Shadows
In 1E, the weakest of the noncorporeal undead are the shadows, protected largely by the fact that, lacking a solid body, they can't be injured with mundane weapons. Their look varies between editions, although they are always basically humanoid and resemble literal shadows. The 2E version is the most distinctive, with three-fingered and clawed hands and an array of spines projecting from the back and upper limbs. Oddly, the eyes are visible as holes, as if we are looking at a shadow cast by a paper cut-out; this feature is not retained in the later versions. In 3E, they are skeletally thin, and in 5E comparatively amorphous, perhaps because they take the form of someone shrouded in a cloak.
Shadows are consistently portrayed as of limited intelligence, and are not only unable to speak but (at least in 5E) can't understand language either. This implies that relatively little is left of the shadow's original soul; it is animated by a hungry instinct to absorb the energy of the living and so create more of its kind, but there doesn't seem to be much more than that.
In 1E and 2E, shadows can only be formed from humans and the main "good" humanoid races and explicitly not from, for example, orcs or hobgoblins - 2E goes as far as to speculate why this might be, so it isn't an oversight. In 3E, however, this extends to all humanoid races (although the text implies that they are always human-sized), while in 5E they can be formed from any living creature.
Clearly, when we're talking about noncorporeal undead, we have not only left biological principles behind, but any semblance of real-world physics as well. Even to the extent that we can speculate about the biological functioning of dragons, ghouls, and so on, we can't do the same for ghosts. Whatever they are made out of has no real-world counterpart.
It's interesting to note that, while in 3E shadows can pass through solid objects, in 5E they need a gap of some kind to squeeze through, although it can be very narrow. On the other hand, the early editions imply that it can be harmed by such things as fire and lightning, while the later ones more thoroughly list the various attack forms it's immune to.
The bland shadowy look of the creature suggests (as 3E hints) that the visible form is a volume of space within which photons are absorbed and vanish - presumably to the Negative Material Plane. This explains not only its appearance, but also its extreme cold, at least in the first three editions. The ability to drain strength from its victims is likely an extension of this, absorbing the electrical energy from nerve fibres and the metabolic energy from muscle tissue.
Wraiths
The word 'wraith' is really just another term for 'ghost', with little, if any, distinction drawn between the two in general folklore. In D&D, it's a specific sort of entity, similar in some respects to the shadow, but with more distinct features and a different mode of attack.
In all editions, the wraith is humanoid from the waist up, but lacks legs, fading away in its lower parts and hovering mid-air. In 1E, it is vague and cloudlike, with glowing eyes, while in 2E it has a much more defined shape and the mouth and nostrils also glow. In 5E, the form is similar but wispy, with distinct, partially skeletal features visible on the torso and head. 3E is arguably the most distinct, a cloaked form that seems to lack arms as well as legs; it apparently has glowing red eyes, but the hood hides them in the illustration.
Unlike shadows, wraiths retain their full human intelligence. In 3E, they are more intelligent than the average human, although this is probably some reflection of the sort of soul that's required to form one than of any post-mortem change to the animating spirit. While shadows are "chaotic" evil, as one might expect for something so bestial, wraiths are "lawful" and able to command weaker versions of their kind. In 2E they are said not to speak, even to each other, unless forced to do so, but by 5E this no longer seems to be the case - not that they are likely to be worthwhile conversationalists.
That the wraith has actual features suggests that it isn't simply an energy-sucking void like the shadow, but composed of something that's able to interact with light - although its monochrome nature implies that it does so with all visible wavelengths equally. In 3E, it's completely immune to non-magical attacks, as we might expect from something fully noncorporeal. Perhaps it projects an image by subconsciously modifying light and has no literal substance of its own.
In 5E, however, there may be some material form to the wraith, since it is only resistant to physical attacks, electricity, and so on, not invulnerable to them. Perhaps it uses magical energy to modify atoms of air around it, creating something that's material, if not substantial. In which case, attacks of various kinds must disrupt whatever it's doing to form its "body" and prevent it clinging on to sufficient physical substance to maintain its existence. Having said which, it can't be tied to any specific molecules (or whatever) since it can pass through solid walls and reform itself on the far side.
The effects of being struck by a wraith change through the main editions, although the general intent is clearly one of draining some kind of energy from the body - metabolic energy in the later editions, whatever a wight drains in the first two. It's also notable that, by 5E, the wraith is the most powerful and potentially dangerous of the four main noncorporeal undead types, while in 1E it was one of the weaker ones (it's more middling in 3E, suggesting an ongoing increase in power).
Ghosts
Ghosts are really the archetypal noncorporeal undead, and they change significantly between the various editions. One of the things that does remain consistent is their description, which is a translucent image of the deceased. In 1E, the ghost is shown cloaked with its face concealed by a hood, but there seems no reason, beyond perhaps the glowing eyes, to suppose that it would be especially non-human if you could see it. 2E ghosts are white or pale grey, while those of later editions are tinged with blue, but that's about as far as the distinction goes, and may simply be an effect of the lighting.
1E ghosts are, however, remarkably powerful. They are the most difficult of all undead to exorcise or otherwise banish (except possibly for the lich, which may be immune to such things) and they're extremely difficult to injure even if you have the means to hit them at all. Ghosts are described as being inherently evil, either because they already were in life, or because a particularly violent death has driven them insane and filled them with thoughts of vengeance and murder. Oddly, given this, they're lawful evil rather than selfish and chaotic and, in any event, much of the text in 2E paints them as victims of accidental or deliberate wrongs, which seems to clash with the sections about the alignment.
In 3E, the evil descriptor is ditched. Ghosts are now simply the spirits of those who cannot pass on, much as they are in typical Western folklore. They might be malevolent but more likely they are not, haunting some location without any particular intention of harming people. In general, if you can get around the incorporeality, they are much easier to injure, and they are also easier to exorcise than before. This can, however, vary, because in 3E ghosts resemble who they were in life, and their statistics reflect that; they could be high level and difficult to hurt, but this is implied to be very unusual.
While 5E doesn't have the concept of 'templates' in the core Monster Manual, and ghosts thus have to have set statistics in the rulebook, they have changed less from the 3E version than that did from its predecessors. They are significantly tougher and harder to get rid of, but they have the same variability of alignment. Indeed, the description makes them sound pitiable, de-emphasising any malevolent aspect. As with all editions, their intelligence rating does not change post-mortem (as it does with many undead) although they do have a considerable force of personality, which is probably part of what anchors them to the physical world.
In addition to these differences, the signature attack of ghosts also varies. In the first two editions, it rapidly ages those it encounters. In 5E, this ability is retained, but the ghost can now deliver 'necrotic' damage directly as well. 3E ditches the ageing effect, but does provide a range of other abilities, that vary between individual ghosts, but typically include ability drains and/or delivering pure damage (of an unspecified nature).
The ability drain could be justified as an alternative description of the ageing one, creating physical decline as muscles become frail and so on, although if so, it's presumably ageing the victim quite a lot, and the text doesn't mention developing grey hair or whatever. The implication in the later editions is that this is an effect of extreme fear - a 'hair turning white overnight' sort of thing - but this is something that 2E specifically denies. Some of it might be an energy drain similar to that inflicted by wraiths and some other undead, but the physical manifestations of ageing don't fit with this, and we're really just left with "it's magic".
Spectres
Spectres look, so far as we can tell, identical to ghosts. Certainly, we're told that the two are often mistaken for one another, and are not provided any means by which one would tell them apart until they attack. Nor is there any indication in the core rules for the first three editions as to why an individual might become a spectre as opposed to a ghost and what the real difference between the two is.
5E does provide a distinction, stating that spectres are the result of somebody dying by having their soul forcibly ripped from their body and the resulting endless torment driving them insane. It's debatable whether this would fit with what we can see in the earlier editions, however. That's because, while the 5E spectre is, as one might expect, chaotic evil, the earlier versions are consistently lawful evil and of above-average intelligence. This indicates the sort of organisation and deliberate evil that doesn't match the product of a random tragedy.
The signature power of the spectre is also not distinctive; it's essentially the same as that of a wraith or wight, only more powerful. In 5E, this works through 'necrotic' damage, a common feature of undead, especially the noncorporeal sort. Like radiant damage, this has no obvious direct counterpart in our world and it seems, if anything, to be an energy-leaching effect that differs from intense cold in that it's presumably more selective.
'Necrosis' is a medical term referring to the death of living tissue as the result of trauma or disease and it seems likely that necrotic damage is also killing tissue, although the question of what's going on at a physical level remains open. Necrosis in the real world is often caused by infectious organisms (gangrene, tuberculosis, etc.) and can also be due to an interruption of blood supply, but these are too slow to be relevant here. Poisons and extreme cold can have a more rapid effect, but these are clearly different attack modes so they aren't what's going on in a necrotic attack, either.
Perhaps the closest analogy is to intense radiation, notably gamma radiation. Sufficient doses can kill living cells, even if the victim is likely to die too quickly for clinical gangrene or the like to set in. It's obviously not the case that spectres and the like are supposed to be literally radioactive - the answer of "it's magic" once again rears its head. But what is going is at least analogous, even if the effect is much more rapid in onset and is delivered in a different way.
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