This is adapted from an old page I found where I was attempting to write a driver for Windows 9x. I thought that the notes on the 86Box setup might be useful to refer to in future.
Original Page
I’m going to set up a Windows 95/98 VM using 86Box, so that I have something to easily write the driver on. Hypervisors like VirtualBox don’t seem to support old versions of Windows that well, and the development version of 86Box also has support for arguably pointless but extremely cool shader effects (eg. libretro) that increase nostalgia, so I thought it would be a good idea to record the setup procedure for the VM here too.
86Box Setup
First, download the experimental version of 86Box for your host platform, and extract it somewhere. You may also want to get the latest 86box Manager for easier management of VMs (this page assumes that you do have it).
I’ll be honest, I don’t know very much about the different variants of hardware that 86Box supports, and which ones are more appropriate than others for Windows 95 and Windows 98, but I’ll list the setup that I have. This was taken and adapted from this video on setting up Windows 95 in 86box.
It is almost certainly possible that faster hardware could be used here in order to make the VM quicker.
Machine
| Setting | Value |
|---|---|
| Machine type | Socket 7 (Single Voltage) |
| Machine | [i430FX] ASUS P/I-P54TP4XE |
| CPU type | Intel Pentium |
| CPU speed | 200MHz |
| FPU | Internal |
| Wait states | Default |
| Memory | 128MB |
| Time synchronisation | Enabled (local time) |
Display
| Setting | Value |
|---|---|
| Video | [PCI] S3 Vision964 Stealth64 VRA |
| > Video memory | 4MB |
| Voodoo graphics | Off |
Input Devices
| Setting | Value |
|---|---|
| Mouse | Standard PS/2 Mouse |
| > Buttons | Two |
| Joystick | None |
Sound
| Setting | Value |
|---|---|
| Sound card | [ISA16] Sound Blaster AWE32 |
| > Address | 0x220 |
| > EMU8000 address | 0x620 |
| > MPU-401 address | 0x330 |
| > IRQ | IRQ 5 |
| > Low DMA channel | DMA 1 |
| > High DMA channel | DMA 5 |
| > Onboard RAM | 512KB |
| > Enable OPL | Yes |
| > Receive input (SB MIDI) | Yes |
| > Receive input (MPU-401) | Yes |
| MIDI out device | System MIDI |
| > MIDI out device | Microsoft GS Wavetable Synth |
| MIDI in device | None |
| Standalone MPU-401 | Off |
| Innovation SSI-2001 | Off |
| CMS/Game Blaster | Off |
| Gravis Ultrasound | Off |
| Use FLOAT32 sound | Off |
Network
| Setting | Value |
|---|---|
| Network type | SLiRP |
| PCap device | None |
| Network adapter | [PCI] AMD PCnet-PCI II |
Ports (COM & LPT)
No enabled LPT devices, serial ports 1 and 2 enabled, parallel port 1 enabled.
Storage Controllers
| Setting | Value |
|---|---|
| HD controller | Internal controller |
| FD controller | Internal controller |
| Tertiary IDE controller | Off |
| Quaternary IDE controller | Off |
| SCSI controllers | None |
| Cassette | Off |
Hard Disks
Size set to 1023MB, the other values will update automatically. IDE channel should be 0:0.
Floppy & CD-ROM Drives
1 floppy drive, 3.5” 1.44MB, the rest are disabled. 1 CD-ROM drive, ATAPI channel 1:0, 48x speed.
Other Removable Devices
All disabled.
Other Peripherals
All disabled.
Installing Windows
To install Windows 98, you’ll need an installation ISO and a bootable floppy disk image. Unfortunately, the standard bootable image doesn’t seem to recognise the CD drive in 86Box, so the installation video referenced above uses one with extra drivers.