Back to the Unleashing Windows
Index In case you haven't already heard, Windows NT 4.0 is now available. If you haven't upgraded yet, you're probably wondering what is new and who should upgrade. The most notable changes occur in the following areas: interface, performance, and the Internet.
Interface - The most obvious change in Windows NT 4.0 is the Windows 95 interface. If you've worked with Windows 95, you should feel right at home with the new interface. If you've worked only with Windows 3.1 or Windows NT 3.x, then you may find the new interface takes some getting used to. However, this keeps the interface standard consistent between Windows NT and Windows 95. Windows NT 4.0 also shares the DirectX API functions that are part of Windows 95. This allows for better graphics performance with applications that use them, most notably games.
Performance - Windows NT 4.0 was designed to be faster than the older versions of Windows NT. The biggest performance improvement is in the video component of Windows NT. In earlier versions of Windows NT, the video driver was a user mode application. Under Windows NT 4.0, it is a privileged mode application, allowing the video driver to access the hardware directly, rather than going through a "translating" layer. However, this does bring up the potential possibility that a bad video driver can crash the NT system. It also means that Windows NT 3.5x video drivers won't work under Windows NT 4.0.
The Internet - Of course, the biggest and most hyped buzzwords in the computer industry are the Internet and Intranets. Windows NT 4.0 brings to light many of the objectives of Microsoft when they decided to incorporate the Internet into their product line. Windows NT 4.0 Server includes Microsoft's Internet Information Server 2.0 and Microsoft FrontPage 1.1. Internet Information Server (IIS) 2.0 integrates very tightly with Windows NT 4.0. IIS uses NTFS security for access to resources and uses the account information of Windows NT for authentication. This is different than many other Internet server programs available, which use different security measures. To get the best possible results, you should use IIS with NTFS to handle web resources.
Microsoft FrontPage is a Web management tool which allows both an overview of the site and editing individual pages on that site. It can verify both internal and external links called by the Web site. Windows NT also includes Internet Explorer 2.0, but you'll probably want to upgrade to version 3.0. Windows NT Server 4.0 also allows you to create DNS (Domain Naming System) Servers used by the Internet to assign names to IP addresses. This required additional software under Windows NT 3.5x, and Windows NT 4.0 now includes a graphical utility to configure and maintain DNS servers.
Who should upgrade? - If you're using an older version of Windows NT, you will probably want to upgrade. The two biggest reasons not to upgrade are if you are using devices not supported by Windows NT 4.0 or if you use an OS/2 HPFS partition. Be sure to check the Hardware Compatibility List for NT 4.0 before upgrading. For example, I have a Pinnacle Micro 5040I CD-R drive which is compatible under 3.5x, but brings up the infamous "blue screen of death" under Windows NT 4.0. Just because it works under 3.5x doesn't mean it will work under 4.0! Also, Windows NT 4.0 drops the ability to use HPFS partitions used by OS/2. It does however, allow you to convert those partitions to NTFS during the installation process.
If you are using Windows 95, you probably don't need to upgrade to Windows NT 4.0. Windows 95 still provides better support for MS-DOS than Windows NT. Also, there isn't an easy upgrade path from Windows 95 to Windows NT 4.0 since there are some differences between the two Registries. This means that if you upgrade over Windows 95, you'll probably have to reinstall your major applications. Of course, Windows NT 4.0 allows you to dual-boot between Windows NT 4.0 and Windows 95. This may be the most practical solution for users wanting both Windows 95 and Windows NT on a system.
There are other changes to Windows NT 4.0, but the three areas listed above are the most significant. If you're used to working with Windows NT 3.5x, then you probably won't have much trouble adapting to Windows NT 4.0. If you need Internet/Intranet services, you definitely need to upgrade to Windows NT 4.0 since Microsoft's newest Internet Server offerings only run under NT 4.0. For example, both Internet Proxy Server and Index Server require Windows NT 4.0.