Does Windows 8 use a display server?

DMGrier

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Hello Community,
I am curious if Microsoft uses a display server? I assume it does but I am doing a presentation on display servers and I found a ton of information on Linux and OS X display servers but I cannot find anything on the display server Windows uses. Honestly at this point just a name would help. Thanks for any information.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1 Pro 64 Bit
    Computer type
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    Sager NP2740
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    Motherboard
    W740SU
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My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.0 x64
    Computer type
    Laptop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Toshiba Satelite C55D-A Laptop
    CPU
    AMD EI 1200
    Memory
    4 gb DDR3
    Graphics Card(s)
    Raedon 340 MB dedicated Ram
    Monitor(s) Displays
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Thank you for that, I am trying to use this to find my answer but still coming up short. From my understanding the display server handles inputs to the GUI from a mouse, keyboard or touch screen. I am sure there is more to this then that but I am just trying to figure out what service handles that to the GUI and I would assume that Windows must use a display server but cannot find anything on it.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1 Pro 64 Bit
    Computer type
    Laptop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Sager NP2740
    CPU
    Intel Core i7 4702HQ 2.2 GHz
    Motherboard
    W740SU
    Memory
    8 GB 1600 MHz
    Graphics Card(s)
    Intel Iris Pro 5200
    Sound Card
    High Defenition Audio
    Monitor(s) Displays
    IPS Display
    Screen Resolution
    1920x1080
    Hard Drives
    Samsung SSD 840 EVO 250 GB mSATA
    Internet Speed
    60 Mbps cable, NETGEAR Night Hawk AC1900
    Browser
    Firefox 38.0.5
    Antivirus
    Windows Defender & Malwarebytes Pro
Hello Community,
I am curious if Microsoft uses a display server? I assume it does but I am doing a presentation on display servers and I found a ton of information on Linux and OS X display servers but I cannot find anything on the display server Windows uses. Honestly at this point just a name would help. Thanks for any information.

I would say no, at least nothing like that in Linux or Mac OX. The Mac OSX was based on Unix, as was Linux.

There is nothing in Windows terminology that refers to anything like a display server. In Linux the GUI was an afterthought and implemented as an add-on. In the NT platform (which includes Windows 8) the GUI was a part of the design from the beginning and was implemented quite differently than in Linux.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 7
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
I don't know about Mac. But XWindows sends commands to the client, which is responsible for carrying them out. Windows comes from Dos which, once past the BIOS and Dos sending characters teletype style, was a ram write driven system. Individual programs sent data directly to video ram. The difference with DWM is that the memory written was not immediately displayed. The system could do stuff like translucency or whatever. But it is still ram write driven. W8 differs from Vista and W7 in that it still runs DWM.exe and composition is enabled by default. But it doesn't display Glass out of the box. I suspect they just hobbled the Glass to gain CPU cycles.

This is why if you want to run Windows programs in Linux under Wine often you have to copy a DLL or two from the Windows partition. In the Windows Gui nearly everything is in Dlls.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.0 x64
    Computer type
    Laptop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Toshiba Satelite C55D-A Laptop
    CPU
    AMD EI 1200
    Memory
    4 gb DDR3
    Graphics Card(s)
    Raedon 340 MB dedicated Ram
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Built in
    Screen Resolution
    1366 x 768
    Hard Drives
    640 GB (spinner) Sata II
    Keyboard
    Built in
    Mouse
    Touch pad
Thanks to everyone for an answer.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1 Pro 64 Bit
    Computer type
    Laptop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Sager NP2740
    CPU
    Intel Core i7 4702HQ 2.2 GHz
    Motherboard
    W740SU
    Memory
    8 GB 1600 MHz
    Graphics Card(s)
    Intel Iris Pro 5200
    Sound Card
    High Defenition Audio
    Monitor(s) Displays
    IPS Display
    Screen Resolution
    1920x1080
    Hard Drives
    Samsung SSD 840 EVO 250 GB mSATA
    Internet Speed
    60 Mbps cable, NETGEAR Night Hawk AC1900
    Browser
    Firefox 38.0.5
    Antivirus
    Windows Defender & Malwarebytes Pro
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