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Alpha NT: Windows on DEC Alpha Notes

Windows NT supported DECs Alpha CPU Architecture from the first release, Windows NT 3.1, until Windows 2000 Release Candidate 2. Microsoft continued to build 64bit Windows for Alpha for a while longer until Itanium hardware was available.

Useful Links

Free Software (freeware or open source)

A fair bit can be found in the AlphaNT Source FTP site mirror. Some of the more interesting programs (not all of which were included in the AlphaNT source) are listed below.

Archivers
InfoZip
Unzip 5.52, zip 2.31, WiZ 4.01
Compilers
GCC 2.7.2
GCC, MinGW and various GNU utilities built against an early beta version of Cygwin likely ported to Alpha and built by Bob Meader of guiduck.com
Editors
Greenpad by Roy Tam
For 32bit and 64bit Alpha among other platforms.
Games
NT Games from Tenox
All of these have builds for Alpha available
WinTown
SimCity Classic, for Alpha NT!
Media Players
Winamp 2.09
Winamp, for Alpha NT!
News Readers
WinVN (local mirror)
The last release from the original home of the project at NASA, version 0.99-9, includes Alpha NT binaries. The updated fork (here) doesn't include Alpha binaries, but still be of interest on other platforms if you like WinVN.
Terminal Emulators
Kermit 95
Actively maintained for Windows NT 3.5x, 4.0 and 2000 on Alpha, plus AXP64 as a bonus. Wide variety of terminal emulations. Serial, Telnet, Dial-up, and Pathworks LAT and CTERM. FTP and basic HTTP client. In-band Kermit and X/Y/Z-MODEM file transfer. Open Source.
Utilities
Bash and an assortment of other GNU utilities built against an early beta version of Cygwin likely by Bob Meader of guiduck.com
Various GNU Utilities
Iomega Tools
Presumably covers both Zip and Jaz drives
Picview by Roy Tam
Image viewer supporting 32bit and 64bit Alpha
TightVNC 1.3.10 (source)
TightVNC client and server, v1.3.10.
WinVNC 3.3.3r7
VNC client and server. It's not much fun to use (poor performance), but if you need to control Windows NT Workstation or Server over the network it works. Windows NT 4.0 Terminal Server Edition provides a much better remote desktop experience though.
Yori 2.60 (source)
Yori: CMD reimagined. Website: http://www.malsmith.net/yori/.
Web Browsers
Internet Explorer 5.0 (5.00.2014.0216)
This is the final release for the Alpha platform (or at least nearly, there is apparently a slightly newer build out there too - 5.00.2314.1000).
Internet Explorer 4.0
On the Service Pack 4 CD-ROM, and required as part of SP4? Includes the optional Desktop Update so if that's desired its worth installing first. The SP4 CD also includes other things like Windows Media Player.
Netscape Communicator Standard Edition 4.04
Netscape Navigator 3.01
Not sure how these were released by Netscape (I can't find any references to them on archived versions of the Netscape website), but they can be found in The AlphaNT Source archives. The license suggests they aren't really freeware unless you're a member of an educational institution, otherwise it's a 90-day trial. Netscape didn't become freeware until a while after these were released.
Mozilla 0.9.1
Perhaps the newest browser available for AlphaNT at the moment. Possibly contributed by Bob Meader of guiduck.com (some previous builds were).
Mozilla Milestone 15
Probably built by Bob Meader of guiduck.com and archived by The AlphaNT Source. It's technically newer than IE5 (April 2000), but probably buggier.

Not Free Software

A very incomplete list. The Alpha NT Source has a list of software vendors which mentions some products.

Drivers

For the most part you'll be limited to the drivers that come on the Windows CD. Alpha NT wasn't a consumer platform, so drivers for consumer-oriented hardware (eg, 3D accelerators sold for gaming such as the Voodoo2, sound cards, etc) largely don't exist. Most of the additional drivers you'll find are for things like SCSI and Network cards, and graphics cards sold for CAD work. A small selection of drivers can be found below:

Known 64-bit Software

Windows NT and Windows 2000 are 32-bit operating systems with a 32-bit ABI. Software for these operating systems does not work on any known 64-bit build of Windows, and software for 64-bit Windows does not work on Windows NT or Windows 2000.

The following programs are known to have 64-bit builds for the Alpha platform available. You might find a couple of extras in the #axp64-binz channel on the Virtually Fun discord server.

Archivers
Unzip
Zip
Built by Neozeed and posted to #axp64-binz on the Virtually Fun discord 2023-06-26.
Development Tools
Dependency Walker
For a long time the only known 64bit application for Alpha.
Editors
Greenpad by Roy Tam
For 32bit and 64bit Alpha among other platforms.
Games
NT Games from Tenox
All of these have builds for AXP64 available
WinTown
SimCity Classic, for axp64
Terminal Emulators
Kermit 95
Actively maintained, supports AXP64 Windows. Wide variety of terminal emulations. Serial, Telnet, Dial-up, and Pathworks LAT and CTERM. FTP and basic HTTP client. In-band Kermit and X/Y/Z-MODEM file transfer. Open Source.
Utilities
aclock
Analog Clock for axp64 (and everything else)
Picview by Roy Tam
Image viewer supporting 32bit and 64bit Alpha

Supported Alpha Systems

Windows NT 3.1

Basically just the DECpc AXP 150 and a few other models based on it: the DEC 2000 AXP Model 300, and DEC 2000 AXP model 500. The Alpha version shipped slightly later than x86 and MIPS, so it wasn't present on the standard Windows NT 3.10 CDs.

Windows NT 3.5

Based on the NT 3.50 HCL. These all have an EV4 or EV45 CPU. Models with faster (or slower) variants of these CPUs than those listed will probably work too. If any other models supported NT 3.50, finding the required HAL will probably be difficult today.

Many machines of this age shipped with the ZLXp-E series of TGA (not VGA) video cards. A suitable driver, which you can find here is required when installing NT 3.50.

Windows NT 3.51

Based on the NT 3.51 HCL.

† Needs special HAL which you may find in here.

Windows NT 4.0

This would be a long list. Basically a few models from the first half of 1999, plus everything older which has an ISA, EISA or PCI bus should also work. The Alpha HALs for Windows NT page is ultimately the definitive list as many systems either don't have a suitable HAL on the Windows NT 4.0 CD, or the HAL on the NT 4.0 CD is out of date and not compatible with newer Alpha firmware.

For non-DEC systems supported by Windows NT 4.0, check the NT 4.0 HCL (Hardware Compatibility List).

Windows 2000 RC2

As Compaq killed Alpha NT before Windows 2000s final release, Compaq never released any Win2k HALs for Alpha systems so only those machines with HALs on the Win2k CD-ROM are compatible. So the following machines may be compatible:

Windows XP build 2210 64-bit

This was never officially released, but it eventually leaked and installation media reconstructed. The following HALs were present, though not all are listed in TXTSETUP.SIF so without modifying this file Windows will only install on the first set of machines below:

Regardless of machine, graphics card support is very limited. No driver for the onboard S3 Trio64 card in the AlphaServer 800 for example. The ELSA GLoria Synergy is one of the few cards that is fully supported. Without something compatible, you'll just get 16 colour VGA mode.

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Last modified: 17:47:39 Saturday 16 May 2026