Windows NT Workstation, Windows 2000 Professional, and Windows XP Professional

Windows NT Workstation, Windows 2000, and Windows XP Professional were introduced to provide robust, secure, high-performance alternatives to Microsoft's other workstation operating systems, such as Windows 95, Windows 98, and Windows Me. Since the introduction of Windows NT Workstation as a business-oriented operating system, Microsoft has succeeded it with two other versions: Windows 2000 Professional and its latest offering, Windows XP Professional.

Built on the same basic building blocks as Windows NT Server, these products are popular in corporate environments where local workstation security is as important as the security of the server. Windows NT Workstation, Windows 2000, and Windows XP Professional use the same authentication mechanisms as their corresponding server products, and they support NTFS for file system security.

Application support for Windows NT Workstation, Windows 2000 Professional, and Windows XP Professional

Application support for Windows NT Workstation, Windows 2000, and Windows XP Professional Workstation is very high, although certain applications are simply not supported. All the operating systems discussed in this chapter have the ability to support DOS applications and 16-bit and 32-bit Windows applications, as well as some other platforms. In general, this compatibility works flawlessly, although certain applications can cause problems. One such problem is that any application that interfaces directly with hardware won't work. This is because Windows NT Workstation, Windows 2000, and Windows XP Professional have a special set of drivers that intercept calls made to the hardware. Only applications that understand the function of these drivers and know how to interface with them can be used on these systems.