Question:
What is the difference between NT servers and NT workstations? Are they different machines or just different operating systems?
Answer:
NT servers and NT workstations run the same operating systems with different registry entries. Actually, there are a couple of other differences—such as some of the administrative tools that are installed (User Manager for Domains vs. User Manager, for example)—but the OSs themselves are the same.
The differences in the various registry entries have several implications. One is that Microsoft itself, and most of the third-party vendors, use these entries to determine which programs can be installed on the machine. Some programs will not install on the workstation, but require the server. Vendors often charge twice to ten-times the cost of a workstation version of program if you want to install it on an NT server (although, to be fair, the server version usually has extra functionality). So installing the server is not necessarily the best solution to every problem.
