Windows NT Operating System

Windows NT is a unique and powerful operating system. It has been an entirely different operating system than Microsoft's initial Windows desktops operating systems. It was simply better and more secure ("Survey of operating Systems" pg125.) Windows NT offers you a high degree of performance and a wealth of capabilities and features. ("Windows NT 101", 1998.) NT supports two file systems: NtFS4 and FAT16. It can use up to 4 Gigabytes of RAM and also uses virtual memory. Windows NT doesn't work well with legacy applications it can work with some applications, they need to be tested to see if it will run (Survey of Operating Systems" pg130.) This operating system was designed to run on multiple instruction set architectures and multiple hardware platforms within each architecture. The platform dependencies are largely hidden from the rest of the system by a kernel mode module called the HAL. Windows NT's kernel mode code further distinguishes between the "kernel," whose prime purpose is to implement processor-architecture-dependent functions, and the "executive."

Both the kernel and the executive are linked together into a single loaded module, ntoskrnl.exe; from outside this module there is little distinction between the kernel and the executive. ( "Windows Library" 2006 )There are advantages and disadvantages of Windows NT. Some advantages are: Windows NT is developed and sold by Microsoft. The company continually provides supports and updates. Users who are familiar with Windows will find themselves comfortably using Windows NT. Most people using Windows NT hosting utilize Active Server Pages (ASP) technology. This is the main reason why people are turning to Windows NT hosting. Users can develop web sites using the familiar interface of Microsoft tools such as Microsoft FrontPage, Visual Interdev, and Microsoft Access. The disadvantages of NT are: It requires more system resources. You need a powerful...