How To Install Windows 95 In Virtualbox
- How To Install Windows 95 In Virtualbox Without Disk
- Virtual Windows 95
- How To Install Win95 In Virtualbox
- How To Install Windows 95 On Oracle Virtualbox
- How To Install Outside Windows
- How To Install Windows 95 In Virtualbox
- Running Windows 95 In Virtualbox
Microsoft’s Windows 95 was a huge leap from Windows 3.1. It was the first release of Windows with the Start menu, taskbar, and typical Windows desktop interface we still use today. Windows 95 won’t work on modern PC hardware, but you can still install it in a virtual machine and relive those glory days.
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Before installing any Guest OS including Windows, Linux, Solaris, BSD, IBM (OS2), Mac OS X and many others in the VirtualBox Virtual Machine, you need to understand some its basic installation instructions, so when you follow below steps, you won’t face any trouble after finalizing full setup. Open up VirtualBox, and you’ll be greeted by the Manager window. Before we can go ahead and install Windows 95, we need to do a couple of things in preparation. First of all, we need to. Installing Linux inside Windows using VirtualBox. VirtualBox is free and open source virtualization software from Oracle. It enables you to install other operating systems in virtual machines. It is recommended that your system should have at least 4GB of RAM to get decent performance from the virtual operating system.
This may be useful if you want to play an old game that doesn’t work in Windows 10’s compatibility mode, although Windows 98 may be more ideal for Windows 9x-era games. Or you could just do it for a little kick of nostalgia. We wouldn’t blame you.
What You’ll Need
You’ll need two things for this: A Windows 95 ISO file and a Windows 95 boot disk image. Unlike modern operating systems, the Windows 95 installation disc isn’t bootable. You must first boot into an MS-DOS environment from a Windows 95 boot disk, which would have been a floppy disk at the time, to get the installation started.
If you have an old Windows 95 CD lying around, you can insert it into your PC and create an ISO file from it. While ISO files of Windows 95 are available online, bear in mind that Windows 95 is still under Microsoft copyright, and can’t be legally downloaded from the web. So start digging through those old drawers of yours.
Once you’ve got your Windows 95 ISO file, you can download a boot diskette image from AllBootDisks. You will probably just need to download the “Windows95a.img” file. Windows 95b (also known as Windows 95 OSR2) was only available to OEMs (Original Equipment Manufacturers), so any Windows 95 disc you have lying around will either by the original Windows 95 release (also known as Windows 95 RTM) or the Windows 95a release (also known as Windows 95 OSR1), which came with Service Pack 1 installed.
Step One: Create Your Virtual Machine
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We’ll be doing this in VirtualBox, which is completely free to use and available on Windows, macOS, and Linux. You can do it in other virtual machine programs like VMware, but the process of configuring the virtual machine software will be a little different.
Once you have VirtualBox installed, click the “New” button to create a new virtual machine.
Enter whatever name you like and select “Windows 95” from the Version box. If you name it “Windows 95”, VirtualBox will automatically choose the correct Windows version.
Choose how much RAM you want to expose to your virtual machine. VirtualBox recommends 64 MB, while official Microsoft blog The Old New Thing claims that Windows 95 won’t boot if it has more than around 480 MB of memory. You could split the difference and safely use 256 MB, which would be more than enough for old Windows 95 applications.
Continue through the wizard until you’re prompted to create your virtual hard disk. VirtualBox will automatically suggest 2.0 GB, and you probably don’t want to go over that. The retail versions of Windows 95 only support the FAT16 file system, which means they can’t use drives over 2 GB in size.
Windows 95b (aka OSR2), which was only released to device manufactures and never sold at retail, does support FAT32. So, if you were using this version of Windows 95, you could theoretically use up to 32 GB of space.
Don’t boot up the machine right after you’re finished creating it. First, you’ll need to change a few settings. Right-click your Windows 95 virtual machine and select “Settings”.
Click the “System” category, click the “Acceleration” tab, and uncheck “Enable VT-x/AMD-V” hardware virtualization.
If you leave this option enabled, you’ll be able to install Windows 95, but it will just show a black screen when it boots up afterwards.
Next, click the “Storage” category and select the virtual drive under the Floppy controller. Click the floppy disk button to the right of Floppy Drive and click “Choose Virtual Floppy Disk File” in the menu. Browse to the boot disk .img file and select it.
Finally, click the Empty disc drive under the IDE controller, click the disc icon to the right of Optical Drive, and click “Choose Virtual Optical DIsk File”. Browse to your Windows 95 ISO file and select it.
Click “OK” to save your settings when you’re done.
Step Two: Prepare Your Virtual C: Drive
You can now just double-click the Windows 95 virtual machine in your library to boot it up. It will boot to a DOS prompt.
Note that the virtual machine will capture your keyboard and mouse once you click inside it, but you can press the host key—that’s the right Ctrl key on your keyboard, by default—to free your input and use your PC’s desktop normally. The key is displayed at the bottom right corner of the virtual machine window.
First, you’ll need to partition the virtual drive you created. Type the following command at the prompt and press Enter:
How To Install Windows 95 In Virtualbox Without Disk
This process is very simple. You’ll be starting with an empty drive, so you just want to create a DOS partition. That’s the default option, which is “1”. You just need to accept the default options to go through the fdisk process.
You can just press “Enter” three times after launching fdisk to create a DOS partition, create a primary partition, and agree that you want to use the maximum size of the drive and make the partition active.
You’ll be told you have to restart your virtual machine before continuing. To do this, click Input > Keyboard > Insert Ctrl-Alt-Del in VirtualBox. Press the right Ctrl key to free your mouse first, if necessary.
You’ll now need to format your new partition, which will be available in the virtual machine as the C: drive. To format it, type the following command at the A:> prompt and press Enter:
Type Y and press Enter to agree to the format process when prompted. You’ll then be prompted to Enter a label for the drive. You can enter whatever you like, or nothing at all. Press “Enter” afterwards to finish the process.
Step Three: Launch the Windows 95 Installer
You will now need to copy the files from the Windows 95 ISO file to your C: drive. Theoretically, you should just be able to run the Setup program from the disc drive itself to install Windows 95. However, this produces errors, as the disc drive isn’t mounted after the installer reboots, and the installer isn’t able to find driver files it needs. Instead, we found it much easier to simply copy the files to the C: drive and run the installer from there.
First, figure out which drive letter your disc drive was mounted as. This is displayed when your virtual machine boots up. On our virtual machine, it’s the R: drive. If you forgot and can’t see it on your screen, you can always restart your virtual machine once again with the Ctrl+Alt+Delete option in the keyboard menu to view this info.
Run the following command to copy the files from the Windows 95 disc to your C: drive, replacing R: with whatever drive letter corresponds to your virtual disc drive.
When the process is complete, you can now switch to your C: drive and launch the setup program from the INSTALL program, like so:
Press Enter once again to continue when prompted.
The graphical Windows 95 setup program will appear. From here on out, you can do everything graphically without messing with the DOS prompt.
The actual installation process is simple. On most screens, you can accept the default options and speed through the process. You will be prompted to enter your Windows 95 product key before the installation process finishes, however. Different editions of Windows 95 require different product keys, so ensure you’re using the correct key.
When you reach the Analyzing Your Computer screen, be sure to check the “Network Adapter” and “Sound, MIDI, or Video Capture Card” options to ensure all the virtual machine’s hardware is correctly detected and configured.
When you’re asked to create a Startup Disk, you can select “No, I do not want a startup disk” to continue. This isn’t 1995 and you’re not installing this on a real PC, after all.
The actual installation process will be extremely quick on modern hardware, even in a virtual machine.
At the end of the setup process, Windows will prompt you to reboot and tell you to remove the floppy disk from your computer. To do this, click Devices > Floppy Drive > Remove Disk From Virtual Drive. Click “OK” to reboot your PC and continue afterwards.
The setup process will continue setting up your hardware. You’ll be told you have to provide a workgroup name to continue, but you can enter anything you like here.
Finally, you’ll be prompted to provide your time zone and set up a printer. You can just click “Cancel” in the Add Printer Wizard window to skip configuring a printer when it appears.
Finally, your PC will reboot and you’ll be prompted to create a password. You’ll then be presented with the Windows 95 desktop. You’re done—you now have a Windows 95 virtual machine.
To really get back into the 90’s, open Windows Explorer from Windows 95’s Start menu and head to the C:InstallFunstuffVideos folder. You’ll find music videos for Weezer’s Buddy Holly (“Weezer”) and Edie Brickell’s Good Times (“Goodtime”), which were included on the Windows 95 disc. There’s also a movie trailer for the movie Rob Roy, which was also released in 1995.
The videos in the “Highperf” folder are higher quality than the ones in the main Videos folder, so be sure to watch those—your modern PC can handle them!
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In this article, we will install Microsoft Windows 95 OS using Oracle VM VirtualBox virtualization software on Windows 10 PC / Laptop.
How to Setup Windows 95 in VirtualBox on Windows 10
Microsoft’s biggest selling success is undoubtedly the Windows 95 operating system. Windows 95 was put on the market by Microsofton August 24, 1995.
With Windows 95 system, the plug-and-play feature was developed and new hardware installations became even easier. It was also a very important stage in terms of appearance. The most recognizable feature of the Windows 95 operating system was the development of TCP/IP networking support.
Microsoft ended Windows 95 operating system support on December 31, 2001. Nowadays, although MS Windows 95 rarely use, it is an unforgettable operating system. If you want to use Windows 95, you can run and use it on the virtual machine.
Today, with the increase in Internet security, vulnerabilities of operating systems are eliminated almost every day. Therefore, we strongly recommend that you use Windows 95 in a virtual machine.
In our previous articles, we installed the Windows 95 system on different virtualization platforms.
In this article, we will run Windows 95 in a VM with the Oracle VM VirtualBox virtualization program.
NOTE: You can also configure it on a virtual machine with the Oracle VM VBox 6.0.10 version.
How to Run Windows 95 in Virtual Machine
Before you start installing it, you can download Win 95 ISO to your computer at the bottom of the article. Afterward, follow the steps below for installing Win 95 using VBox.
Step 1
To create a new virtual machine for Windows 95, first run the Oracle VBox program. After running VBox, click the New button as shown in the following image.
Step 2
Type Windows 95 for the VM name and select the operating system version. Then, click on the Next button.
Step 3
For the VM RAM size, assign a value of 512 MB and click the Next button.
Step 4
To create a new virtual hard disk for the Microsoft Windows 95 VM, select Create a virtual hard disk now and click the Create button.
Step 5
Select VDI (VBox Disk Image) for the HDD file type and click Next.
Step 6
Configure the Win 95 VM hard disk as Fixed Size. Configuring the hard drive as a VM will improve performance.
After configuring the HDD to Fixed Size, click the Next button.
Step 7
Also, storing the virtual machine’s hard disk file on an external HDD will increase the performance of the virtual machine. In addition, set the Win 95 HDD size to 2 GB.
After storing the HDD file in a different location, click the Create button.
Step 8
Creating a virtual hard disk for Win 95…
Step 9
To add the Win 95 ISO image to the VM, click the Right button / Settings on the virtual machine. In the settings screen that opens, click Storage in the left pane, then click Empty.
In the right panel, click on the CD/DVD symbol, then click the Choose Virtual Optical Disk File option.
Step 10
After adding the Win 95 ISO image, click on the Floppy drive and click on in the right panel to select Choose Virtual Floppy Disk File.
Step 11
Select the Windows 95a.img boot disk image file and then click the Open Sako finnbear serial numbers. button.
Step 12
After adding the Win 95 boot disk to the virtual machine, close the window by clicking on the OK button.
Step 13
Starting Win 95…
Step 14
The virtual machine started with Floppy Disk and we will now configure the HDD to prepare the Win 95 operating system for installation.
You can use the dir command to check the files in the A: drive.
Step 15
To configure the hard disk for Win 95 installation, execute the fdisk command and press the Enter button.
Step 16
On the Create Primary DOS Partition screen, type Y to confirm the active partition and press Enter.
Step 17
Restart the virtual machine.
Virtual Windows 95
Step 18
Follow the path to Machine / Reset.
Step 19
After the virtual machine restarts, you need to format the disk. To format the virtual disk, execute the format C: command.
After applying the Format C: command, you will be notified that all files on the disk will be deleted. Press the Enter key after giving Yes to this warning.
Step 20
After you format the HDD of Win 95, you need to create a folder on the C: drive. To switch to C: drive, type C: and press Enter.
Use the mkdir + Folder Name command to create a folder on the virtual C: drive. You can type WIN95 as the folder name.
Finally, since the ISO image is on the R: drive, you need to copy all the files in the WIN95 folder in the R: drive to C:WIN95. To copy files, execute the following command.
Step 21
All the files in the R:WIN95 folder have been copied to C:WIN95.
Step 22
Now, to start Win 95 installation on the virtual machine, switch to the R: drive and execute the setup command at the command prompt.
Step 23
Press Enter to continue the installation.
Step 24
In the Windows 95 installation, click the Continue button.
Step 25
Click Yes to accept the Win 95 license agreement.
Step 26
Click the Next button in the Microsoft Windows 95 Setup Wizard.
Step 27
Select C:WINDOWS for your operating system installation location and click Next.
Step 28
Select Typical from the installation options and click Next.
Step 29
On the User Information screen, type a username and click Next to continue installation.
Step 30
Continue by clicking on the Next button.
Step 31
Wait for the setup to analyze the hardware devices.
Step 32
In the Windows components, select Install the most common components and click Next.
Step 33
If you want to create a startup disk, select the option below and continue.
Step 34
Wait while the Windows 95 system files copies to the virtual machine.
Step 35
In this step, click the OK button.
Step 36
Once the startup disk has been created successfully, uninstall it from the system and click on the OK button.
Step 37
Wait for the necessary files to be copied for Windows 95.
Step 38
After installing the Windows 95, click the Finish button.
Step 39
You may see the following warning because there is a Floppy disk on the virtual machine. To close this warning, remove the Windows95.img file from the virtual machine and click on the OK button.
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Step 40
Click on the OK button and close the virtual machine.
Step 41
Open the Win 95 virtual machine settings, uncheck the Floppy checkbox in the System / Boot Order section, and then click OK to save the settings.
Step 42
When you run the Win 95 virtual machine again, you may encounter a Windows Protection Error like the one below.
Step 43
To resolve the Windows Protection Error, open the Windows 95 virtual machine settings and uncheck the Enable VT-x/AMD-V feature under Hardware Virtualization from the System/Acceleration section and click the OK button to save the setting.
Step 44
How To Install Win95 In Virtualbox
Power on the Windows 95 virtual computer and you can verify that the Windows Protection Error has been resolved. Wait while the setup computer configures the hardware such as plug and play.
Step 45
Click the OK button to configure the computer and network settings.
Step 46
Type in the computer name and Workgroup name and click the Close button.
How To Install Windows 95 On Oracle Virtualbox
Step 47
The installation continues to configure the hardware devices and click the OK button to specify the Win 95 driver to copy the necessary files.
Step 48
How To Install Outside Windows
In this stage, we will select the location that we copied the files. In order to copy the necessary files, change the R:WIN95 to C:WIN95 and click the OK button.
Step 49
Copying the files…
Step 50
The setup is configuring the startup menu shortcuts…
Step 51
Configure your time and date settings.
Step 52
Setup is finished configuring your system and click the OK button to close the warning window.
Step 53
Restarting Win 95 VM…
Step 54
Type your username and click on the OK button.
Step 55
If you want to set a password for your operating system, type your password and click the OK button. If you do not want to set a password, leave the password box blank and click the OK button.
Step 56
Wait while configuring Windows 95 system settings.
Step 57
Once you have successfully installed it, the Welcome window will meet you.
Step 58
You can check its system properties as follows.
How To Install Windows 95 In Virtualbox
How to Install Windows 95 Step by Step ⇒ Video
You can watch the following video to install it step by step and also subscribe to our YouTubechannel to support us…
Final Word
Running Windows 95 In Virtualbox
In this article, we have installed the Windows 95 operating system using the Oracle VM VBox virtualization program on the Windows 10 operating system. We have also resolved the Windows Protection Error error. Thanks for following us!
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Download Windows 95 ISO for VirtualBox
You can download the Windows 95 ISO image used in this article by clicking the following button…