Author: Blue Horizon
This time I'm reviewing three builds, mainly cause there isn't a whole lot different in-between each build and that it's nothing terribly special. Regardless, it's nice to sort out the stable builds from the ones that aren't.
BUILD 1855
Sadly, this build is not documented in any way and doesn't look like it's easily repairable. The I386 folder is completely empty as it's been moved to the "ALPHA" folder. Not sure if it's how it came from the burnlab that way, or if the person who dumped this build or even someone else modified it. Either way, it's clear that is build is highly incomplete, as NTLDR and a bunch of other critical boot files we're completely missing. DOSNET.INF was also crippled to some extent, as when I ran winnt /b from a DOS/9x disk, it complained that I didn't have enough memory to run and copy files.
So, after modifying DOSNET.INF to some extent such as cleaning up things that didn't make much sense (like lowering the memory requirement number), and running the TXT setup, I wound up with this. I also borrowed said missing critical files from build 1848 and put them on the CD. To some extent, it seemed to work - though I did not have any bootdisks to continue running setup.
At that point, I just wound up using DOSNET.INF from 1848 to see if I could get any further. During the TXT based setup, it did throw up a massive list of missing files (most of which aren't needed for the OS to run). But after all that, it basically said that ntkrnlmp.exe couldn't be loaded. Now, the leaked ISO did have this file, but it's file extension wasn't .EX_ instead of .EXE. Using the one from 1848 didn't seem to help either. I didn't bother continuing at this point since even if I did have it working, it would've just been mostly if not all the same as 1848. Overall, a dissapointing outcome, but not surprising due to how it was either made from the lab or if it was just a downright bad dump. One thing that is interesting to point out is that this is an "Enterprise Server" edition, which isn't mentioned anywhere else during the final product, probably cause the name was changed to "Advanced Server" and/or "Datacenter Server". However, I did come across this interesting document on the CD. Seems like an unreleased confidential document from August 1997 meant for new employees, and even has some old URL links pertaining to their developments (which obviously don't work today). You can download the file right here:
BUILD 1877
The setup window in this build is back to it's normal size, so the bitmap isn't cutoff anymore on the left.
The square bitmap on the top right corner is alligned properly. This build also seems a lot faster to install.
In the welcome window, "Connect to the Internet" has been removed entirely, as it seems to already set it up for you.
Narrator has a new icon replacing that bland "MSR/MSN" icon that came before it. The program itself still seems about the same.
Nothing particularly interesting, but in the shutdown window - instead of "Administrator", it's just %s. Perhaps some broken line of code pertaining to displaying the username.
And the shutdown screen. Unlike NT 3.x and NT 4, it doesn't have a restart button just in case anymore.
BUILD 1888
Like I mentioned earlier, Windows NT now has a new version identifying itself as "Enterprise Edition". And it seems like this is the only known functioning build to behold that edition name.
And once again, the setup window is tall. It also takes a little while to install compared to 1877, but then again this is the top of the line enterprise edition and it's possible they didn't fully optimize it yet.
The bootscreen background is now blue instead of green, finally dealing away with the solid green desktop trend.
And now in the welcome window on server editions, "Connect to the Internet" has been removed. And I just noticed, the MS Sans Serif font looks a bit off and choppy in this build.
The old Web Help icon is back, the logo on the front has been changed and now says "Microsoft Windows NT Help" complete with cheaply using the Tahoma font.
It seems that Narrator fails to run in this build due to one DLL file. Perhaps this slipped by during beta testing for a brief period.
But, after renaming the bad/corrupted DLL file in CMD to oleacc.old, and copying the same one from 1877, it works just fine. Just be sure to enable hidden files and folders in folder options before you do this process.
Here's an interesting wallpaper logo with a stylish blue bar at the top. Even mentions it's a BackOffice family member.
And finally, the server version of the shutdown screen. With all that covered, this concludes the line of 18xx builds known to be leaked. The 19xx series of builds is gonna be a huge one and filled with things to cover. Stay tuned for even more visual perks and some rebranding here and there.
BUILD 1859
With there being another leak of an NT 5.0 build, I might as well also talk about what I've gathered in regards to build 1855 since my review on it. The reason why 1855 refused to work at all when I attempted to install it was cause unknowingly I was installing it on the wrong CPU architechture, which is actually supposed to be DEC Alpha. At the moment, there's currently no emulators that supports doing ARC in the Alpha architecture, thus requiring owning the physical hardware components to run it. Someone else who probably had much more time and space than I did demonstrated this build running on said architecture a while back, so I'll leave a link to that forum post here if you're curious: https://www.betaarchive.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=39931
Anyway, there isn't much stuff to talk about here that I haven't already talked about in other builds such as 1848 and 1877 this time around, so this will be short.
Setup is mostly the same as in previous builds, except this time during device configuration it actually changes to a higher color depth if a video card is detected.
I forgot to mention in build 1848 that the dialog here is different, and the window size is shorter this time.
I also forgot to mention since build 1743 that the dialog here is different from 1729.
The dialogue and options in the welcome window are slightly different from builds 1835 and 1848.
And that's pretty much it. There are other changes in this build that I've already covered in build 1877 like the new Narrator icon, but aside from all that, there isn't much unique differences to talk about here.