Which WinNT 3.1 beta's came with a compiler and linker for the Intel 386 platform?

All the Windows NT 3.1 betas since October 1991 had an i386 compiler and linker with them. Can't say for sure if anything older did however.

Really, I thought that just the December '91 and the October '92 came with a compiler and linker.. But all the Windows NT 3.1 Beta's did not come with an SDK; correct? They just came with like an Mstools folder with possibly some samples to compile? Anyone know what the compiler and linker version were for the various WinNT 3.1 beta's?

I remember something that looked like NT DDK include files

These were actually NT SDKs, so they all contain compilers and linkers:
1991-10 - \NODEBUG\MSTOLLS\BIN\I386 (the real ISO, not the hacked one en_winnt_3.1_1xx_oct1991_devkit_x86_en-US.iso)
1991-12, 1992-07, 1992-10, 1993-03 - \MSTOOLS\BIN\I386

The DDKs on the other hand came without dev tools (checked the 1992-10 one, the 1993-03 was unfortunately not uploaded to OSBA).

Thanks guys for clearing that up for me. So, does anyone know/remember what the compiler and linker version for the various Windows NT 3.1 betas? I'm trying to find out which beta had linker version 2.39 and it's companion compiler.

The October 1991 release claims it has cl386 6.00.080:

So, the October 1991 cl386 is version 6.00.080. I know the early WinNT 3.1 betas up to at least October 1992 used Coff.exe as the linker....That is Link.exe just calls Coff.exe for object linking. Anyone know when they dumped Coff.exe in favor for Link32.exe?

Are versions of these compilers available for non-beta versions of Windows NT? I tried to copy /mstools into an XP partition but it gave me a "This is not a valid Win32 application" message, so I'm assuming that either the PE format or the API hadn't settled to what it is now.

It's the former - the earliest NTs still use a format that's pretty much untouched COFF iirc, at least for ntoskrnl.exe anyway.

The later tools (compiler and linker) as found in like the Nov. 1993 Win32 SDK seem to be the normal 32-bit console applications. As you regress into the WinNT 3.1 betas the header/stub seems to change. And as "hounsell" pointed out it seems to be pretty much untouched COFF way at the beginning.

Ok don't shoot me, but since I don't have the status to access the archive server here I went over to WinWorld and downloaded there two Windows NT 3.1 Beta offerings (3.10.404 & 3.10.438). Neither of the two contain any Tools (compiler, linker, samples, etc.,) at all. I take it there offerings aren't complete betas then?

These are hacked isos. Only the releases I mentioned in my previous post are full SDK releases on the BA FTP server.

I assumed that'd be the case since the API hasn't really changed since mid-1985 - Win32 was just an expansion of WinAPI, right?

Is that version of cl386 available in the RTM executable format, or is there a way to convert them?

Excuse my ignorance, but what is "RTM" executable format? I would guess if there was a way to unbind the executable you might be able re-bind it with a different format....

He probably meant the version of the executable format which was used in the RTM (Ready To Manufacture - the first version released to customers) version of NT 3.1.

Microsoft Windows NT 3.1 Beta's executables differ with the format from the RTM (Release To Manufacturing not Ready to Manufacture) which is why you can't run them.

@marktuson:
I don't think that there is a way to convert the Microsoft Windows NT 3.1 Beta executables to the Microsoft Windows NT 3.1 RTM executables.
And to note, it also doesn't work the otherway around, the coding differs to much.

Not try to drift too much here off the original subject, but... I think once you regress into 1992 you start to have problems with the executable format. Some of this simply has to do with with the fact that some function calls were in different libraries (hence different .dll's) than they are now. Other parts probably have to do with the header itself coupled with the way the linker bound the executable. Now, with the betas made in 1993 you might be able run some of the applications. I was just using Notepad from WinNT Beta build 404.....On a Win 98 machine.

I think you need BETA2FIX to run them.

BETA2FIX download link: ftp://ftp.chatnfiles.com/WinSitedotcom/ ... TA2FIX.ZIP

Ok, this is getting a bit confusing....I know that the Windows binaries from build 404 and 438 run fine (as is) on a 64-bit Vista platform. I can't speak for the dev tools, or console applications from these builds since I don't have them. So, I assume the BETA2FIX is mainly needed for the earlier WinNT 3.1 betas such as the ones released in 1991 and 1992?

The betafix tool was written because a MS Fortran compiler release did output the beta PE format.