Using VMWare on XP Home to run Win98SE

[Martin C]

Having read previous posts about using a dual boot system, I have decided to
try another option as I currently have XP Home SP2 installed. I wanted to
use my old Win98SE as a dual boot, but it seems this is a trickier route to
take as the newer OS is on the machine first and I dont want to start all
over again.

Instead, I have been looking into using VMWare Free Player to run Win98SE so
that some of my older games that I enjoy can be run - as XP does not like a
lot of them.

However, I am reading a lot of conflicting stuff on the web so hoped that
some of you that may have used it can give me the real situation on the
following three questions.

'VMWare needs XP Pro to work properly'? - seems a bit wierd for a
virtualisation software, but had to ask.

'VMWare will use its emulated video card drivers for any games that are run
in the virtual machine'. As I have a relatively recent Nvidia 6800 card, I
dont want to be using a much more out of date emulated driver and have the
game running what is effectively a much worse card.

Am I supposed to install Win98SE onto a drive and let an instance of VMWare
pick this up, or do I install the OS into a running instance of the VMWare
player. Not really sure how this all works.

Thanks for any help you can provide.

Martin

 

[Pegasus \(MVP\)]

Having read previous posts about using a dual boot system, I have decided
to try another option as I currently have XP Home SP2 installed. I wanted
to use my old Win98SE as a dual boot, but it seems this is a trickier
route to take as the newer OS is on the machine first and I dont want to
start all over again.

Instead, I have been looking into using VMWare Free Player to run Win98SE
so that some of my older games that I enjoy can be run - as XP does not
like a lot of them.

However, I am reading a lot of conflicting stuff on the web so hoped that
some of you that may have used it can give me the real situation on the
following three questions.

'VMWare needs XP Pro to work properly'? - seems a bit wierd for a
virtualisation software, but had to ask.

'VMWare will use its emulated video card drivers for any games that are
run in the virtual machine'. As I have a relatively recent Nvidia 6800
card, I dont want to be using a much more out of date emulated driver and
have the game running what is effectively a much worse card.

Am I supposed to install Win98SE onto a drive and let an instance of
VMWare pick this up, or do I install the OS into a running instance of the
VMWare player. Not really sure how this all works.

Thanks for any help you can provide.

Martin

I don't know anything about VMWare but if you have a spare
disk then a simple and highly effective way to achieve your goal
would consist of installing the free boot loader XOSL onto this
disk, then loading Win98 onto it too. The nice thing about XOSL
is that it will not modify your WinXP installation in any way.

Post again if you're interested in going down this path.

 

[Martin C]

I don't know anything about VMWare but if you have a spare
disk then a simple and highly effective way to achieve your goal
would consist of installing the free boot loader XOSL onto this
disk, then loading Win98 onto it too. The nice thing about XOSL
is that it will not modify your WinXP installation in any way.

Post again if you're interested in going down this path.

Pegasus,

I have read a little about XOSL previously. If I am understanding it
correctly, it is really an advanced boot manager - although from the FAQs
there seems to be a lot you have to get to grips with before risking its use
for the first time. There are a lot of 'make sure than', 'dont do this' etc
to watch out for.

It was because of the apparent potential risks involved that I chose to find
another path first. Plus the fact that it is a boot manager, so if I want to
use Win98SE, I would have to reboot to get it going if I was already in XP.
The advantage of a virtual PC was that I could just run it up and use the
older OS seperately.

By the way, in my first post, I mentioned that VMWare did not support XP
Home. I think I may have been confusing that with Microsoft Virtual PC,
which does not have XP Home listed in the supported host operating systems.

If I cannot get anywhere with a virtual machine, then I will look into XOSL
again. Thanks for the reply, as I had forgotten the name of XOSL, so I have
now made a copy of your reply for later reference if I need it.

Martin

 

[Guest]

Few of the modern mobos come with drivers for win9x, making multiboot
impractical. In that case, virtual is the only option for anything pre-2000.

I'm in the process of going over to virtual machines for test puposes. They
work perfectly well, with the exception that the mouse will not track
correctly in the VMWare Console on some OS's, it's like it runs at double
speed. The answer here is to use VNC to control it, which in any case works
better than the console. One thing you do need to run several VM's is
_loads_ of RAM, otherwise it will be like paint drying. Given sufficient
resources though, it's remarkably responsive.

The advantage of the virtual route is twofold: I can run both (or more,
given sufficient RAM) at once without the hassle/delays of rebooting. Also I
can snapshot it, so that I can test software and (even if something goes
horribly wrong!) very quicky reset it to exactly how it was when I started.

Oh, and if I change the computer, I can copy the virtual machine over and it
will continue as if nothing has happened. Try that with a hardware-install!

 

[Malke]

Having read previous posts about using a dual boot system, I have decided to
try another option as I currently have XP Home SP2 installed. I wanted to
use my old Win98SE as a dual boot, but it seems this is a trickier route to
take as the newer OS is on the machine first and I dont want to start all
over again.

Instead, I have been looking into using VMWare Free Player to run Win98SE so
that some of my older games that I enjoy can be run - as XP does not like a
lot of them.

However, I am reading a lot of conflicting stuff on the web so hoped that
some of you that may have used it can give me the real situation on the
following three questions.

'VMWare needs XP Pro to work properly'? - seems a bit wierd for a
virtualisation software, but had to ask.

'VMWare will use its emulated video card drivers for any games that are run
in the virtual machine'. As I have a relatively recent Nvidia 6800 card, I
dont want to be using a much more out of date emulated driver and have the
game running what is effectively a much worse card.

Am I supposed to install Win98SE onto a drive and let an instance of VMWare
pick this up, or do I install the OS into a running instance of the VMWare
player. Not really sure how this all works.

You're misunderstanding how virtualization works. Here's how you use
VMWare's Workstation 6 (an excellent product btw):

1. Install VMWare on your computer. I normally use VMWare on an XP Pro
machine but I have installed it on an XP Home machine and created a
virtual machine (see below) with no problems.

2. Once you have purchased and installed VMWare, you are ready to create
a virtual machine ("VM"). This virtual machine can run any operating
system supported by VMWare. You must have a full licensed copy of the
Microsoft operating system to do this. Basically, you are going to
install this operating system exactly as you would if it were being
installed on a standalone machine.

2a. Hardware - All virtualization programs use virtualized hardware. The
hardware that the VM is using has nothing to do with the actual real
hardware installed in your computer. Therefore you don't use a VM to do
3D gaming. There is also overhead in terms of processing power and RAM
used with virtualization since you are in effect running two operating
systems at the same time (the host operating system and the VM). The
more physical RAM installed on the host system the better. At least 1GB
would be ideal in your situation.

3. If you want to use the VM on a different computer from the one in
which you created the VM, you can download the free VMPlayer and install
it on the target computer. Copy your VM to that computer and open it
with the VMPlayer. If you want to use the VM on the same computer where
VMWare is installed, you don't need the VMPlayer.

Do some reading at VMWare's website. They also have very active user
forums. Microsoft's program for virtual computing is Virtual PC 2007. It
basically works the same way although AFAIK they don't have a player
since VPC itself is free. My personal preference is for VMWare since I
think it is a better program.

All that said, if you want to play 3D games that require a fair amount
of processing power and/or a joystick you will be better off
dual-booting or having a separate computer for the older operating
system. VMWare has a trial version so you can see if virtualization
works with the games you want to run. I use VM's running DOS and Windows
95 to play some old games but keep a Win98 box around for games that
won't work in a VM.

Hope that helped,


Malke

 

[Pegasus \(MVP\)]

Pegasus,

I have read a little about XOSL previously. If I am understanding it
correctly, it is really an advanced boot manager - although from the FAQs
there seems to be a lot you have to get to grips with before risking its
use for the first time. There are a lot of 'make sure than', 'dont do
this' etc to watch out for.

It was because of the apparent potential risks involved that I chose to
find another path first. Plus the fact that it is a boot manager, so if I
want to use Win98SE, I would have to reboot to get it going if I was
already in XP. The advantage of a virtual PC was that I could just run it
up and use the older OS seperately.

By the way, in my first post, I mentioned that VMWare did not support XP
Home. I think I may have been confusing that with Microsoft Virtual PC,
which does not have XP Home listed in the supported host operating
systems.

If I cannot get anywhere with a virtual machine, then I will look into
XOSL again. Thanks for the reply, as I had forgotten the name of XOSL, so
I have now made a copy of your reply for later reference if I need it.

Martin

You are correct: Using a multi-booting system requires a reboot
to change between OSs. Virtual OSs do not suffer from this
drawback.

The installation of XOSL can easily destroy the existing OS in
the hand of the inexperienced. In your case it is safe because
you would install it on a second disk while your WinXP disk
is disconnected.

Post again if VMWare does not deliver what you need.

 

[Martin C]

Thanks for the detailed reply Malke.

As I said in my response to Pegasus, I dont think that Microsoft Virtual PC
2007 will work with XP Home as it is not listed in the supported OS.

I might give virtualisation a go to see if 3D games really can be played on
it (I have 1GB of RAM), but I am not too hopeful from what I have read so
far in various places.

Looks like I will probably have to go the way of XOSL as recommended by
Pegasus.

Thanks for the help.

Martin