Anatase nanocrystalline and its tungsten-doped (0.4, 2, and 4 mol %) powders have been synthesized by microwave irradiation through hydrolysis of titanium tetra-isopropoxide (TIP) in aqueous solution. The materials are characterized by XRD, Raman, SEM-EDX, TEM, FT-IR and UV-vis techniques. The nanocrystalline $TiO_2$ particles are 30 nm in nature and doping of tungsten ion decreases their size. As seen in TEM images, the crystallites of W (4 mol %) doped $TiO_2$ are small with a size of about 10 nm. The photocatalytic activity was tested on the degradation of 4-nitrophenol (4-NP). Catalytic activities of W-doped and pure $TiO_2$ were also compared. The results show that the photocatalytic activity of the W-doped $TiO_2$ photocatalyst is much higher than that of pure $TiO_2$. Degradation decreases from 96 to 50%, during 115 min, when the initial 4-NP concentration increases from 10 to 120 ppm. Maximum degradation was obtained at 35 mg of photocatalyst.