | |
| Helsinki | SQL Server 2017 | Version 14 | |
| Seattle | SQL Server 2019 | Version 15 | |
| Aris | SQL Server Big Data Clusters | Announced at Microsoft Ignite 2018 event on September 24–28. Retirement announced for Feb-28 2025 | |
| Dallas | SQL Server 2022 | Version 16. Public preview available for download. Announced at Microsoft Build 2022 event on May 24 |
Others
| Codename | Final name | Ref |
|---|---|---|
| Hermes | Microsoft System Management Server 1.0 | |
| Catapult | Microsoft Proxy Server 1.0 | |
| Geneva | Active Directory Federation Services | |
| Falcon | Microsoft Message Queue Server | |
| Viper | Microsoft Transaction Server | |
| Normandy | Microsoft's Commercial Internet System (CIS) | |
| Stirling | Microsoft Forefront Protection Suite |
Developers tools
Visual Studio family
| Codename | Preliminary name | Final name | Notes | Ref |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Thunder | Visual Basic 1.0 | The first version of Visual Basic. The standard dialogs and controls created by the Visual Basic runtime library all have "Thunder" as a prefix of their internal type names (for example, buttons are internally known as ThunderCommandButton). | ||
| Escher | Microsoft Visual Basic for MS-DOS | [citation needed] | ||
| Dolphin | Microsoft Visual C++ 2.0 | [citation needed] | ||
| Zamboni | Microsoft Visual C++ 4.1 | After Zamboni, an ice resurfacing machine. | ||
| Boston | Microsoft Visual Studio 97 | Named for Boston, Massachusetts | ||
| Cuervo | Microsoft Visual Basic 5.0 Control Creation Edition | |||
| Aspen | Microsoft Visual Studio 6.0 | Named after the popular ski destination Aspen, Colorado | ||
| Cassini Web Server | ASP.NET Development Server | The lightweight local Web server that is launched in Visual Studio in order to test Web projects | ||
| Hatteras | Visual Studio Team System's Source Control System | —N/a | Named after the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse in the Outer Banks region of North Carolina | |
| Ocracoke | Visual Studio Team System load testing suite | —N/a | Named after the Ocracoke Island Lighthouse on Ocracoke Island, also in North Carolina | |
| Currituck | Team Foundation Work Item Tracking | —N/a | Named after the Currituck Beach Lighthouse in Corolla, North Carolina | |
| Bodie | Team Foundation Server SDK | —N/a | Named after the Bodie Island Lighthouse in North Carolina | |
| Tuscany | Online version of Visual Studio. | Currently a research project | ||
| Phoenix | —N/a | A Microsoft research software development kit | ||
| Eaglestone | Visual Studio Team Explorer Everywhere | This is the name given to the Teamprise suite Microsoft acquired. The product is now named Visual Studio Team Explorer Everywhere | ||
| KittyHawk | Visual Studio LightSwitch | RAD tool aimed at non-programmers | ||
| Rainier | Visual Studio .NET (2002) | Named for Mount Rainier, a volcanic mountain peak visible from the Seattle area (where Microsoft is based) | ||
| Everett | Visual Studio .NET 2003 | Named after the town Everett, Washington, in Washington state | ||
| Whidbey | Visual Studio 2005 | Named after Whidbey Island in the Puget Sound | ||
| Orcas | Visual Studio 2008 | Named after Orcas Island in the Puget Sound | ||
| Camano | Microsoft Test and Lab Manager | Microsoft Test Manager, a part of Visual Studio 2010 Test Professional, Premium and Ultimate editions | Named after Camano Island in the Puget Sound | |
| Rosario | Visual Studio Ultimate 2010 (formerly Team System or Team Suite) | |||
| Cider | —N/a | Visual Studio designer for building Windows Presentation Foundation applications, meant to be used by application developers | ||
| Monaco | Monaco Editor | In-browser IDE for Visual Studio. Monaco powers Visual Studio Code. |
.NET Framework family
| Codename | Final name | Notes | Ref |
|---|---|---|---|
| Astoria | WCF Data Services | Enables the creation and consumption of OData services for the web | |
| Atlas | ASP.NET AJAX | An implementation for ASP.NET of Ajax native to .NET Framework 2.0 | |
| Avalon | Windows Presentation Foundation | Graphical subsystem released as part of .NET Framework 3.0 | |
| Fusion | —N/a | .NET Framework subsystem for locating and loading assemblies, including GAC management | |
| Hailstorm | .NET My Services | ||
| Indigo | Windows Communication Foundation | An application programming interface (API) in .NET Framework for building connected, service-oriented applications | |
| Jolt | Silverlight 1.0 | ||
| Lightning, Project 42 | .NET Framework 1.0 | Project Lightning was the original codename for the Common Language Runtime in 1997. The team was based in building 42, hence Project 42. | |
| Project 7 | —N/a | Early program to recruit implementors of both commercial and academic languages to target the Common Language Runtime. 7 was a prime factor of 42, metaphorizing the relationship between Project 7 and Project 42 (see above). | |
| Roslyn | .NET Compiler Platform | Open-source project that exposes programmatic access to compilers via corresponding APIs |
Languages
| Codename | Final name | Notes | Ref |
|---|---|---|---|
| Clarity | Language Integrated Query (LINQ) | LINQ Language extensions to expose query syntax natively to languages such as Visual Basic .NET and C# | [citation needed] |
| D | M | Modelling language | [citation needed] |
| Jakarta | Visual J++ | Named after the capital of Indonesia, Jakarta | |
| Metro | Microsoft Design language | A typography-based design language |
Others
| Codename | Final name | Notes | Ref |
|---|---|---|---|
| Godot | Microsoft Layer for Unicode | Named after the play Waiting for Godot (centered around the endless wait for a man named "Godot" who never comes), because it was felt to be long overdue. | |
| Volta | —N/a | A developer toolset for building multi-tier web applications | |
| Project Centennial | Desktop App Converter | Allows developers to re-package existing desktop apps into the APPX format of Universal Windows Platform and sell them in Windows Store. |
Gaming hardware
| Codename | Final name | Notes | Ref |
|---|---|---|---|
| DirectX Box | Xbox | ||
| Natal | Kinect | Motion sensitive control system. | |
| Xenon | Xbox 360 | Successor to the original Xbox. | |
| Durango | Xbox One | Successor to Xbox 360. | |
| Edmonton | Xbox One S | Xbox One with 4K and HEVC Support. | |
| Scorpio | Xbox One X | Upgrade to Xbox One, announced at Electronic Entertainment Expo 2016. Has 6 TFLOPS GPU and 8-core CPU. | |
| Scarlett | Xbox Series X|S | Project name for a family of next-gen consoles. Xbox Anaconda and Xbox Lockhart are both part of Project Scarlet. Announced by Microsoft at E3 2018. | |
| Anaconda | Xbox Series X | Successor to Xbox One. Higher end model. Announced by Microsoft at The Game Awards 2019. Later called "Starkville" | Xbox Series X|S |
| Lockhart | Xbox Series S | Potential lower end model for a cheaper price. Was announced by Microsoft in September 2020. Would be successor to Xbox One S. Later called "Edith". | |
| Ellewood | Xbox Series S - 1TB Digital Edition | Codename for the Xbox Series S - 1TB Digital Edition console. | |
| Brooklin | Xbox Series X - 2TB Galaxy Black Special Edition | Codename for the Xbox Series X - 2TB Galaxy Black Special Edition console. | |
| Edinburgh | Originally spotted by software developer bllyhlbrt on Twitter, a new codename, Xbox Edinburgh, can be seen within the Xbox One's operating system, underneath Lockhart and Anaconda. | ||
| Count | One of the codenames originally spotted by software developer bllyhlbrt on Twitter. | ||
| Helix | Successor to the Xbox Series X|S. Announced by Microsoft on Twitter March 5th, 2026. |
Office software
| Codename | Preliminary name | Final name | Notes | Ref |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Albany | Microsoft Equipt | Microsoft's all-in-one, subscription-based service for office, communication, and security software | ||
| Bandit | Schedule+ 1.0 | Microsoft's first Personal Information Manager | [citation needed] | |
| Barney | Money 1.0 | Microsoft's personal finance software (Flintstones theme) | [citation needed] | |
| Betty | Money 2.0 | [citation needed] | ||
| Budapest | Microsoft Office Communicator Web Access 2005 | [citation needed] | ||
| Bullet | Microsoft Mail 3.0 | Microsoft's first LAN-based email product written in-house | [citation needed] | |
| Cirrus | Microsoft Access 1.0 | [citation needed] | ||
| CRM V1.0, Tsunami | Microsoft CRM 1.0 | The platform was initially codenamed Tsunami, but once the decision was made to make it an actual product it was just changed to the initials as the initials were enough of a codename. | ||
| Danube Phase I | Microsoft CRM 1.2 | |||
| Danube Phase II | Microsoft CRM 3 | |||
| Dino | Microsoft Money 3.0 | [citation needed] | ||
| Kilimanjaro | Titan | Microsoft CRM 4 | Was originally Kilimanjaro but changed to Titan, as Kilimanjaro was too difficult to spell | |
| Deco | Microsoft PhotoDraw | [citation needed] | ||
| Greenwich | Real-Time Communications Server 2003 | Microsoft Office Live Communications Server 2003 | [citation needed] | |
| Istanbul | Microsoft Office Communicator 2005 | [citation needed] | ||
| Maestro | Microsoft Office Business Scorecard Manager 2005 | [citation needed] | ||
| Opus | Word for Windows v1.0 for Windows 2.x | [citation needed] | ||
| Oslo | Microsoft BizTalk Server SOA, SQL Server Modeling CTP | —N/a | Set of Service-oriented architecture (SOA) technologies | |
| Ren, Stimpy | Wren | Microsoft Outlook | "Stimpy" was merged into "Ren", which later became "Wren". "Ren" and "Stimpy" are references to Ren and Stimpy, characters of an American animated television series. "Wren", a homophone of "Ren", is a reference to Christopher Wren, the architect of St Paul's Cathedral. | |
| Rigel | Skype Room Systems | A meeting room system designed to interface with Skype | ||
| Tahiti | Microsoft SharedView | —N/a | A screen sharing tool which allows users to take over sessions and interact with remote desktops. No audio or conference facilities. | |
| Tahoe | SharePoint Portal Server 2001 | |||
| Utopia | Microsoft Bob | Intended to be a user-friendly GUI |
Other codenames
| Codename | Preliminary name | Final name | Notes | Ref |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Acropolis | —N/a | Application framework for Smart Clients | [citation needed] | |
| Aero Diamond | —N/a | Used during the development of Windows Vista to describe a set of advanced user interface effects for the Desktop Window Manager to be introduced after Vista's release | ||
| Alexandria | Zune Marketplace | An online music store | [citation needed] | |
| Argo | Zune | A digital media player | [citation needed] | |
| Atlanta | —N/a | A cloud service that monitors Microsoft SQL Server deployments | ||
| Baraboo | Microsoft HoloLens | |||
| Blackbird | —N/a | An online content-authoring platform centered around the concept of distributed Object Linking and Embedding (OLE) and meant to be an alternative to HTML. The developer tools were originally released in beta and some titles were made available on MSDN before it was scrapped in favor of web development around ASP and ActiveX and the designer was refashioned into Visual InterDev. | [citation needed] | |
| Concur | —N/a | Aims to: define higher-level abstractions (above "threads and locks"); for today's imperative languages; that evenly support the range of concurrency granularities; to let developers write correct and efficient concurrent applications; with much latent parallelism; that can be efficiently mapped to the user's. | [citation needed] | |
| Dallas | —N/a | Aims to help discover, purchase and manage, premium data subscriptions in the Windows Azure platform | ||
| Dorado | Zune PC Client | [citation needed] | ||
| Eldorado | MVP Reconnect | Program to recognize alumni of Microsoft's Most Valuable Professional award program when they left the program in good standing or were not re-awarded. | ||
| HailStorm | .NET My Services | Collection of web services centered around the storage and retrieval of information. Cancelled before it could fully materialize. | ||
| Honolulu | Windows Admin Center | [citation needed] | ||
| Ibiza | Azure Portal | Website for managing cloud resources | ||
| Kratos | PowerApps | Software for building and sharing native, mobile, and Web apps | ||
| Kumo | Bing | Microsoft's set of features improving Live Search search engine | [citation needed] | |
| Marvel | The Microsoft Network | The classic version of MSN, originally as a proprietary, "walled garden" online service | [citation needed] | |
| Media2Go | Windows Mobile software for Portable Media Centers | Platform built on Windows Mobile found on portable media players | ||
| Metro | XML Paper Specification (XPS) | Named after Metro by T-Mobile, a wireless prepaid service in the United States.[citation needed] | [citation needed] | |
| Milan | Surface | Microsoft PixelSense | Table-top style computer with multi-touch touchscreen interface | [citation needed] |
| Mira | —N/a | Windows CE .NET-based technology for smart displays | ||
| Monaco | —N/a | Music-making program similar to Apple GarageBand application | ||
| Origami | Ultra-Mobile PC | [citation needed] | ||
| Palladium | Trusted Windows | —N/a | Effort to develop a small, very secure operating environment within Windows, including curtained memory, trusted input, and graphics. Project renamed to Next-Generation Secure Computing Base, and was never fully implemented. | |
| Softsled | —N/a | Software based Windows Media Center Extender[clarification needed Is it "software-based" or "software based on"?] | [citation needed] | |
| Springfield | Microsoft Popfly | —N/a | Website in Alpha testing stage providing mashup and webpages creation tools, with publishing as Rich Internet Application option | |
| Sydney | Bing Chat | Copilot | ||
| Wolverine | TCP/IP stack for Windows for Workgroups 3.11 | Named after the Wolverine, a character from Marvel Comics. | ||
| Pink | Microsoft Kin |