Unboxing Windows NT 3.1 Advanced Server

edited September 2015 in Software
Coinciding with NT 3.1 Workstation shown earlier, this is the server version. I don't recall the original price but it wasn't cheap buying it back in 1993 or even now (~$300). This is the USA release of it.

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As you can see it's a decent sized box, and weighs about the same as MS Office at the time.

Similar to Workstation, you have a choice of 3.5" floppy or CD-ROM installation. The 5.25" disks were used separately - one for floppy disk installation which requires Disk 1 from the 3.5" set anyway, and the other for CD-ROM installation. I also noticed the paper slips for the 5.25" disks wasn't the normal paper as the Workstation version. It appeared to be rice paper as you'd see used for origami.

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A VHS tape was also included that ran for about an hour. A YouTube copy is available here:
https://youtu.be/soGFCr9erMg

The lighter printed material. It's the only time I've seen a Microsoft registration card offering a chance to win a holiday. If you won, it was a return trip for two flying to Florida and a three day cruise to Nassau in the Bahamas.

The card (top left of the photo) was to obtain a free copy of NT 3.1 Advanced Server for the DECpc AXP 150 system using the Alpha AXP processor. This was obtained via Digital Equipment Corp. instead of Microsoft. Another form was to obtain the 5.25" floppy version, though unlike Workstation you didn't need to rip the manual for it.

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The back of the Marketplace booklet with its fair share of advertising:

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Lastly, there's the manuals and plenty of it!

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The bulkier books are to the back in the photo. Starting from the front, the 'Roadmap' book is an overview of the other manuals, and provides an explanation to each of the icons you see from within Program Manager. 'TCP/IP' covers the protocol itself, SNMP, DNS, FTP, etc.'Comprehensive Index' is an index to refer to for finding a particular topic within all the manuals.

Some of the other manuals are self-explanatory, though the 'Messages' book ain't anything about communications. It's a 500 page guide on error and system information messages throughout the operating system. A couple of examples are:
STOP: 0X00000046 (paremeter, parameter, parameter, parameter)
DEREF_UNKNOWN_LOGON_SESSION
[Executive Stop]

This is a Windows NT Executive character-mode STOP message. It indicates a token was created that was not part of any known logon session.

Restart your computer. If this message reappears, do not restart. Contact your system administrator or technical support group, and/or peripheral devices vendor.
Cannot carry out the Word Wrap command because there is too much text in the file.
[Notepad]

Because you computer is low on memory, Notepad cannot wrap the text that you have typed.

To free memory, close one or more of the applications that you have running, then try again.

Comments

  • Oh! great package.

    I wonder you dumped it.
  • No, I'm sure the copy on WinWorld had been around for some time, and was uploaded by someone else. I've downloaded it before and it's fine.
  • No, I'm sure the copy on WinWorld had been around for some time, and was uploaded by someone else. I've downloaded it before and it's fine.


    I hope you to dump floppy disk images if you have a time.
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