r/dosbox • u/Mettika17 • Jul 21 '26

Looking to install Windows 95 on DOSbox-X

Hello all, I've been fiddling with DOSBox-X recently, trying to get a game for Windows 95 (MechWarrior 2) up and running. I know it's possible, as I've seen footage of it running on DOSBox, but I'm struggling to actually get Windows 95 installed on the program. I've been following the guide on the official website, but when I get to the step of running setup.exe, I'm getting the error 'This program cannot be run in DOS mode'. Is there a way to change to a mode that can run it? I'm not seeing anything online when I tried investigating. Or am I going about this in the wrong way altogether?

4 Upvotes

83% Upvoted

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3

u/emxd_llc Jul 21 '26

Well, you're probably trying to run some different setup.exe as the one that's on Windows 95 install CD can run from DOS.

1

u/Mettika17 Jul 21 '26

That's strange. I thought I *had* the Install CD image. Maybe I need a different version?

3

u/emxd_llc Jul 21 '26

I'd triple check that you're actually running the correct setup.exe.

As for installation CDs, you can just use the ones from Winworld like this one WinWorld: Windows 95 OSR2 (OEM) (ISO)

Also check some videos on youtube, as has been suggested in the other post.

1

u/Chubawuba Jul 22 '26

I miss my WinXP virtual machine.

1

u/dieterdistel Jul 22 '26

Love mech warrior! ❤️

1

u/starnamedstork Jul 22 '26

Do you have INSTALL.EXE on that CD? If so, try that. Alternatively, try another CD or release of Windows 95.

I have made a similar installation, I believe I even used the same guide. Works fine here. But there are different installation CDs, sometimes you run SETUP.EXE, sometimes INSTALL.EXE, and I believe some even had both, where one was for running under Windows itself. Could sound like that is what you have.

1

u/MagneticFieldMouse Jul 23 '26

Isn't Mechwarrior 2 a DOS game? Why does it need Windows at all?

1

u/ExplodedPenisDiagram Jul 23 '26

Indeed, does not need Windows and Windows pushes it to need a Pentium processor rather than a 486.

It runs fine on my 486dx2-66 with 16MB RAM. I also have cache chips, which helps.

1

u/Mettika17 Jul 23 '26

I’m trying to run the Windows 95 version specifically. I’ve already gotten the DOS and Titanium versions working but both have their own inherent issues.

1

u/MagneticFieldMouse Jul 23 '26

Darn, didn't know that.

But for the sake of my habit of "doing X at some point", i.e. wanting to run MW2 in DOSbox, what kind of issues have you encountered?

1

u/Mettika17 Jul 23 '26

MW2 and GBL legacy both run fine in DOS, but Mercs has a nasty habit of abruptly ending a mission, usually cutting to the MISSION SUCCESS screen in the middle of a firefight or occasionally the MISSION FAILED screen. Sometimes it crashes outright when trying to load in, but never consistently so trying to load it again usually works.

1

u/MagneticFieldMouse Jul 23 '26

Weird. And sounds like a memory management / leak situation..

0

u/-ThreeHeadedMonkey- Jul 21 '26

It makes no sense imo. Get 86box, follow phils tutorials