RC Designations of the Windows NT Kernel Versions

ID: Q246547

The information in this article applies to:

Microsoft Windows NT 4.0

SUMMARY

This article describes the service pack designation you may see when you start your computer, similar to:

RC 1.x

MORE INFORMATION

This designation occurs during the blue startup screen and indicates that a hotfix you installed has a newer version of the Windows NT Kernel (Ntoskrnl.exe) than the kernel included in the service pack.

The version of the kernel is not part of an official release or service pack version. This does not change the version of Windows NT, just the version of the kernel.

The following registry key holds this designation information:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\CSDVersion

The following table contains some of the RC numbers and the version of Ntoskrnl.exe provided in the hotfixes:


   KB Article   Version of NTOSKRNL.EXE   RC Designation   Service Pack
   --------------------------------------------------------------------
   Q180648      4.0.1381.20               1.35             3
   Q234557      4.0.1387.32985            1.1              4
   Q216913      4.0.1381.135              1.2              4
   Q232230      4.0.1381.284              1.6              4
   Q235350      4.0.1381.284              1.6              4

For additional information about hotfix versions, click the article number below to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

Q222507 Incorrect Service Pack Level Displayed After Hotfix Applied

Because Ntoskrnl.exe populates the CSDVersion value when you start your computer with this embedded information, the incorrect value is displayed.

The presence of the incorrect version string does not mean that the service pack is installed improperly, or that a component has been replaced with an earlier version.

To verify that the hotfixed component is in place, check the "last modified" date and time of the fixed component in your installation with the last modified date and time of the same file in the last service pack applied or of the same file in the hotfix installation directory.

Additional query words:

Keywords : kbui prodNT4OP
Version : winnt:4.0
Platform : winnt
Issue type : kbprb