This is a glossary of acronyms used with Microsoft technologies. An acronym is an abbreviated term formed from the first letter (or first few letters) of several words. Many acronyms are used in Microsoft technologies, and new ones appear constantly. Often someone unfamiliar with the acronym does not even know what technology area it refers to. Many are used in all information technology.
A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | J | K | L | M | N | O | P | Q | R | S | T | U | V | W | X | Y | Z
AAD
Acronym for Azure Active Directory. Active Directory Domain Services in the Windows Azure cloud. Windows Azure is the Microsoft cloud computing platform, and one of the services available is Active Directory.
AAM
Acronym for Alternate Access Mappings. Directs users to the correct URLs during their interaction with Microsoft Office SharePoint Server. See Plan alternate access mappings (Office SharePoint Server).
AC
Acronym for Attribute Certificate. A digital X.509 document containing attributes associated with a user. Also the acronym for Authorization Certificate, where the associated attributes in the digital document are used mainly for authorization.
ACE
Acronym for Access Control Entry. Individual entries in a security descriptor (called an access control list or ACL). Specifies permissions granted or denied to trustees for the resource to which the ACE applies.
ACL
Acronym for Access Control List. A collection of Access Control Entries (ACE's) that specify the security applied to a resource.
ACS
Acronym for:
AD
Acronym for Active Directory. See Active Directory.
AD CS
Acronym for Active Directory Certificate Services. See Active Directory Certificate Services (AD CS) Overview.
AD DS
Acronym for Active Directory Domain Services.
AD FS
Acronym for Active Directory Federation Services.
AD LDS
Acronym for Active Directory Lightweight Directory Services. This used to be called Active Directory Application Mode, or ADAM. A database for directory-enabled applications that do not need AD DS.
AD RMS
Acronym for Active Directory Rights Management Services.
ADAC
Acronym for Active Directory Administrative Center.
ADAL
Acronym for Windows Azure Active Directory Authentication Library.
ADAM
Acronym for Active Directory Application Mode, now renamed Active Directory Lightweight Directory Services (AD LDS).
ADMT
Acronym for Active Directory Migration Tool. Toolset to facilitate migration and restructuring tasks in an Active Directory Directory Services infrastructure.
ADO
Acronym for ActiveX Data Objects. ADSI can act as an OLE-DB provider that allows database queries of Active Directory using ADO. Active Directory searches using ADO are only allowed in the LDAP namespace. ADO can also be used to access Microsoft Access databases, SQL Server databases, and even text files.
ADSI
Acronym for Active Directory Service Interface. A library of routines that provide an interface to various directory namespaces, such as Active Directory, the Windows NT SAM account database, Novell bindery, Novell NDS, and Internet Information Server (IIS).
ADUC
Acronym for Active Directory Users and Computers, the MMC snap-in used to manage objects in Active Directory. Besides users and computers, you can also use this tool to manage contacts, groups, containers, and Organizational Units.
ADWS
Acronym for Active Directory Web Services. A Windows service that provides a Web interface to Active Directory domains, Active Directory Lightweight Directory Services instances, and Active Directory Database Mounting Tool instances on a Windows Server 2008 R2 (or above) server. See What's New in AD DS: Active Directory Web Services.
AES
Acronym for Advanced Encryption Standard. A specification for the encryption of electronic data used by Kerberos. Supercedes the Data Encryption Standard (DES).
AGPM
Acronym for Microsoft Advanced Group Policy Management.
AIA
Acronym for Authority Information Access. Points to the public key for the certificate authority (CA).
AIK
Acronym for Windows Automated Installation Kit. See Windows Automated Installation Kit (Windows AIK).
AJAX
Acronym for Asynchronous JavaScript And XML. See Ajax (programming).
ALM
Acronym for Application Lifecycle Management. See Microsoft Application Lifecycle Management.
ANR
Acronym for Ambiguous Name Resolution, an efficient search algorithm in Active Directory that allows you to specify complex LDAP syntax filters involving multiple naming-related attributes in a single clause. The attributes must be ANR enabled in the directory schema. See Active Directory: Ambiguous Name Resolution.
ANSI
Acronym for American National Standards Institute. A private non-profit organization that oversees development of voluntary consensus standards in the United States.
API
Acronym for Application Programming Interface.
App-V
Acronym for Microsoft Application Virtualization.
ARM
Acronym for Acorn RISC Machine or Advanced RISC Machine. A family of processors based on RISC architecture originally developed by Acorn Computers (now ARM Holdings). The RISC based design requires fewer transistors resulting in lower costs, reduced power consumption, and less heat. This makes ARM processors ideal for small battery powered devices. See ARM architecture.
ASCII
Acronym for American Standard Code for Information Interchange. A character encoding scheme.
ASP
Acronym for Active Server Pages. Server-side script engine for dynamically generated web pages. Superseded by ASP.NET
ASP.NET
Acronym for Active Server Pages .NET. Framework based on the Common Language Runtime (CLR) to build dynamic web applications and services using any supported .NET language. Successor to ASP. See ASP.NET.
ATA
Acronym for Advanced Technology Attachment. Host adapter that allows a computer to communicate with a peripheral bus.
AWE
Acronym for Address Windowing Extensions. A Windows api that allows a 32-bit software application to access more physical memory than it has virtual address space. See Address Windowing Extensions.
AWS
Acronym for Amazon Web Services.
BAM
Acronym for Business Activity Monitoring.
Base64
Binary to text encoding scheme, according to a MIME specification. Encodes any binary string (a byte sequence of 8-bit padded ASCII characters) using a 64 character alphabet of printable characters. Used by the ldifde command line utility.
BCHR
Acronym for Buffer Cache Hit Ratio.
BCS
Acronym for Business Connectivity Services. A SharePoint feature. Formerly called Business Data Catalog. See Microsoft Business Connectivity Services (BCS) in SharePoint 2010.
BDC
Acronym for Backup Domain Controller. In NT domains there was one primary domain controller and zero or more backup domain controllers. The concepts no longer apply in Active Directory, which uses a multi-master database system where all domain controllers are are essentially equal.
BI
Acronym for Business Intelligence.
BIDS
Acronym for Business Intelligence Development Studio.
BIOS
Acronym for Basic Input/Output System. Computer firmware interface.
BITS
Acronym for Background Intelligent Transfer Service. See Background Intelligent File Transfer Service (BITS) Overview.
BKF
Acronym for Backup File. Proprietary files created by the Windows NT Backup Utility (NTBackup) in Windows NT and above. The files have the .bkf extension. See NTBackup.
BLOB
Acronym for Binary Large Object.
BMC
Acronym for Baseboard Management Controller.
BMR
Acronym for Bare Metal Recovery. Or Bare Metal Restore. See Bare-metal restore.
BRE
Acronym for Business Rule Engine, a BizTalk feature. See Business Rule Engine. Also the acronym for Business Rules Engine, a .NET compliant class library. See Business Rules Engine.
BSOD
Acronym for Black Screen Of Death. The black error screen displayed by some operating systems after encountering a critical system error. Usually, the system must be shut down.
BYOD
Acronym for Bring Your Own Device.
CA
Acronym for Certificate Authority, or sometimes Certification Authority. An entity that issues digital certificates.
CAD
Acronym for Computer-Aided Design. See Computer-aided design.
CAL
Acronym for Client Access License.
CAML
Acronym for Collaborative Application Markup Language. An XML based markup language used in SharePoint. See Introduction to Collaborative Application Markup Language (CAML).
CAPI
Acronym for the Microsoft CryptoAPI or Cryptographic Application Progamming Interface. Also known as MS-CAPI. An API in Windows operating systems for applications using cryptography.
CAS
Acronym for Client Access Server.
CDP
Acronym for CRL Distribution Point. Location where the Certificate Revocation List (CRL) is maintained, allowing clients to determine if a certificate has been revoked.
CIL
Acronym for Common Intermediate Language. Lowest level human readable programming language, defined by the Common Language Infrastructure (CLI). Used by the .NET Framework and produced by .NET compilers. Independent of CPU or higher level languages. Intermediate between assembly language and modern programming languages. Formerly called Microsoft Intermediate Language, or MSIL. See Common Intermediate Language.
CIM
Acronym for Common Information Model. The repository in the WMI schema that stores class definitions that model WMI managed resources.
CLI
Acronym for Common Language Infrastructure.
CLR
Acronym for Common Language Runtime.
CN
Acronym for Common Name in Active Directory. Also the moniker for objects with a common name in their distinguished names, for example "cn=Jim Smith,ou=West,dc=mydomain,dc=com".
CNA
Acronym for Converged Network Adapter, or converged network interface controller (C-NIC). Computer input/output device that combines a host bus adapter (HBA) with a network interface controller (NIC).
CNG
Acronym for Cryptography Next Generation. Cryptographic development platform introduced in Windows Server 2008 that implements the United States government's Suite B cryptographic algorithms. See Cryptography Next Generation.
COM
Acronym for Component Object Model. Standard for software components that enables interprocess communication and dynamic object creation in programming languages.
CPU
Acronym for Central Processing Unit.
CRL
Acronym for Certificate Revocation List. A list of certificates in a Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) that have been revoked and should no longer be trusted.
CRM
Acronym for Customer Relationship Management.
CSE
Acronym for Client Side Extensions. A dynamic-link library (DLL) that implements a group policy on the client computer.
CSOM
Acronym for Client Side Object Model.
CSP
Acronym for Cloud Service Provider. Also the acronym for Cryptographic Service Provider, a software library that implements the Microsoft CryptoAPI (CAPI).
CSS
Acronym for Cascading Style Sheets. A style sheet language to format a document written in markup language. See Cascading Style Sheets.
CSV
Acronym for Comma-Separated Values. A plaintext file of records with fields separated by commas, or some other character.
CTE
Acronym for Common Table Expression. In SQL Server Transact-SQL, a temporary named result set defined within the execution scope of a single SELECT, INSERT, UPDATE, DELETE, or CREATE VIEW statement. A CTE is similar to a derived table in that it is not stored as an object and lasts only for the duration of the query. See Using Common Table Expressions.
CTP
Acronym for Customer Technology Preview.
CU
Acronym for Cumlative Update.
DAC
Acronym for Dynamic Access Control.
DACL
Acronym for Discretionary Access Control List.
DAG
Acronym for Database Availability Group.
DaRT
Acronym for Microsoft Diagnostics and Recovery Toolset.
DAX
Acronym for Data Analysis Expressions.
DBCC
Acronym for DataBase Console Commands. A series of Transact-SQL commands to check the physical and logical consistency of a Microsoft SQL Server database. See DBCC (Transact-SQL).
DBCS
Acronym for Double Byte Character Set. A character encoding in which all characters are encoded in two bytes. See DBCS.
DBMS
Acronym for DataBase Management System.
DC
Acronym for Domain Controller in Active Directory networks. Also the moniker for Domain Component, as used in distinguished names (for example "dc=mydomain,dc=com").
DCaaS
Acronym for Data Center as a Service. Also the acronym for Data Consistency as a Service. See DCaaS: Data Consistency as a Service for Managing Data Uncertainty on the Clouds.
DCB
Acronym for Data Center Bridging. Enhancements to Ethernet Local Area Networks (LAN's) for use in data centers.
DCOM
Acronym for Distributed Component Object Model. Microsoft technology for communication among software components distributed across networked computers. Extends COM.
DDNS
Acronym for Dynamic Domain Name System, or Dynamic DNS.
DEP
Acronym for Data Execution Prevention. A security feature of an operating system to prevent errors and malware exploits.
DES
Acronym for Data Encryption Standard. A specification for the encryption of electronic data used by Kerberos. Superceded by the Advanced Encryption Standard (AES).
DFL
Acronym for Domain Functional Level. Specifies the versions of Windows Server supported as domain controllers in the domain, and the features of Active directory that are available.
DFS
Acronym for Distributed File System. Client and server services that allow servers to organize distributed file shares into a distributed file system.
DFSR
Acronym for Distributed File System Replication.
DHCP
Acronym for Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol. Service that provides centralized control of Internet Protocol (IP) addresses. DHCP servers assign dynamic IP addresses and TCP/IP settings to other computers.
DIT
Acronym for Directory Information Tree. The Active Directory database file on a Domain Controller is referred to as the DIT. The file name is ntds.dit
DIY
Acronym for Do It Yourself.
DLL
Acronym for Dynamic Link Library. See Dynamic-link library.
DLP
Acronym for Data Loss Prevention.
DMA
Acronym for Direct Memory Access. Allows computer hardware subsystems to access system memory independently of the central processing unit (CPU).
DMV
Acronym for Dynamic Management Views, a feature of SQL Server.
DMZ
Acronym for DeMilitarized Zone. A perimeter network or subnetwork exposed to an untrusted network, such as the Internet, requiring special protection.
DNF
Acronym for Do Not Forward.
DNS
Acronym for Domain Name System. The service that resolves computer names into IP addresses.
DOS
Acronym for Disk Operating System. Several Microsoft operating systems before Windows 95. See DOS.
DPM
Acronym for Data Protection Manager.
DQS
Acronym for Data Quality Services.
DRaaS
Acronym for Disaster Recovery as a Service. See Microsoft Case Studies.
DSC
Acronym for Desired State Configuration. See Get Started with Windows PowerShell Desired State Configuration.
DSRM
Acronym for Directory Services Restore Mode. Used on Domain Controllers to take the instance of Active Directory on that computer offline, possibly for maintenance or troubleshooting. Requires a DSRM password.
DTC
Acronym for Distributed Transaction Coordinator. See DTC.
EAC
Acronym for Exchange Administration Center.
EAI
Acronym for Enterprise Application Integration. Framework of technologies and services that form a middleware to enable integration of systems and applications across the enterprise.
EAS
Acronym for Exchange ActiveSync.
ECC
Acronym for Elliptic Curve Cryptography. Public key cryptography based on the algebraic structure of elliptic curves over finite fields. Required by the United States government's Suite B effort.
ECMA
Formerly the acronym for the European Computer Manufacturers Association, an international, private, non-profit standards organization. ECMAScript is a scripting language standardized by Ecma International, used for client-side scripting on the web using JavaScript, JScript, or ActionScript.
ECP
Acronym for Exchange Control Panel.
EDI
Acronym for Electronic Data Interchange. A document standard for eCommerce and transmitting documents.
EFS
Acronym for Encrypted File System, or Encrypting File System.
EHA
Acronym for Exchange Hosted Archive.
EKU
Acronym for Enhanced Key Usage. Also the acronym for Extended Key Usage.
EMC
Acronym for Exchange Management Console. An MMC to manage the configuration of Exchange. See Exchange Management Console.
EMET
Acronym for Enhanced Mitigation Experience Toolkit. See The Enhanced Mitigation Experience Toolkit.
ERP
Acronym for Enterprise Resource Planning.
ESB
Acronym for Enterprise Service Bus. Software architecture that implements the interaction and communication between applications in a service-oriented architecture (SOA).
ESE
Acronym for Extensible Storage Engine. The Jet-based ISAM data storage technology used in Active Directory and Exchange. Also called Jet Blue. Allows data storage and retrieval using indexed and sequential access.
ESP
Acronym for Enterprise Search Platform.
ESRI
Acronym for Environmental Systems Research Institute. International supplier of Geographic Information System (GIS) software, web GIS, and geodatabase management applications. See Esri.
ETL
Acronym for Extract, Transform, Load. A process in database usage to extract data from an external source, transform it to meet operational needs, then load it into a data store. See Extract, transform, load.
ETW
Acronym for Event Tracing for Windows.
EWS
Acronym for Exchange Web Services.
FAS
Acronym for Filtered Attribute Set, the subset of Active Directory attributes that are not replicated to Read-Only Domain Controllers (RODC's).
FAST
Search Server for SharePoint.
FAT
Acronym for File Allocation Table. A legacy computer file system, largely used in small capacity USB storage devices and memory cards, supported by all the operating systems.
FC
Acronym for Fibre Channel, a high-speed technology to connect data storage devices to the network.
FCoE
Acronym for Fiber Channel over Ethernet.
FCS
Acronym for Forefront Client Security.
FEP
Acronym for Forefront Endpoint Protection.
FFL
Acronym for Forest Functional Level. Specifies the versions of Windows Server supported as domain controllers in the forest, and the features of Active Directory that are available.
FGPP
Acronym for Fine-Grained Password Policy.
FIM
Acronym for Forefront Identity Manager.
FIMCM
Acronym for Forefront Identity Manager Certificate Management.
FIPS
Acronym for Federal Information Processing Standards. Standards developed by the United States federal government for computer systems used by non-military government agencies and contractors. Many are modified versions of technical community standards, such as ANSI, ISO, or IEEE.
FOPE
Acronym for Forefront Online Protection for Exchange.
Forefront
A Microsoft family of line-of-business security software. Includes Unified Access Gateway and Identity Manager.
FPE
Acronym for Forefront Protection for Exchange, a discontinued product.
FPSMC
Acronym for Forefront Protection Server Management Console. See Forefront Protection Server Management Console.
FPSP
Acronym for Forefront Protection for SharePoint. See Microsoft Forefront Protection 2010 for SharePoint.
FQDN
Acronym for Fully Qualified Domain Name.
FSA
Acronym for FAST Search Authorization.
FRS
Acronym for File Replication Service. Service for distributing shared files and Group Policy Objects (GPO's).
FSE
Acronym for Forefront Security for Exchange.
FSMO
Acronym for Flexible Single Master Operator. These are roles that are assigned only to designated domain controllers, either one in each domain, or one in the forest. The five FSMO roles are:
FTP
Acronym for File Transfer Protocol, a standard protocol for transfering files from one network to another (such as the Internet).
GA
Acronym for General Availability. Software available for purchase by the public. After the Release To Manufacturing (RTM) stage.
GAC
Acronym for Global Assembly Cache. See Global Assembly Cache.
GAL
Acronym for Global Address List.
GALSync
Acronym for Global Address List Synchronization.
GB
Acronym for GigaBytes, or 1,073,741,824 bytes (1,024 MB).
GC
Acronym for Global Catalog. A read-only catalog of all objects in a forest, which contains a subset of the attributes. The subset of attributes is called the partial attribute set (PAS). A domain controller can be designated a GC.
GPMC
Acronym for Group Policy Management Console, the MMC used to manage group policy objects.
GPO
Acronym for Group Policy Object.
GPP
Acronym for Group Policy Preferences. See Group Policy Preferences Getting Started Guide.
GUI
Acronym for Graphical User Interface.
GUID
Acronym for Globally Unique IDentifier. A 128-bit value that should uniquely identify an object. The value is usually displayed as 32 hexadecimal digits. Every object in Active Directory has an objectGUID attribute, which is the GUID of the object. See Globally unique identifier.
HAB
Acronym for Hierarchical Address Book. A feature in Microsoft Exchange 2013 and Outlook. See Hierarchical Address Books.
HAL
Acronym for Hardware Abstraction Layer. See Windows NT Hardware Abstraction Layer (HAL).
HBA
Acronym for Host Bus Adapter. Connects a host computer system to other network or storage devices.
HDD
Acronym for Hard Disk Drive.
HNSC
Acronym for Host Named Site Collection. See Host Named Site Collections (HNSC) for SharePoint 2010 Architects.
HPC
Acronym for High Performance Computing. See Windows HPC Resource Kit for IT Professionals.
HPFS
Acronym for High Performance File System. File system for the OS/2 operating system, jointly developed by Microsoft and IBM. Improvement over the FAT file system, superseded by NTFS.
HSM
Acronym for Hardware Security Module. A physical device that safeguards and manages digital keys. See Hardware Security Module.
HTML
Acronym for HyperText Markup Language. Language for creating web pages.
HTTP
Acronym for HyperText Transfer Protocol. An application protocol for information systems and data communication on the World Wide Web.
HTTPS
Acronym for Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure. The result of layering HTTP on top of SSL/TLS to add security capabilities.
Hyper-V
A hypervisor that enables platform virtualization. Formerly known as Windows Server Virtualization.
IaaS
Acronym for Infrastructure as a Service.
IADs
Interfaces supported by ADSI. Exposes methods and properties of namespace objects.
IANA
Acronym for Internet Assigned Numbers Authority. A department of ICANN, a nonprofit private American corporation, that oversees global IP address allocation. Also root zone management in the Domain Name System (DNS) and other Internet Protocol related symbols and numbers.
IAS
Acronym for Internet Authentication Server. Provides centralized authentication services in Windows Server operating systems. Replaced by Network Policy Server (NPS) in Windows Server 2008.
ICA
Acronym for Independent Computing Architecture. See Independent Computing Architecture.
ICANN
Acronym for Internet Corporation for Assigned Numbers and Names. A nonprofit private organization in the United States that oversees Internet related tasks. Operates the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA).
IdAM
Acronym for Identity and Access Management.
IDE
Acronym for Integrated Drive Electronics or Integrated Development Environment.
IDMU
Acronym for IDentity Management for UNIX.
IE
Acronym for Internet Explorer. Microsoft's web browser product.
IEEE
Acronym for Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers. A professional association dedicated to advancing technological innovation and excellence that publishes numerous industry standards.
IETF
Acronym for the Internet Engineering Task Force. Develops and promotes Internet standards.
IFM
Acronym for Install From Media, a feature for installing software or enabling features from media.
IIFP
Acronym for Identity Integration Feature Pack.
IIS
Acronym for Internet Information Services.
ILM
Acronym for Identity Lifecycle Manager.
InfoPath
A Microsoft application for managing forms containing structured data.
IO
Acronym for Input / Output. Communication between a computer and other systems.
IOPS
Acronym for Input/Output Operations Per Second. A performance measurement for devices like disk drives.
IP
Acronym for Internet Protocol. Networking model and communication protocols for the Internet.
IPaaS
Acronym for Integration Platform as a Service. See Cloud-based integration.
IPAM
Acronym for IP Address Management. See IP Address Management (IPAM) Overview.
IPD
Acronym for Infrastructure Planning and Design guide. Documents providing guidance on design of infrastructure for Microsoft products.
IPMI
Acronym for Intelligent Platform Management Interface.
IPSec
Acronym for Internet Protocol Security.
IPv4
Acronym for Internet Protocol version 4. The fourth version of the Internet Protocol. The successor protocol is IPv6.
IPv6
Acronym for Internet Protocol version 6. The latest version of the Internet Protocol. The successor to IPv4.
IRM
Acronym for Information Rights Management.
IRP
Acronym for I/O Request Packet. Structures used by Windows Driver Model (WDM) and Windows NT device drivers to communicate with each other and the operating system. See IRP.
ISA
Acronym for Internet Security and Acceleration Server. See About Internet Security and Acceleration Server.
ISAM
Acronym for Indexed Sequential Access Method. A method of indexing data for fast retrieval. The Extensible Storage Engine (ESE) used in Active Directory is an implementation of ISAM.
ISAPI
Acronym for Internet Server Application Programming Interface.
iSCSI
Acronym for Internet Small Computer System Interface. SCSI over IP networks.
ISE
Acronym for Integrated Scripting Environment. A graphical host application for Windows PowerShell.
ISO
The International Organization for Standardization.
ISTG
Acronym for InterSite Topology Generator. Automatically creates connection objects in Active Directory between domain controllers to enable replication.
IT
Acronym for Information Technology. See Information Technology.
ITU
Acronym for International Telecommunications Union. A specialized agency of the United Nations responsible for information and communication technology issues.
ITU-T
Acronym for International Telecommunications Union Telecommunication Standardization Sector. One of the three sectors or divisions of ITU. Coordinates standards for telecommunications.
JBOD
Acronym for Just a Bunch of Disks. An array of drives, each of which can be independently accessed directly.
JSOM
Acronym for JavaScript Object Model.
JSON
Acronym for JavaScript Object Notation. A standard format that uses text files to transmit data objects of key:value pairs. An alternative to XML.
JVM
Acronym for Java Virtual Machine. A virtual machine that can execute Java bytecode. See Java virtual machine.
JWT
Acronym for JSON Web Token.
KB
Acronym for Knowledge Base, as in a Microsoft knowledge base article. Also the acronym for KiloBytes, or 1024 bytes.
KCC
Acronym for Knowledge Consistency Checker. A process in Active Directory that automatically generates and maintains connection objects that describe which naming contexts should be replicated between which domain controllers and when.
KDC
Acronym for Key Distribution Center.
KSP
Acronym for Key Storage Provider.
LAN
Acronym for Local Area Network.
LANMAN
Acronym for LAN Manager. A discontinued Network Operating System (NOS) based on the OS/2 operating system. See LAN Manager.
LCID
Acronym for LoCale Identifier. A 32-bit number where the lower 10 bits are a language code and the upper bits are a culture code.
LDAP
Acronym for Lightweight Directory Access Protocol. A language based on the X.500 directory standard that allows clients and servers to communicate. The LDAP provider allows access to the hierarchical structure of Active Directory, or any LDAP compliant database. The LDAP syntax is a filter syntax used to query LDAP compliant databases.
LDAPS
Acronym for LDAP over SSL. See LDAP over SSL (LDAPS) Certificate.
LDIF
Acronym for LDAP Data Interchange Format. A standard plain text data interchange format. Represents directory content as records for update requests. Used by the ldifde command line utility.
LDP
A graphical user interface (GUI) based LDAP client utility used to search, browse, and update LDAP compliant directories, such as Active Directory.
LOB
Acronym for Line Of Business. One or more related products that service a business function.
LPIM
Acronym for Locked Pages In Memory. See Support for Locked Pages on SQL Server Standard Edition (64-bit) systems.
LSA
Acronym for Local Security Authority. Windows NT security subsystem.
LSASS
Acronym for Local Security Authority Subsystem Service. Process that enforces security policy on Microsoft Windows operating systems.
LUN
Acronym for Logical Unit Number.
Lync
Microsoft enterprise software providing an instant messaging client. Used with either Microsoft Lync Server or Lync Online available with Microsoft Office 365. Formerly called Microsoft Office Communicator.
MAC
Acronym for Media Access Control address (MAC address). A unique identifier assigned to a network interfaces for communications on a network segment.
MAP
Acronym for Microsoft Assessment and Planning.
MAPI
Acronym for Messaging Application Programming Interface.
MB
Acronym for MegaBytes, or 1,048,576 bytes (1,024 kilobytes).
MBAM
Acronym for Microsoft Bitlocker Administration and Monitoring.
MCC
Acronym for Microsoft Community Contributor.
MCP
Acronym for Microsoft Certified Professional.
MCSA
Acronym for Microsoft Certified Solutions Associate, a Microsoft certification.
MCSE
Acronym for Microsoft Certified Solutions Expert, a Microsoft certification.
MD4
Acronym for Message Digest version 4. A 128-bit cryptographic hash function. See MD4.
MDC
Acronym for Master Data Services.
MDOP
Acronym for Microsoft Desktop Optimization Pack.
MDT
Acronym for Microsoft Deployment Toolkit.
MDX
Acronym for Multidimensional Expressions, a query language for OLAP databases.
Med-V
Acronym for Microsoft Enterprise Desktop Virtualization.
MFA
Acronym for Multi-Factor Authentication. Authentication that requires more than one verification method. Adds a second layer of security to logons. The verification methods can include: a password, biometrics, challenge response question, trusted device characteristics. A related concept is Two-Factor Authentication, or 2FA.
MIIS
Acronym for Microsoft Identity Integration Server.
MIME
Acronym for Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions. An Internet standard for email content.
MMC
Acronym for Microsoft Management Console. An extensible service for management applications. Provides a user interface allowing addition of snap-ins to manage services in a GUI console.
MOSS
Acronym for Microsoft Office SharePoint Server.
MPIO
Acronym for Multipath I/O. Multipathing solutions use redundant physical path components — adapters, cables, and switches — to create logical paths between the server and the storage device.
MRS
Acronym for Mailbox Replication Service.
MSA
Acronym for Managed Service Account.
MSCEP
Acronym for Microsoft Simple Certificate Enrollment Protocol. Implementation of SCEP available in Windows Server.
MSDN
Acronym for Microsoft Developer Network.
MSDTC
Acronym for MicroSoft Distributed Transaction Coordinator. A transaction manager in Microsoft SQL Server that allows client applications to include different sources of data in one transaction. See MS DTC Service.
MSE
Acronym for Microsoft Security Essentials.
MSIL
Acronym for Microsoft Intermediate Language (or simply IL). Lowest level human readable programming language, defined by the Common Language Infrastructure (CLI). Used by the .NET Framework and produced by .NET compilers. Independent of CPU or higher level languages. Intermediate between assembly language and modern programming languages. Now called Common Intermeditate Language, or CIL. See CIL.
MSMQ
Acronym for MicroSoft Message Queuing.
MTA
Acronym for Microsoft Technology Associate, a Microsoft certification. Also acronym for Message Transfer Agent, used for Microsoft Exchange communications.
MUI
Acronym for Multilingual User Interface. See Windows MUI Knowledge Center.
MVC
Acronym for Model View Controller.
MVP
Acronym for Most Valuable Professional.
MVVM
Acronym for Model View ViewModel.
NAS
Acronym for Network Attached Storage.
NAT
Acronym for Network Address Translation.
NAV
Acronym for Microsoft Dynamics, formerly Navison. Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) software.
NBT
Acronym for NetBIOS over TCP/IP, sometimes also called NetBT. A networking protocol that allows legacy applications that rely on the NetBIOS API to work in TCP/IP networks.
NC
Acronym for Naming Context. A partition (namespace) in Active Directory. Examples include the Schema container, Configuration container, the Domain Naming context for each domain, and any application partitions.
NCQ
Acronym for Native Command Queuing. Technology built into SATA hard drives.
NDES
Acronym for Network Device Enrollment Service. A role service in Active Directory Certificate Services (AD CS). See Network Device Enrollment Service (NDES) in Active Directory Certificate Services (AD CS).
NDS
Acronym for Netware Directory Services. Also Novell Directory Services. An X.500 compatible directory service product by Novell. Now called Novell eDirectory.
.NET
The .NET Framework is a programming model designed to replace the Win32 and COM APIs. The major components are the Common Language Runtime (CLR) and the .NET Framework class libraries.
NetBIOS
Acronym for Network Basic Input/Output System. Service allowing applications on separate computers to communicate over a network. Uses NetBIOS over TCP/IP (NBT) protocol. The NetBIOS name of a computer is generally the first 15 characters of the host name, followed by the "$" character. NetBIOS name to IP address resolution is provided by the WINS service on a WINS server.
NetBT
Acronym for NetBIOS over TCP/IP, also called NBT. A networking protocol that allows legacy applications that rely on the NetBIOS API to work in TCP/IP networks.
NFC
Acronym for Near Field Communication.
NFS
Acronym for Network File System. A distributed file system protocol. See Network File System.
NIC
Acronym for Network Interface Controller or Network Interface Card. Also called a network adapter or LAN adapter. Hardware that connects a computer to a computer network.
NIS
Acronym for Network Information Service. A client-server directory service protocol for distributed system configuration data, such as user and host names, between computers on a network. Replaced in many situations by Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) or Domain Name System (DNS). See Network Information Service.
NIST
Acronym for National Institute of Standards and Technology. Formerly the National Bureau of Standards (NBS). Measurement standards laboratory that promotes innovation and industrial competitiveness in the United States by advancing measurement science, standards, and technology.
NLB
Acronym for Network Load Balancing. A clustering technology. See Network Load Balancing Technical Overview.
NOS
Acronym for Network Operating System. An operating system installed on a server that allows clients to communicate and share resources on the server.
NPAR
Acronym for nPartitioning. See NPAR.
NPS
Acronym for Network Policy Server. Microsoft's implementation of Remote Authentication Dial-In User Service (RADIUS). Originally the Internet Authentication Server (IAS) role service (before Windows Server 2008).
NSPI
Acronym for Name Service Provider Interface. A service on Global Catalog (GC) servers used for Microsoft Outlook Address Book lookups.
NT
Acronym for Windows NT, a family of Microsoft operating systems. NT originally was the acronym for New Technology.
NTFRS
Acronym for NT File Replication Service. Service for distributing shared files and Group Policy Objects (GPO's).
NTFS
Acronym for New Technology File System. Microsoft proprietary file system that supersedes the FAT and HPFS file systems. The default file system on Windows operating systems since Windows NT.
NTLDR
Acronym for NT Loader. The boot loader for all versions of Window NT operating systems up to Windows XP and Windows Server 2003. See NTLDR.
NTLM
Acronym for NT LAN Manager. Microsoft protocols for authentication with backward compatibility with LANMAN. See NT LAN Manager.
NTP
Acronym for Network Time Protocol. Protocol for time synchronization between computer systems.
OA
Acronym for Outlook Anywhere.
OAB
Acronym for Offline Address Book.
OAuth
Acronym for Open standard for Authorization. A service that provides a method for clients to access server resources on behalf of a resource owner.
OCR
Acronym for Optical Character Recognition. See Optical character recognition.
OCS
Acronym for Office Communications Server.
OCSP
Acronym for Online Certificate Status Protocol.
OData
Acronym for Open Data Protocol.
ODBC
Acronym for Open DataBase Connectivity.
OID
Acronym for Object IDentifier. For example, each attribute in the Active Directory schema has a unique X.500 OID (the value of the attributeID attribute of the attribute). All OID values created by Microsoft begin with 1.2.840.113556. OID values are also used to identify attribute syntaxes and filter matching rules.
OLAP
Acronym for Online Analytical Processing.
OLE
Acronym for Object Linking and Embedding. A Microsoft technology that allows embedding and linking to documents and other objects.
OLE DB
Acronym for Object Linking and Embedding DataBase. Microsoft API to access data using Component Object Model (COM).
OOP
Acronym for Object Oriented Programming.
OpenID
Acronym for Open standard for IDentification. Allows users to be authenticated by co-operating sites (relying parties) using a third party service.
OpenSSL
Acronym for Open Secure Sockets Layer. Open source implementation of SSL and TLS protocols.
OPK
Acronym for OEM Preinstallation Kit. See The Difference Between Windows Automated Installation Kit (AIK) and OEM Preinstallation Kit (OPK).
OS
Acronym for Operating System. See Operating system.
OSD
Acronym for On-Screen Display. See On-screen display.
OU
Acronym for Organizational Unit. Also the naming attribute for organizational unit objects in Active Directory, and the moniker used in their distinguished names (for example "ou=West,dc=mydomain,dc=com").
OWA
Acronym for Outlook Web App. Allows access to Exchange mailbox from a web browser. In Exchange 2003 this was called Outlook Web Access. See Understanding Outlook Web App.
OWIN
Acronym for Open Web Interface for .NET. A standard interface between .NET web servers and web applications.
PaaS
Acronym for Platform as a Service.
PAC
Acronym for Privilege Attribute Certificate. A Kerberos Certificate that contains all security group memberships of the security principal that is requesting access to a resource. See Privilege Attribute Certificate Configuration.
PAE
Acronym for Physical Address Extension. A feature of 32-bit processors that allows them to access a physical address space larger than 4 gigabytes.
PAS
Acronym for Partial Attribute Set. The subset of attributes of the objects replicated to the Global Catalog. See Active Directory: Attributes in the Partial Attribute Set.
PATA
Acronym for Parallel Advanced Technology Attachment, or Parallel ATA.
PB
Acronym for PetaBytes, or 1.1259 x 10^15 bytes (1,024 TB)
PC
Acronym for Personal Computer. A general purpose computer operated by an end-user with no intervening computer operator (as opposed to batch processing or time-sharing computers).
PCI
Acronym for Peripheral Component Interconnect, a local computer bus for attaching devices.
PCL
Acronym for Printer Command Language. See Printer Command Language.
PCNS
Acronym for Password Change Notification Service. Enables synchronization of passwords between Active Directory and other identity systems.
PDC
Acronym for Primary Domain Controller. In NT domains there was one primary domain controller and zero or more backup domain controllers. The concepts no longer apply in Active Directory, which uses a multi-master database system where all domain controllers are essentially equal.
PDF
Acronym for Portable Document Format. See About Adobe PDF.
PDT
Acronym for PowerShell Deployment Toolkit. A set of PowerShell scripts for automatic deployment of System Center 2012 SP1/R2, including all SQL requirements and post-setup integration. See PowerShell Deployment Toolkit.
PDW
Acronym for Parallel Data Warehousing.
PFE
Acronym for Premier Field Engineer, or Premier Field Engineering. See Premier Field Engineering (PFE).
PHP
A server-side scripting language designed for web development, called HyperText PreProcessor. Originally an acronym for Personal Home Page.
PID
Acronym for Packet IDentifier. Also Product ID or Process ID.
PIN
Acronym for Personal Identification Number. A secret numeric password used to authenticate a user to a system.
PKI
Acronym for Public Key Infrastructure. Hardware, software, people, policies, and procedures to create, manage, distribute, use, store, and revoke digital certificates.
PLE
Acronym for Page Life Expectancy. The number of seconds a memory page will remain in the SQL Server buffer pool without references. See SQL Server Page Life Expectancy.
PnP
Acronym for Plug and Play. See Legacy Plug and Play.
PMI
Acronym for Privilege Management Infrastructure. Manages user authorization based on X.509 attribute certificates (ACs)
POP
Acronym for Post Office Protocol. An email protocol.
PowerShell
Scripting language and command line shell based on C# and the Microsoft .NET Framework. PowerShell statements can be entered one at a time in the PowerShell command line shell, or in a script with the statements saved in a file with the .ps1 extension.
PPT
Acronym for PowerPoinT.
PSCX
Acronym for PowerShell Community Extensions. Cmdlets, filters, providers, functions, and scripts contributed by the community.
PSO
Acronym for Password Setting Object. Objects in the System container of Active Directory that implement Fine-Grained Password Policies.
RA
Acronym for Registration Authority.
RADIUS
Acronym for Remote Authentication Dial-In User Service. Networking protocol for centralized authentication, authorization, and accounting.
RAID
Acronym for Redundant Array of Independent Disks (originally Redundant Array of Inexpensive Disks), a storage technology using multiple disk drives.
RAM
Acronym for Random-Access Memory. Computer memory that can be read from or written to in an arbitrary sequence.
RBAC
Acronym for Role Based Access Control.
RBS
Acronym for Remote BLOB Storage.
RC
Acronym for Release Candidate. A beta version of software that is ready to be released as the final product (if there are no unexpected problems). The next stage would be Release to Manufacturing (RTM).
RD
Acronym for Remote Desktop. Also the rd command to remove a directory (short for remove directory).
RDMA
Acronym for Remote Direct Memory Access. Direct memory access from the memory of one computer into that of another without involving the operating system.
RDN
Acronym for Relative Distinguished Name. The name of an object in Active Directory relative to it's location in the hierarchical structure of Active Directory. The Relative Distinguished Name will be the lowest level component of the Distinguished Name (DN). The RDN must be unique in the parent container or Organizational Unit (OU), while the Distinguished Name will be unique in the forest.
RDP
Acronym for Remote Desktop Protocol. See Remote Desktop Protocol.
RDS
Acronym for Remote Desktop Services.
RDSH
Acronym for Remote Desktop Session Host.
REST
Acronym for Representational State Transfer.
RFC
Acronym for Requests for Comments. Publication of Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) and the Internet Society. Memorandum describing methods, behaviors, research, or innovations applicable to the working of the Internet and Internet connected systems.
RFID
Acronym for Radio-Frequency IDentification. Wireless radio-frequency transfer of data to automatically identify tags attached to objects.
RID
Acronym for Relative IDentifier. All security principals (users, computers, and groups) in Active Directory have a Security ID (SID). SID values include several components, including the RID. The SID without the RID is the same for all objects in a domain. The RID value uniquely identifies the object in the domain.
RISC
Acronym for Reduced Instruction Set Computing. A cpu design based on the concept that a simplified instruction set can result in high performance and faster execution. See Reduced instruction set computing.
RMS
Acronym for Rights Management Services.
RODC
Acronym for Read-Only Domain Controller. A domain controller that cannot be used to update objects in Active Directory.
RPC
Acronym for Remote Procedure Call.
RRAS
Acronym for Routing and Remote Access Service.
RSAT
Acronym for Remote Server Administration Tools.
RSO
Acronym for ReplicateSingleObject. A Read-Only Domain Controller (RODC) can request replication of a specific object with functionality known as a Replicate-Single-Object operation.
RSoP
Acronym for Resultant Set of Policy.
RSS
Acronym for Rich Site Summary, or often Really Simple Syndication. Standard web feed formats to publish frequently updated information.
RTM
Acronym for Release To Manufacturing. Software ready to be delivered. RTM is followed by General Availability (GA).
RUS
Acronym for Recipient Update Service.
RWDC
Acronym for Read-Write Domain Controller. A writeable domain controller, meaning it can be used to update objects in Active Directory. All domain controllers are writeable, unless they are a Read-Only Domain Controller (RODC).
SaaS
Acronym for Software as a Service.
SACL
Acronym for System Access Control List.
SAM
Acronym for Security Account Manager, the Windows NT account database format. A Windows NT SAM account database exposes a flat namespace.
SAML
Acronym for Security Assertion Markup Language. An XML based standard for exchanging authentication and authorization data between an identity provider and a service or application.
SAN
Acronym for Storage Area Network. Remotely attached computer storage. Also the acronym for Subject Alternative Name, or subjectAltName. An extension of X.509 that allows more than one value to be associated with a security certificate. Names can include email addresses, IP addresses, URIs, DNS names, directory names (DNs), or OIDs.
SAS
Acronym for Serial Attached SCSI. A point-to-point serial protocol to move data to and from computer storage devices.
SASL
Acronym for Simple Authentication and Security Layer. A framework for authentication and data security on the Internet.
SATA
Acronym for Serial Advanced Technology Attachment, or Serial ATA. A computer bus interface to connect host bus adapters to mass storage devices.
SBS
Acronym for Small Business Server.
SBSL
Acronym for Slow Boot, Slow Logon.
SC
Acronym for System Center.
SCAC
Acronym for Standard Carrier Alpha Code. A code to uniquely identify transportation companies.
SCCM
Acronym for System Center Configuration Manager.
SCDPM
Acronym for System Center Data Protection Manager.
SCEP
Acronym for Simple Certificate Enrollment Protocol. Defines the communication between network devices and a Registration Authority (RA) for certificate enrollment. See http://tools.ietf.org/html/draft-nourse-scep-18.
Acronym for Simple Cloud Identity Management.
SCM
Acronym for Security Compliance Manager. Also Source Code Management.
SCOM
Acronym for System Center Operations Manager.
SCOR
Acronym for System Center Orchestrator.
SCP
Acronym for Service Connection Point object. An object that represents one or more instances of a service and is used to connect to the service. These are objects in Active Directory usually published under the computer object where the corresponding service is installed. Used to maintain information about the service.
SCSI
Acronym for Small Computer System Interface. Standards for transferring data between computers.
SCSM
Acronym for System Center Service Manager
SCVMM
Acronym for System Center Virtual Machine Manager.
SDDL
Acronym for Security Descriptor Definition Language. Defines the string format for security descriptors. See Security Descriptor Definition Language.
SDK
Acronym for Software Development Kit.
SDS
Acronym for System.DirectoryServices namespace. The primary namespace used for code that targets Active Directory in the .NET Framework.
SEO
Acronym for Search Engine Optimization. See Search engine optimization.
SharePoint
Microsoft web application platform.
SID
Acronym for Security IDentifier. All objects in Active Directory that are security principals (users, computers, groups) have the objectSID attribute, which is a SID. The SID uniquely identifies the object for security permissions. The SID value includes several components, including a RID (Relative ID). The SID without the RID is the same for all objects in the domain. Each object in an Active Directory domain has its own unique RID value.
Skype
Microsoft instant messaging client and voice-over-IP service.
SKU
Acronym for Stock-Keeping Unit. Unique identifier for each distinct product and service.
SMB
Acronym for Server Message Block. An application-layer network protocol for providing shared access to files, printers, serial ports, other nodes on a network.
SMO
Acronym for Social Media Optimization. See Social media optimization.
SMTP
Acronym for Simple Mail Transfer Protocol. Internet standard for electronic mail over IP networks.
SNTP
Acronym for Simple Network Time Protocol. A less complex implementation of NTP.
SOA
Acronym for Service Oriented Architecture. Software architecture where discrete pieces of software provide application functionality as services to other applications. Also acronym for Start Of Authority. Records created by Read-Only Domain Controllers for read-only DNS zones.
SOAP
Acronym for Simple Object Access Protocol. XML messaging framework. See Understanding SOAP.
SoFS
Acronym for Scale-out File Services. Scalable, grid-based NAS implementation developed by IBM. See SoFS.
SP
Acronym for Service Pack.
SPF
Acronym for Service Provider Foundation.
SPN
Acronym for Service Principal Name. The name by which a client uniquely identifies an instance of a service. Each instance of a service must have its own SPN, but a given service instance can have multiple SPNs.
SQL
Acronym for Structured Query Language.
SQLIO
Acronym for SQL Server Input Output. A tool developed by Microsoft to to determine the I/O capacity of a given configuration of SQL Server. See SQLIO.
SSAS
Acronym for SQL Server Analysis Services.
SSD
Acronym for Solid State Drive.
SSDT
Acronym for SQL Server Data Tools. See SQL Server Data Tools (SSDT).
SSIS
Acronym for SQL Server Integration Services.
SSL
Acronym for Secure Sockets Layer. Cryptographic protocols to provide secure communications over the Internet.
SSMS
Acronym for SQL Server Management Studio. See Use SQL Server Management Studio.
SSO
Acronym for Single Sign On. A Property of access control of multiple related but independent software systems that allows users to logon once and gain access to all systems without being prompted to logon again.
SSPI
Acronym for Security Support Provider Interface. An API for integrated security services authentication, message integrity, message privacy, and security quality of service. See The Security Support Provider Interface.
SSPR
Acronym for Self Service Password Reset. Process that allows users to reset their own password, usually by answering a series of questions or responding to an email.
SSRS
Acronym for SQL Server Reporting Services.
TB
Acronym for TeraBytes, or 1.0995 x 10^12 bytes (1,024 GB)
TCO
Acronym for Total Cost of Ownership. A financial estimate of direct and indirect costs of a product or system.
TCP
Acronym for Transmission Control Protocol. Networking model and communication protocols for the Internet.
TCP/IP
Acronym for Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol. Networking model and communication protocols for the Internet.
TCQ
Acronym for Tagged Command Queuing. Technology built into ATA and SCSI hard drives.
TFS
Acronym for Team Foundation Server.
TFVC
Acronym for Team Foundation Version Control.
TGS
Acronym for Ticket Granting Service.
TGT
Acronym for Ticket Granting Ticket. Encrypted file granting access for a user to data protected by a Key Distribution Center (KDC). Contains session key, expiration date, and user IP Address.
TLG
Acronym for Test Lab Guide.
TLS
Acronym for Transport Layer Security. Cryptographic protocols to provide secure communications over the Internet.
TOU
Acronym for Terms Of Use. Terms a customer agrees to before they can use a service or product.
TMG
Acronym for Threat Management Gateway, a discontinued product.
TNWiki
Acronym for TechNet Wiki. A library of information about Microsoft technologies inspired by Wikipedia, written by the community for the community. See Wiki: About TechNet Wiki.
TPM
Acronym for Trusted Platform Module. An international standard for a secure cryptoprocessor.
TS
Acronym for Terminal Services.
T-SQL
Acronym for Transact-SQL. Query language for SQL Server.
TTL
Acronym for Time To Live. The length of time during which a setting remains valid or before a timeout expires.
UAC
Acronym for User Account Control. A Windows feature introduced in Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008 that alerts the user about any actions on the client requiring administrator privileges. If the current user's account has administrative privileges on the local computer, they can consent to the action. Otherwise, someone must enter administrator credentials before the action can proceed. See What is User Account Control?
UAG
Acronym for Unified Access Gateway.
UDP
Acronym for User Datagram Protocol, a TCP/IP standard.
UEFI
Acronym for Unified Extensible Firmware Interface. Specification that defines software interface between an operating system and firmware. Replaces Basic Input/Output System (BIOS) firmware interface.
UE-V
Acronym for Microsoft User Experience Virtualization.
UI
Acronym for User Interface.
UNC
Acronym for Universal Naming Convention or Uniform Naming Convention. Syntax to describe the location of a network resource, such as a file or printer. Also called the network path. The UNC syntax for Windows is in the form \\ComputerName\ShareName\ResourceName.
UPN
Acronym for User Principal Name, or the userPrincipalName attribute in Active Directory.
URI
Acronym for Uniform Resource Identifier. A string of characters to identify a web resource.
URL
Acronym for Uniform Resource Locator. A web address. A Uniform Resource Identifier (URI) that identifies a web resource and specifies the means to act upon it.
URN
Acronym for Uniform Resource Name. A Uniform Resource Identifier (URI) that identifies a resource by name in a namespace.
USB
Acronym for Universal Serial Bus.
USMT
Acronym for User State Migration Tool.
USN
Acronym for Update Sequence Number.
UTC
Coordinated Universal Time. The acronym is a compromise between the English "Coordinated Universal Time" (or Universal Time Coordinated) and the French "Temps Universel Coordonné" (or Universel Temps Coordonné). Formerly known as Greenwich Mean Time (GMT). The time standard by which clocks and time are regulated throughout the world. See Coordinated Universal Time.
UTDV
Acronym for Up-To-Datedness Vector.
UUID
Acronym for Universally Unique IDentifier. A standard for identification in software to enable distributed systems to uniquely identify objects without central coordination. In Microsoft Windows platforms these are knows as GUIDs. See Universally unique identifier.
VAN
Acronym for Value Added Network. See Value-added network.
VAS
Acronym for Virtual Address Space. Virtual addresses that an operating system makes available to a process.
VB
Acronym for Visual Basic.
VB.NET
Acronym for Visual Basic .NET. A Microsoft high level programming language implemented on the .NET Framework. Successor to the original Visual Basic language. See Visual Basic .NET.
VBScript
Visual Basic Script Edition, a subset of the classic Visual Basic language. Programs written in VBScript are saved in files with the .vbs extension. VBScript programs can be run with either of two host programs, cscript.exe or wscript.exe.
VDI
Acronym for Virtual Desktop Infrastructure.
VHD
Acronym for Virtual Hard Disk, a file format that represents a virtual hard disk drive.
VHDX
Acronym for Hyper-V Virtual Hard Disk. See Hyper-V Virtual Hard Disk Format Overview.
VLV
Acronym for Virtual List View. Searching capability allowing display of results without returning every entry.
VM
Acronym for Virtual Machine.
VMM
Acronym for Virtual Machine Manager.
VPN
Acronym for Virtual Private Network. Bridges a private network across the Internet (or other public network).
VS
Acronym for Visual Studio.
VSS
Acronym for Visual SourceSafe. A source code control software application for small software development projects. See Microsoft Visual SourceSafe. Also acronym for Volume Shadow Copy Service. A set of COM interfaces that implements a framework to allow volume backups to be performed while applications on a system continue to write to the volumes. See Volume Shadow Copy Service.
W3C
Acronym for World Wide Web Consortium. The international standards organization for the World Wide Web (WWW or W3). See World Wide Web Consortium.
WAAD
Acronym for Windows Azure Active Directory. Also known as Azure Active Directory (AAD). Active Directory Domain Services in the Windows Azure cloud. Windows Azure is the Microsoft cloud computing platform, and one of the services available is Active Directory.
WABS
Acronym for Windows Azure BizTalk Services.
WADL
Acronym for Web Application Description Language.
WAIK
Acronym for Windows Automated Installation Kit.
WAN
Acronym for Wide Area Network.
WAP
Acronym for Wireless Application Protocol. Standard for accessing information over mobile wireless networks. Also acronym for Windows Azure Pack (formerly Windows Azure Services for Windows Server).
WATM
Acronym for Windows Azure Traffic Manager. Tool that allows control of the distribution of user traffic to specified endpoints. See Traffic Mangager Overview.
WBC
Acronym for Write Back Cache.
WCE
Acronym for Windows CE. See Windows CE.
WCF
Acronym for Windows Communication Foundation.
WDM
Acronym for Windows Driver Model. Formerly known as the Win32 Driver Model. Framework for device drivers.
WEC
Acronym for Windows Embedded Compact. See Windows Embedded Compact.
WF
Acronym for Workflow Foundation.
WFP
Acronym for Windows Filtering Platform.
WHATWG
Acronym for Web Hypertext Application Technology Working Group. See WHATWG.
WHS
Acronym for Windows Home Server.
WIF
Acronym for Windows Identity Foundation.
WinCE
Acronym for Windows CE. An operating system for embedded systems. See Windows CE.
WinPE
Acronym for Windows Preinstallation Environment. Also Windows PE. A lightweight version of Windows used for deployment or troubleshooting.
WinRM
Acronym for Windows Remote Management. Microsoft implementation of WS-Management Protocol, a standard Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP)-based, firewall-friendly protocol that allows hardware and operating systems from different vendors to interoperate. See Windows Remote Management.
WinRT
Acronym for Windows RunTime, or Windows RT. An edition of Windows only available pre-installed on PCs or tablets powered by ARM processors. Designed for improved battery life on thin, lightweight devices running cloud-enabled, touch-enabled, web-connected applications. Previously called Windows on ARM (WOA). See Windows 8 and 8.1 Preview, Editions (SKUs) and features.
WINS
Acronym for Windows Internet Naming Service. Resolves computer NetBIOS names into IP Addresses.
WMF
Acronym for Windows Management Foundation.
WMI
Acronym for Windows Management Instrumentation. WMI is management technology allowing scripts and programs to monitor and control managed resources throughout the network. Resources include hard drives, file systems, operating system settings, processes, services, shares, registry settings, networking components, event logs, users, and groups.
WMP
Acronym for Windows Media Player.
WOA
Acronym for Windows On ARM. Windows pre-installed on an ARM processor. Now called Windows RT (WinRT).
WOW
Acronym for Windows On Windows Systems. An application compatibility layer in 32-bit Windows that provides support for legacy 16-bit (Win16) applications. More recently, WOW64 provides support for running 32-bit applications on 64-bit versions of Windows.
WPF
Acronym for Windows Presentation Foundation.
WPT
Acronym for Windows Performance Toolkit. Tools for the analysis of performance problems.
WQL
Acronym for WMI Query Language, as subset of ANSI Structured Query Language (SQL) used to query WMI namespaces.
WS
Acronym for Windows Server.
WSAD
Acronym for Windows Server Active Directory. On premises Active Directory, as apposed to the cloud based Azure Active Directory (AAD)
WS-Federation
Acronym for Web Services-Federation. An identity federation specification. See Understanding WS-Federation.
WSG
Acronym for Windows Server Gateway.
WSH
Acronym for Windows Script Host, an ActiveX scripting host providing an environment for the execution of scripts using one of several scripting engines or languages, such as VBScript.
WSIG
Acronym for Web Services Interoperability Guidance.
WSS
Acronym for Windows SharePoint Services.
WSUS
Acronym for Windows Server Update Services.
WUA
Acronym for Windows Update Agent.
WWF
Acronym for Windows Workflow Foundation.
WYSIWYG
It stands for What You See Is What You Get, a category of web page editor that incorporates graphical editing more than through code.
WYSIWYM
It stands for What You See Is What You Mean. Unlike WYSIWYG, this type of editor relies solely on code for editing.
XAML
Acronym for Extensible Application Markup Language.
XML
Acronym for Extensible Markup Language, for encoding documents in a format that can be read by both humans and machines.
XNA
Set of tools based on the .NET Framework for video game development and management.
X.500
Computer networking standards for directory services. Developed by ITU-T (International Telecommunications Union, Telecommunications sector), formerly CCITT (International Telegraph and Telephone Consultative Committee).
X.509
An ITU-T cryptography standard for a Public Key Infrastrucure (PKI) and Privilege Management Infrastructure (PMI). Includes standards for public key certificates, certificate revocation lists (CRLs), attribute certificates (CAs), and a certificate path validation algorithm.
XSLT
Acronym for Extensible Stylesheet Language Transformations, a language for transforming XML or other documents into XML.
ZLE
Zero-Latency Enterprise (ZLE) is any strategy that exploits the immediate exchange of information across technical and organizational boundaries to achieve business benefit. For example, technical boundaries exist between different operating systems, database management systems and programming languages. "Immediate" implies being fast enough to bring all of the business benefits that simultaneous knowledge can potentially achieve. Latency cannot literally be zero in any real system because computers need time to "think." ZB
Acronym for ZettaBytes, 1 ZB = 10007bytes.