<<< DECWET::DOCD$:[NOTES$LIBRARY]WINDOWS-NT.NOTE;1 >>> -< Windows NT >- ================================================================================ Note 4369.15 WNT Workstation 3.51 ==> WNT Server 3.51 Upgrade ? 15 of 18 EDSCLU::JAYAKUMAR 92 lines 9-SEP-1996 13:54 -< Workstation or Server? Whats in a name? >- -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Simple way found to turn NT Workstation into Server By Eamonn Sullivan What really separates Windows NT Server 4.0 from Windows NT Workstation 4.0? Less than you'd think, apparently. Microsoft Corp. claims the Server and Workstation versions of its Windows NT operating system are designed differently and specifically tuned for different tasks, but, according to a study to be released Monday, two simple changes to Windows NT's Registry (where configuration information is stored) are all that are needed to change an NT Workstation to an NT Server. O'Reilly and Associates, a Sebastopol, Calif., publishing and software development company that has butted heads with Microsoft recently over the licensing restrictions in Windows NT Workstation 4.0, will post an article Monday at http://software.ora.com/news detailing the results of research done by Mark Russinovich, a consulting associate for Open Systems Resources Inc. Officials of Microsoft, in Redmond, Wash., could not be reached for comment Friday. According to Andrew Schulman, a senior editor at O'Reilly, Russinovich discovered that a single undocumented—but easily accessible—Registry setting was all that separated the Server and Workstation versions of Windows NT 3.51. In Version 4.0, two registry settings are needed, and Microsoft has gone to some effort to hide those registry settings. The settings are accessible, however, with a little bit of programming. Other than those settings, the only differences between Workstation and Server are the bundled programs, such as Internet Information Server, a Domain Naming System administration tool, and utilities for managing NT-based networks. The kernel files, such as NTOSKRNL.EXE, KERNEL32.DLL, HAL.DLL, SRV.SYS and TCPIP.SYS, are identical in Workstation and Server, Schulman said. PC Week Labs tested a utility written by Russinovich that changes the settings he discovered. It works. O'Reilly officials said they do not plan to release the utility. "We don't want to encourage individuals to break their license agreement," Schulman said. "We want Microsoft to change its policy." When PC Week Labs ran the utility on Windows NT Workstation 4.0, NT displayed a dialog box that warned us that we were violating the license agreement. "The system has detected tampering with your registered product type," the dialog box said. "This is a violation of your software license. Tampering with [sic] product type is not permitted." Once we ran the utility, however, and rebooted the system, Windows NT Workstation became Server, right down to the product type displayed on the system "Start" menu. Microsoft applications that are designed to run only on Server, such as BackOffice and Internet Information Server, installed and ran. Two weeks ago, we had tested the difference in performance between NT Workstation and Server by running Netscape Communications Corp.'s Enterprise Server 2.0 on both products. There was a performance difference. Enterprise Server was able to serve about 140 connections per second on NT Server, but only about 120 connections per second on Workstation. Once we ran the utility, however, the performance difference disappeared. O'Reilly, which makes the popular WebSite Web server, and other makers of third-party Web software for Windows NT, including Netscape, has been fighting with Microsoft over the license for Windows NT Workstation 4.0, which prohibits using Workstation as a dedicated Web server for more than 10 users at a time. To run a dedicated Web server, Microsoft said customers must run NT Server, which includes Microsoft's own Web server, Internet Information Server. TOP OF PAGE Search PC Week: Enter a word (or words) that describes your interest Copyright (c) 1996 Ziff-Davis Publishing Company. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part in any form or medium without express written permission of Ziff-Davis Publishing Company is prohibited. PC Week and the PC Week logo are trademarks of Ziff-Davis Publishing Company. PC Week Online and the PC Week Online logo are trademarks of Ziff-Davis Publishing Company. JF