Windows NT 4.0 allows installation to be possible without a floppy drive via CD-ROM media, although a floppy drive is required if one wants to make an Emergency Repair Disk or if not booting directly from the CD. Windows NT 4.0 drops support for 386 processors. The x86 version of Windows NT 4.0 requires a 486 processor, at least 16 MB of RAM, 110 MB of hard drive space (varies depending on components being installed), and a VGA or better display. This is the only option pack to be released, as most of the components became part of Windows 2000. Installing it on Service Pack 4 and later will cause setup to show an information that the option pack was not tested on Service Pack 4 yet, but lets the user to continue. Unlike the Service Packs, it is not mandatory, but it requires Windows NT 4.0 Service Pack 3 to be installed. It includes server solutions and clients for Windows NT 4.0 Workstation, Server and Windows 95, including Personal Web Server, Transaction Server, Message Queue Client, Front Server Extensions, Management Console, Script Debugger, Windows Scripting Host and Data Access Components. Microsoft released an option pack for Windows NT 4.0 in 1997. There was a 7th Service Pack planned, but it was canceled and an Update Rollup was released instead in 2001. The last had been pulled by Microsoft due to a severe bug, which results in the revised Service Pack 6a. Only Service Pack 1 was made available for the MIPS architecture, and Service Pack 2 was the final release for the PowerPC architecture. There were 6 service packs released for Windows NT 4.0.

There are several editions of Windows NT 4.0:

Windows 95 update pack