M

MAPI: See Messaging Application Programming Interface.
marshaling: The process of packaging and sending interface parameters across process boundaries.
master database: The database that controls user databases and the operation of SQL Server™ as a whole.
MCIS: See Microsoft Commercial Internet System.
MDAC: See Microsoft Data Access Components.
message class: The message class of a message or form tells a messaging application which properties the message or form contains, the type of information it conveys, and how it can be handled. Message classes are identified by the MAPI property PR_MESSAGE_CLASS on the message, and each message class has an associated set of properties. Two commonly encountered message classes are IPM.Note and IPM.Post.
Messaging Application Programming Interface (MAPI): A messaging architecture and a client interface component. As a messaging architecture, MAPI enables multiple applications to interact with multiple messaging systems across a variety of hardware platforms. As a client interface component, MAPI is the complete set of functions and object-oriented interfaces that forms the foundation for the MAPI subsystem's client application and service provider interfaces. For more information, see "Messaging and Collaboration Services" in the Microsoft® Platform SDK.
metadata: Data about data. For example, the title, subject, author, and size of a file constitute metadata about the file. Site maps and site information are also metadata. XML is one type of data that can be expressed in XML format.
method: A procedure, implemented as a function, that acts on an object.
Microsoft Commerce Server (MSCS): A component of the Microsoft Site Server Enterprise Edition suite. It provides support for all the aspects of business-to-consumer commerce. At its core, MSCS is a collection of COM components, including Active Server Pages, that provide all the functionality required to access the database used to store product, customer, and order information.
Microsoft Commercial Internet System (MCIS): A collection of server products specifically geared to meet the needs of Internet service providers. MCIS components include MCIS Chat Server, MCIS Content Replication Server, MCIS Mail Server, MCIS Membership Server, and MCIS News Server.
Microsoft Data Access Components (MDAC): A toolkit that includes key technologies to enable Universal Data Access. MDAC consists of the latest versions of ADO, OLE DB, and ODBC. For more information about these technologies, see http://www.microsoft.com/data and "Data Access Services" in the Platform SDK.
Microsoft Distributed Transaction Coordinator (DTC): A system service that coordinates transactions. Work can be committed as an atomic transaction even if it spans multiple resource managers, potentially on separate computers. Microsoft DTC was first released as part of Microsoft SQL Server version 6.5 and is included in Microsoft Transaction Server, providing a low-level infrastructure for transactions. Microsoft DTC implements a two-phase commit protocol to ensure that the transaction outcome (either commit or abort) is consistent across all resource managers involved in a transaction. Microsoft DTC ensures atomicity, regardless of failures.
Microsoft Exchange Event Service: The Microsoft Exchange Event Service is a Microsoft Windows NT® service that runs on a computer running Microsoft Exchange Server. Using Microsoft Outlook, you configure the Event Service to monitor events that occur in folders you specify.
Microsoft Exchange Server: A client/server messaging and workgroup system that offers a transparent connection to many different communications systems. It provides users with e-mail, individual and group scheduling, online forms, and workflow automation tools. It also provides developers with a platform on which to build custom information-sharing and messaging-service applications. For more information, see "Messaging and Collaboration Services" in the Platform SDK.
Microsoft Internet Information Server (IIS): A server product that is part of Microsoft Commercial Internet System. Internet Information Server is also included in Windows NT 4.0 Option Pack. IIS provides the programming environment and services for writing Internet and World Wide Web applications, including Internet Server Application Programming Interfaces (ISAPI) applications, and Active Server Pages, which enables scripts to be run on Web servers (in other words enabling server-side scripting over the Internet or an intranet).
Microsoft Internet Information Services: The new name of Microsoft Internet Information Server, effective with the release of Microsoft Windows® 2000.
Microsoft Management Console (MMC): A visual environment for hosting snap-ins such as the Microsoft Transaction Server Explorer that manage services and applications installed on a system. All functionality is provided by MMC snap-ins; the console itself offers no management behavior.
Microsoft Message Queue Server (MSMQ): A technology that enables applications running at different times to communicate across heterogeneous networks and systems that may be temporarily offline. Within an MSMQ enterprise, applications send messages to queues and read messages from queues.
Microsoft Office: Microsoft Office is the Microsoft suite for desktop productivity in the workplace. It contains some of the world's most popular software applications, such as Microsoft Word and Microsoft Excel. Microsoft Office also contains tools for building custom collaboration solutions such as simple intranets.
Microsoft Outlook: A messaging and collaboration client that is part of the Microsoft Office family of applications. Outlook® 98 combines support for Internet standards-based messaging systems—including Microsoft Exchange Server—with integrated calendar, contact, and task-management features.
Microsoft Site Server: A Microsoft BackOffice family member that provides a set of applications and services that run on the Windows NT operating system. Site Server ships in two configurations — Site Server 3.0, which is designed to provide solutions for publishing and managing information on an intranet, and Site Server 3.0, Commerce Edition, which is designed for conducting business on the Internet. For more information, see "Web Services" in the Platform SDK.
Microsoft SQL Server: A high-performance relational database management system for Microsoft Windows NT Server-based systems. Designed to meet the requirements of enterprise client/server computing and the Internet, SQL Server is tightly integrated with the Microsoft BackOffice® family of servers. For more information, see "Data Access Services" in the Platform SDK.
Microsoft Systems Management Server (SMS): A BackOffice Server family member that provides tools such as hardware and software inventory, software distribution and installation, and remote diagnostics for managing a computing environment. SMS is designed to help systems administrators lower their management costs by helping them install and maintain operating systems and applications, discover system configurations, and perform helpdesk operations. For more information, see "Management Services" in the Platform SDK.
Microsoft Transaction Server (MTS): A COM-based transaction processing system that provides a run-time environment for objects that perform the business logic of n-tier applications.
Microsoft Visual InterDev: A tool for Web application development in the Microsoft Visual Studio® suite. Visual InterDev® provides a Web application programming model, integrated database tools, and a Rapid Application Development (RAD) environment that enables Web developers to combine scripting languages, HTML, and DHTML. For more information, see the site http://msdn.microsoft.com/vinterdev.
Microsoft Windows Distributed interNet Applications Architecture (Windows DNA): The application development model for the Windows platform. Windows DNA is the infrastructure for building three-tier applications, exposing system and application services through the Component Object Model.
middleware: Software that is deployed on the business-services tier in a distributed application. Middleware provides application services, such as transaction processing, instance creation and management, and process and thread management. Microsoft Transaction Server is an example of middleware.
MIME (Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions): A set of enhancements to SMTP allowing an Internet message to include a mixture of audio, image, video, and text components, and to accommodate a variety of international character sets. MIME messages are identified by a MIME header in the top level of the SMTP header. The MIME mechanisms are specified in the RFC 1341 document.
MMC: See Microsoft Management Console.
MSCS: See Microsoft Commerce Server.
MSMQ: See Microsoft Message Queue Server.
MSXML.DLL: The component that ships with Microsoft Internet Explorer 5 and contains an XML parser conformant to the W3C XML 1.0 standard language specification. The component also implements the W3C standard core Document Object Model.
MTS: See Microsoft Transaction Server.
Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions: See MIME.
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