What’s Behind Microsoft’s Windows NT
Microsoft Windows NT was first released in 1993. NT stands for New Technology. Windows NT was Microsoft’s platform of choice for high-end systems until the release of Windows 2000. Windows NT comes in two versions, NT Server and NT Workstation. Windows NT Server is used as a network server, and Windows NT workstation is a stable client operating system.
Windows NT contains the Windows 95 interface, but unlike Windows 95, it is entirely 32-bit. NT’s 32-bit architecture allows NT to reference more memory, and it also allows preemptive multitasking. Besides being a 32-bit system, Windows NT uses the NTFS file system. NTFS is more reliable and offers more security features than FAT16 or FAT32. NTFS allows compressed files and folders to be accessed and written to. NTFS also allows operations to be undone or redone if errors occur.
The advanced NT kernel gives NT powerful capabilities. The NT kernel controls things such as managing memory and I/O, handling device signals, and task scheduling. Programs run in protected memory. This lets multiple applications run simultaneously without interfering with one another or with the operating system itself. If one program crashes, the operating system can shut it down without interfering with any other programs running in memory. This prevents one program from crashing the whole system because of a memory error.
Windows NT Server includes many built-in services. There are wizards used to automate many common administrative steps. User profiles can be configured. NT allows remote access by using IAS (Internet Authentication Services) and RADIUS (Remote Authentication Dial-In User Service). NT Server contains network services such as DNS and WINS for hostname translation and DCOM (Distributed Component Object Model) used for running applications from a server to many client machines.
Now that you have a fundamental knowledge of the features of Windows NT, we will explain what DHCP is and how a DHCP server can be implemented on a Windows NT Server.
