A glimpse of the Windows 2000 desktop - it looks just like the predecessors, but don't be fooled!
Windows 2000 Versions
Each version of Windows 2000 has been designed for a specific purpose and differs in its capability. The following table gives the maximum supported RAM and the maximum supported processors by each version of Windows 2000.
| Version | Max. RAM | Max. Processors |
|---|---|---|
| Windows 2000 Professional | 4 GB | 2 |
| Windows 2000 Server | 4 GB | 4 |
| Windows 2000 Advanced Server | 8 GB | 8 |
| Windows 2000 Datacenter Server | 16 GB | 32/64 |
The minimum system requirements also different between Windows 2000 Professional and the Server family of Windows 2000. Windows 2000 Professional requires 64MB RAM to run, whereas the Windows 2000 Server family versions require 128MB RAM to run. The Server versions also require more hard disk space, depending upon their applications and implementation.
There are also other differences, such as the ability of Windows 2000 Advanced Server to perform 2-way clustering and the ability of Windows 2000 Datacenter Server to perform 4-way clustering, but these will be covered in other sections.