How to Create a Win95 Virtual Machine in Windows Virtual PC

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  1. Posts : 14
    Windows 7 Professional 32 bit
       #1

    How to Create a Win95 Virtual Machine in Windows Virtual PC


    Hi, first post here.
    I have Win XP mode running in Win virtual pc on my Win 7 Pro tower. I have been given an original and unopened Win95 pack containing a Win95 v4.0.950B Nov96 CD with USB support and an IE4 CD. I think I understand from Brinks "How to create a virtual machine in windows virtual pc" when you have an iso of the OS to refer to. But I am not sure about how to proceed with a non bootable Win95 CD?
    I am OK upto step 12 but then how do I get a bootable iso of my Win95 CD? And then how to install it into my virtual machine?
    Is there a step by step "Here's How" please?
    I never had a Win95 machine and just wonder what exactly it looks like running and how slow it is compared to Win 7?
    Tks.
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  2. Posts : 3,371
    W10 Pro desktop, W11 laptop, W11 Pro tablet (all 64-bit)
       #2

    For Win95 you'll need to boot from a Win95 setup floppy or a mounted img, then use fdisk to create a partition. You'll need to format with the /s option to make the partition bootable. Once you get your VM booting to DOS you can then run setup from the CD.

    MS doesn't support Win 95 as a guest OS in Virtual PC. That doesn't mean it won't work it means you'll get no help from them to get it going.

    I personally prefer the free VMWare Player which openly does support installing Win95 as a guest OS and has the documentation on how to install it here: http://www.vmware.com/pdf/GuestOS_guide.pdf
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  3. Posts : 297
    Windows 7 Pro x64
       #3

    I hope I don't get in trouble for posting this, but here is a download for the windows 95 vhd. Just extract it, put it in your documents\my virtual machines folder, and you're good to go.

    Download

    Edit: tested, link is safe. If you encounter any issues, let me know and I'll remove the link immediately.
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  4. Posts : 14
    Windows 7 Professional 32 bit
    Thread Starter
       #4

    @kbronski, thanks will try and let you know result.
    @strollin, thanks also, might just need to install VMWare instead.
    Will post results.
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  5. Posts : 3,371
    W10 Pro desktop, W11 laptop, W11 Pro tablet (all 64-bit)
       #5

    kbronski said:
    I hope I don't get in trouble for posting this, but here is a download for the windows 95 vhd. Just extract it, put it in your documents\my virtual machines folder, and you're good to go.

    Download

    Edit: tested, link is safe. If you encounter any issues, let me know and I'll remove the link immediately.
    Aw, that's no fun! Newtoallthis won't get to experience the thrill of setting up his own Win95 environment.

    @newtoallthis, in case you don't know, you will need to create a new VM and point it to to the vhd instead of creating a virtual disk. When you create the VM, set 64M as the RAM, not the default of 512.
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  6. Posts : 14
    Windows 7 Professional 32 bit
    Thread Starter
       #6

    Sorry for not posting before this. I wonder if I should have called myself tooldforallthis.
    @kbronski, thanks link was safe, no issues, downloaded ok.
    @strollin, need more help please. I have created a new VM, pointed it to the .vhd and set RAM at 64Mb.
    When the VM starts all I get is attachment 1 then 2.
    I thought that this would be simple for my old grey cells, but obviously not?
    Have I much more to do? One thing more, when I look my machine is running, but in settings, integration features are not available and if I try to enable them they are greyed out?
    Attached Thumbnails Attached Thumbnails How to Create a Win95 Virtual Machine in Windows Virtual PC-screenprint01.png   How to Create a Win95 Virtual Machine in Windows Virtual PC-screenprint02.png  
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  7. Posts : 3,371
    W10 Pro desktop, W11 laptop, W11 Pro tablet (all 64-bit)
       #7

    As I mentioned earlier, I prefer VMWare Player over Virtual PC and this is one reason why. I looked into this for you and apparently MS decided to remove support for floppy drives from Virtual PC, apparently you can only install OSes that can boot from CD. Makes sense since on their website they say they only support Win XP, Win Vista and Win 7 as guest OSes. My guess is that the Win95 vhd that kbronski linked to was created with an earlier version of Virtual PC.

    If you are really set on creating your own Win95 VM, you could do it with VMWare Player (they can both (VMWP & VPC) be installed on your machine, no problem) or you could try to find an earlier version of Virtual PC. I'm not certain that you can have 2 different versions of VPC installed on the same machine but I think it will work as long as you make sure the 2 versions are installed in different folders.
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  8. Posts : 14
    Windows 7 Professional 32 bit
    Thread Starter
       #8

    Thanks for your help. I'm not set on installing Win95 into a virtual machine. I just wondered what it looked like as I had an installation disk. Yes I think it was VM2007. I will have a look at VMWare Player to see if I can manage that. Thanks again for your time.
      My Computer


  9. Posts : 14
    Windows 7 Professional 32 bit
    Thread Starter
       #9

    Just an endnote to this thread. Uninstalled the Windows VM and installed VMwares machine. Wow what a difference! It's not slow and clunky; it's fast smooth and easy to install bootable OS CD's. I do have the same problem with how to install a boot disk and Win95 tho'?
      My Computer


  10. Posts : 3,371
    W10 Pro desktop, W11 laptop, W11 Pro tablet (all 64-bit)
       #10

    In the VM settings make sure you have the floppy enabled and check the box that says "Connect at power on".

    I believe the default is for the boot order to have the floppy first but if you want to check it you need to access the VM's BIOS. You can do that by pressing F2 while the VM is booting. The trick is that you need to click on the VM to direct keystrokes there before it will receive the F2 keystroke so you have to be pretty quick.
    Attached Thumbnails Attached Thumbnails How to Create a Win95 Virtual Machine in Windows Virtual PC-vm_flp.png  
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