What is windows nt 4.0?

[Aces High]

Hey overclockers'
What is windows nt 4.0 workstation?Is it an operating system?
Where can I purchase this if so?

[RedDeathDrinker]

Basically, without all the boring details, Windows NT4 is the forerunner of Win2kPro and XP Pro.

As I recall, poor on graphics card driver support, but brought permissions and such to business computing.

You can't buy it new these days (from Microsoft, anyway), and you'd find 2000Pro or XP Pro has more support, and more importantly, program compatibility.

[Cube]

Yup, Windows NT 4.0 comes in two flavors. Server and Workstation. As for where to get it, you might have to search Ebay or something since the software is pretty old for today's standards.

Edit: heh posted at the same time as reddeathdrinker :)

[stool]

I have plenty of NT 4.0. Also 3.51. Not really a bad OS, but sometimes(well, actually quite often) a pain to properly configure.

[repo man11]

And just so you'll know, the N.T. stands for New Technology. The first release of NT was the first MS OS that wasn't based on DOS.
I guess because it is a pet peeve of mine (another really annoying one is when people say "ATM machine") the Windows 2000 splash screen says "based on NT technology", or to put it another way, based on New Technology technology.

[AltecXP]

NT does NOT stand for new technology it stands for that the big development pricessor of the time was going to be called, the "N10" processor, im not sure who was gonna make it but N.T is N Ten not New Technology

http://www.wininformant.com/Articles/Index.cfm?ArticleID=37757

[repo man11]

Interesting, I hadn't realized there was any question about this. It looks as though there are several different possibilities for the source of the name.

Q. What does NT stand for?

A. NT actually stands for Northern Telecom but Microsoft licensed it and in the Windows sense stands for New Technology. Its also interesting to note its heritage
RSX -> VMS -> ELN -> NT all major designs of David Cutler
Also VMS +1 letter = WNT (Windows NT) :-) (aka HAL and IBM in 2001)

Another theory is that the NT acronym orginally came from the Engineers working on it. The acronym stands for N-Ten, the code name for the i860 chip that NT was being tested on.
http://www.ntfaq.com/Articles/Index.cfm?AuthorID=198

"John Savill is a qualified consultant in England and an MCSE. He is the author of The Windows NT and Windows 2000 Answer Book (Addison Wesley), and manages the Windows 2000 FAQ Web site (http://www.windows2000FAQ.com)."

Someone forgot to tell AcroIT. http://www.acro.it/NT.html

[su root]

NT was microsoft's first shot at a "secure" Server/Workstation combo. Windows 9x had almost no security. It was also Microsoft's first shot at a "protected" mode kernel, where you could have a programs crash, and not take the operating system with it. My favorite tidbit of information is that Windows NT did not support plug and play. That made setting up NT alot harder.

Also, NT was very rigid and unforgiving. It didn't like hardware. However, it allowed for a Client/Server setup, a domain, and central administration.

[Ozzman]

also u couldnt really play any games on an NT system ;) that was the main reason i never made the switch lol.. but had it running for a few of my clients.. mainly the server, but now they all have linux servers... saw no use in making them pay for 2000 pro or server when linux was better..

[Aces High]

Hey overclockers,
Thanx alot for all the info,much appreciated.This pc tech course to get A+ cert. requires access to either windows 95 or NT.I inquired about both of these O.S being so outdated why would it be neccessary but I havent gotton a response yet.Is it required to even take a course to take the test for cert?If so I found Windows NT on ebay unopened for under 20 bucks,not bad.Well thanx again.:beer:

[su root]

It isn't required to take a course to get a certification, personally, I'm self-studying: reading a book or two on the subject, and doing the self-tests that come with the book, and any free practice tests that i can find online.

I think you will find that it is important to know previous operating systems, and old technologies because that is what you will run into in the field. Companies who don't have the money to upgrade, or have a system that is running software that needs an old OS. There are alot of businesses around who are still using Windows NT and Windows 95. There are some that will use Windows 3.1 or DOS. About a year ago I saw a production box running DOS 5.0 due to software needs, and hardware 'not have the money for'

It is also important to learn the old technology because that's what the new technology is built on. Under Windows XP and 2k, there is still a DOS-like environment. Their recovery consoles require you to know old DOS-style commands.

In the world of PC's, you will have to know CHS to understand how a system boots, and how LBA came about, it's purpose, and it's future limits on harddrive size. Knowing this will help you if you run into that 286 box with a dead cmos battery and a 129mb hard drive that you need to configure.

[stool]

I believe that quite a few A+ cert. courses require NT. Supposedly as a means of learning to diagnose and repair OS problems.

[su root]

The A+ OS exam would definately have NT on it. The CompTIA A+ OS exam has DOS and Win95 on it aswell as the odd Linux and Unix stuff.

[Ozzman]

what are these exams like? like how do they test u? also if possible u have examples of questions?

[su root]

I have taken (and passed :D) my CompTIA Network+ Exam. In that one, it was 72 questions in 90 minutes. The test center I went to had a small, empty room for testing. I was the only one testing at that time. That specific test was set up such that every question had a weight, so you were graded between 100 and 900 points, where 646 was the passing mark.

CompTIA's test delivery system was pretty easy, 15 minutes to read all the agreements (and agree to them), and read the test rules. then 90 minute test, and 10 minutes afterwards for a questionare. While you are writing, you can "mark a question for review", a little checkbox for each question, where you can come back to it once your done, and look at the question again.. if your test lets you use this, use it.

Once you know how the test works, you will become more confident. My test was 72 questions, (pulled from CompTIA's huge database of questions, such that certain percentages of questions were asked on certain topics).

I completed my test in less than half of the time alotted, and just reviewed from then on. I'm pretty sure that any questions that I changed the answer to while reviewing were wrong (I scored 846/900), the results sheet that I got after the exam pointed out to me the objectives of the questions I missed. (not the questions, but the objective of the question).

The CompTIA's A+ exams are 20-30 question adaptive exams, to be done in 30 minutes. I don't know about MS's exams.. Adaptive exams do this:
Lets say there are 5 levels. It asks you a level 3 question, if you get it right, it gives you a level 4 question, if you answer that wrong, it'll give you a level 3 question. It will keep doing that until it can say within a certain percentage as to what level you would probably answer the rest of the questions. If your skill level is high enough, you pass. In this type of exam, you can only answer the question once, no going back/skipping a question/marking for review because the next question is based on your answer to the current question.

My Tips:
1. Read the entire question, re-read until you understand the question. Even the simplest question could have a "not" or an "and" that would throw you off if you miss it. EVERYONE gets one of these wrong. Observe:

Windows 95 requires the WIN.INI and SYSTEM.INI files during the startup process in order to load device drivers and user options.
A) True.
B) False.
True/False questions aren't on the exam, but this example will show you the trick I'm talking about: The answer is b, false, because you don't "require" a win.ini to start a Win95 box... it's the ANDs and the NOTs that get you in trouble.

2. Standard rules of Multiple Choice apply: If you don't know the answer, rule out the ones that don't make any sense, or that are made up. That should leave you with 1 or 2 answers, with a better chance at getting it right.

3. Re-read the question after answering. "Which cable type is limited to 100m?" answer=CAT5, should be re-read as "CAT5 cable is limited to 100m" If that doesn't make sense to you, think over the question again.

4. Answer all questions, not answering=0% chance of getting it right, guessing=25% chance

5. Evaluate questions for the knowledge they're looking for. Every question is trying to see if you know a particular (or several) things. If you can figure out what they are trying to ask you, then the answer is easy.

Go online and look around for practice exams, there are a bunch of free ones out there, they really help.

Good luck.

[FlypSyde]

also u couldnt really play any games on an NT system that was the main reason i never made the switch lol.. but had it running for a few of my clients.. mainly the server, but now they all have linux servers... saw no use in making them pay for 2000 pro or server when linux was better..

NT 4 wasn't really a platform geared for that kind of use. Back in the day MS wanted to keep home (Win9x) and office (Win NT) desktop OS's separate. With Win 2K they moved away from that to a single desktop OS solution. Win98 was suppossed to be the last home desktop OS but I think 2K took so long to release that they came out with ME.