Geeks, serious users and corporates... Most others should not bother - it's stable, it's fast but it isn't going to play your games (although read this Tips On Running Games Under NT4 )- nor will many of your Dos apps behave. I myself have installed it to learn about NT and please keep in mind that there is nothing to stop you from running NT4.0 and Windows 95 on a single machine....
Probably most importantly you need to download the hardware compatibility guide before proceeding, if you have pretty bog standard parts you should be allright, if however you have something cheap 'n nasty (most notably soundcards) in your machine don't expect it to work. If your machine is misbehaving DO NOT install NT4, NT although it is more stable than Windows 95 definitely doesn't like cheap hardware. The supposed minimum hardware requirements are a 486 with 16Mb Ram my personal recomendations are as follows.
If you are not a game player thenNT is well worth considering but if you choose to proceed as I did Windows NT quite happilly dual boots or even installs into a DOS filesystem directory. One word of warning though all your apps will have to be reinstalled for NT (well not quite) so my suggestions is to clear your windows 95 install, keep it for the basics and install the serious stuff under NT.
Date: Sat, 11 Jan 1997 18:09:23 -0800 From: Robert Cowart <[email protected]> Subject: Re: SOFTWARE: Windows 95 vs. NT 4.0 Workstation
Having used both NT and 95 extensively and written about both, I would say that if high-compatibility with existing software and hardware is your biggest priority, stick with the Win95 platform. You'll get support sooner for hardware, and have greater ability to run legacy software. However, if security, reliability, and smooth operation are your interests, NT is the way to go. It may not be as flashy, but internally it's slick, written from the ground up as a secure and non-DOS-based OS, and just plain works better. You'll never want to go back to the weird delays and "waiting" cursors of Win95 after using NT for awhile. I expect the "cool" Win97 front end (essentially IE4) will be available for NT soon enough anyway, minus a few things. MS wants us all to move towards NT in a serious way, so you won't be left out in the cold if you make the move sooner. And NTFS is superior to FAT32 anyway. FWIW FAT32 will be supported by NT in the near future from what I hear.
One man's opinion.
Good luck!
Robert Cowart (Author of: NT Unleashed, NT Server 4.0 Administrator's Bible, NT Server Fast Track, Mastering Windows 95, Windows 95 Quick and Easy..
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Windows NT 4 (WinNT-L) FAQ COPYRIGHT © 1996 by Hans Klarenbeek
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