Origins: Windows originally for PCs, WinNT was completely new operating system designed to compete with Unix for the server market. Created divergence but MS plans convergence.
Geneology:
MS-DOS --> Win 1.0 --> --> Win 3.11 --> Win95 --> Win98 --> WinME
WinNT --> WinNT 3.51 --> WinNT 4.0 --> Win2000 --> WinXP (merge with WinME?)
Note - Window's user interface changes with new versions and updates of the Windows operating system, so this documentation is current only as of the Last Modified date at the end of the document.

16-bit CPU architecture for core internals, less stable than WinNT. Supports FAT type file system of various sizes and plug-and-play. Major limitation - 64kB process control segment limits number of open applications no matter how much physical memory is present; check from Windows Explorer using Help | About. If utilization above 60 - 70% system performance may be affected.

32-bit CPU architecture fully used. Resource intensive, esp. main memory, but more robust since each 32-bit application runs in its own 2GB memory space. Supports FAT & NTFS file systems. Mostly written in C, with client-server paradigm, so can be ported to different hardware. Server & workstation versions available, nearly same codebase.
Levels of processing - More layers takes more cpu time and memory. Native code runs with blue screen, and this screen can be seen at startup and fatal error time ("blue screen of death").
Application --> Win32 (or OS/2) --> native code API --> OS kernel --> HAL

Title bar. Click and drag to move window, double click to maximize or restore. When window has focus the title bar has highlight color. Title text appears in task window (Ctl-Tab) and in flyover help in taskbar.
Window control menu. Alt-space activates it. Select Move & Size items and use cursor keys to move and resize window; Enter key ends each operation and Ctl key gives 'fine' size & location control. Application may add to menu (ex: WS_FTP, Textpad).
Upper-right buttons. Minimize, Maximize and Close operate the same as control menu items.
Borders. Move mouse over to resize: north, east, south, west borders, and the 4 cornors. Notice context sensitive mouse icon. Can resize most windows but can't resize, for example, Volume Control window.

Alt key activates it, underlined letters used to select a menu. Can also use Lf, Rt and Enter to choose menus.
Menus items have underlined letters, used to select menu item; can also use: Up, Dn and Enter to choose item. Items ending in '>' means submenu, those ending in '...' mean action.
Keyboard accelerator keys are often noted next to menu items (ex: Textpad, Navig). These keys and key combinations can be used without the menu or menubar being activated.
Standard items (MS recommended, which appear in most applications):

Toolbar(s) may be included in application, can often be moved by drag & drop (ex: Navig). Some applications allow docking & undocking of toolbars; see MS-Word where toolbars and menubar can be moved and docked to all 4 edges of window.
Status bar at bottom of window, often included (ex: Textpad, Navig). Shows useful info, eg. in Navig it shows page loading progress, Javascript errors, etc; and in text editors/word processors it shows page number, insertion cursor position, etc. Can often click or double-click parts of status bar for action - eg. Navig, MS-Word.

Two types: SDI (single document interface), MDI (multiple document interface).
SDI - For simpler applications. Examples: notepad, wordpad.
MDI - Document windows have Title bar, Control menu and Upper-right buttons, which operate the same as a top-level window. Use Ctl-Tab, Ctl-Shift-Tab to step thru document windows. Use Alt- '-' to select document window control menu. Examples: Textpad, MS Excel.
Context sensitive behavior - Mouse icon and left & right mouse buttons are often context sensitive.
Buffering for Windows - Each top-level window buffers all keystrokes, but ususally not mouse clicks. Demo with notepad writing to a: drive.

Ctl-X = Cut selected item to clipboard.
Ctl-C = Copy selected item to clipboard.
Ctl-V = Paste clipboard contents at cursor location.
View clipboard with Clipboard Viewer (under Start | Programs | Accessories).

Ctl-Tab, Ctl-Shift-Tab = Step forward, backward thru document windows.
Ctl-Home, Ctl-End = Jump to beginning, to end of document window.
Esc or Esc Esc = Cancel current operation.
Alt-F4 = Closes application or shuts down windows (if no application is running).
F1 = Context sensitive help. Other Fn (function keys) are available, but more esoteric and application specific.

Tab sequence thru dialog box 'controls' is set by application designer.
Alt-underlined letter sets focus to that control.
Text boxes - Mini-text editor, can use many standard editing keys.
Checkboxes - space selects & deselects.
Radio buttons - Lf & Rt, Up & Dn, select & deselect; only one in group can be set.
Drop down boxes - 1st letter of item name in list steps thru all items beginning with this letter.
Combo boxes - Use features of textbox and drop down box.
Buttons - space or Enter activates, if it has focus.
Tabbed Folders - Once a tab has focus, use Lf, Rt, Up keys to select other tabs.

Alt-Dn, Alt-Up (or F4) = Pulls down, pushes up drop down list.
Esc or Esc Esc = Cancel dialog box, equivalent to 'Cancel' button.
Enter = Accept dialog box settings as is, equivalent to 'OK' button.

Shortcut names end in '.lnk' and are sometimes called 'links'. Depending on the shortcut's target, available properties will vary; compare 'notepad' vs. 'cmd' shortcuts.
Create anywhere allowed with RtClick | New | Shortcut. Need command name & optional parameters. Enclose any name or path containing spaces within quotes, eg. "c:\program files\netscape\communicator\program\netscape.exe"
Modify with RtClick | Properties. Change the 'Start in' directory as desired, which is used in applications as the default directory for Open, Save, etc (demo with 'cmd' shortcut); if none given, defaults to link's location. Change the Icon if desired; note link saves only a reference to the icon's actual location not the icon itself, so if the icon's location or name changes, a 'missing' icon will appear.
Open folder from a sortcut using 'explorer foldername' as the 'Target'. Can have heirarchy of folders & links and can use command line options shown below.

View | Options - (Win2000: Tools | Folder Options). View tab controls how explorer windows are handled. File Types tab controls the mapping of filename extensions to double-click and RtClick actions.
Tools | Find | Files or Folders - file name (any part of name), find text in files.
Tools | Map Network Drive - Maps network volumes to local drives. WinNT server vs Novell server.
C: drive directories -

Use no spaces between options.
explorer [drive:] [foldername]
explorer [/n] [,/e] [,/root,obj] [[,/select],subobj]

Folder content list - Click Column-Headers to show list in different sequence.
Shift-Del = Delete without moving to recycle bin (local hard drives only).
RtClick file, folder = Cut, copy, del, rename, etc.
Shift-RtClick file = Get 'Open With' option.
RtClick .exe file | Properties = Get version info.
RtClick .exe file | Quickview = Get internal info.
RtClick drive = Format, properties, etc.

Shift-click = Select a block of items after one item is selected.
Ctl-click = Selects one item without altering previous selection.
Shift-Clt-Click = Select a new block of items after Ctl-click, without altering previous selection.
Shift-Up, Shift-Dn = Extend selection block up or down one item.
Shift-PgUp, Shift-PgDn = Extend selection block up or down one page (ie. screen).
click, wait 1 sec, click = Rename item.

drag & drop item = Move item within a drive, else copy it across drives.
drag & Ctl-drop item = Copy item.
drag item onto .exe or .lnk = Open program with item on its command line.

Tab, Shift-Tab = Move between 2 or 3 panes of window.
Enter = Opens selected folder, starts selected program, etc.
Lf, Rt in tree window = Close, open branch.

Desktop - When desktop has focus, select an icon by typing the first character of its name, and step thru all icons that begin with this char. Can move icon focus with cursor keys (Lf, Rt, Up, Dn).
Ctl-Esc Esc Shift-Tab = Put focus on desktop, even if desktop is partially or fully covered. Demo with 'G' = Gamut.
Taskbar (System tray) - Click on empty part and drag to 4 cornors of desktop. Resize to 0, 1, 2 ... lines with mouse over top edge. RtClick and select - Minimize, Un-minimize, Taskmgr (NT only), Properties (modify taskbar).
Add shortcuts to desktop, start menu.
Startup Programs - executed at Windows Explorer startup time.

Alt-Tab, Alt-Shift-Tab = Step forward, backward thru all application windows.
Ctl-Esc = Open Start menu.
Ctl-Shift-Esc = Starts taskmgr (NT).
Ctl-Alt-Del = Starts taskman (98).
PrintScreen, Alt-PrintScreen = Copy entire desktop to clipboard, copy active window to clipboard, both in bitmap format.

Ctl-X = Cut selected item to clipboard.
Ctl-C = Copy selected item to clipboard.
Ctl-V = Paste clipboard contents at cursor location.
Del = Delete selected item but do not copy to clipboard, leaving clipboard unchanged.
Insert = Switch between insert and overwrite mode.

Ctl-A = Select all text in current document.
Ctl-Z = Undo last action.
Ctl-Y = Redo last action.
Ctl-G = Open goto dialog box.

Ctl-N = Create a new document.
Ctl-O = Open an existing document.
Ctl-S = Save current document.
Ctl-P = Print current document.

Lf, Rt = Move cursor left, right one character.
Up, Dn = Move cursor up, down one line.
Home, End = Move cursor to beginning, to end of line.
PgUp, PgDn = Move document and cursor up, down one page (ie, screen).

Hold keys down when using with movement keys.
Shift = Selection.
Ctl = Unit operation (eg, one word, one line, one column).
Ctl-Shift = Selection & unit operation together.
Alt = Alternate unit operation (usually applies to fewer movement keys).

command (98) or cmd (NT) - Starts a command window. Alt-Enter switches between window & full screen mode. Use window control menu then Properties to change layout with many options (NT). NT only, registry has 'CompletionChar' which can be set to dword:00000009 for tab, for example.
winmsd, msinfo32 - System info in two formats.
perfmon - Perfomance monitor.
eventvwr (NT) - Event viewer.
taskmgr (NT), taskman (98) - Start and stop programs and processes. Start taskmgr (NT)- RtClick blank part taskbar and select or Ctl-Shift-Esc. Start taskman (98) - Ctl-Alt-Del.
chkdsk - Check disc program, esp. useful for discettes. Run in Command window.
winfile - File manager updated from Win 3.1. Not in some Win 2000 installations.
telnet - Microsoft's version of telnet, compare to Presenter, SimpTerm, other telnet clients. Conflict with Ctl-X,C,V (which are ASCII control char. in telnet), so non-standard keys are used.

calc - Calculator with standard and scientific modes, the latter is useful for hex, dec, oct, bin conversions.
clipbrd - Clipboard viewer. Command line parameter '/clipboard' starts it with the clipboard open.
notepad - Features incl. header & trailer params, such as: '&l&f&r Page &p'   This is example of context-sensitive help (F1) vs. no documentation (WinNT) in Help file. SImilar parameters are used in TextPad, UltraEdit, and IE.
Command line option '/p' prints file then closes notepad; can be used in shortcut to quickly print a text file.
The registry key-value pair 'fSavePageSettings' sets an option to save the page print settings; this is only accessable thru the registry.

control - Opens the control panel window.
Display - Settings for desktop. Same as Rt-Click | Properties on empty part of desktop.
Internet Options - IE settings.
Keyboard - Repeat key rate, etc.
Mouse - Tracking speed, acceleration rate, double click speed, etc.
Network & Dialup Connections - Settings.
Scheduled Tasks - Set processes to be run at certain times & days.

Up, Dn = Scroll page up, down one line.
Lf, Rt = Scroll page left, right one column.
PgUp, PgDn = Scroll page up, down one screen.
Ctl-Home, Ctl-End = Scroll page to beginning, to end.

Tab, Shift-Tab = Starts at URL box, step forward, backward thru document links & form controls, and frames which contain these.
Ctl-], Ctl-[ = Increase, decrease font size for this window only, has no effect on printing of window's page. IE has only 5 font sizes available (based on default size), select from menu or use Ctl-ScrollWheel.
Ctl-R = Soft reload. Reloads text but usually not images (images reloaded in IE), and it preserves form entries if html document has not changed.
Shift-Reload = Hard reload (Ctl-Refresh in IE). Reloads all text, images, applets, etc, and resets any form field entries.

Mouse icon and RtClick popup menus are context-sensitive, which is helpful over images & certain plugins when analysing a page.
Select page text with mouse, using click & drag.
Ctl-C = Copy selected text to clipboard.
Ctl-S = Save page to local PC. Page text only, image files, etc, not saved.
Ctl-P = Print page/frame (unmarked accelerator key).

Ctl-A = Select all text in page.
Ctl-F = Find in page.
Ctl-U = View page source (Uncover source). Available keys:
Lf, Rt, Up, Dn, PgUp, PgDn, Ctl-Home, Ctl-End, Ctl-F, Ctl-A, Ctl-C, Ctl-P.
Ctl-I = View page info.

Alt-Lf, Alt-Rt = Go back, go forward one page or one frame.
Alt-G 'n' = Go back n pages.
Back, Forward buttons - Click and hold (or RtClick) to get menu of up to 15 pages before or after the current page. Can step thru c. 60 backward/forward links.
Go Menu shows the current and previous 15 pages. The browser navigation list is treated as a tree, with inactive branches automatically pruned. The Go menu and the Back & Forward button menus show the page's Title Bar text, so always set this property in your web pages. For long titles, only the beginning and ending text is shown.
Frames - If frame borders present, when frame selected its border is highlighted. Always select the frame before print or do Print Preview. Navigate thru a frame's history with Back, Forward buttons, but this history is not shown in 'Go' menu list. There is no frame navigation list viewable by user.

Command line params, Netscape's reference:
http://developer.netscape.com:80/docs/manuals/deploymt/options.htm
Multi-user Communicator setup is available thru the option: -profile_manager
User's 'profiles' are saved in a hard drive directory with the user's name, not in the Registry.
Local file names can be referenced as:  file:/a:/dir/dir
Note either '/' or '\' can be used. Can setup shortcut with program name and command line options, referencing a local PC directory or file. This url type can also be used in web page links.

Misbehaving Navig - Close all netscape windows, if possible, then open taskmgr (NT) or taskman (98) and delete all netscape.exe processes.

Ctl-Tab, Ctl-Shift-Tab = Switch between Navig windows.
Ctl-N = New browser window.
Ctl-W = Close any Navig window (except Security Info window).

Ctl-M = New message window.
Ctl-H = Display history window.
Ctl-B = Display bookmarks for editing.

http://appdeploy.com/tools/scripting.shtml

Commands available - 98, NT different commands available, espescially 'start' in NT. Use 'help' and 'help commandname' in NT. NT has significantly improved commands.
Command window - 98, NT setup differences. Change NT layout - select window control menu, then Properties. Alternately, setup a shortcut with your custom layout. Esp. set: Options | Quick Edit Mode, Insert Mode. These allow - Click-drag then RtClick to copy to clipboard and RtClick to paste into window.
doskey - Saves command history for each command window. Usually started in NT command window; must start manually in 98 command window. Usage - Up, Dn = step thru commands; Esc = cancel line; F7 = command list; Alt-F7 = clear command list.
Setup link with 'command' (98) or 'cmd' (NT). Modify properties (RtClick link). Execute batch file with command line: 'command /c filename' (98) or 'cmd /k filename' (NT). Use '/c' to execute file then close window, use '/k' to execute file but keep window open. Can use && between multiple commands.
Application - Cleanup Navig files before Navig start, or at Windows Explorer start. Delete cookies.txt, netscape.hst, disc cache (interaction with Navig page refresh setting). Why: amazon.com pricing ruckus.

Microscoft tool for automating installation and configuration tasks in a GUI environment.
Microsoft Ref:
http://www.microsoft.com/ntserver/techresources/deployment/NTserver/scriptit3.asp

Perl ported to Windows environment.
ActiveState Ref:
http://www.activestate.com/Products/ActivePerl/

Visual Basic Script language. Extension .vbs is a visual basic script file, .wsf is a windows script file. These two have different formats but are both run by the following programs, which are available in most Windows installations.
CScript.exe - Runs script files thru command (ie, text) interface.
WScript.exe - Runs script files thru windows interface.
Microsoft Ref:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/scripting/

regedit [/i] [/e] [/s] [filename1] [filename2] ...
Save and restore keys in text files useful for single-user mode programs (ex, Notepad, Wordpad, Textpad, etc). Also useful for 'working copy' of application's state, which can be replaced on startup with a fresh copy using a script file.
Demo registry changes with notepad; delete its key then rerun notepad, key recreated with default settings.

Hives shown in 6 document windows. Load & unload hives. Backup and restore hives. Use in read-only mode to prevent Registry damage.