Windows Nashville

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Nashville was the codename for a canceled operating system upgrade for Microsoft Windows 95, which was originally intended to be released in 1996. For Windows 95 users, Nashville was intended to be a fairly minor update that would bridge the gap between Windows 95 and Memphis (popularly referred to as Windows 97), the next major version of Windows (eventually released as Windows 98). For Windows NT users, Nashville would be an interim revision between the releases of Windows NT 4.0 and Cairo, which was due at the same time as Memphis (after a series of delays, the next major version of Windows NT was finally delivered as Windows 2000). Due to its position between Windows 95 and Windows 97 (as Memphis was then known), the press often referred to Nashville as Windows 96.

Microsoft claimed that Nashville would add Internet integration features to the Windows 95 and NT 4.0 desktop, building on the new features in the Internet Explorer 3.0 web browser (due for release a few months before Nashville). Touted features included a combined file manager and web browser, the ability to seamlessly open Microsoft Office documents from within Internet Explorer using ActiveX technology and a way to place dynamic webpages directly on the desktop in place of the regular static computer wallpaper.

While the Nashville project itself was cancelled, many of its planned features were introduced with later versions of Internet Explorer and Windows. In particular, much of the Internet integration functionality, including the combined file manager and web browser, could be added to Windows 95 and Windows NT 4.0 by installing Windows Desktop Update. This update was included with Internet Explorer 4.0 (also codenamed Nashville and released in 1997) which could be installed separately or came with Windows 95 OSR 2.5 or Windows 98.

[edit] See also

• Microsoft Windows
• Microsoft codenames

[edit] External links

• The Road to Cairo Goes Through Nashville (June 1996 preview)
• Beyond Windows 95