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I've read the tutorial and searched the archives and understand the problems associated with Windows 98, and I think I could solve most of the problems if I could figure out how to get files into the virtual machine. Anything USB doesn't work (but I think that's unexpected). I tried burning the files onto a CD, and even though Win 98 will see the drive, the CD always appears empty. I vaguely remember something about 98 not being to read certain CD's....is that my problem? Is there an easy way to get information into Win 98 on a virtual machine? Thanks for any help

Larry

Please update your profile to indicate your typical host and guest OS, and VirtualBox version. In this case the first and third items would have been pertinent information. In the meantime I'll assume you are using VBox PUEL on a Windows XP or later host.

There are several easy ways to exchange files with Windows 98SE (that's what my VM is, I have no certain knowledge of how plain Win98 behaves).

• If the files are small then you can use another VM to put them on a virtual floppy, or there may be freeware tools which can do this. All you need for this is a blank virtual floppy you can write on. You can download any kind of free floppy image, copy it, wipe the copy and use as blank floppy.
• Copy the files to an .ISO image. I've never had any problems getting Win98SE to see a virtual CD.
• Use a USB flash drive. I have confirmed that USB certainly does work in Win98, however you would need to find Win98 drivers for the drive since (unlike XP and later) Win98SE does not have native support for generic USB mass storage devices. Also, getting any kind of USB device to work in VirtualBox is difficult for some users at the best of times, until they get the trick (and of course it doesn't work at all with VBox OSE).
• By far the most convenient (assuming an XP or later host): enable file and printer sharing inside the guest, make sure the Win98 virtual PC is in the same workgroup as the host, set the network mode to "Host only" (or attach a second network card to the guest, make it host only), then mark a folder IN THE GUEST as shared. The host will then have read/write access to that folder while the guest is running, and of course the guest has direct access to it.