Windows NT 4.0
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
 |
This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding reliable references. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (August 2008) |
 |
|
| Windows NT 4.0 | |
| (Part of the Microsoft Windows family) | |
| Screenshot | |
 Screenshot of Windows NT Server 4.0 |
|
| Developer | |
| Microsoft | |
| Release information | |
| Release date: | 29 July 1996 info |
| Current version: | Post SP6a SRP, 26 July 2001 info |
| Source model: | Closed source |
| License: | Microsoft EULA |
| Kernel type: | Hybrid kernel |
| Support status | |
| Unsupported as of 31 December 2004.[1] | |
Windows NT 4.0 is a preemptive, graphical and business-oriented operating system designed to work with either uniprocessor or symmetric multi-processor computers. It is a release of Microsoft's Windows NT line of operating systems and was released to manufacturing on 29 July 1996. It is a 32-bit Windows system available in both workstation and server editions with a graphical environment similar to that of Windows 95. The "NT" designation in the product's title initially stood for "New Technology" according to Microsoft's then-CEO Bill Gates, but now no longer has any specific meaning. Windows NT 4.0 was succeeded by Windows 2000 in February 2000. Windows NT 4.0 is classified as a hybrid kernel operating system.
Contents |
[edit] Overview
While providing much greater stability than Windows 95, it was also less flexible from a desktop perspective. Much of the stability is gained by the use of protected memory and the hardware abstraction layer. Direct hardware access was disallowed and “misbehaving” applications were terminated without needing the computer to be restarted. The trade-off was that NT required an excessive amount of memory in comparison to consumer targeted products such as Windows 95.
While nearly all programs written for Windows 95 will run on Windows NT, the majority of 3D games will not, due in part to NT 4.0 having limited support for DirectX. Third party device drivers were in fact allowed to access the hardware directly and poorly written drivers were a frequent source of “stop errors”. Such failures became to be referred to as the “blue screen of death" or <a href="/wiki/BSOD" title="BSOD" class