Virtual PC win98

[MrFusion]

Hey,

I have to use a win program for a few hours for an assignment. So I am trying to install windows 98 on virtual pc. The problem is that the setup.exe says that the pc needs 16 MB ram. I tried lowering the assigned memory to 32MB (lowest value possible) to no avail.

Any advice? thanks

 

[MrFusion]

Hey,

I have to use a win program for a few hours for an assignment. So I am trying to install windows 98 on virtual pc. The problem is that the setup.exe says that the pc needs 16 MB ram. I tried lowering the assigned memory to 32MB (lowest value possible) to no avail.

Any advice? thanks

I just noticed that virtual pc only uses 7 MB of PC RAM, while more is available. When trying a linux live cd, this amount changes dynamically. Is there any way to force vpc to use more ram even if it's not needed?
Google doesn't offer much help.

 

[yellow]

What version of VPC are you using? There's ways to change how much RAM VPC uses for running Windows in the app itself. It's part of the preferences or details. Just look through the pull-down menus until you find a pop-up window that allows you to change the amount of RAM VPC can steal.

 

[BornAgainMac]

Win98 works with every version I had of Virtual PC (4,5,6,and 7). I believe Windows 3.1 for Workgroups wouldn't able able to handle more than 16 MB of ram but it works fine with the minimum 32 MB setting. I am not sure why your copy of Win98 doesn't work.

To install anything older than Windows 2000, you have to get a working copy of DOS running first. Perhaps you are using a non Microsoft version of DOS that doesn't work with the Win O/S family of problems... products.

 

[MrFusion]

I use VPC 6 and freedos, since I don't have a dos image. I used to have a win98 bootdisk, but I threw all my disks out when I got my first mac.

I know of the setting to change the memory allocation. I tried several settings (32MB to 128MB). The problem is that regardless of how much is set, vpc only uses as much as it needs. This is 7MB when using freedos and 12 MB during the first steps of win98 installation. But then there is an alert saying that a pc needs at least 16MB, so the installation is aborted.
If I can force VPC to use more than 16MB, then the problem is solved. But how do I do that?

 

[BornAgainMac]

I suspect freedos is the problem. If you can find a super old PC with Win98 or Win95, you can create a system disk. I suppose you can use a USB Floppy drive.

I used Drive Image from a Windows 2000 Virtual PC to read a Windows 98 partition from a PC. Transferred the file over to a Virtual D: drive of a W2k. Then I created Virtual E: drive and transferred the image to it. Then I shutdown the Windows 2000 instance and disconnected the Virtual E: drive and created a new Windows 98 instance. Once I had a version of Windows that was DOS based, I could create as many Virtual Win98 instances as I wanted by mounted a separate drive and running SYS [drive] on it. Then using that Virtual drive.

Windows 2000 / XP and Linux are much easier since you can boot off the CD drive to install it.

 

[chopsuey158]

Someone mentioned above that you need to have a working copy of DOS running before win95 or win98 would install. Does anyone know where I can pick up a working version of DOS easily? I need to install win95...

PS- Sorry to jack the thread, but it's a fairly simple question and shouldn't move us too far off topic

 

[ITASOR]

What???? I have VPC running 98SE and I didn't install DOS, I went through the Wizard, selected 98, put the disk in, installed and went on my way. Did you try just doing that, I swear that's all I did. I have VPC 6 or 7, can't remember.

 

[Nermal]

The 98SE CD is bootable. The 98 CD isn't.

 

[chopsuey158]

I have a win95 cd, but it won't boot from it. VPC 6.01 says "No OS installed. Install an OS on this drive to continue." I'm assuming I need DOS to install win95 because everything I've tried has still not let VPC recognize the win95 cd I have...

Anyone know where to pick up DOS?

 

[MrFusion]

I have a win95 cd, but it won't boot from it. VPC 6.01 says "No OS installed. Install an OS on this drive to continue." I'm assuming I need DOS to install win95 because everything I've tried has still not let VPC recognize the win95 cd I have...

Anyone know where to pick up DOS?

On this site
http://www.bootdisk.com/bootdisk.htm
you can find exe files for making win9x bootdisks.
Fortunately I could borrow a old pc from a friend, rendering the need for vpc void. Although, when looking through my old cd's I found a few old games (red alert, total annihilation) that I want to try again. Alas, I don't have a USB floppy drive. Oh well, with mac intel, there might be a wine port.

 

[chopsuey158]

I got the .exe files from that site, thanks a lot. It still says that there is no OS and since the .exe file is not a cd it won't boot from it. Do I need to put it in a specific folder or select it under a specific preference?

 

[Soulstorm]

I think that windows 95 and 98 are not officially supported by Microsoft on VPC7...

 

[MrFusion]

I got the .exe files from that site, thanks a lot. It still says that there is no OS and since the .exe file is not a cd it won't boot from it. Do I need to put it in a specific folder or select it under a specific preference?

Don't know. I used them to make a physical bootdisk under win XP at a friend, so that I could boot this old pc into win98. It's a bit dusty, but still working enough for my purposes.
How to make a virtual bootdisk for vpc from that .exe file, I have no idea.
If someone else knows how to make such a virtual bootdisk from within windows, I could mail it around.

 

[MisterMe]

I think that windows 95 and 98 are not officially supported by Microsoft on VPC7...

This is correct. All it means, however, is that you cannot interact between the Mac and Windows environments. Windows 95/98/Me run fine. If you have old VPC virtual harddrive disk image files with those veteran OSes, they will boot and run under VPC 7.

 

[Dopeyman]

I've asked this question before, but it was before anyone had a quad in their hands........

How much faster is VPC in a quad or in a dual-core? Anyone with these processesors notice an increase in speed?

I wanna get the quad and install VPC w/win2000, MAYBE XP.. But that'll depend if there's any increase in speed.....
TIA!!

 

[alien]

VPC sucks on all computers. I needed it for a few apps and thought that since my computer is fairly quick, that it would be quick... wrong. It says that I have a 686 working at something like 533 mhz. Ya...

I don't know if anyone else knows how to get around this, but VPC only allows me to assign 512 ram and 16 meg vram. Is there any way to assign more? I'm using VPC 7.

 

[BornAgainMac]

I noticed my VPC7 on my G5 is faster than some people's real PC. These people have dog machines with 128 MBs of ram and 4200 rpm drives or possibly slower running Win2000, 98. My VPC7 running XP runs rings around these PCs. VPC seems to be weak with sound. I am curious if anyone ever used a USB Soundblaster external card to see if that helps it.

Also video is still a issue. They need to support native video cards rather than emulated.

 

[BornAgainMac]

I searched to see if you can still buy DOS and it doesn't seem to be available anywhere except perhaps eBay. Maybe this is one of the reasons why Microsoft doesn't support Win95/Win98 even for regular PCs. If you can find a copy of Win98, you can always create a basic bootable DOS using the SYS command.

 

[yellow]

I've asked this question before, but it was before anyone had a quad in their hands........

How much faster is VPC in a quad or in a dual-core? Anyone with these processesors notice an increase in speed?

I wanna get the quad and install VPC w/win2000, MAYBE XP.. But that'll depend if there's any increase in speed.....
TIA!!

As noted, there won't be. VPC is hampered by it's suxor hardware emulation. No amount of processor zing will help it's suckiness. Also note, VPC is NOT multi-processor aware, so multiple processors doesn't help it whatsoever.

 

[Dopeyman]

Also note, VPC is NOT multi-processor aware, so multiple processors doesn't help it whatsoever.

That's the answer I needed..... Thanks!!

 

[MisterMe]

As noted, there won't be. VPC is hampered by it's suxor hardware emulation. No amount of processor zing will help it's suckiness. Also note, VPC is NOT multi-processor aware, so multiple processors doesn't help it whatsoever.

If only one processor is handling VPC, then the other is devoted to your regular MacOS X apps.

 

[yellow]

If only one processor is handling VPC, then the other is devoted to your regular MacOS X apps.

I don't believe that's entirely true.. your other processes might get THREADED to your other processor, assuming one is very busy, but the processors are NOT "devoted" to your OS X apps.

Besides, this DOESN'T make VPC any faster. It's still completely based on it's hardware emulation. You could have the fastest Mac on the planet (Now with Octo-Core™!) and VPC will STILL suck.

 

[MisterMe]

...

Besides, this DOESN'T make VPC any faster. It's still completely based on it's hardware emulation. You could have the fastest Mac on the planet (Now with Octo-Core™!) and VPC will STILL suck.

Assuming that what you say is true--which I don't--the point is not to make VPC faster, it is to complete the job faster. Being able to work at nearly full-speed on the MacOS X part of a project or on unrelated MacOS X tasks while Windows apps amble along on VPC is a definite benefit.

 

[yellow]

Being able to work at nearly full-speed on the MacOS X part of a project or on unrelated MacOS X tasks while Windows apps amble along on VPC is a definite benefit.

Which has absolutely no baring on what dopeyman asked. If one has to use VPC for MS Access and the database query is slowly grinding along, who cares if Motion is rendering your animation super fast in the background?

The end result, VPC is not faster on new multi-core Macs.