Windows NT
Source-available (through Shared Source Initiative) | |
Initial release | July 27, 1993 (as Windows NT 3.1) |
---|---|
Latest release | 23H2 (10.0.22631.3527) (April 23, 2024[2]) [±] |
Latest preview |
23H2 (10.0.22631.3527) (April 23, 2024[3][4]) [±]
23H2 (10.0.22635.3500) (April 19, 2024[5]) [±]
24H2 (10.0.26100.2) (April 17, 2024[6]) [±]
S+S[a] |
Official website | windows |
Windows NT is a
The Windows NT name denotes major technology advancements that it introduced to the Windows product line including eliminating the 16-bit memory access limitations of earlier Windows releases. Each Windows release that includes its technology is considered to be based on, if not a revision of, Windows NT even though the Windows NT name has not been used since 1996.
Windows NT provides many features including:
- multi-user
- pure 32-bitmemory access — earlier, consumer-oriented versions, Windows 3.1x and Windows 9x, were 16-bit/32-bit hybrids
- Multi-architecture support — initially (including IA-32 and x64) and ARM
- Many system services including: Windows Store, Windows Update, and Hyper-V
Product line
Windows NT is a group or family of products — like Windows is a group or family. Windows NT is a sub-grouping of Windows.
The first version of Windows NT,
Eventually, Microsoft incorporated the Windows NT technology into the Windows product line for personal computing and deprecated the Windows 9x family. Starting with Windows 2000,[8] "NT" was removed from the product name yet is still in several low-level places in the system — including for a while as part of the product version.[9]
Installing
Versions of Windows NT are installed using Windows Setup, which, starting with Windows Vista, uses the Windows Preinstallation Environment, which is a lightweight version of Windows NT made for deployment of the operating system.
Naming
It has been suggested that Dave Cutler intended the initialism "WNT" as a play on VMS, incrementing each letter by one.[10] However, the project was originally intended as a follow-on to OS/2 and was referred to as "NT OS/2" before receiving the Windows brand.[11] One of the original NT developers, Mark Lucovsky, states that the name was taken from the original target processor—the Intel i860, code-named N10 ("N-Ten").[12] A 1998 question-and-answer (Q&A) session with Bill Gates revealed that the letters were previously expanded to "New Technology" but no longer carry any specific meaning.[13] The letters were dropped from the names of releases from Windows 2000 and later, though Microsoft described that product as being "Built on NT Technology".[8][14]
"NT" was a trademark of Northern Telecom (later Nortel), which Microsoft was forced to acknowledge on the product packaging.
Major features
One of the main purposes of NT is hardware and software portability. Various versions of NT family operating systems have been released for a variety of processor architectures, initially
NT has supported per-object (file, function, and role)
Windows NT 3.1 was the first version of Windows to use 32-bit flat virtual memory addressing on 32-bit processors. Its companion product, Windows 3.1, used segmented addressing and switches from 16-bit to 32-bit addressing in pages.
Windows NT 3.1 featured a core kernel providing a system API, running in
Notably, in Windows NT 3.x, several I/O driver subsystems, such as video and printing, were
NTFS, a journaled, secure file system, is a major feature of NT. Windows NT also allows for other installable file systems; NT can also be installed on FAT file systems, and versions 3.1, 3.5, and 3.51 could be installed HPFS file systems.[20]
Windows NT introduced its own driver model, the Windows NT driver model, and is incompatible with older driver frameworks. With
Development
Microsoft decided to create a portable operating system, compatible with
Windows 3.0 was eventually so successful that Microsoft decided to change the primary
IBM continued OS/2 development alone while Microsoft continued work on the newly renamed Windows NT. Though neither operating system would immediately be as popular as Microsoft's MS-DOS or Windows products, Windows NT would eventually be far more successful than OS/2.
Microsoft hired a group of developers from Digital Equipment Corporation led by Dave Cutler to build Windows NT, and many elements of the design reflect earlier DEC experience with Cutler's VMS,[24] VAXELN and RSX-11, but also an unreleased object-based operating system developed by Cutler at Digital codenamed MICA.[25] The team was joined by selected members of the disbanded OS/2 team, including Moshe Dunie.[10]
Although NT was not an exact clone of Cutler's previous operating systems, DEC engineers almost immediately noticed the internal similarities. Parts of VAX/VMS Internals and Data Structures, published by
Windows NT and VMS memory management, processes, and scheduling are very similar. Windows NT's process management differs by implementing threading, which DEC did not implement until VMS 7.0 in 1995.
Like VMS,
API sets in the Windows NT family are implemented as subsystems atop the publicly undocumented
Architecture
Windows NT uses a layered design
The
Programming language
Windows NT is written in C and C++, with a very small amount written in assembly language.[29] C is mostly used for the kernel code while C++ is mostly used for user-mode code. Assembly language is avoided where possible because it would impede portability.[30]
Releases
The following are the releases of Windows based on the Windows NT technology.
Version | Marketing name | Editions | Release date |
Build number |
---|---|---|---|---|
3.1 | Windows NT 3.1 | Workstation (named just Windows NT), Advanced Server | July 27, 1993 - 2001 | 528 |
3.5 | Windows NT 3.5 | Workstation, Server | September 21, 1994 | 807 |
3.51 | Windows NT 3.51 | May 30, 1995 | 1057 | |
4.0 | Windows NT 4.0 | Workstation, Server, Enterprise Server, Terminal Server, Embedded | August 24, 1996 | 1381 |
5.0[31] | Windows 2000 | Professional, Server, Advanced Server | February 17, 2000 | 2195 |
Datacenter Server | September 26, 2000 | |||
5.1[31] | Windows XP | Home, Professional, Embedded , Home N, Professional N |
October 25, 2001 - 2014 | 2600 |
Windows Fundamentals for Legacy PCs | — | July 8, 2006 | ||
5.2[31] | Windows XP | March 28, 2003 | 3790 | |
Windows Server 2003 | Standard, Enterprise, Datacenter, Web, Storage, Small Business Server, Compute Cluster | April 24, 2003 - 2015 | ||
Windows XP | Professional x64 Edition (x86-64) | April 25, 2005 | ||
Windows Server 2003 R2 |
Standard, Enterprise, Datacenter, Web, Storage, Small Business Server, Compute Cluster | December 6, 2005 | ||
Windows Home Server | — | November 4, 2007 | ||
6.0[31] | Windows Vista | Starter, Home Basic, Home Premium, Business, Enterprise, Ultimate | Business: November 30, 2006 Consumer: January 30, 2007 - 2017 |
|
Windows Server 2008 | Foundation, Standard, Enterprise, Datacenter, Web Server, HPC Server, Itanium-Based Systems[33] | February 27, 2008 | 6001 (RTM) 6002 (SP2) 6003 (SP2 Update)[34] | |
6.1[31] | Windows 7 | Starter, Home Basic, Home Premium, Professional, Enterprise, Ultimate[35] | October 22, 2009 - 2020 [36] | 7600 (RTM) 7601 (SP1) |
Windows Server 2008 R2 | Foundation, Standard, Enterprise, Datacenter, Web Server, HPC Server, Itanium-Based Systems | |||
Windows Home Server 2011 | Home Server Premium | April 6, 2011 | 7601 (SP1) | |
Windows Thin PC |
— | June 6, 2011 | ||
6.2[31] | Windows 8[37] | Windows 8, Windows 8 Pro, Windows 8 Enterprise, Windows RT[38] | October 26, 2012[39] | 9200 |
Windows Server 2012[40] | Foundation, Essentials, Standard, Datacenter[41] | September 4, 2012 - 2023 | ||
6.3[31] | Windows 8.1 | Windows 8.1, Windows 8.1 Pro, Windows 8.1 Enterprise, Windows RT 8.1, Windows Embedded 8.1 Industry Pro/Enterprise | October 18, 2013 - 2023 | 9600[42] |
Windows Server 2012 R2 | Foundation, Essentials, Standard, Datacenter | |||
10.0[31][43] | Windows 10 | Home Single Language, Home China, Home, Pro, Pro Education, Pro for Workstations,[44] Enterprise, Education, Windows 10 S, IoT Core, Mobile, Mobile Enterprise[45][46] | July 29, 2015 | 10240 (1507/RTM) 10586 (1511) 14393 (1607) 15063 (1703) 16299 (1709) 17134 (1803) 17763 (1809) 18362 (1903) 18363 (1909) 19041 (2004) 19042 (20H2) 19043 (21H1) 19044 (21H2) 19045 (22H2) |
Windows Server 2016 | Essentials, Standard, Datacenter, Multipoint Premium Server, Storage Server, Hyper-V Server | September 26, 2016 | 14393 | |
Windows Server 2019 | Essentials, Standard, Datacenter, Multipoint Premium Server, Hyper-V Server | October 2, 2018 | 17763 | |
Windows Server 2022 | August 18, 2021[47] | 20348 | ||
Windows 11 | Home Single Language, Home China, Home, Pro, Education, Pro Education, Pro for Workstations, Enterprise, IoT Enterprise, Windows 11 SE | October 5, 2021[48] | 22000 (21H2/RTM) 22621 (22H2) 22631 (23H2) |
Windows NT 3.1 to 3.51 incorporated the
.The first release was given version number 3.1 to match the contemporary 16-bit Windows; magazines of that era claimed the number was also used to make that version seem more reliable than a ".0" release. Also the Novell IPX protocol was apparently licensed only to 3.1 versions of Windows software.[citation needed]
The NT version number is not now generally used for marketing purposes, but is still used internally, and said to reflect the degree of changes to the core of the operating system.[49] However, for application compatibility reasons, Microsoft kept the major version number as 6 in releases following Vista,[50] but changed it later to 10 in Windows 10.[43] The build number is an internal identifier used by Microsoft's developers and beta testers.
Starting with Windows 8.1, Microsoft changed the Version API Helper functions' behavior. If an application is not manifested for Windows 8.1 or later, the API will always return version 6.2, which is the version number of Windows 8.[51][52] This is because the manifest feature was introduced with Windows 8.1,[53] to replace GetVersion and related functions.[54]
Supported platforms
32-bit platforms
In order to prevent
Windows NT 3.1 was released for Intel x86
Only two of the Windows NT 4.0 variants (IA-32 and Alpha) have a full set of service packs available. All of the other ports done by third parties (Motorola, Intergraph, etc.) have few, if any, publicly available updates.
Windows NT 4.0 was the last major release to support Alpha, MIPS, or PowerPC, though development of Windows 2000 for Alpha continued until August 1999, when
On January 5, 2011, Microsoft announced that the next major version of the Windows NT family will include support for the
According to Microsoft, it is a common misconception that the
Windows 11 is the first non-server version of Windows NT that does not support 32-bit platforms.[63][64]
64-bit platforms
The
While
The first version of Windows NT to support ARM64 devices with Qualcomm processors was Windows 10, version 1709.[73] This is a full version of Windows, rather than the cut-down Windows RT.
Hardware requirements
The minimum hardware specification required to run each release of the professional workstation version of Windows NT has been fairly slow-moving until the 6.0 (Vista) release, which requires a minimum of 15 GB of free disk space, a tenfold increase in free disk space alone over the previous version, and the 2021 10.0 (11) release which excludes most systems built before 2018.
Windows version | CPU | RAM | Free disk space |
---|---|---|---|
NT 3.1[74] | i386, 25 MHz | 12 MB | 90 MB |
NT 3.1 Advanced Server[74] | 16 MB | ||
NT 3.5 Workstation[75] | 12 MB | ||
NT 3.5 Server[75] | 16 MB | ||
NT 3.51 Workstation[75] | 12 MB | ||
NT 3.51 Server[75] | 16 MB | ||
NT 4.0 Workstation[76] | i486, 25 MHz | 12 MB | 124 MB |
NT 4.0 Server[76] | 16 MB | ||
2000 Professional[77] | Pentium, 133 MHz | 32 MB | 650 MB |
2000 Server[77] | 128 MB | ||
XP[78] | Pentium, 233 MHz | 64 MB | 1.5 GB |
Server 2003[79] | 133 MHz | 128 MB | |
Vista Home Basic[80] | 800 MHz | 512 MB | 20 GB |
Vista (other editions)[80] | 1 GHz | 1 GB | 40 GB |
7 for IA-32[81] | 16 GB | ||
7 for x64[81] | 2 GB | 20 GB | |
8 for IA-32[82] | 1 GHz with NX bit, SSE2, PAE | 1 GB | 16 GB |
8 for x64[82] | 2 GB | 20 GB | |
8.1 for IA-32[82] | 1 GB | 16 GB | |
8.1 for x64[82] | 1 GHz with NX bit, SSE2, PAE, CMPXCHG16b, PrefetchW and LAHF/SAHF | 2 GB | 20 GB |
10 for IA-32 (v1507-1809)[83] | 1 GHz with NX bit, SSE2, PAE | 1 GB | 16 GB |
10 for x64 (v1507-1809)[83] | 1 GHz with NX bit, SSE2, PAE, CMPXCHG16b, PrefetchW and LAHF/SAHF | 2 GB | 20 GB |
10 for IA-32 (v1903 and later)[83] | 1 GHz with NX bit, SSE2, PAE | 1 GB | 32 GB |
10 for x64 (v1903 and later)[83] | 1 GHz with NX bit, SSE2, PAE, CMPXCHG16b, PrefetchW and LAHF/SAHF | 2 GB | |
11 for x64[63][64] | AMD Zen+-based CPU; Trusted Platform Module (TPM) 2.0 or equivalent crypto-processor[84] POPCNT (a.k.a CPUs with SSE4.2 instruction set, released in 2008 or later) is required starting from version 24H2.[85] |
4 GB | 64 GB |
11 for ARM64[63][64] | Microsoft SQ1 , SQ2
|
See also
- F6 disk
- Windows domain
- ReactOS (an open source project with the goal of providing binary- and device driver-level compatibility with Windows NT)
- Windows Preinstallation Environment
- Microsoft Servers
Notes
- MSDN § Software subscriptions, Microsoft TechNet § Subscriptions and downloads, and client access license.
- ^ Though Windows Vista support ended in 2017 and there was never a third Service Pack, the build number change occurs when the user opts to install KB4489887 update (released for Windows Server 2008 in 2019) on their system.
References
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- ^ "Releasing Windows 11 Builds 22621.3520 and 22631.3520 to the Release Preview Channel". Windows Insider Blog. April 11, 2024.
- ^ "April 23, 2024—KB5036980 (OS Builds 22621.3527 and 22631.3527) Preview". Microsoft Support. Microsoft.
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- ^ "Announcing Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 26100 (Canary and Dev Channels)". Windows Insider Blog. April 3, 2024.
- ^ "Announcing Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 26200 (Canary Channel)". Windows Insider Blog. April 19, 2024.
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- ^ Thurott, Paul (December 15, 1999). "Road to Gold: A Look at the Development of Windows 2000". Retrieved January 2, 2018.
- ^ Chen, Raymond (August 2008). "Building on the Past". Windows Confidential. TechNet Magazine. Microsoft.
- ^ Thurott, Paul (June 21, 2000). "Windows 2000 Reportedly Returning to Alpha Platform". Retrieved January 2, 2018.
UPDATE: Compaq has apparently denied that any work is being done on Windows 2000/64 for the Alpha.
- ^ a b "Comparison of Windows Server 2003 Editions". Microsoft Learn. Microsoft. October 8, 2009. Retrieved November 29, 2023.
- ^ "Windows Server 2008 for Itanium-Based Systems Feature Support". Microsoft Learn. Microsoft. July 2, 2012. Retrieved November 29, 2023.
- ^ "Windows Server 2008 R2 for Itanium-Based Systems". Windows Server Editions. Microsoft. Retrieved October 14, 2011.
- ^ "Microsoft Windows XP 64-Bit Edition". Microsoft Learn. Microsoft. August 15, 2001. Retrieved November 29, 2023.
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External links
- Windows (official page), Microsoft.
- Russinovich, Mark, "Windows NT and VMS: The Rest of the Story", Win 2000 (discussion of ancestry of NT), archived from the original on May 3, 2002.
- A Brief History of the Windows NT Operating System (fact sheet), Microsoft PressPass, 1998, archived from the original on June 10, 2004.