Help installing Windows 3.1 on VMWare Fusion

jrrdnx · Jul 9, 2009

Before you ask, I had found some old games a few months ago that I wanted to play for nostalgia sake, so I made some Windows 95 and 98 virtual machines. It was pretty easy actually, since I just used Disk Utility to create images of the install discs. VMWare had a nice guide on their site that helped me get networking setup properly also.

But then I got to thinking, it'd be pretty fun to try and get Windows 3.1 up and running as well. I was able to make images of some MS-DOS 6.22 install disks and got that installed just fine. My problem actually comes when trying to install Windows itself. I was able to get the install files from 2 different sources. The first was just a folder of ALL the install files from 6 different disks, and the second was 7 different ZIP files from 7 different disks. I tried creating a single image from the first source, and 7 different images from the 7 unzipped folders from the second source, but on both attempts I'm unable to access the A:\ drive in DOS to start the setup. It gives me an error message about reading from the drive, followed by the standard "Abort, Retry, Fail?"

Has anybody else tried to get a Windows 3.1 virtual machine up and running and come across this problem? I even tried Googling for the exact lists of files contained on the 6 disks from my first source in order to try and split those up and make the necessary images, but unsuccessfully. Thanks in advance for any help!

cainnovacaine · Jul 9, 2009

You might also try "compatibility mode" in the Windows 7 RC, its much more useful than in Vista. I used it to install some of the very old Kings Quest and Zork games on my parents PC. To get the best results, copy the installer over to the HDD and right click, go to properties and choose which version of Windows you knew it ran well on last, then install the program and repeat the process on the actual game entry in your program files that way Windows treats the installer with kid-gloves and not just the games installed files. Many 3.1 games worked fine on 95, which is a compatibility option.

Warning though, you may experience gameplay that was never intended to run on such fast hardware. I once installed Superman only to find that the computer read it so fast that as soon as I started a level I had already flown into a wall and died.

jrrdnx · Jul 10, 2009

Thanks for the suggestion, but my goal is to actually get Windows 3.1 running on its own virtual machine. I don't have Windows Vista or 7, and definitely won't be spending ANY money on Windows again as far as I can see.

Steve-M · Jul 10, 2009

I actually had win 3.1 running in VirtualBox on linux a few years back. It was all on a desktop machine that still had a floppy drive, so I was able to use the install disk. If I remember correctly, I had to umount then mount the next install floppy each time setup was ready for the next disk. This was all due to the fact that the floppy drive was mounted as a virtual drive, and had no way to refresh when the next disk was inserted.

If you are getting a disk error, you might make sure you are loading the images in the correct order. If setup is looking for disk 1, and you have disk 2 mounted, it will error out and prompt you to "Abort, Retry, Fail?"

If you are unable to get win 3.1 running, you might consider DosBox.

DOSBox is a DOS-emulator that uses the SDL-library which makes DOSBox very easy to port to different platforms. DOSBox has already been ported to many different platforms, such as Windows, BeOS, Linux, MacOS X...

DOSBox also emulates CPU:286/386 realmode/protected mode, Directory FileSystem/XMS/EMS, Tandy/Hercules/CGA/EGA/VGA/VESA graphics, a SoundBlaster/Gravis Ultra Sound card for excellent sound compatibility with older games...

You can "re-live" the good old days with the help of DOSBox, it can run plenty of the old classics that don't run on your new computer!

DOSBox is totally free of charge and OpenSource.

I have never personally tried DosBox, but I just might, for the fun of it.

Good luck, I hope you find your solution

Steve-M · Jul 11, 2009

This is very interesting. Not only can you run DOS games in DOSBox, but you can actually run Win 3.1 as well. I've tried it, and it works.

More info here http://www.dosbox.com/wiki/Software:Windows3x

But be advised, running win 3.1 virtually will load your processor 100%. Windows 95, and 98 will as well. There is a app named rain that will correct this problem in win 98, but I'm not finding one that works for win 3.1.

Steve-M · Jul 11, 2009

A few things to add. To slow down cpu usage when running win 3.1 in dosbox, I've done two things. First in the dosbox.conf file I made the following edit.

Code:

Change

priority=higher,normal

to

priority=higher,pause

This will cause dosbox to pause when dissected or minimized, and drop the cpu load to roughly 9%.

The dosbox.conf file is not present by default in Mac OSX. From the dosbox prompt you need to enter

Code:

CONFIG -writeconf dosbox.conf

This will write dosbox.conf to the same directory as dosbox. For more information on dosbox.conf see http://www.dosbox.com/wiki/Dosbox.conf

Next I installed WQGHLT in windows 3.1. This will tame cpu usage while win 3.1 is active. Follow the instructions in the download.

http://www.weiqigao.com/blog/2006/02/20/qemu_the_open_source_processor_emulator.html

http://www.weiqigao.com/software/wqghlt.zip

To enable sound, from win 3.1 go to Control Panel - Drivers - Add - Creative Labs Sound Blaster 1.5 - point setup to your win 3.1 installation source - set Port to 220 and Interrupt to 7.

I think thats it. Win 3.1 is running smoothly in dosbox with sound. Ready for what ever you would do in win 3.1.

jrrdnx · Jul 13, 2009

Thanks for your help Steve-M!

I just took my MBP to an AASP, so it'll be a few days before I get it back and can try this out again. I'm fairly certain that I had the correct image connected as the floppy drive, but who knows.

As far as idling the CPU, I was planning on using DOSidle. It's been recommended in several of the forums I've found while researching my troubles. It looks like it also works in Windows 95 and 98, of which I have several virtual machines as well.

With the Windows 3.1 that you have running on DOSBox, were you able to get networking up and running as well?

Glen Quagmire · Jul 13, 2009

I managed to get Windows 3.1 working on VMWare, including networking. The only thing I couldn't get to work was sound, but I'm not overly fussed about that.

From memory, I did the following (more or less):

First, I created a CD-ROM image using WinISO (on Windows XP). I created a directory named "DOS" and copied the MS DOS files to it. Then I created a "WIN311" directory and copied all the Windows 3.11 stuff to it.

Next, I created my VM in Fusion and booted it using an image of a boot floppy I got off the web (bootdisk.com or similar). I then partitioned and formatted the hard drive and installed DOS on to it from the CD. This took a while, as I was booting with FreeDOS and attempting to get MS DOS to install, but I got there eventually. After rebooting, I installed Windows, tweaked the autoexec/config files and rebooted into Windows. From the DOS prompt, Windows took one whole second to boot (much quicker than XP!).

There are drivers out there for the graphics card (giving you 1024x768 and 256 colours), as well as further drivers for the network card. You will also need TC/PIP software (from Microsoft).

Steve-M · Jul 13, 2009

jrrdnx said:
With the Windows 3.1 that you have running on DOSBox, were you able to get networking up and running as well?

Actually I haven't tried. But I did find a tutorial where a fellow has network going with 3.11 in VirtualBox. I think that might help you as well. But I'm not sure if the same could be achieved in Dosbox. You may have to switch to a VM such as vmware or virtualbox.

http://southbrain.com/south/2009/04/windows-networking-16-years-of.html

Shake 'n' Bake · Jul 13, 2009

Sorry to hijack, but I've got a relevant question.

Where can I get a free VM thing? I've got IBM TopView and I'm itching to try it on a Toshiba Infinia 7160, but I don't have a HDD for it. I saw this and thought I might be able to run TopView in a VM. I also need MS DOS 2.x. Can I get that somewhere?

Steve-M · Jul 14, 2009

Shake 'n' Bake said:
Sorry to hijack, but I've got a relevant question.

Where can I get a free VM thing? I've got IBM TopView and I'm itching to try it on a Toshiba Infinia 7160, but I don't have a HDD for it. I saw this and thought I might be able to run TopView in a VM. I also need MS DOS 2.x. Can I get that somewhere?

I have very good luck with VirtualBox http://www.virtualbox.org/

Not sure if you can find DOS 2.x or not. Have you checked out FreeDOS http://www.freedos.org/

JonD14513 · Jul 16, 2009

Question about vmware fusion 2.0

I just bought a 17'' macbook pro along with vmware fusion 2.0 and windows xp home edition. I have a Microsoft office license but it's for a PC and I don't like/want to use the office made for mac. Will vmware fusion 2.0 allow me to install windows xp home edition and then install office for pc afterwards virtually? or do I have to use the Microsoft Office made for Mac? Any information would be greatly appreciated. Thanks

jrrdnx · Jul 16, 2009

JonD14513 said:
I just bought a 17'' macbook pro along with vmware fusion 2.0 and windows xp home edition. I have a Microsoft office license but it's for a PC and I don't like/want to use the office made for mac. Will vmware fusion 2.0 allow me to install windows xp home edition and then install office for pc afterwards virtually? or do I have to use the Microsoft Office made for Mac? Any information would be greatly appreciated. Thanks

Yes. Once you have Windows installed in the VMWare Fusion virtual machine, you treat it just like any other Windows computer. So go ahead and install Office for PC and any other Windows programs you want.

JonD14513 · Jul 23, 2009

another question

thank you for the info!....any idea of how to go about installing the microsoft office license?...i have vmware fusion and xp successfully installed but when i put any cd in i can't access it from my computer in the virtual machine...any ideas?

jrrdnx · Jul 24, 2009

Click on the disc icon in the lower right-hand corner of the virtual machine. Make sure that its says "CD/DVD: Connected" and that you're using the Physical Disk Drive instead of a disk image.

Also, if you used Fusion's 'Windows Easy Install', it uses a special disk image set up as the floppy drive. You will need to make sure that this is disconnected as well. I did this just a few days ago and even though I had selected the Physical Disk Drive, it was still using the disk image of my WinXP installation disc.

JonD14513 · Jul 28, 2009

Awesome

Thank you for the info! Everything is working great...any idea how to install a printer that both the mac and the virtual machine will recognize?

Bjohnson33 · Jul 28, 2009

This is a great thread - a very geeky project indeed! Post some pics of 3.1 running on the Mac - it'd be good for a laugh!

jrrdnx · Jul 28, 2009

JonD14513 said:
Thank you for the info! Everything is working great...any idea how to install a printer that both the mac and the virtual machine will recognize?

I just installed the printer normally using Mac drivers I downloaded from the manufacturer website. Then for the virtual machine, open the Settings, and click 'Other Devices'. There should already be a Serial Port listed there as default for your virtual machine to use your Mac's printer. Click 'Printer Settings' and there should be an option to enable all printers installed on your Mac to be automatically added to your virtual machine, as well as an option to set the same or different default printer.

When setting up my vm's with Fusion, I never actually had to explicitly set any of this up. It was all set this way by default, and the first time I open the machine the printer is installed already.

Bjohnson33 said:
This is a great thread - a very geeky project indeed! Post some pics of 3.1 running on the Mac - it'd be good for a laugh!

I didn't actually think it'd be possible myself, but Windows 3.1 is actually in the list of OS's that Fusion supports. I found this copy online so I was actually able to get it running on Fusion 2 in Leopard 10.5.7, but I'm still trying to get my own virtual machine running from scratch.

imaketouchtheme · Jul 28, 2009

Y WULD U WANTS 2 RUN WINDOZE ON A APPLE?!111!?!!111/1/1?!!?!

In all seriousness, are you only wanting to run it in VMWare or as it's own "emulator" per se?

They have Apple II emulators, for example, I'm sure they have Windows 3.1 ones.

jrrdnx · Jul 28, 2009

Back to the original topic, I got my computer back and finally got around to setting up (or at least trying to) my own Windows 3.1 machine. MS-DOS 6.22 installs and runs perfectly fine, but this is what happens when I try to run the Win3.1 installation:

My only thought at this point is that the disk image isn't bootable or whatever. Last time I tried I was pretty sure, but I just looked at it again and it's actually a 10.6 MB file so more than likely that's my problem

. Unless anyone else has any other ideas?

imaketouchtheme said:
Y WULD U WANTS 2 RUN WINDOZE ON A APPLE?!111!?!!111/1/1?!!?!

In all seriousness, are you only wanting to run it in VMWare or as it's own "emulator" per se?

They have Apple II emulators, for example, I'm sure they have Windows 3.1 ones.

Actually, I'm a Web Developer and run separate Windows XP vm's to test sites in IE7, IE6, Chrome, etc. I was getting them all set up one day and thought it'd be fun to go ahead and set up some more for the older OS's and the browsers. Partly for fun, partly for nostalgia, and then partly to run some old games I came across when searching for my old OS discs and disks.

So, I end up with two Windows XP vm's running IE 6 and 7, two Windows 98 vm's running IE 5 and 5.5, and two Windows 95 vm's running IE 3 and 4. But who wants to stop there? I think I might be set if I can get a couple Windows 3.1 vm's running with IE 1 and 2. Whaddya think?

Edit: To actually answer the (serious) question, I'm really just looking to get Win3.1 running in a virtual machine.

Steve-M · Jul 28, 2009

jrrdnx said:
Back to the original topic, I got my computer back and finally got around to setting up (or at least trying to) my own Windows 3.1 machine. MS-DOS 6.22 installs and runs perfectly fine, but this is what happens when I try to run the Win3.1 installation:

View attachment 185452

My only thought at this point is that the disk image isn't bootable or whatever. Last time I tried I was pretty sure, but I just looked at it again and it's actually a 10.6 MB file so more than likely that's my problem . Unless anyone else has any other ideas?

Hey jrrdnx,

Well this post of yours has caused me to spend a great deal of time setting up Win 3.1 first in DosBox, and now in VirtualBox. But I have to admit, its been fun.

I have the setup floppies for DOS 5.0 and Win 3.1. Plus a upgrade to Win 3.11, and Internet Explorer 3.0 with stacks and dialers on floppy disk as well. I ran into a road block trying to install DOS 5.0 in VirtualBox on my macbook. Tried making disk images of the setup floppies, and just about everything else, only to find out that DOS 5.0 will only install from a actual floppy drive. I didn't remember that, but it is a fact.

This presented a problem considering macbooks do not have floppy drives. So I had to go back to my nine year old pc (never get rid of old equipment) which dual boots xp and PCLinuxOS, and has a floppy drive.

In PCLinuxOS I installed the latest version of VirtualBox, and from there created a DOS 5.0 virtual machine. Copied the DOS vdi and the Win 3.1 setup files to a flash drive, and copied it all to my macbook.

After setting up a virtual machine with the DOS vdi, I next needed to transfer the Win 3.1 setup files to the DOS virtual disk. Now, I could have just installed Win 3.1 from the floppies while on the pc, but I wanted to do as much as posible from my macbook. Don't ask me why, I have no idea.

So, I attached the DOS vdi as a secondary hard drive in my XP virtual machine, booted XP, transfered the Win 3.1 setup files from VirtualBox shared folders to the secondary hard drive which is the DOS vdi. From there I shut down virtual XP, booted DOS 5.0, CD to the directory that contained the Win 3.1 setup files and ran setup.exe. The funny part of it all was that it took Win 3.1 about 30 seconds to install.

I'm thinking about installing the 3.11 upgrade, Internet Explorer, and surfing the net from virtual windows 3.11. That would be something I have never done before.

Hope you get 3.1 going soon. The pic in your attachment is caused because DOS can't read A:\. Try putting the setup files in a directory on your virtual DOS drive and run setup from there.

jrrdnx · Jul 28, 2009

Steve-M said:
... but I wanted to do as much as posible from my macbook. Don't ask me why, I have no idea.

My thoughts exactly! I could use the vm of Win3.11 I found online, but where's the fun in that? I gotta get it running myself from scratch!

Steve-M said:
So, I attached the DOS vdi as a secondary hard drive in my XP virtual machine, booted XP, transfered the Win 3.1 setup files from VirtualBox shared folders to the secondary hard drive which is the DOS vdi. From there I shut down virtual XP, booted DOS 5.0, CD to the directory that contained the Win 3.1 setup files and ran setup.exe.

I didn't even think about setting up a secondary hard drive like, or that it was even possible with Fusion... brilliant!

Steve-M said:
Hope you get 3.1 going soon. The pic in your attachment is caused because DOS can't read A:\. Try putting the setup files in a directory on your virtual DOS drive and run setup from there.

Will do! I've already got my install files for IE1 and IE2 ready to go when I get everything up and running, although I'm expecting a bit of a challenge trying to get networking running correctly in Win3.1

Steve-M · Jul 28, 2009

Bring back any memories?

jrrdnx · Jul 28, 2009

Steve-M said:
Bring back any memories?

Lol, takes me back to my parents' old Packard Bell!

My most heartfelt thanks for your last post, Steve-M! I was able to setup my DOS6.22 image file as the 2nd drive in another XP machine and copy all my Win3.1 setup files over. Setup completed so fast, and that was even going through it manually to customize some things! WOOHOO!!!

My only problem was that I wasn't able to get networking working right during setup, so I'll have to go back and mess around with that. But at least the OS is up and running! Thanks again!

Edit: Haha! A google search returns this thread as the first result! If only I'd just gone back and read some earlier posts, I'd have seen that you've already posted a link about that.

Help installing Windows 3.1 on VMWare Fusion

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