Windows ME/95 Guest additions.

[douglas96]

Hi,
Is there any workarounds on how to install guest additions on ME or 95 because I want to enable 32bit colour depth and a higher resolution. Thanks in advance

[dmcgraw]

No, the Guest Additions are not supported for the OSes.

[douglas96]

Will they ever be supported? Thanks.

[stefan.becker]

I think no. Asked thousands of times before, answer always no.

And look into the WinDOS Howto above.

[mpack]

I want to enable 32bit colour depth and a higher resolution

See the Win95/Win98 howto. In particular note that installing a VESA driver will give you greater resolution and 32bit colour depth (my Win98SE uses 1024x768x32bpp). However, it will not give you the faster performance that GAs would give you; and no, this will never be remedied unless either the Win9x market makes a miraculous recovery, or a third party volunteers some code.

[Rekt]

This is a frustrating situation. VirtualBox appears to have Win9x support, seeing as how it's an option we can select when setting up a new VM, yet once the system is installed we're stuck at 640x480x16 video and no other features, which renders the installed system virtually useless anyway.

I see this as laziness on Oracle's part. They could write drivers to support these systems, but won't. What is the point of acknowledging these systems in the software at all when they're unsupported in the end?

The only alternative I see is someone volunteering to write support software for Oracle. I expect there would be interest since no doubt quite a number of people are interested in being able to run these older systems for various reasons. Maybe Oracle could reach out to the open source community and find out if someone would like to contribute something for this?

[michaln]

If someone was interested in contributing, they had nearly 10 years to do so. Since no such contribution materialized, it's fair to say that such interest has been proven not to exist. Doesn't mean it can't happen, but the chances are slim.

Commercial interest in Windows 9x guest support is zero. That's why Oracle can't justify spending any effort on Guest Additions for those systems. Basically VirtualBox is a post-Win9x hypervisor, unlike Virtual PC or VMware it came on the scene at a time (circa 2006) when Windows 9x was no longer commercially relevant.

[Perryg]

This discussion is pointless at this time. Way to old an OS to waste any time on unless someone is willing to invest a few tens of thousands of dollars.

[mpack]

I see this as laziness on Oracle's part.

Or laziness on yours. A workaround for the limited resolution issue has already been mentioned, had you made the slightest effort to read this (short) discussion before deciding to contribute to it.

Btw, being present in the list of OS's represents that there is a recommended set of VM settings. It does not imply any kind of support.