Roll With The Changes Part 2 - Text Based Setup

 I ended up with something like 50 screenshots from the setup process alone on this one.  I have, therefore, decided to break the installation up into three parts - Text based, GUI and then the driver/initial configuration sections.


Here be part 1:


This is where I jumped on to the Windows NT bandwagon.   I do not know if this is the installation method from previous versions.  I cannot imagine it would not be, but I currently do not know. I will probably, soon, download the previous versions from WinWorld and find out, but as of this writing this is the earliest I have seen this installer.


There isn't going to be a lot here for me to say, so this will mostly be a  string of screenshots.


Step one: Insert Setup Disk #1 and power on your computer.  If it is set to boot to a floppy first, this is what you are greeted with:

 Follow the prompts for your desired setup.  I went with the Custom Setup option.

 This one is here as it is since I am using Virtual PC.  Just wanted a screen of me Capturing a Floppy Image.

 

That is the worst of the setup done.  Restart and...

Roll With The Changes Part 1 - Overview

I have gotten Microsoft Windows NT 3.51 to install and boot in MS Virtual PC 2004 on an old laptop.  There are going to be more than a few long posts that follow this one.  I think I ended up with 98 screenshots and I have a little more I would like to do before I am finished with it. 

So, with that in mind here is part one...The specs and overview.


Windows NT 3.51

Windows NT 3.51 is the third release of Microsoft's Windows NT line of operating systems. It was released on 30 May 1995, nine months after Windows NT 3.5, and three months before the release of Windows 95. The release provided two notable feature improvements; firstly NT 3.51 was the first of a short-lived outing of Microsoft Windows on the PowerPC architecture. The second most significant enhancement offered through the release was that it provides client/server support for interoperating with Windows 95, which was released three months after NT 3.51. Windows NT 4.0 became its successor a year later; Microsoft continued to support Windows NT 3.51 until 31 December 2001.

Overview

The release of Windows NT 3.51 was dubbed "the PowerPC release" at Microsoft. The original intention was to release a PowerPC edition of NT 3.5, but according to Microsoft's David Thompson, "we basically sat around for 9 months fixing bugs while we waited for IBM to finish the Power PC hardware".[2] Editions of NT 3.51 were also released for the x86, MIPS, and Alpha architectures.
New features introduced in Windows NT 3.51 include PCMCIA support, NTFS file compression,[3] replaceable WinLogon (GINA), 3D support in OpenGL, persistent IP routes when using TCP/IP, automatic display of textual descriptions when the mouse pointer was placed on toolbar buttons ("tooltips") and support for Windows 95 common controls.[4]

In view of the significant difference in the kernel base, Windows NT 3.51 is readily able to run a large number of Win32 applications designed for Windows 95. More recent 32-bit applications will not work, as the developers have prevented their application from working with any Windows version earlier than Windows 98; also, because some applications do not work properly with the older Windows NT 3.51 interface.

Despite this, Microsoft in their application releases muddied the issue, releasing 32-bit versions of Microsoft Office right up to Office 97 SR2b, but relying upon 16-bit versions of Internet Explorer technology. This is probably because 32-bit versions of Internet Explorer 4.0 and later integrated with the Windows 95 desktop, and NT 3.51 still used the Windows 3.1 desktop. Thereafter, up to IE 5.0, but no later 5.x versions, were offered. However, the open-source SeaMonkey internet suite supported NT 3.51 through version 1.1.19, released on 16 March 2010; it requires a few manual file updates to work without compromising browsing security.[5][6][7]

NewShell

On 26 May 1995, Microsoft released a test version of a shell refresh, named the Shell Technology Preview, and often referred to informally as "NewShell". This was the first incarnation of the modern Windows GUI with the Taskbar and Start menu. It was designed to replace the Windows 3.x Program Manager/File Manager based shell with Windows Explorer-based graphical user interface. The release provided capabilities quite similar to that of the Windows "Chicago" (codename for Windows 95) shell during its late beta phases; however, it was intended to be nothing more than a test release.[8] There was a second public release of the Shell Technology Preview, called Shell Technology Preview Update made available to MSDN and CompuServe users on 8 August 1995. Both releases held Windows Explorer builds of 3.51.1053.1. The Shell Technology Preview program never saw a final release under NT 3.51. The entire program was moved across to the Cairo development group who finally integrated the new shell design into the NT code with the release of NT 4.0 in July 1996.

Five Service Packs were released for NT 3.51, which introduced both bug fixes and new features. Service Pack 5, for example, fixed issues related to the Year 2000 problem.

NT 3.51 was the last of the series to run on an Intel 80386 processor. This, its ability to use HPFS partitions (which Windows 2000 and later could not),[9] and its ability to run at least some of the common control API, means that it still finds a place for occasional use on older machines. Windows NT 3.51, like other versions of Windows NT 3.x, has some compatibility with OS/2 1.x Applications; however, only text mode applications were supported.

Hardware Requirements

Windows NT 3.51 hardware requirements
Processor -Intel 386 or 486 at 25 MHz
Memory  - Workstation edition: 12 MB, Server edition: 16 MB
Video card  - VGA
Hard disk drive standard - IDE, EIDE, SCSI or ESDI
Free hard disk drive space - 90 MB
Installation media - CD-ROM drive, 1.44 MB or 1.2 MB floppy disk drive or active network connection

I Did Not Say Much, I Just Stood There Watching As That .45 Told Them Goodbye

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy has a few things to say on the subject of towels.
A towel, it says, is the most massively useful thing an interstellar hitchhiker can have. Partly it has great practical value. You can wrap it around you for warmth as you bound he cold moons of Jaglon Beta; you can lie on it on the brilliant marble-sanded beaches of Santraginus V, inhaling the heady sea vapors; you can sleep under it beneath the stars which shine so redly on the desert world of Kafrofoon; use it to sail a miniraft down the slow heavy River Moth; wet it for hand-to-hand combat; wrap it round your head to ward off noxious fumes or to avoid the gaze of the Ravenous Bugblatter Beast of Traal (a mind-bogglingly stupid animal--daft as a brush, but very very ravenous); you can wave your towel in emergencies as a distress signal, and of course dry yourself off with it if it still seems to be clean enough.
More importantly, a towel has immense psychological value. For some reason, if a strag (strag: non-hitchhiker) discovers that a hitchhiker has a towel with him, he will automatically assume that he is also in possession of a toothbrush, washcloth, soap, tin of biscuits, flask, compass, map, ball of string, gnat spray, wet-weather gear, space suit etc., etc. Furthermore, the strag will then happily lend the hitchhiker any of these or a dozen other items that a hitchhiker might accidentally have "lost." What the strag will think is that any man who can hitch the length and breadth of the Galaxy, rough it, slum it, struggle against terrible odds, win through and still know where his towel is, it is clearly as man to be reckoned with. Hence a phrase that has passed into hitchhiking slang, as in "Hey, you sass that hoopy Ford Prefect? There's a frood who really knows where his towel is." (Sass: know, be aware of, meet, have sex with; hoopy: really together guy; frood: really amazingly together guy.)
"If you want to survive in life, you've got to know where your towel is."

She’s No Lady She’s My Wife

interesting day today
worked...sucked
sat about at a gradiaton party
went to starbucks with some peoples
went back to said party
watched a bit of the princess bride
went shopping with the previously mentioned people
got a new led zeppelin shirt while shopping with the peoples in question
decided that one of the peoples in question was most probably one of the most awesome peoples i have ever met
i won't name the senorita though
;)

*Author’s Note: The title was added in February of 2018.  I no longer have any idea who the senorita in question is…I sort of wish now that I had named here in this post.*