Among the problems troubleshooting hardware in Windows NT is the fact that drivers and services use vague names. Here, for your reference, is a list of default drivers and services.
If you’ve ever browsed through your Devices and Services applets in Control Panel, you’ve seen a lot of entries. Some are started, and some aren’t. Some start at boot, some are automatic, and some are manual. A few are disabled. You might be wondering why.
In Windows NT, tons of devices (device drivers for hardware) and services (useful software for the operating system) are registered in the OS, whether you ever use them or not. Unlike Windows 98, it’s very hard to remove them when you need to (for example, when you change hardware and drivers) and often wiser just to put them on the disabled list. As for services, sometimes you don’t need them, and you can save system overhead by turning them off. But which drivers drive which hardware, and what do those services do?
Vague driver and service names
One thing that interferes with troubleshooting Windows NT is the vague naming convention for many devices and services. For example, Sparrow.sys is the name of the Adaptec SCSI driver. For your reference, here are a couple of tables giving the names and purposes of the drivers that ship with Windows NT (Table 1) and the default services used by the OS (Table 2). Remember to be careful when you work with devices and services. Beware of disabling services that depend on other services, as noted below.
The driver list comes from Microsoft’s MSDN online library. The default services list is available in the NT 4.0 help files. If you ever need them locally, press Start | Help, and type default services in the index to view the topic. Happy troubleshooting!
Table 1: Windows NT 4.0 workstation drivers
4mmdat.sys
4mmsony.sys
8514a.sys
Abiosdsk.sys
Afd.sys
Aha154x.sys
Aha174x.sys
Aic78xx.sys
Always.sys
Am1500t.sys
Ami0nt.sys
Ansi.sys
Archqic.sys
Arrow.sys
Asyncmac.sys
Atapi.sys
Atdisk.sys
Ati.sys
Beep.sys
Bhnt.sys
Brhj770.dll
Buslogic.sys
Busmouse.sys
Cdaudio.sys
Cdfs.sys
Cdfs_rec.sys
Cirrus.sys
Comm.drv
Country.sys
Cpqarray.sys
Dac960nt.sys
Dell_dgx.sys
Delldsa.sys
Digifep5.sys
Diskdump.sys
Diskperf.sys
Dlc.sys
Dlttape.sys
Dptscsi.sys
Dtc329x.sys
Ee16.sys
Elnk16.sys
Elnk3.sys
Elnkii.sys
Elnkmc.sys
Et4000.sys
Exabyte1.sys
Exabyte2.sys
Fastfat.sys
Fat_rec.sys
Fd16_700.sys
Fd7000ex.sys
Fd8xx.sys
Floppy.sys
Fs_rec.sys
Ftdisk.sys
Himem.sys
Hpfs_rec.sys
Hpscan16.sys
I8042prt.sys
Ibmtok.sys
Ibmtok2i.sys
Inport.sys
Kbdclass.sys
Keyboard.drv
Keyboard.sys
Lance.sys
Lanman.drv
Loop.sys
Lt200.sys
Mciavi.drv
Mciseq.drv
Mciwave.drv
Miniqic.sys
Mipssnd.sys
Mitsumi.sys
Mkecr5xx.sys
Mouclass.sys
Mouse.drv
Msacm32.drv
Msfs.sys
Mup.sys
Mvaudio.sys
Mvopl3.sys
Nbf.sys
Nbt.sys
Ncr53c9x.sys
Ncr77c22.sys
Ncrc700.sys
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Ncrc710.sys
Ncrc810.sys
Ndis.sys
Ndistapi.sys
Ndiswan.sys
Ne1000.sys, ne2000.sys, ne3200.sys
Netbios.sys
Netbt.sys
Netdtect.sys
Netflx.sys
Etware.drv
Npeisa.sys
Npfs.sys
Npmca.sys
Ntcx.sys
Ntdos.sys
Ntepc.sys
Ntfs.sys
Ntfs_rec.sys
Ntio.sys
Ntxall.sys
Ntxem.sys
Null.sys
Nwlink.sys
Nwlnkipx.sys
Nwlnknb.sys
Nwlnkrip.sys
Nwlnkspx.sys
Nwnblink.sys
Nwrdr.sys
Oliscsi.sys
Parallel.sys
Parport.sys
Pcimac.sys
Pinball.sys
Pronet16.sys
Qic117.sys
Qv.sys
Rasarp.sys
Rashub.sys
Rdr.sys
S3.sys
Scsicdrm.sys
Scsidisk.sys
Scsiflop.sys
Scsiport.sys
Scsiprnt.sys
Scsiscan.sys
Serial.sys
Sermouse.sys
Setupdd.sys
Sfmatalk.sys
Sfmsrv.sys
Slcd32.sys
Smbtrsup.sys
Smc8000n.sys
Sndblst.sys
Sndsys.sys
Sonic.sys
Sound.drv
Sparrow.sys
Spock.sys
Srv.sys
Streams.sys
Synth.sys
System.drv
T128.sys
T13b.sys
Tandqic.sys
Tcarc.sys
Tcpip.sys
Tdi.sys
Telnet.sys
Timer.drv
Tmv1.sys
Trident.sys
Ubnei.sys
Ultra124.sys
Ultra14f.sys
Ultra24f.sys
V7vram.sys
Vga.drv
Vga.sys
Vga_alt.sys
Videoprt.sys
Videosim.sys
Wangqic.sys
Wd33c93.sys
Wdvga.sys
Wfwnet.drv
Winspool.drv
Xga.sys
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Table 2: Windows NT 4.0 workstation default services
Alerter |
Notifies users and computers of administrative alerts. Requires the Messenger service and is used by the server as well as other services. |
ClipBook Server |
Supports the ClipBook viewer. |
Computer Browser |
Maintains a list of computers on the network. When you use dialogs to select a computer and select a domain, the selection options come from this list. |
Directory Replicator |
Replicates directories and files between computers. |
Event Log |
Records system, security, and application alerts into the logs you see in Event Viewer. |
Messenger |
Sends and receives messages sent by administrators or the Alerter service. |
Net Logon |
Used to authenticate a workstation on a domain, or by an NT server to synchronize the domain database with the domain controller. |
Network DDE |
Provides network transport and security for Dynamic Data Exchange (DDE). |
Network DDE DSDM |
Manages shared DDE conversations and is dependent on the Network DDE service. |
NT LM Security Support Provider |
Provides Windows NT security to remote procedure call (RPC) programs using transports other than named pipes. |
Remote Procedure Call (RPC) Locator |
Manages the RPC named services database. |
Remote Procedure Call (RPC) Service |
RPC subsystem for Windows NT. |
Schedule |
Enables the console AT command, used to schedule commands and programs to be run. |
Server |
Provides RPC support, file, printer, and named pipe sharing. |
Spooler |
Provides printer spooler services. |
UPS |
Manages an uninterruptible power supply connected to the computer. |
Workstation |
Provides network connections and communications. |