Since this is now became a common request by many, I decided to write a tutorial about Windows 9x (95/98/98SE/Me) usage on VirtualBox.Forenote: Windows 9x is not officially supported by VirtualBox team, which means, that it lacks Guest VM Additions, and it runs slowly, because VirtualBox is not optimized to run Win 9x.1. Installation - I won't cover here in detail, except few points.Most CD-ROMs available for Windows 95/98 are not bootable, which means, that you must boot from DOS floppy, install DOS first and only then install Windows 95/98.It does require DOS skills.Official bootable CD media is starting from 98SE. So if you're newbie, you should use Windows 98 SE bootable CD.Additionally I strongly suggest to limit system RAM to 512 MB for those OSes. Otherwise it will crash. Win98soundscreenshot06me3.png (39.92 KiB) Viewed 718310 times2.7. Restart the VM.3.

• Windows 98 In Virtualbox

Video driver integration.By default Windows 98 will run only in 640x480 resolution, 16-colors.Performance Note: VirtualBox is not optimized for 16-colors (4-bit) emulation. It works very slow this way.Having 32-bit True Color driver makes Win98 VMs run on VirtualBox.much. faster.If you want True color or high resolution, you need to download special drivers.3.1. Bearwindows driver (unstable)NOTE: You must install 'Universal version' (2nd link), as the 'VirtualBox' version is known to have problems.WARNING: This driver is buggy, and many Windows fonts do not render correctly with it.

Not recommended.3.2. SciTech Display Doctor (recommended)The second option is to get the SciTech Display Doctor version 7 beta driver (12 MB) -(contributed by RichardS)-or-The driver is a high quality commercial grade video driver (even includes some software emulated Open GL 3D support), and it does include an exe installer program.Despite having an installer, the SciTech Display Doctor is a little tricky to get going. After the program launches, you have to find the little round radio button link to click to 'enable' the new driver (otherwise you still have VGA). Even then, you can't select any higher resolution modes until you ditch the 'default monitor' and select one of the 'Super VGA' types.After fiddling around with the above changes and rebooting several times you should be able to select 800x600 or 1024x768 (or higher) resolutions with 32 bit color depth. (setting 32 bit color mode optimizes the interface with Virtualbox and really speeds things up)4.

NetworkEasiest thing, is to setup VirtualBox to NAT, and AMD PCnet-II network chip. It will be auto-detected by Win 9x.5.

Windows 98 In Virtualbox

Mouse(contributed by stefan.becker)VirtualBox 4.1 provides for Windows-98-compatible USB tablet device.Enable USB Tablet: VM-Settings-System-Enable Absolute pointing devicethen do: (enable Windows-98 mode)VBoxManage setextradata 'VM name' 'VBoxInternal/USB/HidMouse/0/Config/CoordShift' 0docs: '12.3.8 USB tablet coordinates. In Windows 98 guests'6.

Shared FoldersSince VirtualBox shared folders won't work, there are other ways, such as SMB/Windows File Sharing. Recommended for Windows hosts.(Tested with VBox 2.1.2.- and was successful with 'bridged' network. I had no success with NAT.)WARNING: I admit that with VirtualBox the network is very unstable, presumably due to very slow performance of Win 9x guests under VBox.For Unix hosts, WinSCP is recommended.Another way of read-only file sharing is to create a virtual CD-ROM.iso file on the host and insert it into the guest VM.7.

Clipboard HostGuest(contributed by stefan.becker)Clipboard integrated in VirtualBox only works with the Guest Additions, so not for Windows9x. But there is another solution: Clipboard over TCP/IP.A Solution tested successfull with Linux Host is ShareClip:-TechnologovWritten on 2.9.2008, updated on.Please discuss this tutorialThis topic is only for additions to this tutorial.

Do not ask questions about how to get something working. Use a separate topic for that. Avoid 100% CPU loadWin9x is using an idle loop instead of HLT: the loop lets the host CPU running the Win9x virtual machine consume 100% all the time. This only applies to DOS and DOS based Win (3.x, 95/98/ME) - NT based Windows and all other operating systems are not affectedInstall rain, waterfall or cpuidle in the Win9x guest - my preference is rain as it only does what is needed -replace the idle loop with HLT execution- and nothing morehere is a link explaining something about, related to real hardwared/l rain from here: Volunteer Posts: 1699 Joined: 13.

Sep 2008, 02:18. Some hints to the bearwindows svga-driver There is no automatic installation.Unzip the driver in the guest. Start system control/display, chosse the settings/advanced/vga-card, change the vga-card and choose option to show drivers in a directory, there choose manually the directory where you unzipped the driver.Another hint: With the bearwindows drivers you cant start the comamnd line direct on the desktop. So search all '.PIF' Files in the guest and change the settings to fullscreen (screen/appearence, Bildschirm/Darstellung).

Universal Mass Storage Drivers for Windows 98.As you may know, Win98 did not have generic support for USB mass storage devices (thumb drives, external mechanical drives, digital cameras etc). You needed a specific driver for each device, and of course those have become hard to find! However someone has just posted a link to a site offering generic USB mass storage drivers.The site offers free generic USB mass storage drivers for both Win98 and Win98SE. Drivers for the former require you to install a big service pack first. Drivers for the latter are quite small. I have not yet tried either myself, I just thought it would be good to preserve the links here.Edit I have now tried the latter Win98SE driver, and it seemed to work well for me after I followed the instructions given in the linked page. Specifically I had to, before installing the new drivers, first make sure USB and USB 2.0 was enabled in the VM settings, then boot the guest, go into Win98SE device manager and basically remove any USB device I could find, particularly including old custom memory stick drivers (not a problem on a new Win98SE install inside a VM), plus the original Win98 USB controller and USB root hub drivers, plus any unknown device in case that too was USB related.

Then install the new USB drivers, then reboot. After that I had no problem with reading from a modern USB flash drive - though of course the drive has to be FAT formatted since Win98SE doesn't understand NTFS.

Site Moderator Posts: 29571 Joined: 4. Sep 2008, 17:09 Primary OS: MS Windows 10 VBox Version: PUEL Guest OSses: Mostly XP. Solving Windows 95 'Protection Error' on boot.Windows 95 was not designed for the speed of modern processors, and if the processor is too fast then it may crash on boot.

Some users on the internet have developed a patch to fix the problem, and their fix is discussed in several places on the Internet (search for 'Win95 fast cpu fix'), for example here.The patch itself is too big to attach directly here, but here is a direct download link for it:The download includes a readme with instructions on a couple of ways to apply the patch.Thanks to user 'pt58' for drawing my attention to this fix. Attachments file.png (1.95 KiB) Viewed 74578 times Site Moderator Posts: 29571 Joined: 4. Sep 2008, 17:09 Primary OS: MS Windows 10 VBox Version: PUEL Guest OSses: Mostly XP.

Use Sci-Tech Display Doctor version 7 beta. Major Geeks has it. Go to the Sci-Tech website and access their discontinued downloads where you'll be able to download the product keys for the older versions. They're giving them away.

Perfectly legal. I've read that the same key for the last version 6 that they offer can also be used successfully on the 7 beta.You install the version 7 beta, restart Windows, and in Device Manager update the standard pci graphics adapter (VGA) to the Sci-Tech one in the list that appears when you choose to install a different driver and scroll through the Display Adapters to the Sci-Tech Corporation drivers.

Reboot again, open up the Sci-tech control panel and you can even use 1024x768 Hi-Color!The other trick is using the latest Realtek AC97 Audio drivers, the Windows 95 VXD version, and update your Multimedia Audio Controller to it. Sound!Stuff like this is on the VirtualBox forums.

I'm going to try this eventually on Debian Lenny, as the only Windows I'd want to virtualize is Windows 98SE. I've got a real drive with Vista on it (by choice, really!) I've got XP Pro, and used to do a dual-boot 98SE and XP, but figured I might as well have the latest Windows since I bought it. I actually use the Vista boot loader and BCDEasy to boot grub that is on my 2nd hard drive's Linux partition where Debian is. I wanted to keep the Vista boot loader so I can muck about with Windows all I want without Grub being effected. Let Windows destroy things. I'd just move Grub into the mbr if necessary.I want 98 so I can use a few programs that haven't worked on XP since they went to Service Pack 2 and of course won't work on Vista, and not on Wine or Dosbox either.

Stupid things like Star Trek Captains Chair that don't need Direct 3D but won't run on newer Windows versions. Don't need them, but they're fun as is playing with virtual machine operating systems.Edit -Oh, forgot to mention that less video memory allocation is actually better on VirtualBox. It defaults to 8MB, but changing it to 7MB has eliminated some problems for some folks. You certainly don't need more than that for what VirtualBox supports for Video anyway. You won't be playing any Direct 3D games!Last edited by Eck; January 1st, 2008 at 08:02 AM. Use Sci-Tech Display Doctor version 7 beta. Major Geeks has it.

Go to the Sci-Tech website and access their discontinued downloads where you'll be able to download the product keys for the older versions. They're giving them away.I have just completed installing Win98SE as a virtual system in ubuntu 7.10 and I got stuck with a crappy 640x480x16 color screen and was hoping your solution may work.I was able to download the Display Doctor 7 beta exe, but I'm having NO LUCK finding anything about keys at the Sci-Tech website. Any suggestions?

9.5 Custom VESA resolutionsApart from the standard VESA resolutions, the VirtualBox VESA BIOS allows you to add up to 16 custom video modes which will be reported to the guest operating system. When using Windows guests with the VirtualBox Guest Additions, a custom graphics driver will be used instead of the fallback VESA solution so this information does not apply.Additional video modes can be configured for each VM using the extra data facility. The extra data key is called CustomVideoMode with x being a number from 1 to 16. Please note that modes will be read from 1 until either the following number is not defined or 16 is reached.

The following example adds a video mode that corresponds to the native display resolution of many notebook computers:VBoxManage setextradata 'Windows XP' 'CustomVideoMode1' '1400x1050x16'Basically, you are in VESA mode because you don't have the proper drivers, this command allows you to config the VESA 'fallback'.Last edited by 2eason; January 4th, 2008 at 02:01 AM. Heh heh, I even got software 3D working by turning on SciTech Display Doctor's GLDirect thing in compatibility (CAD) mode. It was fun doing the samples and seeing glxgears, airplanes flying, etc, on Windows 98SE. It was slow, but familiar as my first computer was a SiS5598 machine with onboard 4MB software Direct3D and was about this same speed.You know those sites that Windows users are forced to use all the time to get stuff to 'generate' 'unlocking' things for old software no longer sold, and even new software for poor folks? That's where you need to search for the SciTech Display Doctor 7 beta thingy to use it more than 21 days. Hint: Personal (type in your name), 1 (weird question, but I typed 1 and it continued), Pro. If you get it you'll understand.

Mine had no nasties embedded, but be careful out there! Only works on your Windows guest. He he, I tried it with Wine but had to end the process as it couldn't open the dosbox display to use it.I did the whole Unofficial Auto-Patcher for Windows 98SE. 98SE2ME, and 98MP10 installations and have a fully updated and ready to have fun with Windows 98SE.

For some reason my Windows 98 Startup floppy couldn't load the cdrom drivers and it froze there, but I substituted an OEM 98 Gold cdrom I had and installed from that fine. Then I used my 98SE Updates Cd (that $20 thing that upgrades 98 Gold to 98SE from a booted up GUI only), and upgraded to Second Edition.I used SciTech for the 1024x768 res, software 3D, and used Realtek's latest Windows 95 VXD driver download extracted with WinRAR and Device Manager updated the Audio Controller to it. Realtek's setup exe doesn't continue on anything but Windows 95 but extracting it gives you the whole thing to direct Device Manager to. You even get SoundBlaster MS-DOS within Windows sound drivers and a Wavetable midi driver (though midi skips).I haven't installed Rain20 yet that the Virtualbox user faq recommends to handle processor load, but I'll try that soon.

Maybe it'll help speed it up a bit.I'll print out that VGA information posted here. Maybe that would help too, but since I already use the SciTech driver I probably already have that fixed through just using their driver. Not sure though. It works so I don't want to fiddle too much with the configuration. It's kind of too slow to really enjoy. Rain20 perhaps saves my processor from running at 100%, but didn't speed up anything. I tried to up the video ram to 16MB from the 6MB I was using but haven't notice any difference from that either.I fed it 256MB memory right from the start, so that should be fine.

Internet Explorer runs at a snails pace loading web pages, and some streaming Windows Media Player embedded videos were very herky jerky, although sounding fine in between the skips.I played the pinball game (I get that as part of 98SE2ME) and it correctly received and executed my keyboard entries correctly in real-time, so that's not too bad, but I did need to shoot the ball from the menu as the space bar caused a weird sound to play and didn't execute the plunger. Activating the midi music played it nicely with just slight skipping unless I went and actually played the game at the same time. Then it would just hesitate too much to make gameplay possible. So I turned that off.

(I like that song while playing though!)Even Windows Explorer isn't all that snappy, but better than browsing the web.One main thing I like to have 98SE around for is Star Trek Captains Chair. That uses QuickTime and Shockwave. Good luck with that, eh? Flash advertisements work fine in Internet Explorer and the latest Shockwave is installed and working on the Adobe test page, but I just don't see an audio-video intensive application running smoothly based upon what I've tested so far. Gotta install a few more things before testing that out but I'm not optimistic.I added Avast to have its protection and it really isn't any slower because of it.

I haven't added a firewall since with NAT networking the Linux firewall does that.I recall using VMWare Workstation 5.5 a while back, running a 98SE guest on a Windows XP host and the thing was pretty snappy. It effectively ran videos, games (not 3D of course) very well. Browsing the web was fine in IE or Firefox. I haven't even gotten to Firefox yet, but that is even more memory intensive than IE, so again I don't foresee a good experience.I have no idea whether the slowness is due to Virtualbox running an unsupported Windows or due to this being done on Linux rather than a Windows host. I'd think Windows would slow it down more. But I don't see how the Guest Additions would be any speedier than this since I'd really only be getting a video driver and SciTech Display Doctor takes care of that essentially the same way, I think.I'd be interested to hear anyone's experience with 98SE in Virtualbox on Linux regarding running it and getting acceptable performance.

This thing is just too slow.Specs are an AthlonXP 3200+, Crucial 2x512MB PC3200 DDR-SDRAM, NVidia GeForce 6600GT, Audigy 2 ZS Platinum on an Epox EP-8KRAIPRO board.Maybe a newer generation motherboard, processor, memory would make the diffference? Or is it just Virtualbox?I have no problems running Dosbox on Linux, or several programs using Wine. Plenty of speed.