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Windows NT 4.0 ○›｜Definition｜1st｜20261013192254-00-⌔
Windows NT 4.0
Windows NT 4.0 is a major release of the Windows NT operating system developed by Microsoft, targeting the data server and personal workstation markets. It is the direct successor to Windows NT 3.51, and was released to manufacturing on July 31, 1996,[^1] and then to retail on August 24, 1996, with the Server versions released to retail in early September 1996.[^2]1
Its most prominent user-facing change was the adoption of Windows 95’s user interface, introducing features such as the Start menu and taskbar to the Windows NT product line. It also includes various performance and stability improvements to system-level components, as well as new components such as a cryptography API, DCOM, TAPI 2.0, and the Task Manager, and limited support for DirectX. Over its support lifecycle, NT 4.0 received various updates and service packs offering patches, enhancements to its hardware support, and other new components. Two new editions of NT 4.0 were released post-launch, including a modular variant for embedded systems, and the Terminal Server edition.
NT 4.0 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. NT 4.0 was the last NT release to support the Alpha, MIPS or PowerPC CPU architectures as Windows 2000 runs solely on x86, and to use the “NT” name in its product line (although Windows 2000 carried the designation “Built on NT Technology” in several places2).
Most editions of NT 4.0 were succeeded by Windows 2000 on February 17, 2000. Mainstream support for Windows NT 4.0 Workstation ended on June 30, 2002, following by extended support ending on June 30, 2004. Windows NT 4.0 Server mainstream support ended on December 31, 2002, with extended support ending on December 31, 2004. Windows NT 4.0 Embedded would be succeeded by Windows XP Embedded; mainstream support ended on June 30, 2003, followed by extended support on July 11, 2006.345
Printed 2026-10-13.
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Link to original Footnotes
Source, Microsoft (September 3, 1996). “Microsoft Windows NT 4.0 Broadly Available in Channel”. Source. Retrieved October 19, 2025. ↩
“Microsoft Renames Windows NT 5.0 Product Line to Windows 2000; Signals Evolution of Windows NT Technology Into Mainstream”. Microsoft. October 27, 1998. Archived from the original on January 12, 2009. Retrieved September 17, 2019. ↩
“Q&A: Support for Windows NT Server 4.0 Nears End; Exchange Server 5.5 to Follow in One Year”. Stories. December 3, 2004. Archived from the original on April 23, 2022. Retrieved September 17, 2019. ↩
“Windows NT 4.0 Support Ends Tomorrow”. www.serverwatch.com. December 30, 2004. Archived from the original on September 26, 2020. Retrieved September 17, 2019. ↩
Leyden, John (July 27, 2003). “Almost dead: Win NT 4 support”. www.theregister.co.uk. Archived from the original on August 7, 2013. Retrieved September 17, 2019. ↩
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