Demand for Microsoft Corp’s Windows NT Workstation has hit the 15 million unit mark, a 36% increase over the past seven months. Microsoft calculates that almost 200 licenses are now being bought every hour. PC manufacturers are also seeing an increase in demand for PCs pre-configured with NT Workstation, says Microsoft, with Micron Electronics Inc now shipping over half of its desktop PCs with NT installed. Corporate customers are beginning to choose NT over Windows for standard desktops, hoping to find better levels of security and reliability. There are now 6,547 device drivers for PC peripherals, a 63% increase in support since NT Workstation 4.0 was first launched back in July 1996. Last week Microsoft launched a new deployment tool for the operating system, the System Preparation Tool for Windows NT Workstation 4.0, intended to make it easier for OEMs to pre- install the software, and set systems up within networked environments. Once the disk is prepared, customers can use third party tools to install NT Workstation on multiple systems. The tool is currently in beta testing, and should be out this summer.
