VMWare and Windows 98/ME

[CookyMonzta]

I have a certified copy of Windows ME (which I intend to use for whatever games I have that don't work very well, if at all, in WinXP or Win7); and after some tinkering with VMWare Player (you have to create a WinME boot disk first, or go to BootDisk.com to find the appropriate boot dfsk files for your floppy, then use that boot disk to format the virtual partition to FAT32), the installation was successful, but with a couple of exceptions:

For one, WinME installed with THE most basic of components.  The result:  A gray screen, 640x480 resolution and 16 colors (the only selection available), making the WinME graphics look like something you'd expect from a Commodore 64, even if Win7 is my host system.  When I used WinME in Virtual PC 2004 (which does not support USB), the program managed to calibrate the appropriate drivers inside WinME to my Win7 settings, and I got the Windows ME wallpaper, with 1,024x768 graphics and 256 colors.

For another, Web access from WinME is a crap-shoot.  When you activate Internet Explorer 5.5 for the first time, the setup program begins, and it asks if you want to set up an account, open an existing account or set up a connection via phone line or LAN.  I use DSL; so, the best option for me is to set it up via LAN.  I get a connection (not always a guarantee, I'll bet), but some of the Web pages show up as basic HTML or are unsupported by IE 5.5.  No guarantee that 6.0 is any better (I haven't tried yet).

The question is, how do I install WinME and/or synchronize it with my host graphics chipset (whether the host is WinXP or Win7) to get the best graphics as possible, even if I should install a graphics card?  I'm trying to get 1,024x768, 1,280x960 or 1,280x1,024 with at least 256 colors (preferably 65,536).

[RDPetruska]

Have you installed the VMware Tools inside your guest?  They contain drivers for the graphics card and advanced NIC, as well as other services to interact with the host.

[CookyMonzta]

"Could not find component on update server. Contact VMware Support or your system administrator."

So says my VMWare Player window when I hit "Install Tools".  What have I missed?

And if there's a download for this, where is it?  It's like looking for a needle in a haystack here.

[nospamboz]

CookyMonzta wrote:

"Could not find component on update server. Contact VMware Support or your system administrator."

You must have the VMware Player 4.0.2 standalone package. Tools are broken for that and will likely never be fixed. Use standalone Player 4.0.1 or the Player in Workstation 8.0.2 instead.

[CookyMonzta]

Aye.  I'll check on 4.0.1 and 3.1.5.

[CookyMonzta]

4.0.1 works.  The sooner I created my WinME VM, VMWare installed VMWare Tools for everything from DOS to the old WinNT (I believe it was cersion VMWare Tools 8.8.1).  Once inside my 640x480 (16-color) WinME window, VMWare loaded the tools; and after a restart, I got a 1,280x1,024 (32-bit) window, and I think my USB access was transferred to my WinME VM.  Once I shut down WinME, USB access was restored to my Win7 host.

DOS is another story.  I have IBM PC-DOS 7.0; so, in creating my DOS VM (2GB max. virtual HD space and 16MB of RAM), I chose "Other".  The result:  I had no problems installing PC-DOS, but I could not access either one of my 2 optical drives (which probably would have been recognized as CD-ROM drives), and VMWare Tools were unavailable.

So, instead of "Other", I chose "MS-DOS" before installing  PC-DOS.  No good.  The OS works, but 😧 and E: still return "Invalid drive specification" (i.e., no CD-ROM drives recognized), and no VMWare Tools.

Did I miss something when I installed PC-DOS?  Should I add anything in CONFIG.SYS and/or AUTOEXEC.BAT in my PC-DOS VM?

[nospamboz]

CookyMonzta wrote:

DOS is another story.  , and VMWare Tools were unavailable.

There never have been Tools for DOS, as far as I know. My guess is that you can virtually connect the CD drives to the DOS virtual machine, but it's up to you to provide and manage the drivers, as it would be for any other DOS machine. It's been a while, but I recall something called MSCDEXEC.EXE being involved. You'll need to do your own research, though.

[continuum]

there is a bug in the CD driver of VMplayer 4.
If your VM can not read your physical optical drive - or sees data as audio - then enable "legacy emulation"

If you do not have a GUI-option to do this in the vmx-file  "legacy emulation" looks like

ide*:*.deviceType = "atapi-cdrom "

the buggy/defunct settings is

ide*:*.deviceType = "cdrom-raw "

[Tyomni]

What exactley is legacy emulation ?

____________________________________

VM or Not to VM...?

That is the question!

[continuum]

read my notes here
http://sanbarrow.com/vmx/vmx-cd-settings.html

[Tyomni]

OK, thanks.

Regards, Tyomni

[CookyMonzta]

Sorry I'm late for this one.

4.0.2 is now working and so do the VMware Tools for Windows ME.  I'm looking at an 1,152x864 ME screen (XP is my host) with 32-bit color and VMware SVGA II version 10.7 as my virtual VGA hardware driver.

I have one more question, besides trying to configure WinME to access the Web by way of my host Web access (I use DSL):  Are there any good Web sites still in existence that acquired most or all of Microsoft's Windows ME updates and patches before MS shut down its WinME support?  And while we're at it, just in case my attempt to configure IBM PC DOS 7 for sound and CD-ROM operations fails, is there any site with software patches/drivers for PC DOS?

And I have another problem:  I can't get my WinME VM to recognize the presence of a USB flash drive or any USB device.  I have a 4GB FAT32 USB device plugged in, and under 'Virtual Machine' on the menu bar, there is a check next to 'SanDisk USB', and it is connected to the VM.  At the bottom of the VMware Player frame, an icon with a green dot indicating that my USB flash drive is active.  Unfortunately, in the WinME 'My Computer' window, there is no icon representing my USB flash drive.  I have the floppy, the hard drive, the optical drive (my second drive, a DVD burner, is represented here as a CD drive), and 'Control Panel'.

[muppets4]

Maybe you should look at this site http://www.ehow.com/list_7291090_internet-browser-windows-98.html

I went into this post cause I'm looking into gaming on win 98. Did you get those games on winme running? And what games do work? Do 3d accelerated games work for example?

[CookyMonzta]

I solved the problem of accessing the Web in WinME:

1.  Activate 'internet Connection Wizard.

2.  Choose the 3rd option; connect through a LAN.

3.  For the question, "How do you connect to the Internet?", choose the 2nd option, "I connect through a LAN".

4.  For Automatic Configuration, choose "Automatic discovery of proxy server".

And voilà!  My Internet host connection is picked up by my WinME guest.  Many pages will not display correctly, and some will not display at all, because of Internet Explorer 6's outdated components.

As for getting WinME to recognize my USB flash drives, I'm still looking for a solution.  Any ideas?