All Questions
Tagged with windows-95 windows-98
23 questions
5
votes
1
answer
2k
views
How do I change my login username in Windows 9x?
A few years ago, I set up a lot of Windows 9x VMs. During the Windows installation/setup process for several of the VMs, I, in my infinite hubris, ignored the common advice against using your actual ...
- 459
28
votes
3
answers
10k
views
Was the MS-DOS window in Windows 95 an emulator like current DOSBox?
Windows 1.x, 2.x and 3.x required a DOS to be loaded before running them. Later Windows 9.x and ME had similar (?) way of working, but DOS was included with them, 32-bit multitasking and other stuff ...
- 383
35
votes
1
answer
4k
views
"Quit all programs, and then restart your computer" in the Windows 95 "Illegal operation" dialog
Back in the Windows 95/98 days, the "illegal operation" dialog was (from here):
but sometimes, in that dialog, it would say "Quit all programs, and then restart your computer" (...
- 777
11
votes
2
answers
827
views
Why did Windows 9x allow ring-3 software to change IDT?
I was researching how old Windows 9x viruses, such as Win95.CIH, got ring 0 access, and it's shown that one of the approaches was to get the Interrupt Descriptor Table, hook the interrupt handler and ...
- 111
12
votes
3
answers
7k
views
Does the kernel of Windows 95/98/ME have a name?
In this question:
Why was the DOS kernel discarded?
I was told that DOS is not a kernel. It runs on CPUs that don't even have kernel mode. So how can it be a kernel? So I think this is right.
Now if ...
- 5,422
1
vote
0
answers
300
views
Identify this spaceship fruit collection game starring a levitating fish
Okay this might be a long shot, but I've been looking for this game for over 7 years now and I'm starting to question my sanity. I played this game somewhere between 1998-2003 but it might be a tad ...
- 111
64
votes
1
answer
12k
views
Why didn't Windows 98 need the "Starting Windows 98..." screen?
In Windows 95, when you start up your computer, you see this message:
Starting Windows 95...
But in Windows 98, this is replaced entirely by the boot logo.
Was this just for a better appearance, or ...
- 1,131
10
votes
2
answers
2k
views
What technical reasons prevented the Win9x Virtual Machine Monitor from running multiple threads simultaneously?
Were there any inherent limitations in the way the VMM for Win9x was designed that prevented it from being able to run threads simultaneously if the underlying hardware had multiple cores/processors? ...
- 393
6
votes
1
answer
501
views
How can I install debug VXDs from the Windows 98 DDK?
The core OS debug VXDs are provided in the DDK as separate VXDs, as opposed to being packed into a single VMM32.VXD file. Furthermore the readme file with the DDK indicates that copying all the ...
- 393
8
votes
2
answers
1k
views
Why are there three different settings in the [Paths] section of MSDOS.SYS?
In Windows 9x, the MSDOS.SYS configuration file contains a [Paths] section whose contents usually look like this:
[Paths]
WinDir=C:\WINDOWS
WinBootDir=C:\WINDOWS
HostWinBootDrv=C
Both WinDir and ...
- 25.2k
12
votes
3
answers
3k
views
Disassembling Windows IO.SYS
Under the question How did Windows ME "cripple" DOS?, Ross Ridge's answer showed a section of his disassembly.
I would like to know, a) what disassembler was used and b) what adjustment or ...
- 129
5
votes
2
answers
6k
views
How do I install Windows 9x on an older machine from a flash drive (or any other unconventional device)
Windows 9x is no longer common, and isn't commonly supported. While there exist many solutions to burning ISO to USB or other storage device, most fail at some point, with commonly useless if any ...
- 1,012
16
votes
2
answers
1k
views
Why would installing Windows 9x on a Sager NP8200 or Wedge 466/DX2 laptop brick the system?
In the setup.txt file on the Windows 95 and 98 CDs (located in the \WIN95 [Windows 95] / \win98 [Windows 98] folder), which contains important information on setting up Windows and solving or working ...
- 459
6
votes
1
answer
2k
views
When will the copyrights on various versions of Windows and DOS expire?
Related to question
What is the best way to obtain old versions of MS-DOS and Windows?
When will the copyrights on various versions of Windows and DOS expire?
Once they expire I presume one could ...
- 399
11
votes
1
answer
2k
views
Is there a prebuilt git binary available for Windows 9x? [closed]
Obviously, given age, doesn't have to be as secure and fancy and the modern builds, but is there there a git build for Windows 9x, just like there is for Windows XP? Also wondering whether there is a ...
- 1,012
443
votes
8
answers
234k
views
Why did moving the mouse cursor cause Windows 95 to run more quickly?
I was playing Hypnospace Outlaw, a game about a retro-themed OS. This OS has a peculiar behavior that when loading a webpage, wiggling the mouse cursor will load the page faster.
That reminded me of ...
- 2,070
47
votes
8
answers
56k
views
Latest web browser compatible with Windows 95 / 98
Do you know which is the latest web browser compatible with Windows 95 / 98?
At the moment I have an Opera 10 working fine; it is very lightweight but very outdated.
I assume that software that works ...
- 739
7
votes
4
answers
2k
views
Where can I get icons for Windows 3.1/95-style GUIs?
Consider for instance the GUI for Microsoft Word 97:
I am interested in getting the tiny icons used for the "Open", "Save", "Print" operations below the menu bar. Is there a good source for these and ...
- 71
12
votes
1
answer
579
views
How to open a CorelDraw WI wavelet-compressed image
I have a large sample of .WI images I need to convert to e.g. JPEGs, but the format now seems defunct.
The mimetype is image/wavelet.
The compression algorithm was developed by Summus, a US company ...
- 221
9
votes
1
answer
3k
views
Submarine diver game where you had to collect fish and other things for your aquarium
I've been searching for a game that I used to play a ton when I was a kid on the Windows 95/98, but I can't find it for the life of me!
From what I remember, you were a deep-sea diver that collected ...
- 2,455
12
votes
2
answers
4k
views
Documentation on Windows Explorer Shell Command Files
Windows Explorer Shell Command Files are a feature added to Windows with Internet Explorer 4 (95 / NT 4). They were used in the now-defunct Quick Launch bar to show the desktop, open IE4's Channels ...
- 18.8k
38
votes
6
answers
7k
views
Are old versions of Windows at risk of modern malware attacks?
On my answer to a previous question (Can I run Windows 98 and games from the same era on an AMD Duron CPU?) I finished with a warning about using Windows 98 on the Internet, which received the ...
- 2,384
5
votes
1
answer
3k
views
Building a DOS/Win95/98 computer from scratch [closed]
I'd like to build a DOS/Win95/98 computer in order to play old PC games I have without emulation.
Here are a few games I'd like to run:
Teranova: Strike Force Centauri;
System Shock 1 and 2;
Half-...
- 2,667