Windows NT 4.0
Sign in to savepre-emptive, graphical operating system by Microsoft
Key facts
- Developer
- Microsoft
- Source model
- Closed source
- Released to manufacturing
- July 31, 1996 ; 29 years ago ( 1996-07-31 )
- General availability
- August 24, 1996 ; 29 years ago ( 1996-08-24 ) (Workstation), September 1996 ; 29 years ago ( 1996-09 ) (Server)
- Final release
- Service Pack 6a with Post SP6a Security Rollup (4.0.1381.335) / July 26, 2001 ; 24 years ago ( 2001-07-26 )
- Marketing target
- Business and Server
- Supported platforms
- IA-32 , Alpha , MIPS , PowerPC
- Kernel type
- Hybrid
- Userland
- Windows API , NTVDM , OS/2 1.x , POSIX.1 , SFU (SP3+)
- License
- Commercial proprietary software
- Preceded by
- Windows NT 3.51 (1995)
- Succeeded by
- Windows 2000 (1999)
- Official website
- Windows NT 4.0 (archived at Wayback Machine )
- Embedded
- Mainstream support ended on June 30, 2003 , Extended support ended on July 11, 2006
- Server
- Mainstream support ended on December 31, 2002 , Extended support ended on December 31, 2004
- Workstation
- Mainstream support ended on June 30, 2002 , Extended support ended on June 30, 2004
- Extended security updates esu support
- All editions were eligible for a paid Extended Security Updates (ESU) program. It allowed users to purchase security updates on a pay-per-incident plan. Security updates were available until December 31, 2006
via Wikipedia infobox
Article
Windows NT 4.0 is a major release of the Windows NT operating system developed by Microsoft, targeting the data server and personal workstation markets. It is the direct successor to Windows NT 3.51, and was released to manufacturing on July 31, 1996, and then to retail in August 24, 1996, with the Server versions released to retail in early September 1996.
Its most prominent user-facing change was the adoption of Windows 95's user interface, introducing features such as the Start menu and taskbar to the Windows NT product line. It also includes various performance and stability improvements to system-level components, as well as new components such as a cryptography API, DCOM, TAPI 2.0, and the Task Manager, and limited support for DirectX. Over its support lifecycle, NT 4.0 received various updates and service packs offering patches, enhancements to its hardware support, and other new components. Two new editions of NT 4.0 were released post-launch, including a modular variant for embedded systems, and the Terminal Server edition. NT 4.0 was the last version of Windows NT to support RISC processors until the addition of ARM support in Windows RT which is based on Windows 8.