Microsoft Codenames

From IeXwiki

There have been various Microsoft codenames that have been used to refer to its new products before their final release. Since many of these releases are very significant to the IT community, the terms are widely used in discussions prior to the official release. Microsoft generally does not announce a final name until shortly before the product is finished, although it is usually possible to speculate ("Memphis", for instance, was expected to be "Windows 97", but was delayed).

Codename	Preliminary name	Final name	Notes
Windows family
Janus		Windows 3.x
Kato		Windows for Workgroups 3.1
Snowball		Windows for Workgroups 3.11
Chicago		Windows 95
Detroit		Windows 95B (OSR 2)
Memphis	Windows 97	Windows 98	The codename was the key to activating an easter egg in Windows 98: open the "Date and Time" control panel; go to the "Timezone" page; hold the Control key and drag a line with the mouse cursor from Memphis, Egypt to Memphis, Tennessee. Still holding the Control key, drag another line from Memphis, Tennessee to Redmond, Washington; a window opens with the credits for Windows 98.
Millenium, Georgia		Windows ME
Windows NT family
OS/2 3.0	Windows NT 4	Windows NT 3.1	There never was a Windows NT 1.0. The version number was chosen to mirror the Windows version number at the time
Daytona		Windows NT 3.5
Cairo		Windows NT 4.0
Wolfpack		Cluster Server
Hydra	Terminal Services	Terminal Server	Terminal Server adds "multiheading" support to Windows, and the hydra was a mythological monster with multiple heads.
Impala		Windows NT 4.0 Embedded
	Windows NT 5.0	Windows 2000	A watershed in Windows naming: first major Windows release since Windows 2.0 without a codename; first major Windows NT release whose workstation variant was named "Professional" instead of "Workstation"; first major Windows NT release without the "NT" designation in the trade name, which caused confusion when Windows ME was released. The Windows NT and Windows 9x lines have since been dropped altogether, and new Windows operating systems are now simply called "Windows".
Astroid		Windows 2000 SP 1
Janus		Windows 2000 64-bit	Same codename as Windows 3.1.
Odyssey		N/A	Never released.
Neptune		N/A	A "Consumer" version based on the Windows 2000 codebase. Never released (became Whistler).
Whistler		Windows XP	Merge of Neptune and Odyssey. Named after Whistler, British Columbia, where design retreats were held.
Mantis		Windows XP Embedded
Freestyle		Windows XP MCE 1.0
Harmony		Windows XP MCE 1.5
Whistler Server	Windows .NET Server	Windows Server 2003	One of many unrelated Microsoft projects of the time to carry a ".NET" designation.
Bobcat		Windows Small Business Server 2003
Longhorn		Windows Vista	Not released yet (as of May, 2005). Named after a bar in the Whistler-Blackcomb resort; initially planned as an "interim release" between "Whistler" and "Blackcomb".
Blackcomb		N/A	Not released yet (as of May. 2005). Named after the Whistler-Blackcomb resort ("Whistler" was also a codename, see above).
Windows Mobile family
Magneto		Windows Mobile 5.0	Windows Mobile 5.0 was officially announced at Microsoft's Mobile and Embedded Developers Conference 2005 in Las Vegas, May 9-12, 2005.
Photon	Windows Mobile 2006	N/A
Others
	COM+ 2.5	Microsoft .NET
	COM+ 2.5 Runtime (COR)	Microsoft .NET Framework
Quartz	ActiveMovie	DirectShow
Darwin	Microsoft Installer	Windows Installer
Godot		Microsoft Layer for Unicode	Named after the play Waiting for Godot (centered around the failure of a man named "Godot" to appear and the endless wait for him), because it was felt to be long overdue (source).