Microsoft Windows NT Workstation 4.0 - 28 Years Later! 

I think Windows NT 4 Workstation and Windows 2000 Professional (and Windows XP Professional to a lesser extent) were amazing operation systems in older non-multi-core CPU situations. Solid operating systems for so many years. Thanks for this retrospective on NT 4 WS. :)

Back in the day that Windows NT 4.0 came out, I had already been using NT 3.51. I viewed NT 4.0 as the beginning of the fall of NT. NT 3.51 was true to the vision of David Cutler, the architect that Microsoft poached from Digital (Cutler was the architect of Digital's VMS - a true industrial grade minicomputer OS). NT 4.0 saw the beginning of the end when it comprised the NT kernel with the inclusion of the GDI (graphics user interface) into kernel memory space and all of a sudden graphics drivers could corrupt the kernel memory space. NT 3.51 was a more robust design, but everybody loved the Windows 95 interface, so most people ignored the fact the NT 4.0 represented a step backward when it comes to kernel isolation and memory protection.

NT 4.0 was my standard OS from 1996 to 2000, in parallel with Linux. I came from NT 3.51 and never considered Windows 95/98/ME as a serious option. I was actually quite happy with NT4. At first I used it on a 133MHz Pentium with 32 MB, later on a 200 MHz Pentium Pro with 96 MB and even on a DEC Alpha 166 MHz. At the end I little bit missed USB support, but USB was not a real thing before 2000. I even used a dedicated NT4 computer until around 2010 because NT4 supported a very special and expensive GPIB card to control measurement hardware, but Windows 2000/XP did not.

Another comment: my understanding is that corporate users did not rush to embrace Windows 2000/Exchange 2000 and the mandatory Active Directory, and many stuck to NT4 and Exchange 5.5 until Windows Server 2003 and Exchange 2003 had better migration options. So I think that explains why they were supporting it actively quite a while after the release of Win2000. Also, the lack of device manager is because NT 4 has no plug and play. Last Microsoft OS without PnP…

Hi I got your reply on that windows 95 video. Thanks for letting me know. Regards Joseph.

Thanks so much for this trip down memory lane. I have a lot of experience with Windows NT from "back in the day".

Not long after starting my first job in TV production back in 1997 the company upgraded all their Avid editing systems to Window NT4. Some systems were later upgraded to Windows 2000, and one Windows 2000 system was still in use around 2010/2011 for one of the last shows still being produced in SD (as this system was too old for HD).

Windows NT.4 is still in use where I work, It controls an automatic PA system as well as display boards.

I ran Windows NT 4 Server as my main desktop for around a couple years. When I was a Perl/CGI developer. The only setting i recall setting was to "optimize for UI or foreground apps" or something like that. It worked like a charm.

Ahh, Windows NT 4.0. I remember first using this in Virtual PC 2007, back in 2013 or so. All these years later, I still have that copy!

NT4 was the first and last OS I saw that had not just x86, but also MIPS, Alpha , and PPC versions on the same disc - 2000 Pro only was x86

Back in college (Circa 2000) I dual booted NT4 Workstation and 98SE on my old AMD K6-2 266 OCed to 333MHz w/64MB RAM. These days im getting VERY close to switching permently to Linux, Windows has slowly became bloatware crap.

Imagine like, many school, internet cafe Japan country include kids using dual boot Windows NT 4.0 Workstation & Windows 98 on these modern day.

When I going to technical school in 2000, to learn how to build computers and troubleshoot problems We was taught how to install and use windows NT 4

23:00 beautiful! just love that setup and logon screen!

Oh I remember these days. Back in my first job, which was a retail only computer distribution company, I once borrowed the server edition of NT 4 (and yes, given today's piracy, I actually do mean proper borrowed, not "borrowed" borrowed) to experiment on my second PC at that time. Once I had it installed, I was testing permissions. I set the home directory to be accessible by the admin account only, and denied access to the directory to the SYSTEM account. The result? The OS booted and got to the log on screen as normal, but after entering the log in credentials, the log on window disappeared and ...... nothing. The system wasn't frozen, the mouse cursor moved, but as the system didn't have access to the user account's home directory, it wasn't able to load the profile so I was stuck at a window-less desktop. Yay. Go me. 😂😂

28 years - shit that makes me feel old!

my wife found me a big box ibm dos 3.30 os sealed 2 days ago.

Man i remember how novel it was to "listen to radio over the internet" back in the day. Man, it seemed like sorcery at the time. Friggin RealPlayer tho LOL.

Back in the days I used NT4, whereas my buddies used Win95 instead. I've never been a gamer, but I preferred stability and the networking capabilities of NT4. This brings back so many memories!

And the web-based interface in control panel (along with other web things in other folders, the quick start toolbar, etc) is called the Windows Desktop Update according to Wikipedia (I always called it Active Desktop but apparently that is just one of its features). It was bundled with IE 4 on both NT4 and Win95, and was optional. You were prompted about it when you installed IE4. It was standard in 98. Wikipedia has some before and after screenshots too.

I played around with NT back when I was still running a BBS. I had NT Server running to share files on the network. The BBS machine was running DOS. I also had an NT Workstation machine, a Win95 machine, and an IBM Warp 4.0 machine on my network, because I was obsessed with learning operating systems and seeing how difficult it would be to integrate them all into one network. I ran that setup right up until 1998, when I took the BBS down.

Fun fact, SP6 added DirectX 3. I played *a lot* of Diablo on it. And maybe Starcraft, at this point my memory is blurred on the matter. Definitely fun times.

ODBC (Open Database Connectivity) is not for networking it is for interfacing different databases ..i.e use MS Access and connect to a dBase database using ODBC..

Fun Fact: Windows NT 4.0 can support up to Internet Explorer 6 SP1 which requires SP6 to be installed.

A computer graphics company I worked for in the late 90s had NT4 running on two Deskstation Raptor Reflex towers with DEC Alpha CPUs. Those things were so fast, they emulated an x86 in order to run software like Photoshop and they could still beat Intel systems from that time. And while NT4 was simple, it was solid as a rock; I don't remember it ever crashing or getting in the way. Sure, it wasn't plug and play, but these system weren't for home use, so that didn't matter.

I remember drivers was always the fun part of installing NT. It's not like later OS where the basic drivers came with the install disk.

You hit me right in the feels when you said Partition Magic.

This was a nice overview. Did you know that if you click on "show icons using all possible colors" in the display properties, it'll change some icons from 2D to 3D. Did you also know that you can still run Windows NT 4.0 on modern PCs (depending on the hardware)? I saw a Reddit post on the Windows subreddit from a few months ago where someone with a Ryzen 9 was able to install it perfectly fine.

42:15 damn, remote access back then was a game changer who am I kidding, it still is : )

Back in the late 90s I saw a Windows NT 4.0 class at my local community college, and I was interested in learning about the business OS and networking. I installed NT on a Compaq computer, never did get the sound card to work until I installed Windows 2000. That class led me to a eventual career in IT in the early 2000s.

I was Windows 95 user at this time, and had no money for Windows 98 but with the install of the IE 4.0 Windows 95 becomes some kind of Windows 98.

A Open, its been a minute since i heard that company!

Oh wow! I wish I had all these OS versions complete in boxes :) My first home OS was Win95 (used earlier versions at school or library, or friends' house etc.) and when I first got my hands on NT4, I was like "wait, it's like 95 but hates gamers and doesn't crash like crazy???" lol :)

I like NT4's startup sound. Very futuristic, meets people's fantasy towards the future in the 90s😇

The Web Desktop components (the ones that let it display HTML within Explorer) were included with Internet Explorer 4.0, even with Windows 95. They came integrated in the OS starting with 98.

Windows NT4 introduced me to domain networking. I learned more playing about with the server and workstation one evening 20 years ago, than i ever did, doing the IT essentials 2 course i was doing at the time, at college. The course didn't even have practical work, only some shitty online material that was knocked up in power point. I ended up studying windows XP and windows 2003 server, thanks to windows NT4 later on. I got an MCP in windows XP. Great OS windows NT4 is! Runs like stink on a dual processor Pentium 3 with 2 gig of ram. Laugh is windows 2003 on the same hardware is a little bumpy, which is more geared for it funny enough. NT 4 though just runs for fun, Server side even has a copy windows 95 upgrade too, which can be used to upgrade a windows 3.x machine, over the network. You can even create an msdos boot disk too, and roll out windows 95, NT 4 workstation might be a little bit more tricky i think, but i never tried it. Best thing to do with NT4 is install service pack 4, install the hardware drivers for it etc, then lock the installation down with service pack 6. I was told though what ever changes you do etc, you have install the service pack again. Due NT4 using the older files rather than the later stuff. But its NT4 for you.

i need to start collecting these to go with my laptops that i recently acquired. i love big box software i find it very interesting

"Built on NT Technology." NT = New Technology. It is like saying ATM Machine. :D

Fantastic work. Couldn't you make the ESS 1868 driver disk available to the community? I couldn't find the correct Audio Rack versions for the drivers. The disk shown with the audio drivers really triggered me. Two years ago I did Quake (1-3) and Unreal benchmarks with Windows NT 4.0, 95, 98, me, and W2K. With Nvidia cards I always have 5 to 10 percent better performance under NT 4.0 than under the other operating systems.

you should show off your entire computer collection!

Like your content. Would love to see you put chapters into play, please.

Like you I've never previously installed or played around with this myself. It's like a business-oriented version of Windows 95!

Did you know that you can use the build-in Remote access service (RAS) to creat a dial up internet access(Windows NT computer as the dial up server)?and i have tried it. It doesn't support more than 28kbps natively but if the provided driver supports, it can go upto v92 for modem to ISP and v90 for modem to modem connections.

Back then, Windows NT was the best you could get in terms of stability and reliability. But it wasn't the simple multimedia system that private users in particular wanted. I know quite a few people who cursed because their game wouldn't run and then preferred to use 95 or 98... So it really made sense to design it for business customers only. Technically, it was quickly left behind by the 9x line due to the rapid development at the time, as there was no USB, AGP, ACPI, Plug'n'Play and only HDDs up to 8.4 GB, etc. Personally, I prefer Windows 2000, which offers more technically and also had a more classic design. But NT is good for very old systems because 2000 runs very slowly on them. I still have a Dual Pentium 90 here, and I think I'll equip it with it. But it's a great presentation, I like the great start-up sound and the great design with the stars.

Nitpicky comment - I am pretty sure Win95 also came with the cardboard sleeve. Or at least my retail upgrade copy bought on Aug. 24, 1995 did.

So weird you make a video about NT, I was just looking on eBay at NT workstation because I'm not familiar with it, and I was thinking about buying one.

i used both NT4 and 2000 Pro back in the day, and when i first hit NT4 i never looked back to the windows 9x series ; incidentally NT4 ran my copy of Starcraft just fine. When I moved over to 2000 Pro, that was it - 2000 Pro was my OS of choice, because improved directx support, NTFS improvement such as having volumes bigger than 8GB, and also USB support... I used 2000 Pro until EOL and then switched to Linux. Still even as a Linux user, I have nothing but praise for 2000 Pro , it was the best last version of Windows - even better than windows 7.

I believe they have a Service pack 6 I believe it was the last service pack for windows nt

My first computer ran Windows 95 which I used for just over a year. I then upgraded and got a copy of Windows NT4 Workstation, and also built my first server that ran Windows NT4 Server. I then upgraded to Windows 2000 for both the desktop and server, and then onto Windows XP and Windows Server 2003 RC2. Until recently I was running Windows 10 with my Linux Server, but now am running Linux on everything except for my retro systems. Windows NT4 Workstation was a great OS and I think was better than Windows 95. Edit: There is a SP6a for NT4, and also a USB Driver available. They are on WinWorldPC.

Only chance I got to use Windows NT 4.0 was in a VM. I got a fraction of my childhood games to work on it! Edit: The games that worked were the Edmark "Learning House" game series (Bailey's Book House for example), JumpStart Pre-K through 1st Grade worked (if I'm not mistaken) and Reader Rabbit 1st Grade, Let's Start Learning, and Thinking Adventures. I strangely had a HP Kayak XA Pentium 2 pizza-box PC that was around the house in 2004 but I don't remember it ever getting used cuz I had my 1999 Compaq Presario at the time. Maybe it was a "parent's" computer or something I dunno LOL! I mention that cuz there are some pics online that has a Windows sticker on the front that states Windows 95 and NT 4.0 although I don't remember what OS it had. May be it'll hit me soon enough! If you ever find one of them, I'd love to see a video on it! There's only one video of a HP Kayak XA pizza-box PC but it's a later Pentium 3 so that's not exactly close😉👌

nice Windows line up : ) do you need a CIB copy of Win7? lmk, I have an extra Pro version

A very interisting video would be installing NT 3 51 + newshell with a monochrome video card. I guess this would be the only way to get a w95-like taskbar in such devices.

Back at school we always complaint having NT4 installed on our workstations. Being just spoiled kiddies at that time, we were not able to appreciate the stabilty and reliablity of that OS. I mean we had Win95/98/ME running on our devices at home, which gave as a few BSODs a week at least. NT4 and later Win2k were just rock solid. We learned that lesson later on though. 😁

nice!

So let me explain a little bit of pc history windows server 2003 contains the same watchdog services as nt 4.0 resulting in hacks that converted the trial version into a full version by just running 1 hack.

Ahh I thought that accent sounded familiar, hello fellow Atlantic Canadian!

Where Win98SE still sucked, Win NT 4 WS was the first MS OS client OS which did it's job and TCP/IP networking. MS Windows Domain concept was usable. Even the lack or limited driver support was not really professional. Usability ended with Win Svr 2008 R2. Yes, most people are still limited to gaming and porn. I never cared.

i was working at MS at the time this was "developed"... the developers hated this version it was really just NT 3.51 with the Win95 GUI slapped on ..the replacement for NT 3.51 was suppose to be NT4 code named Cairo ..there were many meetings fighting screaming developers and BillG (he wanted NT 4.0 with Win95 GUI and to hold Cairo for Win NT5) the developers wanted to just wait until Cairo was ready..Corp customers were complaining about Win 3.1 interface so .... Inside MS: NT351 and Windows 2000 were loved..NT 4.0 was treated like Windows Me was to the consumer market.. best forgotten.. NT351 (Daytona) was blazing fast on the available hardware huge improvement over NT310 and NT350..NT4 was sluggish at best..Windows 2000 brought back the speed and XP even more so.. if you do not install options pack you will notice a few of the dialog boxes still had NT 3.51 look..options pack and service packs fixed that..

Please upload those clean disk images.

For my part Dos was way too big part of my daily life to use NT based operating systems as compatibility issues was the main concern for this. I used Linux when I encountered problems I could not do with 9X based systems instead. The first time I ever started using NTFS based windows systems was when Windows XP had released service pack3 but it was only for things that required it. it was only when Win7 came I finally started to like it for daily usage. And now the closer we get to win11 I more and more start to dislike using it again. But I still use Dos and 98

Back in the day when I played with NT4 it had a maximin partition size for C: was 2Gig I believe if you wanted to install it on a larger drive you had to partition it first as NT would only install as FAT 16.

Nice video. Your box looks a bit too complete ==> The Windows 95 booklet wasn't originally included in the box though. 🙂

There used to be a site worth lots of Windows images archived for preservation, does anyone have the link?

i believe there are moderate amounts of games that can play well on Windows 2000

15:37 did it say "exhaustive" secondary examination and meant "exhaust-ive" lol

any reason you went with sp5 rather than 6?

25:40 You didn't upgrade to NT 4.0 Service Pack 6a & skip backup uninstall NT 4.0 Service Pack

Is Windows NT 4.0 recommend suitable for gaming 3d ?

How can I download Windows 2000 French language? Please provide a download link if possible?!

Hey its the Daves Garage fan pack!

11:03 you have 16000KB of memory instead of 16384KB?

11:03 16000 KB is strange for 16 MB. It's usually 16384 KB. I haven't watched the entire video yet, but I'm a bit disappointed that you went for minimum specs on the RAM instead of recommended. I'm afraid that it's going to swap a little too much and not give a true impression of the OS.

this is a twin of michael

You could have easily installed a second hard drive on that computer. Then you could have used BIOS to switch which device you wanted to boot from, rather than using a boot menu. Just saying.

Windows 10 not Windows 11

Ahhhh', . . . Microsoft, . . . Now Called By Me Microshit . . . Ouch . . .