Microsoft’s 32-bit operating system family that began with WindowsNT 3.1 in 1993 and evolved through NT 4.0, the Windows 2000 Server family (NT 5.x), and up to Windows XP/Server 2003.
It introduced:
- A preemptive multitasking kernel with protected memory.
- New Technology File System (NTFS)
- A user-mode / kernel-mode separation and device driver model.
- Built-in security architecture (user accounts, Groups, Windows Access Control Lists (ACL)).
- Support for network Protocols such as SMB/CIFS and the early versions of Active Directory (AD).