I have tried and failed with Virtual PC and with VMware.
I did download the iso for VMware tools and couldn't work out how to integrate it into the VMware program download.
I had imagined that I could drag and drop the iso(whatever that is) into the file location for the program, but could not manage to make it work.

petert

I have no idea, but the ISO is an image file and hopefully Jenny or Inland can help you figure this out.

Once the VM starts, click Player (upper left hand corner), Removable Devices, CD/DVD, Settings. In the Connection panel enter "Use ISO Image file" and browse to the ISO you downloaded. Press OK and the the install should start.

You'll only need to do this once.

I regret that I Am Not Doing At All Well.
I have got the VM icon on my desktop and then I click on Open a Virtual Machine.

I finally got up the screen that I needed to go through the list that you gave me, through to browsing the iso which I had downloaded - and which seemed to installed into the correct slot, but pressing OK then takes me back to a black screen which invites me to 'Install Tools' which turned out to be the same tools which failed to download yesterday.

Grrrrr!!

petert

How frustrating!

Try to locate where the bad VMware Tools iso is on your hard drive, delete it, and replace it with the good version that you downloaded.
You may need to rename the good version so it has exactly the same name as the bad version -- I'm not sure of that. See if that helps.

If the current version of VMware Player continues to be a PITA, try an older version
http://www.oldapps.com/VMware_player.php

Is that ISO you downloaded 29MB? If not, you're pointing to the wrong file.

The iso is the correct one, but I am unable to make the VM program run.

Over the next few days I will clear every VM item off the computer and decide if I want to try again.

Thanks to everyone who tried to help.

petert

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Nov. 19

OK, so I am a glutton for punishment. I think I have made a little progress but have come to a halt again.

Virtual PC
I have a screen which is 'New Virtual Machine Microsoft Virtual PC2007' which is showing
'Reboot and Select proper boot device
or Insert Boot Media in selected boot device'

What do I do now?

(I will have another go at VMware if I cannot get Virtual PC going)

petert

When it says "reboot" it is not talking about your main computer.
It is talking about rebooting the virtual machine so it can boot off the Windows 98 CD (or iso of the Windows 98 CD).
If your Windows 98 CD is not bootable, you'll have to boot off a floppy or floppy image.
Check the "If you can't boot Windows 98 from CD" section ***here***.

I recall when Steve ran into this issue, I was unaware of it as well. He did an excellent job of writing it up, just follow his advice and you'll be up and running in no time.

In the immortal words of Jim Lovell, we have a problem.

I do remember Metzomagic's instructions on installing W98 into my old XP machine (which I still have and still works in W98 in Virtual PC - though it is ailing) but I find that my current Windows 7 machine says that it cannot find the win98se.image file. And I can't find it, either.

Is there anything I can do to transfer/copy the Virtual PC from my old XP machine to the Windows 7 machine?

Failing that, is there an easy solution to finding the .image file, so that I can carry on with Metzo's instructions to install VirtualPC into the W7 machine.

petert

You sure can, I do it all the time. Copy the files (.VHD & .VMC) from the XP box. If you've got a large enough thumb drive you can use that, or set up a workgroup share and transfer them over your WiFi.

Is it OK to copy VirtualPC to a CD and do it that way?

I don't know how to set up a workgroup share.

petert

Yep, you can do it that way as well.

When you copy to CD, the files turn into read-only, which can cause a problem when running them.

Better to zip the files before copying them to CD. It doesn't matter if a zip file is read-only.

Alternatively you have to remember to remove the read-only attribute after copying them back to your hard drive.

It's quicker and easier to copy to a USB flash drive.

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Assuming you have actually created a VirtualPC virtual machine on Windows 7x64, look for the .vhd and .vmc files in
C:\Users\<your-username>\Documents\My Virtual Machines\<whatever-you-named-your-virtual-machine>\

Progress - of a sort.

I used a WD drive to transfer the Virtual PC to the Windows 7 laptop, But now the machine tells me that 'Virtual PC cannot be installed under 64 bit operating system. Please try again under a 32 bit system'.

Is this something that I should be able to do? Note that the virtual PC is the 2004 version.

I feel that I must be becoming a pain in the nether regions.
petert

The 2004 version won't work on Windows 7.
You need to get the 2007 version for Windows 7 -- and since your Win7 is 64bit, you need the 64bit version of Virtual PC.

See if you can get it ***here***.

I seem to have come full circle with this exercise.

I could not get VirtualPC (the 2007 version) to accept the Windows 98 system, due to some insurmountable compatibility problem, and I had a similar sort of problem with VMware.

So I'll take the machine to me local tech wizard, who will shake his head at my obvious incompetence and figure out the solution in a flash.

It says here.

Thanks for all the advice, but I can't waste any more of your time - or mine, come to that - trying to get it all working.

petert

I wonder if the problem is related to the fdisk (partitioning) and formatting steps.
If you're not already familiar with how to do those steps with Windows 98 on a physical computer, you might run into problems there. Windows 98 won't install until you create partitions and format them to its liking, and you have to reboot the VM between the fdisk and formatting steps. Maybe a YouTube video like this one would help.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wi3BcSYnw7M

fdisk instructions (with pictures) here
http://www.wikihow.com/Use-the-Fdisk-Tool-and-the-Format-Tool-to-Partition-a-Hard-Drive

Also do not use "Windows Virtual PC".
It is different from Microsoft Virtual PC 2007 and 2007 SP1.
Windows Virtual PC has removed support for Windows 98 and any Windows operating system earlier than XP, so is worthless. Check the Wikipedia for more information.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virtual_PC_2007#Microsoft_Virtual_PC

I went to see my expert bloke, who installed Oracle VirtualBox and then installed my W98 and XP operating systems.
So I have the (alleged)ability to run the old games. So far, I have not have great success in either OS, but I live in hope of being able to do so.

Stand by for a whole new set of queries from me relating to Oracle VB!

petert

Query 1

When I try to run a game in W98, I get the message that the game requires a minimum of 256 colors, but when I right click on the desktop, I see that I can only have 16 colors - the only alternative in the menu is 2 colors.

I am told that I need to find 'Windows set up' to achieve my aim, but I cannot see how to get this up. Can you help?

petert

I don't believe Virtual Box provides support for Windows 98, so you'll have to try something like Sci-Tech Display Doctor (or UniVBE) to enable higher color depth.

They released their last version as freeware sometime ago - but I no longer see it available. You can try the link below, but I can't vouch for it being free of malware.


SDD V7 Download

My experience using VirtualBox with Windows 98 and Sci-Tech Display Doctor v7 was that it was terribly unstable and froze nearly all the time. If you want to use VirtualBox, put Windows XP inside it.

Yep, I was never impressed with Virtual Box at all. Some like it, but never got it to work as well as VMware.

I got Win 98SE and installed it. It took 3 tries to get it right. However... After a couple minutes I started having problems with the mouse. I was able to install Dark Side of the Moon and get it working for a couple minutes then it locked up on me. After having trouble with the start button as well, I decided to install the VM additions. Then my mouse behaved better and my start button responded correctly. But I can't play DSOM. I don't know what the trouble is. Any ideas?

Yes, installing a compatible version of VMware Tools is a must. There are couple of patches mentioned in the link below (which still seem to be available) - you might want to give them a shot.

Game crashes still. HELP

Look for Winterfury's post on the last page of the thread.