Windows NT 4.0

Windows NT 4.0 is a preemptively multitasked graphical operating system, designed to work with either uniprocessor or symmetric multi-processor computers. It was part of Microsoft's Windows NT family of operating systems and was released to manufacturing on 31 July 1996. It is a 32-bit operating system available in both workstation and server editions with a graphical environment similar to that of Windows 95. It was officialy released on August 24, 1996, approximately a year after Windows 95.
Overview.
The successor to Windows NT 3.51, Windows NT 4.0 introduced the user interface of Windows 95 to the Windows NT family, including the Windows shell, File Explorer (known as Windows NT Explorer at the time), and the use of "My" nomenclature for shell folders (e.g. My Computer). It also includes most components introduced with Windows 95. Internally, Windows NT 4.0 was known as the Shell Update Release (SUR). While many administrative tools, notably "User Manager for Domains", "Server Manager" and "Domain Name Service Manager" still used the old graphical user interfaces, the Start menu in Windows NT 4.0 separated the per-user shortcuts and folders from the shared shortcuts and folders by a separator line. Windows NT 4.0 includes some enhancements from Microsoft Plus! for Windows 95 such as the "Space Cadet" pinball table, font smoothing, showing window contents while dragging, high-color icons and stretching the wallpaper to fit the screen. Windows Desktop Update could also be installed on Windows NT 4.0 to update the shell version and install Task Scheduler. Windows NT 4.0 Resource Kit included the Desktop Themes utility.
Windows NT 4.0 is the last major release of Microsoft Windows to support the Alpha, MIPS or PowerPC CPU architectures. It remained in use by businesses for a number of years, despite Microsoft's many efforts to get customers to upgrade to Windows 2000 and newer versions. It was also the last release in the Windows NT family to be branded as "Windows NT" although Windows 2000 carried the designation "Built on NT Technology".
Editions.
Windows NT 4.0 Server was included in versions 4.0 and 4.5 of BackOffice Small Business Server suite.