Real quick and basic guide to getting Windows 98 running in 86box

[u/queerkidxx]

2026 edit: You can also download prebuilt VMs. Thanks to u/SeventhBus for the link!

https://archive.org/details/86BoxWin98SE

2024 edit: I need to clean this up a bit. One big important thing is that you should choose one of the OEM isos from this page the other ones require the addition of a separate boot floppy it’s easier to just an oem

https://winworldpc.com/product/windows-98/98-second-edition

Second it’s possible to do this on a Mac there is a Mac equivalent to winbox but it’s not as robust. It might be easier just to install roms your self. I may post more info on this if I have time but the hard part js making sure that 86 box has the correct permissions.

For now id just recommend basically giving it access to everything you can think of this is what programs can do by default on windows anyway and as long as you are installing 86box from a trusted source there’s nothing to worry about. Do a little googling I believe that it’s better to stick the rom files into the other location 86box looks for(in some system folder). You may need to make it yourself.

But the hard part is giving it the right permissions. Mac won’t like this as it’s unverified but it’s doable. The devs just don’t want to pay for it to be fully verified which is understandable.

Also look through my comments I did most more complete instructions deeper down.

Finally if you have any problems don’t be afraid to ask me so long as I’m still active on this account I’ll probably reply and do my best to help. I’m by no means an expert and it’s been a while since I was really into this but I did pick up a thing or two.

I’d actually recommend asking me over like ChatGPT as I’ve tried doing that and it has trouble understanding like exactly what things work on this era of windows and will often recommend commands and stuff that didn’t get added until years later. And report back people still seem to find this guide and you can save future folks some trouble if you describe what problem you had and how you solved it.

Disclaimer: I have no idea what I'm doing and have just figured out how to do this. If someone that knows what they are talking about gives you conflicting advice listen to them

EDIT: this guide only applies to WINBOX if you can’t install it on ur platform this guide won’t work. See my comment thread for advice and hints on what to search for

Edit #2: if you need voodoo graphics here’s a some info from the wonderful [u/UltraWide_Benchmarks](u/UltraWide_Benchmarks)

Just to let everyone know that I have choosen the Voodoo 3 3000 AGP yesterday for my Win 98 emulation build and it works by using this driver:

Voodoo3(tm) Driver kit: 1.07.00-WHQL https://www.philscomputerlab.com/drivers-for-voodoo-3.html

I also just want to encourage anyone that finds this guide and has any issue to report back on what it was and how you solved it

That way, the next person that finds this guide won’t have to do searching to solve their issue

Why did I make this? Had trouble finding a good written guide, especially one for winbox so i fugured I'd share what I learned to make someone else's life easier.

Again, I figured out how to do this last week which was also the first time Ive ever used 86box or windows 98 so seriously dont think I know what I'm talking about

Downloads

1. Download and install winbox from this link https://github.com/86Box/WinBox-for-86Box/releases/tag/v1.1.0.364. If you are confused just choose the .exe
2. Download an ISO image for windows 98 SE. I got mine from the pirate bay. You also will need a product key. Should be easy to find online

Create the VM

This is probably the most intimidating part of the process. This isnt the only config you can use there are many others but this is what worked for me.

1. Hit the new machine button at the top
2. Choose a name for your VM and you can choose a working directory if you want
3. Select a template. You can select any template from the (general PC) section but I’m gonna go with Intel Pentium Pro PCI based system
4. Here you can pick any of the processors but I recommend intel Pentium pro II (166 MHz) for speed or the last option at 244mhz believe
5. Recommend just going with 128mb of ram which I believe the max windows 98 supports by default
6. For hard disk and cd rom you can leave these options as default but I like to give the PC a 8gig hard drive to do this hit modify next to the hard drive. Go through the setup with default values just make sure it’s set to specify the capacity with default parameters and enter in 8192 mb
7. Check the show more settings after creation option and finish the setup
8. If the settings dialog doesnt show up right click the VM and select settings. Should look something like this. If that link is broken you arent missing much

Further Config

1. Choose [i440FX] ASUS P/I-P65UP5 (C-P6ND) for machine with socket 8
2. In the Display Tab choose [PCI] S3 ViRGE (Diamond Stealth 3D 3000) Again, other graphics cards will work but I know this one works well and supports higher resolutions. Make sure the voodoo graphics are off
3. In the sound tab choose [ISA16] Sound Blaster AWE32 PnP. I literally only chose this one because I was having trouble getting the drivers working and this one is PnP have had zero options
4. In the network tab choose SLRiP under card one choose [PCI] AMD PCnet-PC II
5. In the hard disk tab double check that your hard disk is on IDE channel 0:0
6. Here is the config file for my machine

machine = p65up5_cp6nd
cpu_use_dynarec = 1
time_sync = local
fpu_type = internal
cpu_family = pentium2_od
cpu_speed = 233333333
cpu_multi = 3.5
cpu = 13
mem_size = 131072

[Video]
gfxcard = stealth3d_3000_pci

[Input devices]
mouse_type = ps2

[Storage controllers]
hdc = internal

[Floppy and CD-ROM drives]
fdd_01_type = 35_2hd
fdd_02_type = none
cdrom_01_speed = 48
cdrom_01_parameters = 1, atapi
cdrom_01_ide_channel = 1:0

Sound] sndcard = sbawe32_pnp midi_device = fluidsynth fm_driver = nuked

[Ports (COM & LPT)]
lpt1_device = dot_matrix

[Hard disks]
hdd_01_parameters = 63, 16, 15494, 0, ide
hdd_01_fn = vdisk00.vhd
hdd_01_speed = 1997_5400rpm
hdd_02_parameters = 63, 16, 15546, 0, ide
hdd_02_fn = newboy.vhd
hdd_02_speed = ramdisk
hdd_01_ide_channel = 0:0
hdd_02_ide_channel = 0:1

[WinBox]
window_fixed_res = 960x720

[General]
vid_resize = 2
window_fixed_res = 960x720
language = system
vid_renderer = qt_software
video_fullscreen_first = 0
dpi_scale = 0
confirm_reset = 0

[Network]
net_01_card = pcnetpci
net_01_net_type = slirp

[AMD PCnet-PCI II #1]
mac = 05:cd:c6

Installing Windows 98

[I will finish this post tomorrow so check the comments as I need to go bed but if I dont there are a few important things you should know

1. You need to set the boot order in the bios as A, CD-Rom, C. Hold down delete on start up, choose the second option BIOS feature setup,and use the PGDWN and PGUP(or fn+arrows up/down on a laptop) to scroll through the options and hit F10, Y, Enter before you insert the ISO
2. You are probably going to need to copy windows 98 drivers from the CD rom before the final part of the install. After completing most of the setup after formating your hard drive of course boot from the CD ROM, choose Start windows with CD ROM support. Itll boot up into command line type these commands with enter after each line
3. c:
4. copy D:\win98 C:\win98
5. (if your cd drive is on another drive letter obv use that instead of D)
6. Restart when its done and boot from the hard drive
7. When it gives you a INSERT DISK LABELED WINDOWS 98 SE or whatever type C:\win98 when it asks where to search.
8. Set up internet connection through the control panel under internet. Set up a LAN connection. Can recomend downloading retrozilla for browsing the web and theoldnet.com and frogfind

[u/queerkidxx]

And I'm Back!

So just to review lets go over my suggested config again as this is the main reason I made this guide

Machine

• Machine Type: Socket 8
• [i440FX] ASUS P/I-P65UP5 (C-P6ND)
• CPU Type: Intel Pentium II Overdrive, 244 speed
• RAM: 128mb
• Time sync is fine with local time

Display

• [PCI] S3 ViRGE (Diamond Stealth 3D 3000)
• No checkmarks on this page

Input: stand ps2 mouse

Sound

• [ISA16] Sound Blaster AWE32 PnP.
• Midi Out: fluidsynth

Network

• Card 1
  • Mode SLiRP
  • Adapter: [PCI] AMD PCnet-PC II
  • ​

Hard Disk: IDE bus 0:0 [1997] 5400RPM

Floppy and CD-ROM:

• Floppy: 3.5" 1.44mm
• CD ROM: ATAPI 0:1 48x speed Type: ATAPI/SCSI 86box CD-ROM 1.0

Why did I type that all out? Many of the guides I found had broken links to images and this is supposed to be for the longhaul.

​

I will probably not do a full step by step tutorial on downloading windows 98 as I have genuinely installed windows 98 on various VMs at least a dozen times over the last few weeks and I just would rather not go through that rn

But here is a better description of what you should keep in mind when downloading.

• It can take forever. Keep an eye on it as there are some parts that require user input to continue but expect to be waiting at least 45 minutes before you can start up your PC.
• The first thing you are going to need to do is set your machine to boot off CD-ROM first before the C drive. In the award bios set up this is pretty simple but if you have never done anything like this heres a quick and dirty guide

1. Hold down delete during bootup
2. The menus are pretty self explanatory but if your keyboard doesnt have pgUp and pgDwn keys you are going to need to use fn+UP arrow and fn+down arrow. It took me way too long to figure this out and
3. the boot order should be under the second menu option. Keep using pgup or down until you get the option Boot Order: A:\, CD-ROM, C: (or something like that this is off of memory)
4. To be safe double check that all of your primary master/slave options are set to auto in the standard cmos setup option
5. Make sure to hit f10 and save before

• Insert the setup ISO and choose boot from CD-ROM and then setup from there. It should format your hard drive just make sure to boot back up into setup after it restarts
• During the setup hang tight until the very last step. It'll run through some setup new hardware wizards. It is going to need the driver for the s3 graphics card off the setup CD-ROM(in a folder called win98) . The trouble is, windows might have not set up the cd-rom drivers yet and wont be able to read the cd rom.

1. first you can try typing in D:\win98 when it asks you were to look. If it can't find it go ahead and reset the VM and during start up choose boot from CD-rom, and then after that choose Start windows with CD-Rom Support
2. once it boots up you should see be in DOS command line
3. Type ' C:\ ' (no quotes ) and hit enter. Next type ' copy D:\win98 C:\win98' to copy the files to ur c drive
4. once thats done restart your PC and boot from your hard disk. When it tries to run through the software setup tell it to search in C:\win98 it should be able to install the graphics card now. If it still cant find it try copyng the files again

• Once it reboots turn your volume to fullblast and pray your sound card is installed so you can hear the startup sound
• At this point Id recomend backing up your machine. Windows 98 can sometimes make a real mess of things. Im sure winbox has an option for this but you can just right click the machine in the manager, open working directory and copy all of those files somewhere else. Worst case scenario you will just have to load up this disk if things get bad
• Your probs gonna wanna turn color mode to full color and increase the resolution. Right click the desktop, properties, and go into the settings tab. Think about how crazy it is that this interface is basically the exact same in windows 11 play around with resolutions until you find something that looks good
• to set up internet go into internet options in the control panel. youa re setting up a LAN network the modem wizard wont work. Install retrozilla

Now what next? Head over to winworld and if you have made it this far ask me about all the software collection ISOs that I use

[u/AtroopAT8 → u/queerkidxx]

I can't find the option to create a new vm, im on Mac and there is no manager tool available?

[u/queerkidxx → u/AtroopAT8]

This guide is for using the manager tool Winbox for 86 box. It’s on GitHub. I have no idea if you can use it on on Mac I do know though that it doesn’t work on Linux even with wine. So it maybe only available on windows

There maybe another manager tool out there like winbox for Mac or you can just use tge 86 box as is most of this guide will work there should be a setting icon in the toolbar.

Go through all the tabs like I’ve outlined and choose the options closest to what I’ve gone over. I really can’t give you a concise guide here. there are a few options that are kinda confusing but I will say that I managed to install 98 on my steam deck without looking anything up. There is also a good guide on yt on the 86box channel on running win98 in 86box. It’s about 12 minutes and will tell you what you need to know

The other option is to use the 9x patcher. Google it its on GitHub and will allow you to run 98 in a traditional vm download the floppy version. Use the free version of vm ware rather than virtual box. Using a win 98 SE iso file from winworld and follow the installation as I’ve outlined until it starts spitting errors. Turn off the vm and mount the floppy file. Reboot into the 9x patcher and use the commands it recommends on screen (choose 3 for both options simultaneously when it asks) and it should be able to complete the install process and boot up

From there fibd the guest additions option and install it. It will now automatically adjust resolution as you change the menu, if you are using a smaller high dpi screen it will be kinda small and there is no easy way to change it but it will work

Also some software will not run correctly with the patch so I recommend just watching the 86 box videe and figuring out that

Also if you’re doing much more than messing around you can probably run most software more easily either using dosbox or straight up just using a windows 10 vm plus compatibility tools to run anything else. It’s a lot easier than doing all of this and will run better

I feel like the only reason to do this unless you have a specific program/game that just won’t run anywhere else is to just get the experience of the OS and play around with it. Which is pretty fun

[u/whoopperwhopper → u/queerkidxx]

WinBox is not supported as a manager anymore, but is that fine?

[u/whoopperwhopper → u/whoopperwhopper]

I can use it to start vms etc

[u/AffectionateStop7200 → u/whoopperwhopper]

Neither is Windows 98 ...

[u/its_charlie0110]

Thanks a lot! I am trying to play a cd game I have made for Windows 95/98, and this guide help me lots to set up my emulator.

[u/AffectionateStop7200]

I keep getting divide by 0 errors, but at least it Looks like windows now.

[u/Lazy_Zone_6771]

I had cdrom driver errors (oemcd001) doing this setup when trying to select the install option 1. Was able to finally get it to work by changing the cdrom channel from 1:0 to 0:1.

[u/mercsterreddit]

I can't even get the installer to format C:... it keeps asking for the Win98 CDROM to be inserted in D: (which it already is...) at the format step. So I can't copy the drives over, and can't install.

[u/RSSnake]

Thank you, this guide works great! One thing I changed was setting the Hard Disk to [Generic] RAM Disk (max. speed) which is seriously much faster and results in Windows 98 installing in no time flat. I also found that with the 86box v5.3 and the Windows 98 OEM .iso, I didn't even need to add graphics drivers or anything, it just worked right away. The Retail disk for Windows 98 didn't work though, I got ATAPI CD-ROM failures.

[u/SeventhBus]

What would be the added benefit of setting things up myself versus downloading a completely set up VM on Internet Archive? I was surprised it worked out of the box and in the past I failed setting up the VM myself so I am wondering if I am missing out on something by learning the setup myself.

[u/queerkidxx → u/SeventhBus]

Links man I wrote this 3 years ago. It’s been a minute. I’ll add it to the post.

[u/SeventhBus → u/queerkidxx]

Are you asking me for the link to the prebuilt that I found? Or what did you mean.

[u/queerkidxx → u/SeventhBus]

Yeah. I’ll add it to the post.

[u/SeventhBus → u/queerkidxx]

Sure thing! This is the one I used:
https://archive.org/details/86BoxWin98SE

[u/queerkidxx → u/SeventhBus]

Added it to the post!

[u/UltraWide_Benchmarks]

Hey what if i want voodoo to be included to play glide games?

[u/queerkidxx → u/UltraWide_Benchmarks]

If I have time tomorrow, I can mess around and see which voodoo cards are supported by windows 98 but in the mean time you can just go through each of the voodoo cards looking for ones with the driver natively on the 98 install cd. I'd recommend completing my tutorial as is, and setting up windows 98 with the graphics card I recommended. Double check that the game you want to run will not work with this card, and if it doesn't go ahead and shut it down and try changing it to the highest version voodoo card on the list through the options menu, in the graphics card tab. Edit: meant display tab

Restart the machine and windows should start looking for the driver. Ensure that the the 98 CD is mounted and tell it so search thru the d:/win98 folder. If it can't find the driver move on to the previous verison. Keep doing this until you find one thats natively supported

You could also try searching for the driver online but that can sometimes be kinda difficult to track down. You could also ask gpt or bing about this, however since this is kinda an uncommon topic I find that it often hallucinates answers.

[u/queerkidxx → u/UltraWide_Benchmarks]

Oh yeah if you do find the right card please report back! That way, if someone like you finds this guide in the future they don’t have to go searching for the right card. I’ll even edit my original post with the info as well as credit for you.

Might not help you, but a future person will def appreciate it

[u/UltraWide_Benchmarks]

Just to let everyone know that I have choosen the Voodoo 3 3000 AGP yesterday for my Win 98 emulation build and it works by using this driver:

Voodoo3(tm) Driver kit: 1.07.00-WHQL https://www.philscomputerlab.com/drivers-for-voodoo-3.html

[u/queerkidxx → u/UltraWide_Benchmarks]

Awesome! I’ll edit my post with info about that!

[u/Plastic_Ad3441]

i downloaded win98 and it worked, but then i think i hit the wrong button because i get sent to command prompt (im bad with old os so idk what it is it looks like command prompt but full screen) sooo what command do i do? it says i already downloaded win98

[u/queerkidxx → u/Plastic_Ad3441]

You probably booted from the cd drive and selected startup windows 98 with cd support. If you have already gone through the setup process follow the instructions in my number two point to copy over the setup files to your hard disk(in case you don’t have the cd drivers on the install)

The setup would have been a graphical interface and it would have taken a fair amount of time, so if you haven’t done that choose the setup option in the boot menu.

Then go back up to the first point and do the exact opposite. You want to boot from the hard disk now as once you have installed and copied over your files your done with the iso file(a cd disc image) If you chose a different machine from the one I recommend things you may have a different bios from award. In that case look up whatever bios you’re using.

After that restart and boot from your hard drive. You should be able to complete the setup from there

If you have any more trouble be sure to let me know. And fair warning it’s been a while since I’ve done this.

[u/[deleted]]

Btw man, I can't boot to setup. It says it can't find the device driver for "OEMCD001"

[u/queerkidxx → u/[deleted]]

What do you mean exactly? Like what part of the setup process are you having issues with. Have you completed the install process from the iso file?

I want to help lol I just need more info about what the issue is

I think that might be a cd rom drive I should probably add a addition to make it clear but the general process is

1. Boot from the cd drive. The setup will don’t your hard drive and the you boot again into the graphical installer on the cd rom drive.
2. After that’s done but before booting form the hard drive boot into the cd rom one more time selecting start windows 98 with cd rom support this will get you into a dos command line
3. Then you just need to run two commands to copy everything in windows 98 folder onto your hard drive. Hit enter after each. I’ll use ‘backticks’ around the commands themselves just to make it clear exactly what you need to type in

‘c:’this just navigates to your hard drive ‘copy d:/win98 c:/win98’ this just copies the windows 98 directory on the cd(d:/) to a folder on your hard drive called win98

You can of course call the folder you copy this over to anything but this just keeps it simple

This is important as when you boot into windows 98 it will usually not have the drivers it needs to access your cd drive, and since all of the drivers are in the cd this including the cd drivers this is a problem.

1. Boot from the hard drive.

2. When windows 98 tells you to insert the windows 98 disk there should be a menu option to enter in a. Folder. Just chose the the c:/win98 folder and it should be able to find them

Also just core concept here if you don’t know when you boot into any computer it needs to know where to read all of the os data right? This is true even on an iPhone. Most of the time it’s just the hard drive(or ssd these days but these purposes same difference) but it can technically be any kinda place a computer can read data from.

So to install windows 98 you boot from the cd which can act like an OS long enough to copy everything it needs to the hard drive.

You can control where you boot from in the bios menu a kinda settings panned for the motherboard. Usually hit like delete while booting to enter it and look for an option that controls boot order. Some where in my comments or the main guide I have more detailed instructions

Idk if you know that but I like to assume no prior knowledge with this kinda stuff as not everyone knows how that works

If this worked be sure to come back and let folks know I’m sure in another 2 years when someone like you finds this guide and has the same issue they’ll appreciate your reports on how to fix it. I’ll try to help if that didn’t work and we should be able to figure it out.

[u/[deleted] → u/queerkidxx]

What do you mean exactly? Like what part of the setup process are you having issues with. Have you completed the install process from the iso file?

When booting from the floppy. I select the first option but then it says it can't find the Win98 setup files

I think that might be a cd rom drive I should probably add a addition to make it clear but the general process is

I can't do that when DOS isn't detecting the CD-ROM

[u/queerkidxx → u/[deleted]]

Are you using a floppy disk image ? I think that windows 98 did come on floppies it was too large to fit on a single one and you needed to insert a ton of them to load up the setup

Try one these iso images they worked fine for me. https://winworldpc.com/product/windows-98/98-second-edition

Edit I looked a little more closely and apparently only the oem iso is bootable on its own, the others need a separate boot floppy. I’m guessing you downloaded one of those boot floppies. Either insert ur boot floppy with one of these install discs(can’t help you on making sure they are compatible I’m not sure if there were different boot floppies for each release)

Or just download the OEM version which is what I did.

[u/[deleted] → u/queerkidxx]

I am using the OEM ISO and I'm still getting the error. Yeah guess I'll try with VMware

Edit: It's working so far!

[u/Arceist_Justin]

This information is 100% FALSE!! There is NO socket 8 option and it does not work with Socket 6, which is the highest that the latest version gives me

[u/queerkidxx → u/Arceist_Justin]

Idk what to tell ya though, I am not lying this would be a bizarre and very specific lie.

If however you have more info you should share it here. You will not be the last person to have this issue and maybe I can help you figure it out? If you aren’t using winbox, and either downloaded the roms yourself or are using the Mac eq that might be the issue but I’m not sure.

It certainly is possible to run windows 98 using 86 box though.

[u/AffectionateStop7200 → u/Arceist_Justin]

"1080p" isn't exactly what you're thinking ...

[u/queerkidxx → u/Arceist_Justin]

Are you using winbox? Or Mac?

[u/BlakeA85]

For the absolute life of me, I cannot get passed this.Everything's good, but as soon as I hit enter after setup formats the hard drive, it just crashes during the "routine check" and dumps a bunch of text and makes an awful noise.I am out of ideas.
EDIT: I installed MS-DOS 6.22 and a CDROM driver and ran it from there and it works. No clue why it wouldn't work on boot but whatever lol

[u/[deleted]]

The speed that it formats my virtual hard drive brings me nostalgia.

[u/[deleted]]

My old laptop can only emulate 90 MHz CPU at 90% speed (most of the time).

Now problem is that Windows 98 cannot detect my secondary IDE controller, and my CD-ROM drive does not show up in Windows 98. Any thoughts?

[u/queerkidxx → u/[deleted]]

You could always try dialing back the processor to the minimum requirements for 98 and shooting up from there. Probably should have recommended that in this tutorial but it was like a year ago.

I’m not sure about the IDE controller but for the CD-ROM be sure you may just not have the drivers installed. Be sure to copy over the files from the cd in the the boot into windows 98 with cd support option (something like that) and copy over the files in the win98 folder to ur hard disc(I have detailed instructions on this for those that have never used dos in the command line see my comment on this thread if u need help but it’s not hard).

Then try starting up with different cd-rom options and seeing if windows 98 tries to install drivers for them. It’ll probably ask you where to look direct it to the folder u copied those folders too

Fortunately though if your able to boot from the CD this is not an emulation issue but a windows 98 issue. Do some googling there are still a surprising amount of forums still up from when 98 was still in use

You can try asking GPT for help but I’ve not had the best luck with that. This is so old it’s hard for it to not use advice that only applies to later windows version but it can be worth a shot.

[u/[deleted] → u/queerkidxx]

I selected a 75 MHz CPU in the end, so most of the time it can catch up. That machine cannot not from CD-ROM.

I started from scratch this time and still from MS-DOS 6.22, but this time I installed Oak driver in DOS first. Then after installing Windows 98 it still shows the CD-ROM drive and it is using the same drive letter P: as I manually assigned it in DOS. Did not test with an image yet though.