Understanding and Supporting Windows NT Workstation

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Chapter 13

• Understanding and Supporting Windows NT
  Workstation

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You Will Learn

• About the Windows NT environment and its
  architecture
• About the strengths and weaknesses of Windows NT
• How to evaluate when Windows NT is the best
  choice for a PC OS
• How to install and customize Windows NT

continued
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You Will Learn

• How to set up a Windows NT environment for a DOS
  or Windows 3.x application
• How to use some Windows NT troubleshooting
  techniques and tools

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Windows NT vs. Windows 9x
Windows NT Windows 9x
Designed to satisfy needs of powerful workstations networked in a corporate environment Used on low-end PCs dominating the home market
A full 32-bit operating system, operating in protected mode as soon as it receives control from BIOS Begins boot process in real mode and loads some real-mode components before shifting to protected mode
Does not allow real-mode device drivers or virtual device drivers Supports real-mode device drivers and uses virtual device drivers (VxDs) that often interact directly with hardware
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Windows NT vs. Windows 9x
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Features of Windows NT

• Desktop performance
• Hardware profiles
• Internet Explorer
• Peer Web Services
• Security
• OS stability

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Minimum Hardware Requirements for Windows NT

• On an IBM-compatible PC
• Pentium-compatible processor or higher
• 16 MB of RAM (32 MB is recommended)
• 110 MB of hard disk space

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Hardware Platforms Supported by Windows NT

• Intel x86-based (486 or higher) processor (focus
  of this chapter)
• MIPS R4x00-based processor
• Alpha AXP-based processor
• PReP-compliant PowerPC-based processor

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Not All Hardware Devices Are Supported by Windows
NT
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The Windows NT Desktop
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The Windows NT Command Prompt
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The Windows NT Command Prompt
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Choosing Between Windows 9x and Windows NT

• Does Windows NT support all the hardware devices
  on your PC?
• Is the PC powerful and big enough to support
  Windows NT?
• Will the software you intend to use on the PC
  work better under Windows 98 or Windows NT?
• Is price a factor?

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Upgrading from Windows 9x to Windows NT

• No automatic upgrade path
• No transfer of system settings
• Requires reinstallation of each application

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Registries

• Main reason Windows 9x cannot be easily upgraded
  to Windows NT is that their Registries are not
  compatible

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A Choice of File Systems

• FAT16 file system
• Windows NT file system
• NT does not support FAT32

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FAT16 File System

• Used by Windows 9x and its predecessors
• To manage data on a logical drive, uses
• Boot record
• FAT
• Directories
• Data files
• Advantages of FAT16 over NTFS
• Uses less overhead
• Backward compatible with DOS and Windows 9x
• Can boot PC from a disk to gain access to drive

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Windows NT File System

• Works only with Windows NT
• Uses a database called the master file table
  (MFT) as its core component
• Advantages of NTFS over FAT16
• Recoverable
• Increased security
• Supports mirroring drives
• Uses smaller cluster sizes
• Supports large-volume drives

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Master File Table
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Hard Drive Partitions
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The Dual Boot

• The ability to boot from either Windows NT or
  another OS
• System partition must be FAT rather than NTFS

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Windows NT Environment and Architecture

• Goals of Windows NT
• Room to grow
• Portability to different platforms
• Compatibility with other OSs and legacy software
• Security
• Performance and reliability

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The Modular Concept of Windows NT

• Isolate one process from another so that a change
  in one process has the least possible effect on
  other processes

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DOS Analogy
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Windows 9x OS Analogy

• Most analogous to Windows 9x OS

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Windows NT OS Analogy
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Core Components of Windows NT Architecture

• User mode
• Nonprivileged processor mode
• Programs have only limited access to system
  information and can only access hardware through
  other OS services
• Kernel mode
• Privileged processor mode
• Programs have extensive access to system
  information and hardware

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User Mode and Kernel Mode
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User Mode

• Divided into different modules called subsystems
• Environment subsystems
• Integral subsystems

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How Programs Interact with Subsystems