HoppaLong Posted December 18, 2009 Share Posted December 18, 2009 (edited) I found this thread about installing Windows 98 on a virtual partition:http://www.tek-tips.com/viewthread.cfm?qid...5174&page=5My experience with virtual software is limited to mounting a virtualimage using backup software, or creating a partition to simulate anoptical drive on a hard drive.Exactly how can you run an old system like 98 on a computer that'sonly a few months old? Let's say you're running Vista Ultimate witha wireless keyboard and mouse. The drivers for this hardware arecompatible with Vista, not Windows 98.The app recommended in this thread is Microsoft's Virtual PC. Is somekind of overlay created that allows your wireless mouse and keyboardto function within the 98 partition? I can't imagine anyone plugging inan older mouse and keyboard just for the virtual 98 partition.In effect, the virtual software would have to create a buffer between thetwo systems, so you can use the same hardware for both. 98 "sees" thenew hardware and drivers as being compatible. If virtual software doesn'tcreate this buffer, then all your Vista compatible hardware would be useless.Now that I've speculated about how virtual software works, tell how thatold system can run harmoniously within a much newer Windows system. Edited December 19, 2009 by HoppaLong Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cluberti Posted December 18, 2009 Share Posted December 18, 2009 Wikipedia has a good article about this very subject that I suggest you have a look at. What the poster in the article you linked was describing was a System Virtual Machine, which provides native execution of emulated hardware (meaning the virtual machine in the VM software running Windows 98 only sees very generic hardware, regardless of what's in the parent machine running the system virtual machine software - in this case, Vista running Microsoft Virtual PC). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
submix8c Posted December 18, 2009 Share Posted December 18, 2009 Tips, Tricks, Info -http://blogs.msdn.com/Virtual_PC_Guy/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HoppaLong Posted December 19, 2009 Author Share Posted December 19, 2009 (edited) Thank you cluberti and submix8c!I'll definitely read the info you both recommended.If I understand you correctly cluberti, Microsoft's Virtual PC creates anenvironment in which 98 sees all that Vista hardware as a generic mouse,keyboard, etc. You may lose some of the advanced features providedby the software, but your hardware will function at some basic levelwithin the virtual 98 partition. Am I on the right track here? Edited December 19, 2009 by HoppaLong Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
submix8c Posted December 19, 2009 Share Posted December 19, 2009 Will this help understanding the term (not-necessarily) "generic"?http://www.msfn.org/board/best-virtualisat...re-t140233.htmlRoughly, the Host provides Real Hardware, the VM Software provides Virtual Hardware Interfaces, the Guest sees "Real Hardware" (via the Virtualisation). Each VM Software provides its own methods of interface, so after a fashion, "generic" is a "true-ism".Keep reading, you'll get the idea...(post written just to provide a link for the OP to possible future collected info.) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MrJinje Posted December 19, 2009 Share Posted December 19, 2009 One nice thing about Virtual Hardware, is you can run your Windows 98 VM on any machine without any hardware issues. Essentially it makes your entire OS portable. I have an XP VM that I run from a 4GB USB drive. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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