The most anticipated change in both NT Server 4.0 and NT Workstation 4.0 is the Win95-style user interface. The top-level desktop shell is practically indistinguishable from Win95, in much the same way NT 3.x mimicked Windows 3.1x. You have to drill down to find differences, including the absence of the Win95 Device Manager, and a mix of old- and new-style Control Panel applets. NT and Win95 features differ in some UI element specifics. For instance, Win95 lacks the Run in Separate Memory Space check box you'll find in NT's Start Menu/Run command. A few Win95 elements, such as Plug-and-Play and power-management features, have been deferred to NT's Cairo release, planned for next year.
On the whole, though, NT 4.0 looks and feels a lot like Win95. Indeed, as one NT product manager says, the fastest way to tell which is which is to hit Ctrl+Alt+Del. If you see a task list and an option to reboot, you're running Windows 95. NT will give you a Windows NT Security dialog.
That's symbolic of the entire NT 4.0 message. It has the look of Win95, but underneath are the bulletproof, secure, scalable guts of an enterprise OS.
NT 4.0 adds a series of much-requested features to an already impressive list. Win95-style Telephone API and Unimodem drivers, for instance, allow TAPI-enabled applications like Hyperterminal (included in NT 4.0) to operate. Like Win95, those pieces also support Dial-Up Networking, a new, more capable form of remote network access. A new NetWare 4.x-compatible redirector and gateway software support NDS and NetWare log-in scripts. If you're using a portable computer, hardware profile support allows you to have at-home and on-the-road boot configurations with different video display service and network settings. And enhanced metafile-based printer spooling improves response at the client by farming out most of the rendering to the print server.
Other new features include a Win95-compatible System Policy Editor, Network OLE (now called Distributed COM), and DirectDraw and DirectSound support that lets you play Win95-compatible multimedia and game software. You'll also find Microsoft's Internet Explorer 2.0 multimedia-enhanced Web browser and the Exchange e-mail client. Web authors will like the Peer Web Server (PWS) in NT Workstation 4.0 (NT Server 4.0 provides Internet Information Server).
RISC users get a long-overdue update to the software emulation that runs 16-bit Windows applications. The emulator now supports a full 486 instruction set, allowing enhanced-mode Win16 applications to run. It does not, however, support 32-bit Intel binaries (such as Win95), although Microsoft says it has the necessary software hooks to do so.
A new set of cryptography APIs will enable developers to create secure applications. Other new APIs contain those needed to support disk defragmentation (finally!), but a defragmenter isn't included in the box.
Under the hood, the most significant (and controversial) change arises from Microsoft's decision to move from a client/server model to a pure-kernel model for NT 4.0's graphics subsystem. As a result, the graphics device interface (GDI) and User (windows and menus) subsystems are incorporated directly into the NT Executive.
