Discuss: Tutorial: Windows 95/98 guest OSes

[autohost]

I have successfully figured out how to share files between WinXP host and Win98 guest in Virtualbox 4.0.8.

In the Win98 VM settings in VirtualBox, set the networking to Host-only Adapter.

In WinXP host, click Start, Run, cmd, ipconfig
Note the IP address under the Virtual Box Host-only Network.
This is the IP you will use if you want to connect FROM guest TO host.

In the Win98 guest, click Start, Run, command, ipconfig
Note the IP address. This is the IP you will use to connect FROM host TO guest.

In Win98 guest, share desired folder. If 'Sharing...' is not visible as an option when you right-click on a folder you want to share, then you'll need to do the following in Control Panel. Start, Control Panel, Network, Add, select Service and click Add, select 'File and printer sharing for Microsoft Networks' and click OK. I don't remember if you'll need to reboot or not, but it wouldn't surprise me if you did.

On WinXP host side, Start, Run, \\IPofguest\
to see shares on guest.

I was unable to access WinXP host shares from Win98 guest. I did try briefly turning off my WinXP firewall, but it had no effect.
It may be because my WinXP host cptr is on a domain.

I did not edit the Win98 guest network group from its default.

NOTE: The above instructions will allow you to share files between the listed host and guest, BUT the guest vm will NOT be able to access the Internet. If you need to access the internet from the guest, temporarily change the guest vm networking settings from 'Host-only Adapter' to NAT. Naturally, this will break file sharing between host and guest until you return to 'Host-only Adapter'. Also, its possible that every time you switch, your guest vm will get a different IP address, so you may need to do ipconfig again to see your new IP.


(someone may want to add this to the end of the tutorial in question)

[Sanhime]

Hello,

Host is Linux Mint 10.
Guess is Win98SE

I can't seem to get internet working. I can browse on the host no problem, but not in Win98.
I check the device manager, network adaptor is working normal. Checked the internet explorer setting, normal.

Using NAT, PCnet-FAST III.

Any ideas?

[stefan.becker]

Probably a DNS Problem. Try using Bridge, try Router as DNS Server in Guests Internet Settings.

[Sanhime]

I think i found the problem, I reinstalled win98 PIIX chipset. Seem to have solved it. Thanks

[webmasterpride]

Great tutorial, helpful for newbie like me.

[tsampikos]

Hello everybody! I am a new member and a very satisfied Virtualbox User. I have a system with CPU Core2Quad @2.40 Q6600 and Windows 7x64. Found this tutorial very informativ and I followed it step by step in order to setup a good Windows 95B virtual system. The result was great and I would like to share with you some issues that I discovered and some solutions.

1) SVGA Driver.

I use the Bearwindows SVGA Driver (the "unstable" one), instead of Scitecch Display Doctor, which game me some glitches. The bugs that i found in this SVGA driver are the following.
a) Messed up screen while installing something which uses console window (DOS).
b) Messed up screen and system hang, when trying to change resolution from the "Display" Options inside of WIndows (from 16bit to 32bit etc.).

Solution.

a) In order to open properly a DOS Window or install something which uses console change the resolution to 640x480 in 16-bit colors or maybe lower if needed. Then the console window works and there is no rendering problem.

b) Since I set the Video RAM to 32 MB in the Virtualbox system options, no problem with the Resolution setup/changing appeared again, and all games run excellent. So set the VIdeo RAM to 32 MB (actually it is enough for every Windows 9x System) and this problem will go. It did the trick for me.

2) Windows 95 Modern systems CPU Fix

Except the AMD patch, which makes Windows 95 to run in newer systems, there is also another patch (which can be downloaded in the following link) which does the same thing.

http://www.msfn.org/board/topic/141402- ... it-broken/

It contains official Microsoft update componets and although the installation proccess and setup takes a little longer it has great result just as the AMD Fix.

The only bug: The 4 floppys which appear, just like after the installation of the AMD Patch appear after the installation of this patch too. But it can be ( partially but it's OK) fixed as it is described in a previous post.

[HaraldM]

Hi there,

I have to problems with my Windows 98 installation:

1. I set the network mode to NAT and used the PC-II or something like that adapter - as explained in the tutorial. However, Win 98 does not recognize it, or at least, I cannot establish a connection to the Internet.
Although the host pc is connected through LAN.

2. I wanted to install the Scitech Driver for greater resolutions. However, when I start it and click on "Next", I get a fatal error: Unable to connect to PMHELP.VXD or SDDHELP.VXD!
// Edit: Ok, I installed the other driver and so far it works great. Remains the Network Problem

Any ideas how to solve these problems?

Thanks!

[WILANDY]

Hello !

First of all, I apologize if my English is rather poor, I'm French and it's quite well known that Frenches are not good at practicing foreign language.

Secondly, I've just discovered “Virtual Machine” last month so every thing is new for me but I try hard to understand how it works.

So now here is the reason why I'm writing here:

I still have Old games ( Simulators: “Jane's USNF” & “Jane's ATF gold”) that only run under Win95 and that's why I decided ton create a “Win95 Guest”.

Here are the problems to which I must face:

• 1. My OS is “Win95 OSR2” FRENCH (4.00.950B) and since Microsoft has ended, all the Updates, Drivers I can find are in English (Well, most of them).
  At the end my OS is an “Half French/Half English” version of Win95. (When you remember how sensitive “Win95” was, you can imagine it's instability.)

• 2. According to what I've read on this Forum, it impossible to share a folder between the Host (Win7 64 bits in my case) and “Win95 Guest”.
  To manage easily “Win95”, I connected to the net but though my connection is 20 M ADSL my network in Guest is quite slow.

• 3. “Win95 OSR2” supports “USB” but each time I've tried to install the drivers (“USBSUPP” & “USBUPD2”) my system hangs or at least the drivers have a question mark in the “Device Manager”. I thought, I've found some info here but it didn't work, or didn't understood what to do.

• 4. The fact is that I need the USB because my Game Controller is a “Thrustmaster COUGAR USB”.
  By the way will the Thrustmaster Drivers work on the Windows Guest? If not what kind of driver will I have to use?

Well that all for now and it's already quite enough.

I hope my post will be understandable and most of all that there will be someone who will be able to give me some advice to help me to succeed in my goal: Flying again with these two games.

If you need more infos about my settings or anything else, just ask.

Ciao!

[stefan.becker]

Install a supported OS like XP.

[WILANDY]

That's all?

Is it the only answer you can give?

Before answering to this reply, I had a look at your profile assuming that such a silly answer would have been written by a teenager with a spotty face.

It was a great disillusion, when I saw how many posts you sent: I should have thought that such an active contributor of this forum as you are would have been more positive; and most of all, would have read my post seriously.

I still have Old games ( Simulators: “Jane's USNF” & “Jane's ATF gold”) that only run under Win95 and that's why I decided ton create a “Win95 Guest”.

What a disappointment for the big fan of Germany that I am (it has been for a long time and it is not a joke)

Thought this forum was made to help persons like me, may be I was dreaming.

I hope to have more constructive answers from other users.

[Technologov]

My recommendation: try to get Win 98 SE -- as it works better with USB. (and 95 games will work on it)
Also u will have drivers problems -- USB gamepads do not have Win95 drivers. Even Win98 is unlikely to work.

[FrodoHobbits]

From my experience games running on 95/98 guests run very slowly.

[WILANDY]

THX "Technologov" for taking time trying to help me

The "Jane's ATF Gold" may run under Win98 SE (I don't really recall) But "Jane's USNF", no, It's a very old game running under "DirectX 3"

And if I want to install "Win98-SE", I've another problem: I still have the CD but I can't remember where I putted the little book with the serial written on it.

So for now, the only option is: Trying to run "Win95 OSR2" as a guest.

From my experience games running on 95/98 guests run very slowly.

I installed "Jane's ATF Gold" before installing USB drivers (to see how the game behave on the guest: If it had been slow, I shouldn't had to go further) and according to my experiment, it was OK. I concede that "Jane's USNF" was slower.

Any people who have achieved this goal and are wiling to share how they did are welcome.

[BillPV]

I have found a little problem with running Win98 on a Win7 host, and I also have the solution.

To share data between guest and host it is necessary to use network drives. I am using a bridged network connection, but I can see no reason why other network connections shouldn't work.

To share the Win98 drive with Win7 is very easy. Simply set up the Win98 networking to use the same workgroup as Win7, then share the drive in the normal way (giving full access rather than the default read only as required) and Win7 will be able to find the Win98 guest and access the drive.

To share the Win7 drive with Win98 is more complicated. First, Win7 has to have its network settings configured to be Win98 compatible. This is the easy bit. Simply go to the advanced sharing settings for the Home or Work network and turn Password Protected Sharing off. This should enable Win98 to see the Win7 host, although you may also need to adjust the Win7 firewall to allow VirtualBox through on the Home or Work network. At this point you can set up the Win7 drive to be shared (using advanced sharing and ensuring permissions are set using the Everyone account with access rights as required) and then you are ready to access the host machine drive from Win98. Unfortunately, Win7 doesn't understand the Win98 request to browse the host when viewing it in Network Neighborhood, so you can't get to anything on the host. However, the solution is to type in the full path of the shared drive on the host into the Network Neighborhood (or Win Explorer) address bar in the format \\HostPCName\SharedDrive, and you will be into the drive able to navigate it normally.

If you want to make things a little easier to access in the future, you can map the shared drive to a drive letter. This is a little harder than usual as you cannot get into the host machine and therefore cannot do it by right clicking on the shared folder to assign the drive letter. Again, this can be overcome by running Windows Explorer and using the Map Network Drive under the Tools menu. Select the drive letter required, then type in the path for the shared folder (same format as above), tick the reconnect button if you want it to be permanent, hit OK and you're in business. Please note that this option is only available in Windows Explorer. My Computer and Network Neighborhood windows, although very similar, don't have the Tools menu needed to map the drive.

Hi Mark!

I read your post with interest but was unable to do ALL the things you suggested. To begin with, I'm running Win 7 Pro as my host with VBox 4.6.1 and I have several guests, one of which is Win98SE. Win 7 is on a domain and it has no homegroup (disabled). The Network Connection to VBox appears to be configured as "Public" and I can't find a way to change that to "Home" or "Work". Right now, the Win98SE Guest cannot see ANY computers in Network Neighborhood. It can surf the internet just fine. I've tried to map a drive with UNC notation but it doesn't work. I have Win2K, WinXP, UBuntu, SBS2011 VM's and all are able to share data. Can you tell me how to change the Public network adapter (VBox) to a Home or Work adapter? That would probably simplify things greatly.
Thanks,
BillPV

[rauli]

On VirtualBox Windows 98, 98se and ME (but not 95) machines, there's a hidden file C:\VIDEOROM.BIN

The file contents are the same on those 3 Windows versions, and the date/time is the Windows installation date.

I was surprised to find on the 1st bytes of this file the string "VirtualBox VGA BIOS"... What is this file? Does it belong to Windows? Or is it added by VirtualBox?