IPV6 Support
You need to install IPV6 support if you want to get on the internet after somewhere around January 2012. Otherwise you will not be able to get on the internet.
unfortunately, I just found out that the IPV6 support for NT4 is unstable. so this OS is relatively hopeless.
usability
this OS will soon be no longer usable.
Printer availability
printers may no longer be available for windows NT or very scarce. no new ones are available.
But I will say that a new machine from a computer store costs $500-$800 for a quad core or 6-core AMD with a 1-2TB hard drive and 6GB-16GB RAM. and 2.8GHz. That's nothing to sneeze at. Those are ZT Affinity Desktops, and they are available at Costco and Wal-Mart.
small disk size limit?
If I remember right, NT4 had a 4GB then an 8.4GB disk size limitation, and if I remember right, only after applying a service pack. I was wrong. If you use drivers, you can support LBA and get NO MORE THAN 128GiB (137GB). "any attempt to create a larger partition can result in data loss." see article.
microsoft OS's [not] limited to 32 processors
also in winnt.h I found #define MAXIMUM_PROCESSORS 32.
This explains why microsoft OS's are not used in SMP systems.
We now have the i7, a 4-core processor that thinks it's 8 through hyperthreading.
There was something special I learned about the number of processors that I can't tell you, but it may be invalid nowadays anyway since code has become more and more multithreaded.
I found out by someone who writes mingw that that is not what this is for.
...the docs for SetThreadIdealProcessor() says:
"On a system with more than 64 processors, this function sets the preferred processor to a logical processor in the processor group to which the calling thread is assigned. Use the SetThreadIdealProcessorEx function to specify a processor group and preferred processor."
Service Packs
Service Pack 6a (SP6a) is the last service pack available
Microsoft IE6 SP1/NT4 SP6 CD
for those of you who were fortunate enough to get it, there was a cd available from microsoft which has IE6 SP1 and NT4 SP6 on it. it is no longer manufactured. I have one.
but the CD is copyrighted, and when I asked Microsoft for permission to duplicate it, they said no.
IE6 is still available as a downloader-type-installer (not the same thing). DON'T get rid of the CD if you have one - keep it pristine. it's like gold for upgrading browsers for windows 98, me, and nt boxen, and service pack for nt!
where to get sp6a
the offical URL is here. it contains many updates and is cumulative, one of which is the update to break the 137GB(128GiB) disk-size barrier, if your motherboard and system BIOS support 48-bit LBA (disks larger than 137GB).
US Government C2 Evaluation Edition NT4.0 SP6a
HOWEVER: NT4 service packs are no longer available off the microsoft web site due to end-of-life on the service roadmap - you will get server errors trying to download one. you can try to use http://windowsupdate.microsoft.com
I suggest you get your service packs from my wintools ISOs for NT page.