Windows NT is a Microsoft Windows personal computer
operatingsystem designed for users and businesses needing advanced capability. NT's technology is the
base for the Microsoft successor operating system,
Windows
2000. Windows NT (which may originally have stood for "New Technology," although Microsoft
doesn't say) is actually two products: Microsoft NT Workstation and Microsoft NT Server. The
Workstation is designed for users, especially business users, who need faster performance and a
system a little more fail-safe than Windows 95 and
Windows
98. The Server is designed for business machines that need to provide services for
network-attached computers. The Server is required, together with an Internet server such as
Microsoft's Internet Information Server (
IIS),
for a Windows system that plans to serve Web pages.
Windows NT Workstation: Microsoft says that 32-bit applications run 20% faster on this
system than on Windows 95 (assuming both have 32 megabytes of RAM). Since older 16-bit applications
run in a separate address space, one can crash without crashing other applications or the operating
system. Security and management features not available on Windows 95 are provided. The Workstation
has the same desktop user interface as Windows 95.
Windows NT Server: The NT Server is probably the second most installed network server
operating system after Novell's
NetWare
operating system. Microsoft claims that its NT servers are beginning to replace both NetWare and
the various
UNIX-based
systems such as those of Sun Microsystems and Hewlett-Packard. NT Server 5.0. essentially became
what was renamed Windows 2000.
Notable features of the Windows 2000 products are:
- A fully-customizable administrative console that can be based on tasks rather than files,
applications, or users
- A new file directory approach called Active
Directory that lets the administrator and other users view every file and application in the
network from a single point-of-view.
- Dynamic Domain Name Server (DNS), which replicates changes in the network using the Active
Directory Services, the Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP),
and the Windows Internet Naming Service (WINS)
whenever a client is reconfigured.
- The ability to create, extend, or mirror a disk volume without having to shut down the system
and to back up data to a variety of magnetic and optical storage media.
- A Distributed File System (DFS) that lets users see a distributed set of files in a single file
structure across departments, divisions, or an entire enterprise.
- Close integration with and support for Microsoft's Message Queue Server, Microsoft
Transaction Server, and Internet Information Server (IIS).
-MEHUL PATEL
