Running Windows 95 in DOSBox

20) File Transfer Methods

While designed for the Windows 95 installation, these methods hold equally valid for Windows 98.

Method 1 is the use of the computer management tool available in Windows Vista, 7 and 8. I cannot verify that it will work correctly in Vista or 8. Method 2 only uses DOSBox, so should be a universal solution.

Method 1: Computer Management ￫

Method 2: XCOPY in DOSBox ￫

21) JDOSBox Config

Open your JDOSBox configuration file. It will be located in the .dosbox folder in the same directory as your java executable.

You should add the lines as shown assuming you are following this guide closely.

22) Boot into JDOSBox

We are now ready to boot into JDOSBox and verify our commands.

You should see that both your floppy image and your hard drive image mounted successfully in JDOSBox as shown in the image.

23) Boot into DOS

Now that we have verified our commands we should be ready to begin installing Windows 98.

Type "boot -l a" in order to boot into DOS as we have been doing.

24) Navigate to Win98 CD

Once we have booted into DOS you should switch to the C: drive by typing "C:" and hitting enter at the prompt.

Now navigate to your Windows 98 CD. Type "dir" to see what is on your C: drive. The "cd" command is short for change directory. Use this to enter your Windows 98 CD directory.

25) Executing Setup

We will now begin our installation of Windows 98. We want to use a few switches to make the installation go a little easier.

Type "setup /nm /is" into the command prompt and hit enter.

26) What to Expect

This will begin the Windows 98 installation once you hit Continue.

Be aware that this installation typically takes at least an hour to complete!

27) Initial Loading

Setup will begin by loading some files and allocating space.

From here you will be prompted to select your installation directory.

28) Choose Your Directory

You will now be prompted to select your installation directory.

I recommend you keep it as the C:\\Windows, this is the most convenient way to do it.

29) Preinstallation

Here we see the setup program will check for hardware components and other various things before beginning the installation.

30) Installation Type

You will now be asked what type of installation you want to perform.

Personally I would select the custom option to give you a finer control over what is and is not installed.

31) Selecting Components

If you chose to go the Custom installation route, you will be prompted with the ability to pick which programs you want to install.

This is entirely up to you, you may pick all of the programs, none of the programs, or anything in between. Explore the menus and see what might be interesting.

32) Identification

Here you will be able to name your computer and give it a description if you'd like.

This is not overly important so you can call your system whatever feels appropriate.

33) Hardware Selection

You don't need to change anything here, but you are able to see what emulated hardware is detected.

If you would like you could change a few items, such as making your monitor a Plug-n-Play monitor.

34) Start-up Disk

Be sure that you do not make a start-up disk. You already have one of these, it is your Boot Disk.

If you choose yes it will simply overwrite your 622c.img boot disk. While the disk it creates will be less effective, you can simply re-extract the original boot disk image.

35) File Copy

Setup will now begin to copy and install Windows 98.

Once this is completed installation will begin.

36) Installation

Finally we will begin our installation of Windows 98.

Sit back and watch your favorite show. This installation takes a while. Typically it should be done in 50-60 minutes.

37) Rebooting

Now that our installation has completed we are ready to restart our virtual machine.

We will continue using JDOSBox for our installation so simply allow it to restart.

38) Resuming Setup

Once you have restarted JDOSBox you will now need to resume setup.

Type "boot -l c" into the prompt and hit enter. You will be brought back to setup in order to complete the installation.

39) Enter Your Product Key

You will now need to enter your product key to authenticate your product.

If you don't know the key for some reason, don't worry. Windows 98 is such an old operating system the universal keys are realtively easy to locate.

40) Driver Installation

Setup will now install the basic driver database for the next step where hardware is set up properly.

Once this finishes continue on to the next part.

41) Hardware Setup

Setup will detect your hardware and attempt to install the proper drivers.

This will give us a decent starting location, but obviously we will want to install updated drivers and drivers not available from Microsoft in our final installation.

42) Final Setup

Setup will finish up installation by setting up our control panel and other various system components like the time zone.

You should then be prompted again to restart. You should do this, again typing "boot -l c" into the prompt once JDOSBox restarts.

43) First Boot

Congratulations! You are booting into Windows 98 for the first time in your virtual machine.

Notice that it isn't particularly speedy in JDOSBox, but it is necessary to continue using it for the time being. This helps eliminate any errors during updates.

44) Initial Start Up

Windows will begin by detecting some additional hardware.

It may or may not successfully install drivers. One of the components it will detect is our emulated Voodoo1 Card, which it won't have proper drivers for.

45) Final Preparations

Windows will then proceed to do a final setup of our control panel and other varying system components.

Once this is completed you will be greeted with the familiar Desktop.