I just completed two conversions of Windows 98SE systems from dual boot to VMWare Player virtual machines. While I've read many threads on creating new virtual machines from fresh Windows installs, I wanted to move my old windows partition into VmWare, without having to reinstall all of the software I've collected over the years.

In many cases this saves having to contact software providers for new installation keys, and saves tons of installation work. The VMWare Conversion It's not a piece of cake, but the result is a system that looks and acts exactly like my old one. Please note that this is a new virtual machine, not a redirection of VMware to the existing dual boot partition. There are threads elsewhere dealing with that process (and it has several serious drawbacks, noted in those threads). With a new virtual machine containing the contents of the old windows partition there are many advantages -- portability, the ability to back up your entire install by copying one file, complete separation and protection of the original dual boot windows partition, no constant changes of Windows hardware profile (and possible overuse of the coa key), etc. Because I was unable to find a single location which outlined the steps needed to copy a pertition into a virtual machine for VMWare Player, here is an overview of the steps I took to achieve it.

(I realize this is sketchy to begin with, -- not quite a How-To, but I will flesh it out in subsequent posts, links, and edits -- I just want to get this down now in case it helps someone who needs the general strategy I used, right now. I also had many problems to solve along the way, and I'll try to steer you around them with this strategy) My overall process finally amounted to this: 1.) Download and Install VMWare Player from the VMWare website. Shazaam, No I haven't, though I'm sure it's an easy way to do it if you have a defined purpose that doesn't change. I'm glad you added this. I found however that I wanted to be able to read and understand VMX files, because I was frequently tweaking the same file while setting up and exploring my system and its capabilities, and while troubleshooting The first reference I listed above does a great job of providing examples and explanations for the various pieces and commands of a VMX file. I found it after spending a lot of time guessing and hunting down other example vmx files and comparing. The site I list in the reference was a goldmine of information, finally explaining the mysteries.

I tried to install Windows 95 on a Windows Virtual PC virtual machine, but when I am trying to run it post installation, I got an error during boot: When initializing device IOS: Windows protection error. You need to restart your computer. When I was installing Windows 95, during the hardware check, I got an error message about a stack overflow error. I then tried again using Safe Recovery to skip past the errant hardware. I tried using the guide found here () to fix the problem, but I was unable to boot into Safe Mode.

This can happen in a Windows 98 virtual machine if the Windows Control Panel or any of the control panel applications is open while you are installing VMware Tools. Using VMware Workstation Player for Windows. Configuring Virtual Ports 98. Configuring VMware Tools Options for a Virtual Machine 123.

It is also worth mentioning that my copy of Windows is Windows 95 C (OSR 2.5) and I also managed to install Windows 98 on Windows Virtual PC without any problems. You've probably allocated hardware that's beyond what Windows 95 knows what to do with. • Try lowering the allotted RAM to. @techie007 - You should clarify that Windows 95 is to old with todays VPC software.

The reason of course is simple, the software being written today is attempting to allow full virtualization of your hardware, which means it knows the true frequency of your CPU. I am sure in 20 years there will be a question that exists trying to get Windows 7 to work within a VPC. Sort of like the fact there are meaningless memory limits on the desktop versions x64 Windows installations.

The limits make sense, they limits are barely possible today with today's hardware, in 20 years not so much. – Dec 18 '13 at 19:44. You should use VMware Player for Windows 95, as it has officially support for that. Here's an alternative way to install it: What you need: • DOS on a floppy or on an image (.flp,.img) • Windows 95 CD • VMware player (it's free) or VirtualPC (I recommend VMware) • MagicIso (the free trial version will do) • a copy of MSCDEX.EXE and oakcdrom.sys (both can be found online) Procedure: • Create a new virtual machine (make sure to add a floppy image drive if you are using VMware) • Put your DOS floppy/image in or mount it and install DOS • Download and install the free version of MagicIso. Run it and go to new ->floppy ->1.44 • Find a copy of mscdex.exe and oakcdrom.sys (generic CD-Rom driver that works with DOS. (might have to try another if it doesn't work) • Rename the oakcdrom.sys to cdrom.sys • Drag both these files into MagicIso on the floppy disk we just created • Save the file • Close MagicIso • Find the file we just saved in Explorer and change the extension from.ima to.flp (if you are using VMware) or.img (if you are using VirtualPC). (if you can't see the extensions you're going to need to change your folder options to show extensions) • Go back to your virtual machine and mount the floppy image we just created.

Run the following commands: a: copy mscdex.exe c: copy cdrom.sys c: • Find config.sys in your C drive. Type: edit config.sys Add a line that says this: device=c: cdrom.sys /d:mscd001 Exit and save • Find autoexec.bat in your C drive. Type: edit autoexec.bat Now add a line that says this c: mscdex.exe /d:mscd001 Exit and save • Restart the computer or virtual machine • Now move to your C drive and type: mscdex.exe: /d:mscd001 /M:5 /V /L:d /S /K (this part /M:x refers to the amount of buffers your drive has.

It's either 4 or 5. Usually 5) • Create a blank floppy image either in VMware or MagicIso, then mount that new one. Put your Windows 95 CD in the CD drive and type: d: setup.exe • It should be booting Windows 95 now You might run into troubles when it tries to install the other drivers as it might ask you for Windows floppies even if you're using the CD version.

You can find all of these drivers on the windows 95b CD if you have it, as they are all in.cab files (you would need to extract them 1 by 1 and put them on floppy images to use them). I actually just got it to load the drivers off the Windows 95 CD by just trying it over and over again until it worked. It might have been because I either did or didn't restart after putting in the Windows 95 CD. Half Man Half Biscuit A Country Practice Tv. Make sure you check to make sure Windows 95 is seeing your CD drive. If not, go to the Add New Hardware Wizard in the Control Panel and see if that detects it. (Note: I initially tried doing it without installing DOS using fdisk and format and manually adding the autoexec.bat and config.sys files but I was running into similar issues until I installed DOS first).