Technical information

Reviewer’s Guide Microsoft Windows NT Workstation 3.51 7
highlight them and select A
dd. When you close the dialog window, these buttons will be added to your File
Manager Toolbar.
You can compress or uncompress one file, several files, directories, and subdirectories. However, directories and
subdirectories are not actually compressed. When you elect to compress a directory or subdirectory, you are
indicating that you want files subsequently added to the subdirectory to be compressed or uncompressed
automatically.
Compressing or uncompressing a subdirectory does not automatically compress or uncompress files already in that
subdirectory. You must indicate that you want the files in the subdirectory to be compressed or uncompressed at the
dialog prompt. Compressing or uncompressing a directory means that files added to the directory will be compressed
or uncompressed automatically.
Compressed files and directories are shown in blue in File Manager. Therefore, do not configure your desktop to use
a blue background or blue text.
Customizable WinLogon Sequence
With Windows NT 3.51, our winlogon sequence is customizable. Being able to modify the Winlogon sequence
allows developers to modify the winlogon sequence. This meets a key request from banking industry for use in
ATMs and other embedded systems. For example, rather than the standard ctrl-alt-del use of Username and
Password, the logon sequence may incorporate a bank’s ATM card and PIN number, for instance.
Base Features Introduced with Windows NT Workstation 3.5
Installation and Setup
Installation and setup of Windows NT Workstation have been simplified and improved considerably. In particular,
upgrading from Windows NT 3.1 has been made virtually transparent. During the installation process, the setup
program checks to see if Windows NT 3.1 is already installed. If so, it automatically retains existing program groups,
user and security definitions, and network connections so that you can immediately return to your work.
Some key elements to consider during the installation and setup process include the following:
• You can initiate the upgrade from a floppy diskette or from CD, over the network, or from MS-DOS. The
upgrade process is simple and complete.
• You can select installation media at setup time. Moreover, if you need the emergency repair diskette, you
can select the media as well.
• Built-in support for additional third-party devices makes the installation process much smoother for more
customers, and the new video applet makes adding and configuring a video card more intuitive.
Improved Performance
Following the shipment of Windows NT 3.1, one of the primary efforts of the Windows NT Workstation
development team was to improve memory usage and system performance metrics. As a result, a great number of
performance improvements have been made in Windows NT Workstation.
Microsoft’s internal testing shows that dramatic improvements have been made in Windows NT Workstation 3.5 in
comparison to v3.1. In terms of performance and memory requirements guidelines, Microsoft’s internal testing has
shown the following approximate results:
• The size of the working set needed by Windows NT Workstation to function has been reduced by between
4MB and 8MB. The working set is defined as the amount of memory that Windows NT Workstation needs
in order to run; the size of the working set is one indicator of the efficiency with which Windows NT
Workstation manages paged and non-paged memory. The reduction in size of 4-8 MB means that the
operating system will function more efficiently using the same amount of system memory.