Windows NT 4.0: Difference between revisions

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{{Infobox Windows
{{Infobox Windows
|caption = Microsoft Windows NT 4.0
|image = Windows_NT_Logo.png
|image = Windows_NT_Logo.png
|codename = Shell Update Release
|imagecaption = Microsoft Windows NT 4.0
|codename = ''Shell Update Release''
|kernel = 4.0
|kernel = 4.0
|arch = x86, MIPS R4000, DEC Alpha, PowerPC
|arch = x86, MIPS R4000, DEC Alpha, PowerPC
|build = [[Windows NT 4.0/4.0.1381.7097|4.0.1381.7097]]
|build = [[Windows NT 4.0/4.0.1381.7097|4.0.1381.7097]]
|release = 24/08/1996-08-24
|release = 24/08/1996
|licence = Microsoft EULA
|licence = Microsoft EULA
|support = Expired: <br> 30/06/2004 (Workstation) <br> 31/12/2004 (Server)
|support = Expired: <br> 30/06/2004 (Workstation) <br> 31/12/2004 (Server)
Line 12: Line 12:
|next = [[Windows 2000]]
|next = [[Windows 2000]]
}}
}}
'''Windows NT 4.0''' (codenamed ''Shell Update Release'') is the successor to [[Windows NT 3.5x|Windows NT 3.51]] and the first version of [[Windows NT]] to feature the [[Windows Explorer]] interface introduced in [[Windows 95]]. It is the last version of Windows NT to include ''NT'' in its product name.
'''Microsoft Windows NT 4.0''' (codenamed ''Shell Update Release'', internally ''Windows NT 3.99'' or ''Tukwila''<ref name = "tukwila">{{cite web | url = https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xsQBKkPj5Nc | title = Windows Tukwila 3.99 and Windows Cairo - Dave Cutler Interview | author = Dave's Garage | publisher = YouTube | date = 20 October 2023 | accessdate = 24 October 2023}}</ref><ref name = "dave-cutler-2023">{{cite web |url = https://youtu.be/xi1Lq79mLeE?t=5860 | title = The Mind Behind Windows: Dave Cutler | author = Dave's Garage | publisher = YouTube |date = 21 October 2023 | accessdate = 24 October 2023}}</ref>) is the successor to [[Windows NT 3.5x|Windows NT 3.51]] and the first version of [[Windows NT]] to feature the [[Windows Explorer]] interface introduced in [[Windows 95]]. It is the last version of Windows NT to include ''NT'' in its product name.


The [[Windows Desktop Update]] further enhances the shell by incorporating features from [[Windows 98]].
The [[Windows Desktop Update]] further enhances the shell by incorporating features from [[Windows 98]].
== Development ==
NT 4.0 was in development at the same time as [[Windows Cairo]]:
{{Quotation|'''[[wikipedia:Dave Cutler|Dave Cutler]]:''' Megan Bliss and I convinced [[wikipedia:Jim Allchin|Jim Allchin]] that we could do Tukwila and Cairo at the same time, that we had enough lab horsepower to do that. Of course, you know, I don't know why he bought this story, but he bought this story. We said, "here's what we'll do is you know we'll basically still have the two groups. We'll have the Cairo group, and we'll have the Tukwila group." He didn't like the name Tukwila and the T-shirt, I don't, you remember the T-shirt. It says-- that we could do Tukwila and Cairo at the same time, that we had enough lab horsepower to do that. Of course, you know, I don't know why he bought this story, but he bought this story. We said, "here's what we'll do is you know we'll basically still have the two groups. We'll have the Cairo group, and we'll have the Tukwila group." He didn't like the name Tukwila and the T-shirt, I don't, you remember the T-shirt. It says--
'''[[wiki:Dave Plummer|Dave Plummer]] (Dave's Garage):''' I was going to wear it tonight, it says--
'''Cutler:''' It says, "Tukwila".
'''Plummer:''' We can get there from here yeah.
'''Cutler:''' We can get there from here. We would would put Priority getting Cairo out of the build lab first and then we get the rest of it out. And it turned out that every day, Tukwila, just came out every day and Cairo was always broken right. It took forever, and little by little the Cairo features didn't get done. And they never-- Ine of the things we did with with NTFS we said, "You guys can change the file structure as many times as you want, but you can't stop people from booting old systems and using old file structures. You have to either do an upgrade in place or you have to accept the old stuff. We're going to be dog food on this file system." The OFS guys never did that right to the very end, and they kept promising and promising. So they didn't get all of the the burn in--
'''Plummer:''' Right.
'''Cutler:''' And eventually they missed a date. He said, "OFS is gone," say "that's gone". So little by little these features they just never delivered and they just never delivered and Tukwila just kept growing and growing and growing. And eventually the only thing that I can remember that we really brought over-- actually maybe two things: I think we brought over the Ser the file server software. I think that that replaced the NT one. And the other thing we brought over was Kerberos. Those are the only two things about Cairo, everything else was junked really, completely junked on the floor. Um it just wasn't there the people. Um I can't really, I, I guess I shouldn't really say anything there was a lot of good guys that worked on Cairo. Um and I don't I just don't think that the whole project had the focus and the desire to make it really great. And it just fell by the way because you know on the other side of the fence is the NT group, and they're not letting up. They got they're full on the throttle. And Megan did a great job of selling all this, we, it was I can remember the day we did this with Allchin. We in one of the conference rooms in building 36, and said "hey we could we'll just do-- Tukwila will just be a backup. It's just the backup. NT 4.0 I think is still one of the most popular ones that ever sold.
'''Plummer:''' Yeah.
'''Cutler:''' I ran to somebody I don't know a couple years ago that was still running N-- they still had NT 4.0 running on something. They still loved it.|Dave Cutler|Windows Tukwila 3.99 and Windows Cairo - Dave Cutler Interview|<ref name = "tukwila" /><ref name = "dave-cutler-2023" />}}


== Editions ==
== Editions ==
Line 58: Line 79:
* '''''[[Windows NT 4.0/4.0.1234.1|Windows NT 4.0 Build 1234.1]]'''''
* '''''[[Windows NT 4.0/4.0.1234.1|Windows NT 4.0 Build 1234.1]]'''''
* '''''[[Windows NT 4.0/4.0.1264.1|Windows NT 4.0 Build 1264.1]]'''''
* '''''[[Windows NT 4.0/4.0.1264.1|Windows NT 4.0 Build 1264.1]]'''''
* '''[[Windows NT 4.0/4.0.1273.1|Windows NT 4.0 Build 1273.1]]'''
* '''''[[Windows NT 4.0/4.0.1273.1|Windows NT 4.0 Build 1273.1]]'''''
* '''''[[Windows NT 4.0/4.0.1287.1|Windows NT 4.0 Build 1287.1]]'''''
* '''''[[Windows NT 4.0/4.0.1287.1|Windows NT 4.0 Build 1287.1]]'''''
* '''[[Windows NT 4.0/4.0.1293.1|Windows NT 4.0 Build 1293.1]]'''
* '''[[Windows NT 4.0/4.0.1293.1|Windows NT 4.0 Build 1293.1]]'''
Line 76: Line 97:


=== Pre-RTM ===
=== Pre-RTM ===
* '''''[http://www.betaarchive.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=61&t=33216 Windows NT 4.0 Build 1381.1 (Pre-Release)]'''''
* '''''[[Windows NT 4.0/4.0.1381.1 (pre-release)|Windows NT 4.0 Build 1381.1 (pre-release)]]'''''


=== RTM ===
=== RTM ===
Line 108: Line 129:
* '''''[[Windows NT 4.0/4.0.1381.7097|Windows NT 4.0 Build 1381.7097]]'''''
* '''''[[Windows NT 4.0/4.0.1381.7097|Windows NT 4.0 Build 1381.7097]]'''''


== Source Leak ==
== Source code leak ==
''For detailed information, see the main article: [[Windows Source Code]]''
''For detailed information, see the main article: [[Windows source code]]''


In 2004, a large portion (approximately 80-95%) of the Windows NT 4.0 (With Service Pack 3) source code was leaked. Further investigations by [[Microsoft]] found that the source was leaked from [[Mainsoft]], a software porting company (which ported Internet Explorer to Unix before such edition was dropped).
In 2004, a large portion (approximately 80-95%) of the Windows NT 4.0 (with Service Pack 3) source code was leaked. Further investigations by [[Microsoft]] found that the source was leaked from [[Mainsoft]], a software porting company (which ported Internet Explorer to Unix before such edition was dropped).


In 2010, The source was successfully compiled producing about 318MB of binaries.
In 2010, the source was successfully compiled producing about 318MB of binaries.


== Gallery ==
== Gallery ==
<gallery>
<gallery>
File:NT4_Bootscreen.png|NT 4.0 Bootscreen
NT4_GUISetup1.png|GUI setup
File:NT4WithIE2.png|NT 4.0 with Internet Explorer 2
NT4_Bootscreen.png|Boot screen
File:NT4_GUISetup1.png|NT 4.0 GUI Setup Welcome Screen
NT4WithIE2.png|Internet Explorer 2
</gallery>
</gallery>
== References ==
== References ==
<references/>
<references/>
[[Category:Operating Systems]]
[[Category:Microsoft Windows]]

Latest revision as of 13:44, 7 November 2023

Windows NT 4.0
Windows NT Logo.png
Microsoft Windows NT 4.0
Codename
Preliminary name
Shell Update Release
Kernel version 4.0
CPU architecture x86, MIPS R4000, DEC Alpha, PowerPC
Release date 24/08/1996
Support end Expired:
30/06/2004 (Workstation)
31/12/2004 (Server)
Preceded by Windows NT 3.5x
Succeeded by Windows 2000

Microsoft Windows NT 4.0 (codenamed Shell Update Release, internally Windows NT 3.99 or Tukwila[1][2]) is the successor to Windows NT 3.51 and the first version of Windows NT to feature the Windows Explorer interface introduced in Windows 95. It is the last version of Windows NT to include NT in its product name.

The Windows Desktop Update further enhances the shell by incorporating features from Windows 98.

Development

NT 4.0 was in development at the same time as Windows Cairo:

Dave Cutler: Megan Bliss and I convinced Jim Allchin that we could do Tukwila and Cairo at the same time, that we had enough lab horsepower to do that. Of course, you know, I don't know why he bought this story, but he bought this story. We said, "here's what we'll do is you know we'll basically still have the two groups. We'll have the Cairo group, and we'll have the Tukwila group." He didn't like the name Tukwila and the T-shirt, I don't, you remember the T-shirt. It says-- that we could do Tukwila and Cairo at the same time, that we had enough lab horsepower to do that. Of course, you know, I don't know why he bought this story, but he bought this story. We said, "here's what we'll do is you know we'll basically still have the two groups. We'll have the Cairo group, and we'll have the Tukwila group." He didn't like the name Tukwila and the T-shirt, I don't, you remember the T-shirt. It says--

Dave Plummer (Dave's Garage): I was going to wear it tonight, it says--

Cutler: It says, "Tukwila".

Plummer: We can get there from here yeah.

Cutler: We can get there from here. We would would put Priority getting Cairo out of the build lab first and then we get the rest of it out. And it turned out that every day, Tukwila, just came out every day and Cairo was always broken right. It took forever, and little by little the Cairo features didn't get done. And they never-- Ine of the things we did with with NTFS we said, "You guys can change the file structure as many times as you want, but you can't stop people from booting old systems and using old file structures. You have to either do an upgrade in place or you have to accept the old stuff. We're going to be dog food on this file system." The OFS guys never did that right to the very end, and they kept promising and promising. So they didn't get all of the the burn in--

Plummer: Right.

Cutler: And eventually they missed a date. He said, "OFS is gone," say "that's gone". So little by little these features they just never delivered and they just never delivered and Tukwila just kept growing and growing and growing. And eventually the only thing that I can remember that we really brought over-- actually maybe two things: I think we brought over the Ser the file server software. I think that that replaced the NT one. And the other thing we brought over was Kerberos. Those are the only two things about Cairo, everything else was junked really, completely junked on the floor. Um it just wasn't there the people. Um I can't really, I, I guess I shouldn't really say anything there was a lot of good guys that worked on Cairo. Um and I don't I just don't think that the whole project had the focus and the desire to make it really great. And it just fell by the way because you know on the other side of the fence is the NT group, and they're not letting up. They got they're full on the throttle. And Megan did a great job of selling all this, we, it was I can remember the day we did this with Allchin. We in one of the conference rooms in building 36, and said "hey we could we'll just do-- Tukwila will just be a backup. It's just the backup. NT 4.0 I think is still one of the most popular ones that ever sold.

Plummer: Yeah.

Cutler: I ran to somebody I don't know a couple years ago that was still running N-- they still had NT 4.0 running on something. They still loved it.

— Dave Cutler, Windows Tukwila 3.99 and Windows Cairo - Dave Cutler Interview, [1][2]

Editions

There are two editions of Windows NT 4.0. It has been found out that the only difference between the two editions (Server and Workstation) lied only in the Registry and the missing Server files.

Workstation

Windows NT 4.0 Workstation was designed for general desktop use.

Server

Windows NT 4.0 Server (Server, Server Enterprise Edition, Terminal Server) were designed to serve web pages to multiple clients using IIS.

Terminal Server

The Terminal Server edition (codenamed Hydra) was released roughly a year after Windows NT 4's RTM. Its technology later merged into the Remote Desktop Protocol by Microsoft.

Service Packs

There were 6 service packs released for Windows NT 4.

Service Pack 7

There was a 7th Service Pack planned, but it was canceled and Security Update Rollup 6a was released instead. [3]

In a support document titled "Update on Windows NT 4.0 Service Pack 7", Microsoft stated that:

Windows NT 4.0 Service Pack 6a, the most recent service pack for Windows NT, was released in November of 1999. Since then, Microsoft has been supporting our customers with a series of hotfixes in response to specific concerns, including security vulnerabilities. Microsoft intends to continue supporting customers by making hotfixes available as they are needed. However, since the release of Service Pack 6a, the frequency of critical problems reported to Microsoft has declined significantly. Microsoft originally planned on releasing Service Pack 7 late last year, approximately 1 year after the release of SP6a. At the time, Microsoft had produced relatively few post-SP6a hotfixes, and decided to delay SP7 until Q3 of 2001. The frequency of hotfixes has continued to decline, and now, well over 1 year beyond the last SP, we still have made fewer fixes than were included with either SP5 or SP6.

We discussed with a number of our customers their use of recent service packs, and their requirements for an additional service pack. From these discussions we learned that most customers are running a combination of Service Pack 5 and Service Pack 6; in some cases with 3-5 additional hotfixes. These customers told us that these service packs, particularly Service Pack 6a, have been very stable. There were three reasons we heard that customers were anticipating Service Pack 7:

Based on discussions with our customers, we have come to the conclusion that Service Pack 7 is not needed, but that an easy way to deploy our publicly released security fixes would be appreciated by many of our customers. It is clear to us that our customers would rather have a smaller, lightweight, easily deployable way to secure their systems, rather than potentially disrupt their stable environments with another large service pack. Microsoft is therefore planning to release a comprehensive rollup of all Windows NT 4.0 security vulnerabilities as a single package in Q3 2001.
Microsoft recognizes that some companies have been planning on a new service pack, especially since Microsoft had previously given indications that Service Pack 7 would be released. For customers who were planning on deploying Service Pack 7, we now encourage them to focus on completing rollouts of Service Pack 6a, in combination with the planned security pack. Microsoft will provide detailed instructions for deploying Service Pack 6a with the security pack.
While Microsoft will not offer any further service packs for NT 4.0, we are committed to providing regular service packs for the currently released operating system, Windows 2000. Service Pack 2 for Windows 2000 will be released in the near future. As new versions of Microsoft operating systems are released, Microsoft will continue to evaluate the need for service packs based on our customer's requirements and feedback, and the stability of the operating system.

— Microsoft, [4]

Builds

  • No information available
  • Existence doubtful
  • Information or pictures available
  • Leaked or released

Pre-Beta 1

Beta 1

Beta 2

Release Candidate 1

Release Candidate 2

There was also an unidentified Workstation RC2 build, mentioned in Fate 103 warez CD.

Pre-RTM

RTM

Service Pack 1

Service Pack 2

Service Pack 3

Service Pack 4

Service Pack 5

Service Pack 6

Service Pack 6a

Post-Service Pack 6a Security Rollup

Source code leak

For detailed information, see the main article: Windows source code

In 2004, a large portion (approximately 80-95%) of the Windows NT 4.0 (with Service Pack 3) source code was leaked. Further investigations by Microsoft found that the source was leaked from Mainsoft, a software porting company (which ported Internet Explorer to Unix before such edition was dropped).

In 2010, the source was successfully compiled producing about 318MB of binaries.

Gallery

References