Overview
This is the first Windows NT version to adopt the names Windows NT Workstation and Windows NT Server for its editions. The editions of the previous Windows NT release, Windows NT 3.1, were named Windows NT and Windows NT Advanced Server. The Workstation edition allowed only 10 concurrent clients to access the file server and no Mac clients. The Server edition included all of the functions and network options.
Windows NT 3.5 included integrated Winsock and TCP/IP support. The initial commercially available version of Windows NT, version 3.1, included only a proprietary and quite incomplete implementation of TCP/IP based on the AT&T UNIX System V "Streams" API. The TCP/IP and IPX/SPX stacks in Windows NT 3.5 are rewritten. NetBIOS over TCP/IP (NetBT) support as a compatibility layer for TCP/IP was introduced as also the Microsoft DHCP and WINS clients and DHCP and WINS servers.
Windows NT 3.5 can share files through FTP and printers through LPR and act as Gopher, Web, and WAIS servers. The Windows NT 3.5 Resource Kit included the first implementation of Microsoft DNS. Windows NT 3.5 included Remote Access Service for remote dial-up modem access to LAN services using either SLIP or PPP protocols.
Other new features in Windows NT 3.5 include VFAT (ability to use long file names of up to 255 characters), and support for I/O completion ports. It featured a new startup screen. The interface was updated to be consistent with the Windows for Workgroups 3.xx. It also upgraded Object Linking and Embedding (OLE) support from version 1.0 to version 2.0 and is more efficient - performance is higher and it requires less memory than Windows NT 3.1.
Windows NT 3.5 did not support laptop computers as it had no drivers for PCMCIA adapter cards.
In July 1995, Windows NT 3.5 with Service Pack 3 was rated by the National Security Agency as complying with TCSEC C2 criteria.
Windows NT 3.5 refuses to install on a processor newer than the original Pentium (P5 core). Windows NT 3.51 fixed this. It is however possible to modify files on the install CD which will allow it to install.
Read more about this topic: Windows NT 3.5