Jump to content

Windows NT4 proper device manager, USB and others?


ruthan

Recommended Posts

Hello,
i started to experimenting with NT4 but i missing device manager from Win95/98+ is there any way how to use it, or some 3rd party replacement?

Edited by ruthan
Link to comment
Share on other sites


I really don't know if there's a 3rd party replacement, but I do know for a fact that Windows NT4 lacked a device manager straight from the factory. You literally have to go into the places you want to install drivers to via control panel i.e. sound and multimedia for sound drivers, display for video drivers, etc.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

23 hours ago, roytam1 said:

because it is unnecessarily since NT4 is not a PnP-aware OS.

Yep, you're right on that one. It didn't even come with USB support at all, none of the versions did that I know of, but I do think unofficial USB drivers exist somewhere.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

NT4 supports up to DirectX 3 officially, and unofficially DX5 (?), as well as Glide/OpenGL. It can also run at least DOSBox 0.72. I think 0.74-2 is possible if the Windows Desktop Update (IE4+ shell) is installed.

Best results will be with 2D early win32 games; I have played SimCity 2000 for Windows 95 and Microsoft Pinball Arcade successfully. Quake also works on NT4.

I just set it up on my ThinkPad T41 and it runs very smoothly; only matched by Windows 2000 and far more stable than 9x.

For specific games, here's a very-detailed Windows game compatibility list:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B9ZuEpGojQ-JTldJdnFlZUdLamc/view

Edited by win32
Link to comment
Share on other sites

9x runs very stable on my T41.  T41 a stable machine.  Then again I used 98se + Sp3 + 98se2Me + Revolutions pack 9.  So that makes 9x very stable.  Anyways T41 has full driver support on 9x and Nt4 probably not any.

Edited by Destro
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Actually a full slate of drivers is available for NT4:

https://thinkpads.com/support/Thinkpad-Drivers/download.lenovo.com/lenovo/content/ddfm/T41.html

Along with 9x, it even has a driver for the hardware MIDI synth, which 2000/XP doesn't have.
 

I did run a similar 98SE configuration, except for 98SE2ME. It did run well but I had issues when loading a great deal of fonts (Office 2000 + CorelDraw) with the shell really slowing down (I didn't bother with 98lite) and would BSOD when dealing with some of my older scratched-up DVD-Rs, whilst win2k remained stable in both cases.

I'll probably put 98SE (with 98SE2ME and 98lite) and win2k back on there in addition to NT4.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 4 weeks later...

Here is my "device managers" based on MS SetupAPI and Configuration Manager API. works with win95-98-me, winnt4, win2000, xp, 2003 and newer (mfcex3.exe works with nt 3.51)

As for PNP in NT4 - if PNPISA driver installed and you have PNP ISA card detected some semi-PNP is working.

requires cfgmgr32.dll setupapi.dll in windows/system(system32).

setupapi.7z

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...