Windows NT 4.0

Windows NT 4.0 (codenamed Shell Update Release) is a major release of Windows NT, the successor to Windows NT 3.51, released a year prior, and the first version of Windows NT to feature the Windows Explorer interface introduced in Windows 95. It is the last version of Windows NT to include NT in its product name. It is also the final version of Windows which supports the Alpha, MIPS, and PowerPC architectures; its successor, Windows 2000 does not support these architectures.

The Windows Desktop Update further enhances the shell by incorporating features from Windows 98. Support for 386 processors has been dropped in this version, and this decision was made very early on as build 1130 already has a CPU check in place.

Debug versions of Windows NT 4.0 have the Start button text changed to "Unicode Debug".

Editions
There are several editions of Windows NT 4.0:


 * Workstation
 * Server
 * Server, Enterprise Edition
 * Server, Terminal Server Edition
 * Embedded

Service Packs
There were 6 service packs released for Windows NT 4.0. Only Service Pack 1 was made available for the MIPS architecture, and Service Pack 2 was the final release for the PowerPC architecture. The last had been pulled by Microsoft due to a severe bug, which results in the revised Service Pack 6a. There was a 7th Service Pack planned, but it was canceled and an Update Rollup was released instead in 2001.

Product Team credits Easter egg
Windows NT 4.0 contains the Product Team credits Easter egg from Windows 95. Like in Windows 95, it is implemented in, and the steps to show it are much the same as in Windows 95; create a new folder and renaming it to each of the following names in order:
 * and now, the moment you've all been waiting for
 * we proudly present for your viewing pleasure
 * The Microsoft Windows NT Product Team!

The only main difference from the one in Windows 95 is that any references to "95" are replaced with "NT".

The text is in 's resource   and XORed with   as an obfuscation measure. For similar reasons, the Easter egg folder names are stored in the  section of   as custom hashes of the old folder name concatenated with the new folder name. This was implemented by build 1175 and there shows the "SUR Shell Team" and "SUR Shell Test Team"; at some point after that the text was replaced by a message informing that "you won't find the credits here".