Benchmarking the dependability of Windows NT4, 2000 and XP

The aim of this paper is to compare the dependability of three operating systems (Windows NT4, Windows 2000 and Windows XP) with respect to erroneous behavior of the application layer. The results show a similar behavior of the three OSs with respect to robustness and a noticeable difference in OS reaction and restart times. They also show that the application state (mainly the hang and abort states) significantly impacts the restart time for the three OSs.