The beta of Microsoft® Windows NT® version 5.0 provides corrections for problems reported with earlier versions of Windows NT and introduces new features. The following table describes the new features documented in the Platform SDK for Windows NT 5.0 beta 1.
| Feature | Description |
|---|---|
| Asynchronous Remote Procedure Calls (RPC) | Asynchronous RPC allows your programs to handle multiple outstanding calls from a single-threaded client and prevent data transmission bottlenecks that can arise from slow or delayed clients or servers. With asynchronous pipe parameters, Client/Server applications can transfer large amounts of data incrementally, without blocking the client or server threads from performing other tasks. |
| Certificate Server | Certificate Server provides customizable services for issuing and managing certificates used in software security systems employing public-key cryptography. Certificate Server performs a central role in the management of software security systems to enable secure communications across the Internet, corporate Intranets, and other networks that are not secured. |
| Class store | The class store enables central deployment and management of applications, components, and services across multiple computers. |
| Collaboration Data Objects (CDO) for Windows NT Server | The Collaboration Data Objects for NTS Library exposes objects that allow a server application written in Microsoft Visual Basic®, C/C++, or Java to send and receive e-mail messages. |
| COM error handling | Almost all COM functions and interface methods return a value of the type HRESULT. For more information, see COM Error Handling. |
| Common controls: extended combo box, date and time picker, IP address, month calendar, and rebar | ComboBoxEx controls are an extension of the combo box control that provides native support for item images. Date and Time Picker controls exchange date and time information with a user. IP Address controls allow the user to provide an IP address in an easily understood format. Month Calendar controls provide a calendar-like user interface. Pager controls allow the user to scroll to the area of a window that is not currently in view. Rebar controls act as containers for child windows. |
| Common control technologies: custom draw and flat scroll bars | Custom Draw is a service provided by many common controls to allow an application greater flexibility in customizing a control's appearance. Flat Scroll Bars behave like normal scroll bars, but are not displayed three-dimensionally. |
| Disk quotas | Disk quotas enable administrators to control the amount of data that each user can store on an NTFS volume. |
| Encrypted File System (EFS) | The encrypted file system supports encrypting and decrypting files or directories on NTFS volumes, and backing up and restoring encrypted files or directories. |
| Generic Quality of Service (GQOS) | The generic quality of service interface uses QOS-enabled Windows Sockets 2 functions to establish network resource reservations and set traffic shaping policies for transmitting data. Applications designed to use the GQOS interface can invoke QOS transparently from any service provider. Both multicast and unicast sessions are supported by GQOS. |
| HTTP protocol sequence | The ncacn_http protocol allows client and server applications to communicate across the internet by using the Microsoft Internet Information Server (IIS) as a proxy. Because calls are tunneled through an established HTTP port, they can cross firewalls. |
| Index Server 3.0 | Index Server 3.0 indexes the contents of all drives on the computer where it is installed, allowing the user to search for any word or phrase on those drives. After beta 1, Index Server will be able to index any virtual servers created by the local Internet Information Server. |
| Lightweight client-side COM handlers | Lightweight client-side COM handlers are a new kind of COM handler. For more information, see Lightweight Client-side Handlers. For information about COM Handlers in general, see COM Handlers. |
| Link tracking | Link-tracking enables client applications to track link sources that have been moved. As a result, clients that subscribe to the link-tracking service can maintain the integrity of their references, and the objects referenced can be moved transparently. The link-tracking service in Windows NT 5.0 tracks link sources for shell shortcuts and OLE links within NTFS version 5.0 volumes. |
| Windows installer | Microsoft's new installation and component management technology supports just-in-time installation. As the user works, the required features and components are installed on the local hard drive only when needed. |
| Microsoft Management Console (MMC) | The Microsoft Management Console is an extensible user interface that provides an environment for running systems management applications, which are structured as components called snap-ins. |
| Multiple display monitors | A single interactive window station can support multiple display monitors. |
| Native Structured Storage (NSS) | Native Structured Storage (NSS) is a new implementation of structured storage. It is supported through the new StgCreateStorageEx and StgOpenStorageEx functions. Structured Storage now provides a consolidation feature, a simple mode, and a multiple-reader, single-writer, direct mode. For more information, see the STGC enumeration, the STGM enumeration, and the StgOpenStorage function. |
| RAS and Routing Service | The Routing and Remote Access Service enables you to administer routers and RAS servers, and to develop your own routing protocols for Windows NT routers. |
| Reparse points | A reparse point is a mechanism for associating additional data with a file or directory on an NTFS volume. The reparse data can affect how the NTFS file system traverses a path. |
| RPC name service | The RPC Name Service (Locator) uses the Active Directory as its database. This means that exported entries can be made persistent even when a server is rebooted. For more information, see RpcNsBindingExport, RpcNsBindingImportNext, RpcNsBindingLookupBegin, and RpcNsBindingUnexport. |
| Smart Card | The Smart Card Subsystem integrates smart cards with Microsoft Windows® platforms. It provides a standard model for interfacing smart card readers and cards with PCs, a device-independent interface for enabling smart-card-aware applications, and familiar tools for software development. |
| Sparse files | Sparse files on NTFS volumes contain unallocated ranges of bytes that are assumed to contain zeroes. |
| TAPI 3.0 | Telephony Application Programming Interface (TAPI) 3.0 is based on the Component Object Model (COM) and uses Microsoft® DirectShow™ filters to provide access to the media. |
| Transaction Server | Microsoft® Transaction Server (MTS) is a component-based transaction processing system for developing, deploying, and managing high-performance, scalable, and robust enterprise, Internet, and Intranet server applications. |
| Zero Administration for Windows | The Zero Administration for Windows initiative is a collection of guidelines and technologies that give developers the tools to make their applications easy to manage in a large enterprise environment. This both gives the applications a significant competitive advantage in the enterprise marketplace and helps reduce the Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) of Microsoft Windows workstations. |
The following table describes new features in existing areas.
| Existing Area | Feature |
|---|---|
| Access Control | New access control functions enable you to control access to directory service objects and their properties. You can also control access to objects on systems other than Windows NT. |
| Microsoft® ActiveX™ controls | The ActiveX Controls have been enhanced to take advantage of the functionality of Internet Explorer 4.0. |
| Base services | Support for job objects, which are groups of processes that can be managed as a unit. Extensions to the Service Control Manager (see QueryServiceConfig2 and ChangeServiceConfig). Extensions to the file system functions to support hard links (see CreateHardLink). Support for converting a short path to a long path (see GetLongPathName). |
| COM security | Delegation-level impersonation, mutual authentication, per-AppID authentication are now supported. In addition, the documentation on COM security is greatly expanded. For more information, see Security in COM. |
| COM tutorial | The COM Tutorial Sample series is directed to serve advanced programmers who are using their proficiency in C++ programming to develop or modify systems-level software using COM (Component Object Model) technology. These advanced samples show how to program components at the foundation level of COM. Neither MFC nor ATL is used in the samples. The topics range from basic COM object construction to Distributed COM. |
| Common controls | For information about updated common controls, see the following topics:
|
| Cryptographic API | Version 2.0 of the Cryptographic API (CryptoAPI) provides services that enable application developers to add authentication, encoding, and encryption to their applications. In addition, the section Microsoft Cryptographic Service Providers contains information about implementations of cryptographic algorithms and standards. |
| Microsoft® DirectX® | DirectX 5 provides updated Microsoft® DirectDraw® and Microsoft® DirectInput®, and multiple monitor support. For more information, see New for Windows 98 and Windows NT 5.0.. |
| GDI services | Alpha blending to display bitmaps that have transparent or semitransparent pixels. Smooth shading to shade a region with a color gradient. Support for setting and retrieving the color of the pen or brush selected into a device context. New bitmap information header, BITMAPV5HEADER. |
| Internet Information Server | Internet Information Server (IIS), is now installed and runs as a native Windows NT service. |
| National language, font, and Unicode support | Additional functions for IME, to get code page information (GetCPInfoEx), and to get the Unicode characters supported by a font (GetFontUnicodeRanges). |
| Networking services | Support for locating domain controllers, servers, and workstations in a directory service. For more information, see Directory Service (Ds) Functions. |
| Power management | To save power and ensure that no data is lost when a computer or device is turned off or placed in a low power state, Windows provides power management support. Windows NT 5.0 supports OnNow Power Management. |
| Printing and Print Spooler | Support for publishing printer configuration data in the Windows NT directory service, and extended functions to provide greater flexibility in adding or upgrading printer drivers. For more information, see AddPrinterDriverEx, DeletePrinterDataEx, DeletePrinterDriverEx, DeletePrinterKey, EnumPrinterDataEx, EnumPrinterKey, GetPrinterDataEx, and SetPrinterDataEx. |
| Proxy Server | Proxy Server 2.0 tightly integrates with the Windows NT Server platform and Internet Information Server to deliver high-performance Internet access. |
| RPC/MIDL | MIDL now supports DBCS, TLB file generation has been significantly improved, and all type library attributes are supported. See Type Library Attributes for more information. |
| SNMP | The Microsoft SNMP service for Windows NT 5.0 adds support for new SNMP extension agent and utility functions. For additional information, see New SNMP Programming Elements. Support for the Windows SNMP Manager Application Programming Interface (the WinSNMP Manager API), version 1.1a, is available for SNMP-based network management applications that execute in the Windows NT operating environment, version 4.0 and later. |
| User interface services | Special effects when showing or hiding windows. Support for clipboard sequence numbers. Improvements to support for flashing windows (see FlashWindowEx). Retrieving the history of mouse and pen coordinates (see GetMouseMovePoints). Support for locking the workstation programmatically (see LockWorkStation). Support for the new HSHELL_ACCESSIBILITYSTATE hook code (see ShellProc). |
| Windows Sockets | Windows Sockets Version 2 programming functions and data structures provide developers of any Microsoft Windows application with access to standard network services, including transport protocols, drivers, and network media. |