2,001 Tips
Windows NT 4.0
New Technology

A No-RISC Offer

Users who run NT 4.0 on RISC-based systems (Digital Alpha, Mips or PowerPC) will be pleased to learn that Microsoft has found a way for you to use Win95 applications. The new technology, called Windows Support for x86 Applications on RISC (WX86 for short), is currently being previewed on Microsoft's Web site, but may move. Check WINDOWS Magazine's Web site at http://www.winmag.com/ew/ntrisc.htm for the latest details.

Directory Assistance

As of this writing, the most exciting NT technology preview is Microsoft's Distributed File System (DFS). Based on technology developed for Cairo (NT 5.0), DFS acts as a network directory. When a client system attempts to access a DFS directory or file, the DFS server resolves the reference to the physical location of the file, which can be on another physical server that's not running DFS-or NT, for that matter. Whether DFS will continue to be available for download, or be rolled into a service pack, is not clear as of this writing. Check WINDOWS Magazine's DFS page at http://www.winmag.com/ew/ for up-to-date information.

Searching for Answers

At press time, Microsoft was beta testing their Internet Search Server product for IIS on NT 4.0. The beta is available for download from a link on Microsoft's NT Server Web page (http://www.microsoft.com/ntserver). Developed using technology from Microsoft's forthcoming "Cairo" (NT 5.0) product, Internet Search Server makes it easy to create an automatically indexed search page for your Web content.

Future Fling

Microsoft has developed an NT-based proxy server (currently in beta test under the code name Catapult) for NT Server 4.0. Catapult can function as a proxy at the Windows Socket level-supporting any socket-based application (including most Internet applications) or as a direct Web proxy. Final distribution plans for this product were not clear at press time-check Microsoft's NT Server Web page (http://www.microsoft.com/ntserver) for the latest information.

[ Go to 2,001 Tips Table of Contents ]