I just tried installing Windows NT 4.0 Workstation under VMware. Wow, 
that was an experience.

I've installed this damned thing so many times during the course of 
working here that my fingers actually remember the license key. I can 
almost install it on autopilot.

The really amazing thing is... Jesus it's fast! O_O

Seriously, back when I was regularly having to install this, our 
standard PC consisted of a Gigabyte GA-5AX motherboard with an AMD K6-II 
at 500 MHz, 128 MB RAM, an S3 Trio3D/2X graphics card, and an SMC 1211TX 
network card. (Yes, I can actually remember all of that off the top of 
my head. I set them up enough times. Note also the complete lack of a 
sound card!)

On such a system (some of which lacked a CD-ROM drive to keep costs 
down), setting up Windows NT was at least a one-day operation. Just 
waiting for the text-mode portion of the OS install to finish would 
typically take 20 to 30 minutes. Formatting the HD would take forever 
too. But, under VMware, the text-mode portion lasted less than 120 
*seconds*. 8-O Now that's what I call fast!

For those of you who haven't had the misfortune of trying to install 
Windows NT, allow me to elaborate:

- Boot the CD. Windows XP gives you the little "press any key to boot 
this CD or wait X seconds to boot normally", but NT just boots into the 
installer, weather you meant to or not.

- You get that classy blue VGA text-mode display while setup "inspects" 
your PC. This usually takes about 40 seconds, but under VMware takes 
more like 4 seconds.

- Multiple warnings tell you that no OS is detected and if there *is* in 
fact an OS, the installer isn't seeing it and so will probably destroy 
it. (Remember that Windows NT can be installed on the same FAT partition 
as Windows 95 or 98 for a dual-boot configuration.)

- Accept the license agreement. (You must repeatedly press PGDW to get 
to the bottom before you can press F8 to accept.)

- Tell it what partition. Note that since you're installing Windows SP0, 
it doesn't "know" about harddrives larger than 4GB. (Yes, if you 
remember, the BIOS calls hadn't been invented yet back then. HDs 
routinely had a "cap disable" jumper to turn off the extra capacity for 
software that couldn't handle it too.) If you have a HD larger than 4GB, 
it will be detected as exactly 4GB.

- Specify whether you want to format with FAT or the (then-new) NTFS 
filesystem. Note that even if you select NTFS, the partition is still 
formatted with FAT.

- Wait for all the files to be copied onto the HD. Usually this takes 
several lifetimes (i.e., about 30 minutes), but VMware (using an ISO 
image on HD rather than a physical CD) managed it in under 2 seconds.

- Remove the CD, reboot. (If you don't remove the CD, the installer will 
start again!)

- The Windows NT boot screen appears. If you selected to format with 
NTFS, then Windows will now convert the existing FAT partition with all 
your files on it to NTFS like you actually asked for. (WTF?) Presumably 
because the text-mode installer doesn't grok NTFS yet or something...

- Once the filesystem has been converted to NTFS, the system reboots 
again. Next time it boots, a message states that "the filesystem is 
already NTFS", and the GUI installer portion [eventually] begins.

- Now you have to put the install CD back in, and another bunch of files 
are copied off it.

- Next you have to type in the license key. Then the installer attempts 
to detect the network card. Assuming your network card is older than 20 
years, this works, otherwise Windows will claim no card exists. If you 
want to install a driver, you need to have a floppy disk with the driver 
on it. (NT4 does not support Plug & Play yet.) Amazingly, whatever card 
VMware uses *is* detected and used. (Although you still have to press 
lots of buttons to make it happen.)

- Now more things install, which again usually takes hours but VMware 
makes it near instant. Finally, remove the CD and reboot for the final time.

- Windows is now installed. Bask in its glorious 16-colour 640x480 
graphical majesty. (At least, until you manually install the correct 
video driver by opening the graphics properties window, selecting 
"install driver" and "have disk" and manually navigating to where the 
INI file is stored...)

- Now update Windows, preferably to the latest available version: 
Service Pack 6a. This is avilable in both "export" and "high encryption" 
versions, due to the old US export laws that forced Microsoft to export 
various software with only 40-bit encryption.

- Once Windows has rebooted (the boot screen helpfully tells you the SP 
level), Windows can now access the full capacity of the harddrive. (But 
now it's too late to resize any partitions you may already have...)

- Oh wow, Internet Explorer 1.0. Black text on a grey background. Cheesy 
Windows 3 style buttons. Yuck! Time to update that. The latest version 
you can update it to, AFAIK, is version 6 SP1. (This obviously requires 
*another* reboot...)

At this point, Windows still won't come out of 16-colour mode. Not until 
I figure out what video card VMware is emulating and then find some 
Windows NT drivers for it - assuming that any were ever written... Isn't 
all this fun? :-}

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