Windows NT 4.0 virtual machine crashes at the beginning of the install

[javispedro]

You didn't select the correct guest type in the VirtualBox VM settings. You have to select "Windows NT 4", not 3.x or anything else. Your guest log shows

00:00:03.231426 Guest OS type: 'WindowsNT'

while a proper "Windows NT 4" guest log should show:

00:00:00.501458 Guest OS type: 'WindowsNT4'
00:00:00.501695 Limiting CPUID leaf count for NT4 guests

The "Limiting CPUID leaf count" is the important part.
VirtualBox has to apply this CPUID masking, otherwise the NT4 installer will bluescreen (and then triple fault the machine, which is what you see as "crash").
You are not seeing the actual blue screen because everything goes so fast the host doesn't even have time to draw it before the triple fault. If you slowdown the execution of the VM to something like 5%, you will see the bluescreen. It will be a 0x3E aka MULTIPROCESSOR_CONFIGURATION_NOT_SUPPORTED .

Had to debug this in the past...

[VintageOS]

When you select the Windows NT 4.0 ISO in the wizard, it selects "Other Windows (32-bit)" rather than "Windows NT 4.0" and you cannot change it as it's greyed out. This is true even if you previously selected "Windows NT 4.0". I suspect that this is the source of the problem. VirtualBox isn't recognizing the image and it doesn't let you select the proper OS. If you continue without an ISO image, the problem does not occur and "Windows NT 4.0" remains the active option.

I do wonder if VirtualBox could be updated to properly recognize the ISOs or at least, let you decide the OS.

[mpack]

When you select the Windows NT 4.0 ISO in the wizard

That is not my finding. When I run through guided mode, and I named the VM "Windows NT 4", the template "Windows NT 4" was automatically selected. No ISO is required until you try to boot the VM, and the VM already exists by then so the template selection is not going to change.

How would you go about "recognizing an ISO"? An ISO is a image of a CD, i.e. a storage medium which has stuff on it. There is no universal standard for OS installer identifiers.

[javispedro]

When you select the Windows NT 4.0 ISO in the wizard

That is not my finding. When I run through guided mode, and I named the VM "Windows NT 4", the template "Windows NT 4" was automatically selected. No ISO is required until you try to boot the VM, and the VM already exists by then so the template selection is not going to change.

But even if it is true that the ISO is not required at that point (the initial new VM wizard), if you do select the (NT4) ISO, it will switch the OS type to "generic windows" and prevent you from further changing it, which does look kind of problematic. You have to go to the expert wizard, or as you mention skip ISO selection at that screen (which is not at all intuitive).

How would you go about "recognizing an ISO"? An ISO is a image of a CD, i.e. a storage medium which has stuff on it. There is no universal standard for OS installer identifiers.

The wizard can detect several versions of Windows ISOs (starting w2k) , so there must be something.

[fth0]

FWIW, you have to distinguish between VirtualBox 6.1 and 7.0 here:

In the New VM wizard of VirtualBox 6.1, the user specifies a name for the VM, and VirtualBox tries to guess the OS type and version from that.

In the New VM wizard of VirtualBox 7.0, the user also specifies a name for the VM, and VirtualBox tries to guess the OS type and version from that. Additionally, the user can specify an ISO image (for manual and/or unattended installation), and if they do so, VirtualBox analyzes the ISO image and guesses the OS type and version from that.

VirtualBox 7.0 can distinguish the major OS images. You can find the gory details in the VirtualBox source code starting at Unattended::detectIsoOS() (~2k lines of code). The Windows-specific part uses different methods for different Windows generations back to NT 3.x.

---

When you select the Windows NT 4.0 ISO in the wizard, it selects "Other Windows (32-bit)" rather than "Windows NT 4.0" and you cannot change it as it's greyed out. This is true even if you previously selected "Windows NT 4.0". I suspect that this is the source of the problem. VirtualBox isn't recognizing the image and it doesn't let you select the proper OS. If you continue without an ISO image, the problem does not occur and "Windows NT 4.0" remains the active option.

I do wonder if VirtualBox could be updated to properly recognize the ISOs or at least, let you decide the OS.

Regarding the aspect of (not) recognizing Windows NT4 ISOs, I'd suggest to create a ticket in the Bugtracker.

Regarding the aspect of when to allow editing of the Type and Version fields in the New VM wizard, ISTR a bug report already existing about an illogical dependency with the ISO Image field and the Skip Unattended Installation checkbox.

[birdie]

Works fine here under Ryzen 7 5800X, Fedora Linux host, VBox 7.0.8.

You can download a VM (mod edit, copyrighted OS VM link deleted. Please PM Birdie for the link if you want to pass it privately.)

[scottgus1]

I'm sorry, Birdie, I had to delete the VM Link. Windows NT is still copyrighted, though very old, and though other websites have undertaken to carry "abandonware" copyrighted OS VMs, I'm sure Oracle doesn't want to wade into those waters without some serious lawyer lifeguarding.

You can feel free to make arrangements through PM to privately exchange emails so a link can be passed if you want.

[birdie]

I'm sorry, Birdie, I had to delete the VM Link. Windows NT is still copyrighted, though very old, and though other websites have undertaken to carry "abandonware" copyrighted OS VMs, I'm sure Oracle doesn't want to wade into those waters without some serious lawyer lifeguarding.

You can feel free to make arrangements through PM to privately exchange emails so a link can be passed if you want.

Windows NT 4.0 ISOs and images are freely available on {deleted by mod}. The link I posted is my work and if anything you cannot be held responsible for your users. Anyways, I'm not going to argue with this decision.

To OP: PM if you want to get an NT4.0 VM. I created it using the official MSDN image and made no changes to it except installing a VESA graphics driver (otherwise it's limited to 800x600 8bit color output).

[mpack]

Windows NT 4.0 ISOs and images are freely available on {deleted by mod}.

Lots of stuff is freely available from lots of places, a fact that changes nothing.

Our concern is what is made available here, so unless you can point to an explicit waiver or permission by the copyright holders, then posting or linking of copyrighted software will not be allowed here.

[VintageOS]

Regarding the aspect of (not) recognizing Windows NT4 ISOs, I'd suggest to create a ticket in the Bugtracker.

I should create a ticket about VirtualBox not recognizing Windows NT 4.0 ISOs.

Regarding the aspect of when to allow editing of the Type and Version fields in the New VM wizard, ISTR a bug report already existing about an illogical dependency with the ISO Image field and the Skip Unattended Installation checkbox.

I searched the tickets and I could not find the bug report for this.

[rliegh]

But even if it is true that the ISO is not required at that point (the initial new VM wizard), if you do select the (NT4) ISO, it will switch the OS type to "generic windows" and prevent you from further changing it, which does look kind of problematic. You have to go to the expert wizard, or as you mention skip ISO selection at that screen (which is not at all intuitive).

I'm experiencing the behavior described above: When I type in "NT 4.0" it picks out Windows NT; but after loading an iso it falls back to "other windows version".

The work-around is to check what version it's set to and change it to "NT 4" yourself before starting the installation process.

Go to the settings for the VM, General tab, "Windows Version" ->make sure it says "Windows NT 4".