Activating /W Switch to Prevent Rebooting in WinNT

• Microsoft Windows NT Workstation version 4.0
• Microsoft Windows NT Server version 4.0

SYMPTOMS

The /W switch no longer works with Winnt.exe in Windows NT 4.0.

CAUSE

In previous versions of Windows NT, Winnt.exe used the /W switch to prevent rebooting since this caused problems with the Intel i386 running under Windows 3.x. The switch was excluded as unnecessary from Windows NT 4.0, since the Intel i386 processor is not supported in that platform.

MORE INFORMATION

In certain situations it might be desirable to prevent Winnt.exe from rebooting after you copy files, so that you can do some postprocessing, especially when you started Winnt.exe from a batch file.

In previous versions of Windows NT, this could be done by using the /W switch with Winnt.exe. This switch does not work with Windows NT 4.0.

STATUS

Microsoft has confirmed this to be a problem in Windows NT version 4.0. This problem was corrected in the latest Microsoft Windows NT 4.0 U.S. Service Pack. For information on obtaining the service pack, query on the following word in the Microsoft Knowledge Base (without the spaces):

   S E R V P A C K