Technical information
Reviewer’s Guide Microsoft Windows NT Workstation 3.51 4
Other Base Features of NT Workstation
Included in prior versions Description
Technical Support 24x7, fee-based support available via 800 number. Mission-critical support
includes: immediate, server-down support; technical and management issue
escalation; remote diagnostics (Automatic Recovery Facility and Remote Kernel
Debug); problem replication labs; hotfix and service pack releases; detailed bug
list and fix lists, and on-line services.
Improved setup program Installation and setup of Windows NT Workstation has been simplified and
improved. Upgrading from Windows NT 3.1 is virtually transparent; it
automatically retains existing program groups, user and security definitions, and
network connections.
Improved performance 32-bit application performance has been improved, and 16-bit applications now
perform, on average, 50-150% faster than with Windows NT 3.1. Finally,
application load time has decreased by over 50% from Windows NT 3.1.
Multiple VDM support Windows NT Workstation allows preemptive multitasking of 16-bit applications
for Windows and MS-DOS® with full memory protection. Each application runs
in its own memory address space, resulting in increased application
responsiveness and maximum data/application protection. Full OLE and DDE
support are maintained between separate VDMs.
OLE 2.0 support OLE 2.0 allows in-place editing, application automation, drag-and-drop between
applications, and full integration and information sharing. Windows NT
Workstation provides 16- to 32-bit OLE support.
OpenGL graphics High-performance 3D graphics are now possible. This high-end feature is critical
to many high-performance workstation applications.
Integrated NetWare connectivity A fully NetWare-compatible client redirector is included for fast, easy
connectivity to NetWare and Windows NT Servers using the IPX/SPX transport.
TCP/IP transport plus PPP and
SLIP
The TCP/IP stack is now faster and smaller; our tests show a 100% increase in
performance. Point-to-Point Protocol (PPP) and Serial Line Internet Protocol
(SLIP) are two standard protocols enabling TCP/IP over asynchronous lines.
These protocols are important to the UNIX and Internet communities.
Enhanced network connectivity Connectivity products for NFS, Banyan®, and X-Window have been released
from a variety of third parties.
Dump facility with auto-restart If the workstation experiences a fatal error, memory registers are written to disk
and the system can be automatically restarted.
Long filenames for FAT file
system
File and directory names on the File Allocation Table (FAT) file system are no
longer restricted to the 8.3 naming convention. Instead, file and directory naming
rules are similar to those of NTFS: names can be up to 255 characters, with
support for upper and lower case.
Account lockout After a set number of bad password attempts have been made, the user account is
blocked from further attempts preventing an unauthorized user from trying
hundreds of password variations.
Enhanced hardware
compatibility
Windows NT has been tested on over 2300 Intel®-based systems, 37 MIPS®-
based systems, four Alpha AXP™ systems and 15 SMP systems, as well as with
many tape drives, SCSI devices, network cards, etc.
Enhanced multimedia support Multimedia options include Video for Windows 1.1 and 32-bit drivers for videos
compressed using Cinepak and Indeo technology.
Plotter and scanner support Drivers for HP® plotters and various scanners are now included. These devices
are critical to the technical workstation community.