Windows NT 4.0 Service Pack and HotFixes
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A Service Pack (or SP) is an update of NT with a collection of the last HotFixes and some new features. It can be necessary for some new applications.
Today, the last Service Pack for Windows NT 4.0 is Service Pack 4. This SP has been released in november. But the Service Pack 3 can be considered always as the standard version today. SP3 is necessary today to install for example IE 4.01 or MsOffice 97.
The installation of a Service Pack can be hazardous with a blue screen after the first reboot. You can desinstall it if necessary using the 3 NT setup floppy disks.
All the informations about Service Pack are at the URL: http://support.microsoft.com/Support/NTServer/Content/ServicePacks/
with the place to download the last version. The Service Pack is common to NT 4
Workstation or Server but is different for each language.
You can download two different packages :
- Standart Download : nt4sp4i.exe ( 37 Mo )
- Full Download : Y2ksp4i.exe ( 74 Mo )
The Full Download is the Standard download + special Y2K updates
for the following components: Internet Explorer 4.01 Service Pack 1, Microsoft Data Access
Components (MDAC) 2.0 Service Pack 1, and/or Site Server Express 3.0.
You need always to update your emergency repair disk after installing a service pack.
You need also to reinstall the Service Pack after installing or reinstalling a NT service or a new protocol.
An Hotfix is a correction of bug beetween two Services Packs. It can correct a security bug or can be a functional bug.
Because it is not fully tested, Microsoft recommends to apply a hotfix " only to systems experiencing this specific problem.Unless you are severely impacted by this specific problem, Microsoft recommends that you wait for the next Service Pack that contains this fix. ". It's a very nice advice. Never forget also to read the documentation ( readme and Q file ).
You can find the list and the description of the last hotfixes at http://support.microsoft.com/support/ntserver/hotfixes.asp and http://support.microsoft.com/Support/NTServer/Hotfixes2.asp.
It's impossible to give a list of the more important hotfix, who will be never up-to-date.
You can download the hotfix at the url ftp://ftp.microsoft.com/bussys/winnt/winnt-public/fixes/usa/nt40/hotfixes-postSP4/ for the american version and at the url ftp://ftp.microsoft.com/bussys/winnt/winnt-public/fixes/$country$/nt40/hotfixes-postSP4 ( $country$ = ita , spa, fra, ger, usa ...) for the other versions. If this server is unreachable, you can try ftp://198.105.232.37/fixes/ .
In general, an international hotfix is released always after a usa hotfix. This can be very embarrassing if the hotfix corects a security bug. It's very important to have all your servers and sensitives computers with an usa NT version and not a local version.
In general a reboot is necessary after installing each hotfix. To update your Emergence
Repair Disk can be usefull too.