Windows NT 3.5 build 612

Windows NT 3.5 build 612 is the official Beta 1 release of Windows NT 3.5 and is the earliest available build of the operating system. It is available in the English and Japanese languages. Installation requires a creation of boot disks to install this build. Alternatively, upgrading from Windows NT 3.1 is possible.

New features and changes

 * Similar to many builds of Chicago, this build comes with the WinBug report utility. However, it does not have a program group entry unless the user chooses to set up applications on the disk in Setup.
 * now shows the Windows flag inside a real flag.
 * A new boot entry is available to boot the system with standard VGA graphics. This can be helpful if there are problems with graphics drivers or resolution settings.
 * has been updated to be visually identical to what is seen when the user selects "Help" > "About" in most of the pre-installed programs. Also, the copyright date has been updated from 1985-1993 to 1985-1994.
 * This is the first build to ship with "Windows NT Diagnostics".

Logoff/Shutdown

 * An option to shut down or restart the computer has been added to the login prompt. Previously, the user needs to log in to the system to shut down or restart the computer. This only applies to computers who joined a workgroup and not a domain.
 * When closing Program Manager or selecting "Log off..." from the window menu, options to shut down and restart the computer have been added alongside to the logoff option. This will however not affect the "Log off..." option in the File menu, where it still has the Windows 3.x-esque layout.
 * The shut down prompt has been altered to have radio buttons for "Shutdown" and "Shutdown and Restart". Previously, there was a checkbox to restart the computer when the shut down is complete.

Setup

 * This is the first known build to include the  launch parameter in   to allow installation inside NTVDM.
 * The installation media contains  for the first time to start Setup from within Windows NT.
 * can no longer be started from within Windows NT, 386 Enhanced Windows 3.x, Windows/386 2.x and the DOS prompt of OS/2. Users now need to exit their OS and start setup from MS-DOS or IBM PC-DOS. However, the user can use the aforementioned launch parameter to use it inside of NTVDM. This can be helpful if  does not work or is non-existent.
 * When starting text-mode Setup, it will warn about enhanced file system features for FAT and NTFS. When using these on Windows NT 3.1, a patch has to be applied. This patch is included on the installation media of this build and the final builds of Windows NT 3.5 and 3.51 in the  subfolder. To continue, the user has to press the F7 key. As of today, this and build 683 are the only builds to display this warning.
 * Setup now allows the user to manually select needed SCSI adapters instead of detecting them automatically. Alongside, support for IDE/ATAPI CD-ROM drives has been introduced.
 * When Setup completes, the user simply needs to press ↲ Enter instead of Ctrl after the floppy disk has been removed from the A: drive, if inserted.

Setup

 * Setup may hang when installing the TCP/IP transport.

NFO file
NFO contents