https://dosbox-x.com/wiki/Guide%3AInstalling-Windows-98

https://s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/secure.notion-static.com/2fcc4dfb-85ba-4fa2-8e4e-b114465f9b9f/WindowsWindows_98_SPLASH.png

Table of Contents

Overview

This guide will give a general description of installing Windows 98 in DOSBox-X, in addition to addressing some common issues.

Windows editions this guide applies to

Windows 98 (RTM; Original release) - Retail Full

Windows 98 (RTM; Original release) - OEM Full

Windows 98 Second Edition (98SE) - Retail Full

Windows 98 Second Edition (98SE) - OEM Full

If you don’t know which Windows 98 edition to install, we recommend that you install Windows 98SE.

DOSBox-X config file

You first need to create a DOSBox-X config file.

[sdl]
autolock=true

[dosbox]
title=Windows 98
memsize=128

[video]
vmemsize=8
vesa modelist width limit=0
vesa modelist height limit=0

[dos]
ver=7.1
hard drive data rate limit=0
floppy drive data rate limit=0

[cpu]
cputype=pentium_mmx
core=normal

[sblaster]
sbtype=sb16vibra

[fdc, primary]
int13fakev86io=true

[ide, primary]
int13fakeio=true
int13fakev86io=true

[ide, secondary]
int13fakeio=true
int13fakev86io=true
cd-rom insertion delay=4000

[render]
scaler=none

[autoexec]

Copy the above config and save it as win98.conf

Note You can increase the allocated RAM up to the Windows 98 maximum of 512MB by setting memsize=512. Larger values may be possible with tweaks but are not covered here.

General installation Notes

Some parts of the installation can take a considerable amount of time. You may be able to speed this up considerably (depending on the host CPU) by using the DOSBox-X Turbo mode, which can be enabled from the drop-down menu bar by selecting "CPU" followed by "Turbo (Fast Forward)". This turbo mode is not like the old Turbo button on retro PCs, but functions more like a fast-forward, and therefore should not be used when interacting with the guest OS. Starting with DOSBox-X 0.83.21 the turbo mode is automatically disabled the moment a key is pressed, to prevent spurious keypresses to be registered causing undesirable effects.

When creating your HDD image with `IMGMAKE`, instead of specifying a custom size, you can choose a pre-defined template. The pre-defined HDD templates can be seen by running `IMGMAKE` without arguments.