What does NT stand for?

John Savill

Windows IT Pro

InstantDoc ID #13461

Rating:

(4)

A. NT actually stands for Northern Telecom but Microsoft licensed it and in the Windows sense stands for New Technology. Its also interesting to note its heritage
RSX -> VMS -> ELN -> NT all major designs of David Cutler
Also VMS +1 letter = WNT (Windows NT) :-) (aka HAL and IBM in 2001)

Another theory is that the NT acronym orginally came from the Engineers working on it. The acronym stands for N-Ten, the code name for the i860 chip that NT was being tested on.

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Ian

11 months ago
Mar 10, 2011

http://www.sharpened.net/helpcenter/answers/what_nt_stands_for
It says on this web site this, "The NT in Windows NT stands for "New Technology." Windows NT was built with primarily the same interface as Windows 95, but included new technology such as preemptive multitasking and was the first 32-bit version of the Windows operating system. Some argue that because of the new networking options included with Windows NT, the abbreviation stands for "Networking Technology." However the official meaning of NT, according to Microsoft, is "New Technology."

Windows NT was originally developed to be a a reliable and scalable operating system for businesses. However, the NT kernel later became the foundation of Windows 2000 and then Windows XP, which is available in both Home and Professional versions."
I do not know how accurate it is though.
Anonymous User

8 years ago
Oct 17, 2004

I was always told by IBM NT Kernel engineers that it stood for Non Trivial.
Rick Matthews

9 years ago
Nov 19, 2003

Are there any other possible definitions for the initials "NT" that you have heard of? I'm curious because this seems a little too simple for the technology involved. Thanks for your help.

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