Windows NT (redirected from MS Windows NT)

Windows NT

(Windows New Technology) A 32-bit operating system from Microsoft for Intel x86 CPUs. Available in separate client and server versions, it included built-in networking and preemptive multitasking. Windows NT was introduced in 1993 as Version 3.1 with the same user interface as Windows 3.1. In 1996, Version 4.0 was changed to the Windows 95 desktop (see table below).

A New Lineage
Unlike Windows 95/98, NT supported multiprocessing (see SMP), added security and administrative features and offered a dual boot capability. Designed for enterprise use, each application could access 2GB of virtual memory. NT did not support Plug and Play. It was later added in Windows 2000 and XP, which were also based on the NT core technology. NT 4 Server, Enterprise Edition supported clustering and failover.

For x86 Machines Only
NT ran 16-bit DOS and Windows applications in its own emulation mode (see Windows on Windows) and also provided a command processor that executed DOS commands. Support for the PowerPC and MIPS platforms was planned and later dropped. Support for Alpha servers reached the beta stage, but was also dropped. See Windows.

                      Name of      Name of
   NT     Year        NT Client    NT Server
 Version  Intro  GUI  Versions     Versions

 NT 3.1   1993   3.x  NT         NT Advanced Server
 NT 3.5   1994   3.x  NT         NT Advanced Server
 NT 3.51  1995   3.x  NT         NT Advanced Server

 NT 4.0   1996   95   NT Workstation     NT Server

  3.x = Windows 3.x "Program Manager" interface
   95 = Windows 95 interface

---

(operating system)

Windows NT - (Windows New Technology, NT) Microsoft's 32-bit operating system developed from what was originally intended to be OS/2 3.0 before Microsoft and IBM ceased joint development of OS/2. NT was designed for high end workstations (Windows NT 3.1), servers (Windows NT 3.1 Advanced Server), and corporate networks (NT 4.0 Enterprise Server). The first release was Windows NT 3.1. Unlike Windows 3.1, which was a graphical environment that ran on top of MS-DOS, Windows NT is a complete operating system. To the user it looks like Windows 3.1, but it has true multi-threading, built in networking, security, and memory protection. It is based on a microkernel, with 32-bit addressing for up to 4Gb of RAM, virtualised hardware access to fully protect applications, installable file systems, such as FAT, HPFS and NTFS, built-in networking, multi-processor support, and C2 security. NT is also designed to be hardware independent. Once the machine specific part - the Hardware Abstraction Layer (HAL) - has been ported to a particular machine, the rest of the operating system should theorertically compile without alteration. A version of NT for DEC's Alpha machines was planned (September 1993). NT needs a fast 386 or equivalent, at least 12MB of RAM (preferably 16MB) and at least 75MB of free disk space. NT 4.0 was followed by Windows 2000. Usenet newsgroups: news:comp.os.ms-windows.nt.setup, news:comp.os.ms-windows.nt.misc.