Dual boot Win7 and Win98?

I am tired of keeping multiple computers around on which to run my
expensive legacy programs.

I have a win98 installation disk and wonder if it's possible to
partition my harddrive so I can boot into either win98 or Windows 7 Home
Premium.

If the answer is Yes, how do I do this?

Flakey Foont wrote:
I am tired of keeping multiple computers around on which to run my
expensive legacy programs.

I have a win98 installation disk and wonder if it's possible to
partition my harddrive so I can boot into either win98 or Windows 7 Home
Premium.

If the answer is Yes, how do I do this?

What you want is Windows Virtual PC, and run Win98 in a window.
(Microsoft prevents other generations of their hosting software from
working. So VPC2007 [what I use] is for WinXP. Windows Virtual PC
is for Win7. And Hyper-V is for Win8.)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_Virtual_PC

An alternative hosting software, if you cannot figure out
what to do with Windows Virtual PC (interface sucks), is
to use VirtualBox (free).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virtualbox

*******

And if you really insist on a physical OS and not virtualization,
at least use a second disk drive on your desktop. And put Won98
on that drive, all by itself. I would not attempt to boot
them on the same hard drive. I don't know if you could use
bcdedit to add Win98. (You could try EasyBCD, but that costs money
now. At one time it was free.)

The advantage of the virtual environment, is it emulates ancient
hardware. This is to make it easier to run Win98.

To run Win98 here physically (not in a VM), I still have an FX5200 PCI
video card, which spans the largest range of OSes (won't do Win8).
That's one of my success ingredients for running ancient stuff.
There's a good chance, if you try to install Win98 on your
Windows 7 hardware system, some drivers are going to be missing.
It takes the right platform to have a completely clean install.
For me, that was a Core2 processor on a VIA chipset, with the FX5200
for a video card. Otherwise, you might end up running Win98 in a
640z480 screen with 16 colors or something. And that wouldn't be a
lot of fun with your expensive legacy software.

Paul

On 06/30/2014 11:52 PM, Flakey Foont wrote:
I am tired of keeping multiple computers around on which to run my
expensive legacy programs.

I have a win98 installation disk and wonder if it's possible to
partition my harddrive so I can boot into either win98 or Windows 7 Home
Premium.

If the answer is Yes, how do I do this?



Paul gave a great answer. I too recommend running Win98 in a virtual
machine. I happen to use Oracle Virtual Box.

philo* wrote:

On 06/30/2014 11:52 PM, Flakey Foont wrote:
I am tired of keeping multiple computers around on which to run my
expensive legacy programs.

I have a win98 installation disk and wonder if it's possible to
partition my harddrive so I can boot into either win98 or Windows 7 Home
Premium.

If the answer is Yes, how do I do this?



Paul gave a great answer. I too recommend running Win98 in a virtual
machine. I happen to use Oracle Virtual Box.

Add my vote for emulation. I'm using VMware Player.

--
The Egyptian pyramids are giant glorified rock piles,
not "buildings" in the traditional sense.

In article ,
ess says...

philo* wrote:

On 06/30/2014 11:52 PM, Flakey Foont wrote:
I am tired of keeping multiple computers around on which to run my
expensive legacy programs.

I have a win98 installation disk and wonder if it's possible to
partition my harddrive so I can boot into either win98 or Windows 7 Home
Premium.

If the answer is Yes, how do I do this?



Paul gave a great answer. I too recommend running Win98 in a virtual
machine. I happen to use Oracle Virtual Box.

Add my vote for emulation. I'm using VMware Player.

I run a VM of 98SE using Virtual PC on a Win7 Home Pre. OS without
issue. Only "problem" is what's lacking in MS's VM (no usb passthru for
one) which isn't an issue for my needs. I also run an XP install using
same tool and it also works fine for my needs. Vista uses VirtualBox and
Win8.1 uses VMPlayer. All VM hosts co-exist fine. I never run more than
one VM host at a time, e.g. no VPC & VBox at same time.

pjp wrote:
In article ,
ess says...
philo wrote:

On 06/30/2014 11:52 PM, Flakey Foont wrote:
I am tired of keeping multiple computers around on which to run my
expensive legacy programs.

I have a win98 installation disk and wonder if it's possible to
partition my harddrive so I can boot into either win98 or Windows 7 Home
Premium.

If the answer is Yes, how do I do this?


Paul gave a great answer. I too recommend running Win98 in a virtual
machine. I happen to use Oracle Virtual Box.
Add my vote for emulation. I'm using VMware Player.

I run a VM of 98SE using Virtual PC on a Win7 Home Pre. OS without
issue. Only "problem" is what's lacking in MS's VM (no usb passthru for
one) which isn't an issue for my needs. I also run an XP install using
same tool and it also works fine for my needs. Vista uses VirtualBox and
Win8.1 uses VMPlayer. All VM hosts co-exist fine. I never run more than
one VM host at a time, e.g. no VPC & VBox at same time.

VirtualBox has a great passthru implementation. It involves
USB packet routing at the VID:PID level. So if you can
click to identify the VID:PID you want "captured" by the
virtual machine, VirtualBox has the tools for that. Not
that Win98 has great USB facilities though in any case - it
would be like feeding steak to a vegetarian.

VPC2007 has nothing like that. No special treatment for USB.
No passthru. There are options for shared folders, so you
can get files in and out. I use file sharing a lot to get
stuff into VMs there (as VPC2007 is what I use regularly).

Windows Virtual PC, has a form of passthru, but as far as I know
it's at the "class" level. Certain classes of USB things may get
forwarded to a VM. Maybe a USB key for example. Don't know about
scanners or webcam or other things. Which makes it more "miss" than
"hit" in terms of utility. VirtualBox has it beat, in that
VirtualBox redirects one level down in the protocol stack.
I don't know if patents are involved here, or not.

Hyper-V ? Not a clue. Apparently Hyper-V has passthru for
video, but since no computer in the house has SLAT/EPT,
it doesn't look like I'll be testing Hyper-V this week.

Paul

Paul said on 7/1/2014 1:09 AM:
Flakey Foont wrote:
I am tired of keeping multiple computers around on which to run my
expensive legacy programs.

I have a win98 installation disk and wonder if it's possible to
partition my harddrive so I can boot into either win98 or Windows 7
Home Premium.

If the answer is Yes, how do I do this?

What you want is Windows Virtual PC, and run Win98 in a window.
(Microsoft prevents other generations of their hosting software from
working. So VPC2007 [what I use] is for WinXP. Windows Virtual PC
is for Win7. And Hyper-V is for Win8.)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_Virtual_PC

An alternative hosting software, if you cannot figure out
what to do with Windows Virtual PC (interface sucks), is
to use VirtualBox (free).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virtualbox

*******

And if you really insist on a physical OS and not virtualization,
at least use a second disk drive on your desktop. And put Won98
on that drive, all by itself. I would not attempt to boot
them on the same hard drive. I don't know if you could use
bcdedit to add Win98. (You could try EasyBCD, but that costs money
now. At one time it was free.)

The advantage of the virtual environment, is it emulates ancient
hardware. This is to make it easier to run Win98.

To run Win98 here physically (not in a VM), I still have an FX5200 PCI
video card, which spans the largest range of OSes (won't do Win8).
That's one of my success ingredients for running ancient stuff.
There's a good chance, if you try to install Win98 on your
Windows 7 hardware system, some drivers are going to be missing.
It takes the right platform to have a completely clean install.
For me, that was a Core2 processor on a VIA chipset, with the FX5200
for a video card. Otherwise, you might end up running Win98 in a
640z480 screen with 16 colors or something. And that wouldn't be a
lot of fun with your expensive legacy software.

Paul

@Paul: Easy BCD seems to still show a free non-commercial version.
You have to register but it's still free.

@Flakey: I'd also suggest VMWare for a virtual machine.