READ: In the Beginning There was DOS: A History of WinNT

- Microsoft first previewed NT in early 1992 to several developers, and they were enthusiastic about the product. It used the standard Windows 3.1 Program Manager, making it very easy to use (or at least as easy to use as Windows 3.1).

NT also included support for most Windows applications and text based OS/2 applications. NT also had a DOS virtual machine (or an emulator for non x86 machines) so it could run DOS applications as well.

Ah, yes. Easy to forget that NT actually preceded Win95. Remember how MS and IBM originally set out to develop OS/2 as partners? How about that whole PS/2 Micro Channel Architecture fiasco?

Had the release version of NT met MS design goals, W95/98/ME might never have seen the light of day. Wouldn't that have saved us some grief!