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Installing Windows 95 into a Virtual Machine
Windows 95 can be installed in a virtual machine using a standard Windows 95
boot floppy and CD-ROM.
Note: Some Microsoft Windows 95 OEM disks included with new computers
are customized for those computers and include device drivers and other utilities
specific to the hardware system. Even if you can install this Windows 95 operating
system on your actual computer, you may not be able to install it within a
VMware Workstation virtual machine. You may need to purchase a new copy of Windows
to install within a virtual machine.
Note: Some Windows 95 distributions include instructions that do not
include the steps to FDISK and FORMAT a C: drive. You must
perform these commands on the VMware Workstation virtual hard disk drives before
running Windows 95 setup.
The instructions below are for the simplest case of one virtual IDE hard drive
and one virtual IDE CD-ROM drive. If you have configured the virtual machine with
more than one IDE hard drive, you should also perform these commands on these
drives before installing Windows 95. If you have configured the virtual machine
with more than one virtual hard drive or one virtual CD-ROM, you may need to use
different device letters than those in the instructions below.
Before installing the operating system, be sure that you have already created
a directory for the new virtual machine and configured it. Use the VMware Workstation
Configuration Editor to verify the virtual machine's devices are set up as you
expect before starting the installation. For example, if you would like the
Windows 95 setup program to install a sound driver, be sure that sound is
enabled in the virtual machine's configuration. VMware also recommends that you
disable the screen saver on the host system before starting the installation process.
To install Windows 95 into a virtual machine:
- Insert the Windows 95 CD-ROM Setup Boot Disk in floppy drive A: and insert
the Windows 95 CD in the the CD-ROM drive.
- Power on the virtual machine.
- After the virtual machine boots, if you are presented with a choice of
CD-ROM drivers, select the first IDE driver option available (even if your
computer has a SCSI CD-ROM drive).
- Partition the virtual disk using the following command.
A:\> FDISK
Answer the questions.
Note: If you create a primary partition that is smaller than the size
of the hard disk, be sure the partition is marked active.
- Reboot Windows 95. If the cursor is not already within the Workstation
window, click in the window, then press
Ctrl-Alt-Del. If prompted on
reboot to select a CD-ROM driver, select the first IDE CD-ROM driver from the list.
- Format the C: drive using the following command.
A:\> FORMAT C: /S
- Start the Windows 95 installation using the following command.
A:\> D:\WIN95\SETUP /IS
Note: An intermittent problem can occur during Windows 95 installations
in a virtual machine. Shortly after the Windows 95 Setup program is started,
Scandisk runs to completion, then when the Windows 95 Setup program should start
its graphical user interface, the virtual machine returns to an MS-DOS prompt.
VMware recommends you reboot the virtual machine and rerun Windows 95 Setup.
You do not need to run FDISK or FORMAT against the drive again.
If this problem occurs reproducibly, please report it to VMware technical support.
- If the virtual machine's Ethernet adapter is enabled, you must manually add
an Ethernet driver because Windows 95 does not detect it during the Analyzing
Computer phase (even if you selected the Network Adapter detection option). Do
the following to enable networking:
- Continue with the Windows 95 installation, until you get to the Windows 95
Setup Wizard/Setup Options screen. Change the default setting from Typical to Custom
and click Next to continue.
- From the Network Configuration screen (which appears after the Analyzing
Computer phase), click Add, select the Adapter component, select Advanced Micro
Devices from the manufacturer window and select AMD PCNET Family Ethernet
Adapter(PCI&ISA) from the network adapter window.
- If you need TCP/IP networking, add it from the Network Configuration screen
(Windows 95 Setup does not enable TCP/IP by default). If you don't do this, the
first phase of the Windows 95 installation does not copy some of the files it
needs later, and the entire installation fails.
- Finish the Windows 95 installation.
- VMware Workstation's virtual disks support DMA transfers for better performance.
The feature can be enabled after Windows 95 has been successfully installed on
a virtual IDE disk. Follow these steps to enable the feature:
- Right-click the My Computer icon and select Properties.
- From the System Properties dialog box, click the Device Manager tab.
- Double-click the Disk Drives device category.
- Double-click the GENERIC IDE DISK TYPE01 device.
- Click the Settings tab and enable the DMA check box.
- Install VMware Tools in your guest
operating system.
- If sound was disabled at the time you installed Windows 95, you can enable sound for the virtual machine after the
operating system has been installed.
- If networking was disabled at the time you installed Windows 95, you can
enable it after the operating system has been installed. To set up networking
for a virtual machine, follow the instructions below.
- Shut down Windows 95 and power off the virtual machine.
- Enable networking for the virtual machine.
- Power on the virtual machine.
- When Windows 95 reboots, it auto-detects an AMD PCNET Family Ethernet Adapter
(PCI&ISA) and prompts for the Windows 95 CD-ROM to install drivers. The
default Ethernet adapter settings should work fine and do not need to be changed.
- Double-click the Network icon in the Control Panel to view or change network
settings. For example, you may want to add the TCP/IP protocol since Windows
95 does not install it by default.
Known Issues
After Windows 95 has been installed, you may notice Unknown, COM5 and COM6
devices exist in the Windows Device Manager. These devices do not actually exist
and are not consuming IRQ or other resources. You may remove them using the Windows
device manager if you like.
Support for EMM386.EXE and other memory managers is currently limited.
If you are initially booting using a customized non-standard MS-DOS or Windows
95 boot diskette, be sure that EMM386.EXE (or other memory manager) is
not being loaded. HIMEM.SYS and RAMDRIVE.SYS can be loaded and
used without problems.
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