Installing Windows 98 on Windows Virtual PC

2010-05-27

Windows Virtual PC only officially supports Windows XP, Windows Vista and Windows 7 as guest operating systems. Thankfully it has great compatibility and can run many operating systems that are not officially supported.

I recently needed to setup a Windows 98 virtual machine for my wife – who has some genealogy software that will not even run on Windows XP. To do this I created a new virtual machine and configured it with 64mb of RAM and a 16GB virtual hard disk.

I was then able to install Windows 98 with no real problems:

Some things to be aware of when doing this:

I originally created the virtual machine with 128mb of RAM – but that caused problems for the setup program. Setting the memory to 64mb allowed the installation to go through successfully – and I was able to increase the memory after the operating system installation.
I happen to have a bootable Windows 98 installation CD – but most Windows 98 installation CDs are not bootable. If you have one of these – you need to use a boot floppy – which means you will need these scripts for attaching floppy disks to virtual machines.
While I used a 16GB virtual hard disk – because that is all that I needed – I have tried this with disks up to 127GB in size and not seen any problems.

After installation both networking and sound work correctly – but the video is kind of “sucky” and you need to capture / release the mouse whenever you use the virtual machine. Luckily you can address both of these issues by installing older virtual machine additions in the virtual machine. Doing this will give you:

Better graphics
Integrated mouse functionality
Desktop resizing

But you will not get:

Clipboard integration
Time synchronization
Shared Folders
Printer / smart card sharing

But how do you do this? The trick is to extract the old virtual machine additions out of a previous product. In my case I decided to get the virtual machine additions out of Virtual Server 2005 R2. To do this what you will need to do is:

Download Virtual Server 2005 R2 SP1
Download the Virtual Server 2005 R2 SP1 Update
Put both files in a temporary working directory (I used C:\work)
Rename the Virtual Server setup.exe to 1setup1.exe
- This is needed to get around the Windows application compatibility check, which we do not care about as we will not be installing Virtual Server
Open a command prompt and change to your temporary working directory
Run:
1setup1.exe /c /t .
This will extract the installation files out of the executable file
Next run:
start /wait msiexec /a "Virtual Server 2005 Install.msi" TARGETDIR="C:\Work\bits" /qn
This will extract all of the files out of the setup package
Finally run:
start /wait msiexec /p KB948515.msp /a "C:\Work\bits\Virtual Server 2005 Install.msi" /qn
This will apply the Virtual Server 2005 R2 SP1 update to the extracted files
Make a copy of the virtual machine additions ISO – which will be at C:\Work\Bits\Program Files\Microsoft Virtual Server\Virtual Machine Additions\VMAdditions.iso
You can delete all the other files now – as that ISO file is the only one you need

At this stage you should start up your Windows 98 virtual machine and login. Then attach the VMAdditions.iso file to the virtual machine. The virtual machine additions installer should start automatically inside the virtual machine:

After this you will need to reboot the virtual machine.

With all this in place – some parting notes that I have are:

Do not connect this to a network! Seriously. Windows 98 is no longer supported by Microsoft – and security updates are not being released. Furthermore – there are no antivirus programs that are being actively maintained for Windows 98. So it is just a terrible idea to do.
If you do have to connect it to the network – here are some tips:
- Configure the virtual machine to use Shared Networking (NAT) – that will at least protect it from active network based attacks
- You can install Internet Explorer 6 from here – but please, please, please do not use the virtual machine for general purpose web browsing
- The Windows Update link in Windows 98 is broken – but you can use Windows Update by manually going to https://windowsupdate.microsoft.com

Cheers,
Ben

Comments

Anonymous
May 26, 2010
But why did you omit the VM additions for older OSes in the first place? All OSes down to Windows 95 should have been fully supported in Windows VPC with VM additions. Especially when Windows VPC cannot coexist with Virtual PC 2004. Btw, can Virtual Server 2005 SP1 coexist with Windows VPC?
Anonymous
May 26, 2010
Hi Anonymous - Windows 98 is not supported by Microsoft any more. Not on hardware and not in virtual machines. This method here is not tested and not supported. Given that - it would be inappropriate to included these virtual machine additions in a supported product. Cheers, Ben
Anonymous
May 27, 2010
First and foremost, thank you so much for offering this information as I had all but given up on successfully installing Windows 98 in the new Windows Virtual PC. Just out of curiousty, is the VMAdditions.iso from Virtual Server 2005 SP1 the same as VirtualPC 2007 SP1? Just looking for the newest version of the iso before I start playing, as I have already saved the VMAdditions.iso from VPC 2007 SP1. Thanks again for this, now bring on the Windows for Workgroups article :)
Anonymous
May 27, 2010
I love your posts about running old operating systems on Windows Virtual PC. Any chance we'll see you install DOS/Win 3.x or OS/2 with Virtual Machine Additions on Windows Virtual PC?
Anonymous
May 27, 2010
@bezem, don't know exact version of VirtualMachineAdditions.msi in Virtual PC 2007 SP1, but same file from update 32-bit_KB958162.msp contains version 13.823 Updates for Virtual Server 2005 R2 SP1 32-bit_KB948515.msp and 32-bit_KB956124.msp contain 13.820, which is somewhat older than additions for VPC. I'm using 13.823 on Windows 2000 virtual guest machine.
Anonymous
May 28, 2010
@IL Hey thanks alot for the info! I'll be sure to check the version of my VMAdditions ISO when I explore Windows 98 on Windows Virtual PC this weekend; I'm not sure if I had the hotfix file so I thank you for pointing me in that direction.
Anonymous
May 28, 2010
Hello. Although the list of supported guest OS is very (too) limited (for example, I think windows 2000 should still be officially supported by the latest version), it's great Windows Virtual PC is actually able to run many other systems (like Windows 98). Just a question : because Windows 98 is unsupported for a long time, you warn users about the danger of use for network or web purposes. Why not ? It is just a virtual machine ! If the host system - Windows 7 in that case - is properly protected (antivirus, firewall, ...), why bother ? There would be no infection from the virtual machine to the real machine and you can replace the files of virtual machine at any time. Am I right ? Thank you.
Anonymous
May 28, 2010
Like Jon, I am curious about the DOS part. I have a customer that is using the Windows 98 DOS functionality for a program that they must run in a DOS environment. Is there a DOS-capable virtual NIC available for those that would have to install a pure DOS environment or a hybrid DOS environment and then use the old DOS TCP/IP net client?
Anonymous
May 28, 2010
How To Install Windows Server 2003 R2 ? Thanks Luciano
Anonymous
May 30, 2010
Bezem / IL - I have not checked the exact version numbers - sorry. Jon / MikeB / Luciano - If you search this site you will find many posts talking about different operating systems on older versions of Virtual PC - most of which are still applicable to Windows Virtual PC. That said - I will add it to my list of "blog posts to do" that I need to talk about this :-) Big Monstro - You are correct that a compromised / infected virtual machine is no more of a danger to you than if you had a seperate physical computer running Windows 98 that was compromised / infected. But I do not want such a thing in my environment - virtual or physical. Cheers, Ben
Anonymous
June 02, 2010
So it would seem to be a good idea to put together a library of Virtual Machine Add-Ons from older versions of Virtual PC.
Anonymous
June 03, 2010
Hey Ben, stop stealing all my Win98 install page hits! www.essjae.com
Anonymous
June 04, 2010
Is it possible to disable the integrated mouse functionnality without uninstalling virtual machine additions ? It is easily feasible with Microsoft Virtual PC 2004/2007 but I cannot find this option on Windows Virtual PC. I've a virtual machine with Windows 98 for game purpose (especially to play with Age of Empires II, because there are compatibility issues on Windows 7) and I need to disable integrated mouse to properly play. If I uninstall virtual machine additions, I uninstall the best driver for the virtual graphic card at the same time. How disable the integrated mouse functionnality with Virtual Machines Additions installed ? Should I use VPC 2007 instead ? Thank you for your answers. Best regards.
Anonymous
June 07, 2010
Has anyone else noticed issues with VMAdditions ver 13.823? I have tried on both Win98 and Win98SE, using both the walkthrough above and EssJae's. After installation of the additionas and reboot the additions work fine but then the system hangs at shut down on a black screen. I havent had a chance to try rolled back VM additions yet but was curious if anyone else had encountered this. Thanks!
Anonymous
June 18, 2010
Is there a reason why you are using VMAdditions 13.820 from Virtual Server 2005 SP1 + Update when Virtual PC 2007 SP1 has what seems to be the newer VMAdditions 13.823, which appear to work fine on Windows 98?
Anonymous
June 26, 2010
Please clarify why not install VPC 2007 SP1 virtual additions? Is this because Windows Virtual PC is based on Virtual Server 2005 instead of Virtual PC 2007? Also, can Virtual Server 2005 SP1 coexist with Windows VPC?
Anonymous
June 30, 2010
MikeMS / VPC virtual additions - No particular reason for using the Virtual Server additions, just the ones I used when I set this up. Cheers, Ben
Anonymous
August 21, 2010
I downloaded the VPC 2007 VMAdditions, and used a program called 7-zip to unzip the setup file. other zip programs can do the same. I extracted the largest file until I got to AdditionsISO~ which i renamed Additons.iso. Still got the same level of intergration without using the command prompt. I had hopped that VPC 2007 would work better. Thanks for the tip.
Anonymous
August 22, 2010
Hi, I am trying to get win98 working as a guest on windows 7. I have been able to install the OS but when I tried to install the VM additions it couldn't find the various files for setting up the video, sound etc. It did release the cursor though. I tried to reinstall the VMA but it didn't give me the option of refreshing just remove so I removed them thinking that I would be able to reinstall them but now when I go into the VMA wizard it only gives me the option to remove (they are already removed the cursor is captive). Next I decided to follow your instructions to extract VMA from an earlier version but although I followed your instructions to the letter on both the win7 host machine and also a borrowed laptop running winXP I can't get the command scripts to work. 1setup1.exe /c /t doesn't appear to do anything but 1setup1.exe starts to install the program. The other 2 scripts result in a "windows cannot find start" message. I am desparate to get this going as like your wife I desperately need to run genealogy software that will not run on win7. What am I doing wrong?
Anonymous
August 22, 2010
Hi, I am trying to get win98 working as a guest on windows 7. I have been able to install the OS but when I tried to install the VM additions it couldn't find the various files for setting up the video, sound etc. It did release the cursor though. I tried to reinstall the VMA but it didn't give me the option of refreshing just remove so I removed them thinking that I would be able to reinstall them but now when I go into the VMA wizard it only gives me the option to remove (they are already removed the cursor is captive). Next I decided to follow your instructions to extract VMA from an earlier version but although I followed your instructions to the letter on both the win7 host machine and also a borrowed laptop running winXP I can't get the command scripts to work. 1setup1.exe /c /t doesn't appear to do anything but 1setup1.exe starts to install the program. The other 2 scripts result in a "windows cannot find start" message. I am desparate to get this going as like your wife I desperately need to run genealogy software that will not run on win7. What am I doing wrong?
Anonymous
October 23, 2010
Very nice review Ben, ...except the ridiculous remark concerning the lack of antivirus programs for win98. Maybe you should take a look at McAfee, they update consistently ever since they began, also for win98.
Anonymous
December 04, 2010
Hi Ben, If Windows 98 is not supported anymore, can you tell me where can I get a Windows 98 ISO for free?
Anonymous
December 04, 2010
why on earth would a product not being supported mean you get to have it for free?
Anonymous
February 13, 2011
Thanks for the tip about older vmadditions. Btw. bit off-topic, but people looking to run purely dos-environment should check out dosbox.
Anonymous
March 05, 2011
This Howto will bring you a few new Windows7 licenses - I know a company that run Win98 on all their (modern!) Office PCs because the main application is not ( With no trick ) Win 2k/XP ready. They skipped the upgrade to XP,to Vista and to 7 when they found out that Windows7 VPC/xpmode wont work for them too. And the desaster wether the CPU had VT or not was also not helpful. Now - with THIS tutorial and the updated VPC package and SP1 for Win7 I will tell the manager : "Yes you can now". Unsupported, I know. But I promise he wont ring Microsofts hotline.. only mine :-) Thank You, Ben Armstrong.
Anonymous
July 04, 2011
"Step 10: You can delete all the other files now": Good to know, but don't do this immediately. There is a precompact.iso that should work for Windows 2000 - unlike the Windows 7 VPC precompact.iso. There is a CHM file explaining the VM API, in essence the same as what you find for VPC on technet, but I prefer CHM files for offline use. E.g., it's perfectly simple to twist Ben's floppydrive.vbs into a similar cddvd.vbs if you just replace "floppydrives" by "DVDROMdrives" (plus one other modification) based on info in this CHM - all you need for this "programming" is a text editor.
Anonymous
July 10, 2011
is there a reason why you installed Windows 98 first edition and not second edition?
Anonymous
July 26, 2011
First and foremost, thank you so much for offering this information as I had all but given up on successfully installing Windows 98 in the new Windows Virtual PC. Just out of curiousty, is the VMAdditions.iso from Virtual Server 2005 SP1 the same as VirtualPC 2007 SP1? Just looking for the newest version of the iso before I start playing, as I have already saved the VMAdditions.iso from VPC 2007 SP1. Thanks again for this, now bring on the Windows for Workgroups article :)
Anonymous
July 27, 2011
hmdmhdfmhdjmzdtjmzdtzktdkztdjz - Good point about the precompact ISO file. Jatanasoae - The reason is simple - I have misplaced my serial number for Windows 98 SE, but still have my serial number for Windows 98. aa - There are minor differences between the versions, but I would be comfortable using either one for Windows 98. Cheers, Ben
Anonymous
August 11, 2011
What workarounds are there to the lack of Shared Folders on non-XP guests? (What I'd really like is a network interface exclusively between my host and my guest.)
Anonymous
August 12, 2011
Stuart - You should be able to use a loopback adapter to create a private network between your physical computer and your virtual machine. You can read about how to do this here: blogs.msdn.com/.../477195.aspx Cheers, Ben
Anonymous
August 17, 2011
The comment has been removed
Anonymous
September 01, 2011
hey i am trying to do this because i want to play an old game i can't on xp so i wanna keep all my stuff on C but this thing is formating it.. and i don't know how to install it without the formating my c drive thnx in forward
Anonymous
September 13, 2011
Hi Ben. Great article. One question: should i be selecting a fixed VHD rather than a dynamic one? I only ask because after what appears to be a successful Win98 install, the VM reboots and then hangs on the Win98 splash screen. A further reboot and i get a message along the lines of no boot device/OS found. I've tried with both 64Mb or RAM and 128Mb. Thanks.
Anonymous
October 28, 2011
Yeah,but i using Windows 98 when i age 7.
Anonymous
October 30, 2011
Hi, i followed the steps you listed above to increase the video card memory, but when i used the code in the prompt windows, the files that were on my work directory seemed to not be affected by the commands written in prompt even if there were no error messages after typin enter. So i was non able to extract the content of the setup.exe file. I tried to use winrar to extract the files but i received a "damaged archive" error message even if the setup file is not damaged, in fact if I double click on it it starts without problems Do you have any suggestion? Thanks in advice.
Anonymous
November 04, 2011
Where to find it for windows 98 virtual pc??
Anonymous
December 06, 2011
How can i uninstall 98? do i have to unistall virtual pc first?
Anonymous
January 03, 2012
cannot see the iso file after doing the command prompt?
Anonymous
January 11, 2012
1 - Thank you for this detailed article. 2 - Virtual Additions from Virtual PC 2007 SP1 6.0.192.0 install and work just fine. Now i just need to work out how to set networking up and running...
Anonymous
February 20, 2012
The comment has been removed
Anonymous
April 04, 2012
How do I set up a virtual machine in Windows XP to rum 98
Anonymous
September 19, 2012
I just installed the virtual machine but I dont know how I can install windows 7 that was already there and the programs I need,
Anonymous
October 08, 2012
I am running a Win98 virtual machine so I can run old versions of CorelDRAW and FamilyTreeMaker that I don't want on my physical (Win7) machine. I can get files to the virtual machine by creating and mounting ISO files, but how do I get files from the virtual machine back to my physical machine? In the past (with Virtual PC 2007), I could just drag-and-drop files between the virtual and physical computers, but this no longer works with WinVPC. Any suggestions?
Anonymous
June 26, 2013
cnelson> "how do I get files from the virtual machine back to my physical machine?" Benjamin suggested a way with a private network (to Stuart). There is another way, and that involves using a Win XP VM as an intermediary, since it can "see" the physical machines' hard drive(s). It can also see other virtual hard drives if you add them.

With the XP VM shut down, you go the the XP .vcmx file C:UsersmeTheUserVirtual Machines (Where "meTheUser" is replaced by the user log in you are using on Win 7.)
Right click "settings" on that .vcmx file
Click down to "Hard Disk 2", supposing that you have not already added that. ("Hard disk 3" is there too, if you need it.)
Now, in the right-hand panel, you click the button for "Virtual Hard Disk" and point to your Win 98 .vhd file. Mine, for example, is: C:UsersgwhiteAppDataLocalMicrosoftWindows Virtual PCVirtual Machinesw98se.vhd Your Win XP VM can now "see" your Win 98 VHD.
Make sure your Win 98 VM is shut down.
Start up your Win XP VM. Once it is started, you should be able to find the Win 98 hard drive. Since the XP VM can see both the Win 98 VHD and your physical Win 7 hard drives, you can literally copy files between them. Note: You cannot have both VM's running at the same time to see the same VHD. There is no true sharing with this method. But it is straight forward, I suppose.

Anonymous
August 18, 2013
I know this was posted over three years ago, but I just want to say thanks! Much appreciated!!
Anonymous
October 03, 2013
How can i Install virtual pc rc on my computer windows 7
Anonymous
November 07, 2013
The comment has been removed
Anonymous
February 12, 2014
The comment has been removed
Anonymous
February 14, 2014
The comment has been removed
Anonymous
February 14, 2014
I add to the above, that I used the 64 bit versions of the 2005 software products, because it's a 64 bit computer. The start/run sequence was done from windows 7. So anyway I believe i followed the instructions well.
Anonymous
February 27, 2014
Windows Update for Windows 98 SE does no longer work. Where can i get updates for Windows 98?
Anonymous
March 29, 2014
I want a virtual machine and use windows 98
Anonymous
June 08, 2014
The correct syntax is c:work1setup1.exe /c /t C:work. The /c/t command requires a destination directory.
Anonymous
November 15, 2014
Great article. Can you possibly go into detail why Windows 98 won't run in Hyper-V? I want a more technical answer than "it's not supported", and you seem to be the man who might know ;)
Anonymous
February 26, 2015
I have an installed version of virtual Windows 98 and it works well except I cannot get my LPT port to work and I cannot write to any other drive, Floppy A, USB drive, or DVD recorder. I can, however, print to a network printer. I would at least like to back up my files. I have tried the changing the settings th allow LPT1 and other drives and rebooted and relaunched with no better results. Any thoughts?
Anonymous
April 25, 2015
errr okay where can i get win Wistler
Anonymous
March 10, 2017
After 7 years, this post was still extremely useful, thank you.

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Installing Windows 98 on Windows Virtual PC

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